Pa scales new heights with Treehouse Empire

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie

Young singer-songwriter Pa Reidy has cut his teeth on Galway’s music scene, especially at the Róisín Dubh Open Mic night.

The 26-year-old, who hails from Cratloe in Co Clare, released his second album, The Treehouse Empire, earlier this year. He has been performing for about 10 years and is a regular busker on the streets of Galway.

“It kind of happened accidentally, when I was about 16 or 17,” he says. “A family friend who was moving back to Australia left behind a guitar. It was sitting there for a year or two, and I kept trying to learn the chords but I didn’t have the patience, so one night, I said ‘I’m going to stay up all night until I can put together a couple of chords’. I stayed up for about two days!”

Those early songs haven’t survived, but Pa finds the odd reminder of them.

“I keep finding scraps of paper from when I was 16, and I just bow my head in shame. How did I put that down?” he laughs. “I’ve been writing for about 10 years. I could go through a phase of writing a song every week, but for the past few months I’ve written one song. I think everyone goes through that at some stage.”

The Treehouse Empire. with its harmonious sounds, is the sound of a performer finding his voice and Pa took time to get it right, recording it in Hob Juncker’s in Galway City.

“It took me about a year to record it, which was a big contrast to my first album, Tea & Talks, from three years ago,” he says. “I recorded that in one day.

“I deliberately slowly paced this one, going in for a session once every week, or every fortnight, so I could listen back. I wanted to get everything as well as I could,” he continues. “The first one, I just wanted to have something to show my family and friends – this time I wanted something I could sell to strangers. Maybe they’d like it, without being a friend and feeling obliged!”

The album’s ear-catching tone is aided by Shauna McEvilly on piano and vocals.

“We met a few years, she would’ve played the same Open Mics,” he says of Shauna. “She’s a very, very good singer songwriter and brilliant to work with.  We all had good craic in the studio, which is vital. You should be able to look back and say ‘that was great craic, I’d love to do that again’.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.