Partland aims for bigger sound while staying true to his core

He may have grown up in Sligo and Leitrim but Thomas McPartland’s years in Galway have cemented him as one of the recognisable faces on the city’s original music circuit.  Playing under the more mysterious guise of Partland, Thom’s blend of energetic folk-rock vocals and intimate, lyric-based tracks make him one of Galway’s most versatile singer-songwriters.

Partland plays upstairs in the Róisín Dubh this Thursday to celebrate the launch of his new single Hope to Love Again, supported on the night by fellow local folk artists Pa Reidy and Jack Lee.

It is three years since the release of Partland’s debut album Sing Me to Shore and his approach to the industry has been given time to evolve.

Extended work with Canadian producer Robert Kelly has seen Thom hone his sound and craft an upbeat, energetic single that retains the personality and introspection crucial to Partland as an act. Hope to Love Again is the first song on an almost-finished upcoming album.

“Robert came over to Galway to record my friend Pa [Reidy] but he decided to record some other people as well,” Thom recalls. “He needed a place to stay and I put him up so to say thanks, he said he’d record a song for me… I recorded half the album in Newfoundland and half in Galway.”

Robert’s first time hearing Hope to Love Again was an acoustic rendition at the Róisín’s open mic, but the track has grown legs in the studio. And while Thom is capable of controlling an audience with just a guitar, his plan for the single was always bigger than that.

“I wrote it to be more anthemic,” he admits. “Songs always start off with me in my bedroom with my guitar but when you record, it always gets bigger and bigger. When you’re writing a song, you’re hearing drums and electric guitars and other instruments in there… so the recording process is getting what you have in your head on tape. That’s how the songs exist but when I perform them on my own, they’re obviously more stripped back.”

For full story see this week’s Connacht Tribune.