Irish Skully of Cork

SKULLY TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM MAY 2, 2011!!

2011-04-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

SCENT OF A MOMENT ready for release!!
Skully has announced the release date of his newest album, SCENT OF A MOMENT!! The release date has been set to May 2, 2011. This new cd is filled with passion and "scents of a moment" from the life of the writer/performer Skully. You can get a preview of the first song released from the album, Fort Camden Winter, at www.myspace.com/skullymusic. As you read on, you will understand why and how this song came about!! Skully was involved in beginning the renovation of the derelict fort, helping to complete the first two rooms in 2010, making the fort ready to be opened to the public. As you listen to the song, visions of the daily life of the military at the fort flash before your eyes. This is only one of the beautiful, unique and wonderful songs on this album. To keep up with the release of the album and the goings on of this magnificent musician, please visit his new website!! Don't forget to sign the guestbook to let him know you were there!
UPDATE: From Skully: From the 20th of April, every day for 13 days (until the release on May 2nd) I will stream a different track from SCENT OF A MOMENT on the website player @ www.skully.ie

Irish musician raises the flag for self-help

2011-04-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

After thirty years of neglect and vandalism the Irish flag flies proudly once again over Crosshaven's 'Fort Camden'.

At the beginning of the Summer well known Irish musician Skully, now based in Crosshaven, got together with locals Vincent Farr, Noel Condon and Paul Brierley to set up the 'Rescue Camden Group'.
They all shared the belief that Camden Fort, which at that time was derelict, overgrown, and fenced off from the public, could become not only a valuable local amenity but also a much needed focal point for tourism both in the lower harbour and for Cork in general.

Camden Fort is a sprawling complex of military buildings, gun emplacements, tunnels, and underground chambers. Positioned on Rams Head near Crosshaven, and overlooking the entrance to Cork Harbour, the Fort is internationally recognised as one of the worlds finest remaining examples of a Classical Costal Artillery Fortification. It dates from the Napoleonic Wars, through its occupation by the British, and up to its eventual occupation by the Irish State forces in 1938. The fort was occupied up until the 70's when the last Irish forces abandoned it, locking the gates behind them. In the years since then time had not been kind to Fort Camden. The weather had eaten away at the vulnerable structures and vegetation had consumed and hidden much of the complex. Man had taken his toll too, with various structural elements such as floors and hand-rails being pillaged and underground caverns vandalised. It had even been proposed to use the fort as an asbestos dump at one stage.

Over the years various proposals were touted for the development of the Fort, none of which had ever materialised.
The 'Rescue Camden Group' decided that the only way that anything was ever going to happen was if they 'got stuck in' and started work on the Fort themselves.

The task ahead of them was enormous.
Undaunted, Skully and Vince set to work. Under the early summer sun and armed with only a collection of garden tools brought from home, they started to take the first steps on the long journey that lay ahead. Fighting back briars, lost rooms were revealed, and the sun shone where it had not done so for thirty years.
Progress was slow however and they soon realised that more volunteers would be needed. Luckily, word of activity at the Fort had started to spread and when Skully put out an appeal on the Fort Camden Facebook page, there was no shortage of people willing to lend a hand. People who had always felt that it was a shame that someone didn't do something with the Fort could now see that something was being done and they were happy to be a part of it.
The community was reclaiming their Fort.
Photographs of the progress and stories about the Fort from people who remembered it as a child, or who had served or lived there, started to appear on the Facebook page and everyone could now follow the story as it happened.

The Rescue Camden Group decided that the first stage of the renovation would be to restore and convert two rooms to accommodate a museum and gallery. These rooms would depict the Fort in its former glorious past and as it is today, overgrown and decaying. This proposal was made to Cork County Council where funding was sought. The County Manager, seeing the potential and the enthusiasm, rode behind the Rescue Camden Group. The challenges and costs involved in tackling this project were daunting, and our voluntary group had extremely limited resources. They were, however, fortunate to experience a great level of co-operation and goodwill from various individuals and groups. Some donated time and expertise. Some organised fundraising events. Others sponsored products.(Dulux Paints sponsored all the paint for the project.
Calor Gas provided heating for the rooms with elegant Provence Gas Stoves.
Pat McDonnell Paints supplied brushes, rollers, trays and buckets.
Blue House Architects offered expertise and finance.
O'Callaghan TV and Munster Sound provided audio-visual equipment.
Lynch's Centra of Crosshaven and HM Yachts donated the proceeds from fund-raising events held in the community.

Skully, Vince and this enthusiastic band of volunteers worked tirelessly and in just six weeks, this daunting task was achieved. The Gates were once again, open'.
Fort Camden opened its doors to the public for the first time in September this year.
A symbolic raising of the Tri-colour by the next generation of Custodians - Nomah Sullivan aged 9 and Katelyn Farr aged 10.
Proof that with the right attitude and the will to get it done, communities can achieve things for themselves.

The next year will see further developments at Fort Camden with more and more sections opening to the public all the time.
Keep up to date at the 'Fort Camden' page on Facebook.

All of the work carried out by the Rescue Camden Group has been on a voluntary basis.

Vincent Farr works for Cork City Fire Department and is Officer in Charge of Irish Coast Guard unit in Crosshaven.
He spends all his spare time working on and planning for Fort Camden.
Skully composes music for TV and Movies in the US and is half of the duo Metisse, his music has recently been used by MGM, NBC,ABC, and The Jay Leno Show,
he just doesn't sleep, working in the Fort by day and writing and recording by night.

Metisse (Skully & Aida) Music in new tv series!!

2010-05-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

ABC tv is using Metisse's song Boom Boom Ba in their new tv series THE GATES, which airs June 20th at 10/9pm cst. See the series trailer @ http://abc.go.com/shows/the-gates and be sure to tune in for the first episode!! Hope you all enjoy it!!!

Listeners Review from Celtic Radio.Net

2010-02-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

From Mcnberry:

Back in May of 2008 I discovered Skully. I fell in love with his music, and it has been with me ever since.

I love all of Skully's music, but I keep coming back to his 'Without A Voice' album. Although all the songs are purely instrumental, so much of Skully himself is in each and every song! Sometimes I wonder how many nights he spent awake working and thinking; to get everything just right. One can tell that he poured his heart and soul into creating 'Without A Voice'!

Living in Oregon and waking up to the rain hitting the window panes once again, Skully's 'It Rained That Morning' has become my favorite song. Oregonians have a saying: "Don't just stand in the rain, FEEL it!"
I "feel" the rain while listening to this beautiful song! Early morning dawning, simulated by strings. A little "rumbling" in the back, just like before a storm. The piano setting in when the first raindrops start falling. The guitar accompanying the piano, the rain increasing. The song ending with the piano by itself, tiny raindrops continuing to fall, echoing while the song slowly fades away.

Here comes 'Arduity Sails By'. Literally! I am not sure if Skully got his inspiration for this song by one of the big Ferries in the Irish Sea, or by a Sailboat gliding by. To me it sounds like the engines of a Ferry are slowly starting, turning into the rhythmic, steady sound one can hear when the Ferry leaves port and gains speed. A little creaking and moaning, after all the engines have to run day after day, but there she goes!

Love Trains? Listen to 'Gare De Montrabe' and go on a journey through the French country side. You can hear the rhythmic, metallic sound made by the wheels of a moving train. The clickety clack everyone is familiar with living close to a train station!

'My Waltz With Matilda' is another favorite of mine! I was enchanted the very first time I heard it. In my mind, I traveled back in time. Skully mentioned to me later that the song was inspired by the story of a WW1 soldier and his Tank "Matilda". To me, listening with my eyes closed, it conjured up these images:
A soldier coming home after being away for a long time. Walking up to a big, beautiful old house. The house appears to be empty. Ivy is creeping up the facade, and the paint has faded. He pries the front door open, hesitates for a moment at the threshold and finally steps into a great hall. Silence greets him, only the wood creaking beneath his feet while walking up the stairs. A double door leads into a ballroom. There are no furniture left, but in the far left corner a grand piano with a bench awaits. He sits down on the bench, opens the lid, wipes the dust off the keys and starts playing 'Matilda'. For a moment it seems like the old house is waking up and is listening to the music. A young couple appears out of nowhere and starts dancing. Laughter, bits and pieces of conversation and the clicking of champagne glasses can be heard. As soon as the music ends, the couple disappears and the house is quiet once again. The visitor closes the lid softly, gets up and looks around one more time. Down the stairs and into to the great hall he goes, closes the front door and walks away.

'Trouble' must have given Skully the most Trouble, pun intended! What a challenge it must have been to combine the flute from the 1970's Horslips hit 'Trouble With a Capital T', and the guitar from their acoustic album 'Rollback' recorded in 2004. The end result with the 2 melodies combined, and the flute and guitar playing for the very first time together, is amazing!

These are just a few songs I love listening to from this beautiful album! Skully's pride and joy, rightly so. Go and give it a listen and make up your own stories to each song!

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SKULLY!!!

2009-04-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SKULLY!!!

1. At what age did you take a serious interest in music?

**I would guess around 12, I was a DJ when I was 13.

2. Did you have any formal training on piano/keyboards?

**I did do piano, but found it soul destroying learning to play TEN LITTLE INDIANS by sight, while playing Scott Joplin by ear at school concerts! I was asked to leave music in high school. I was told it wasn’t for me!

3. Your father was a very well known musician in Ireland. What influence did he have on your choice of careers? Was he supportive of your choice?

**My Father is the reason I chose this career. He has always been incredibly supportive, and I always run things past him if I am having production problems.

TO CONTINUE READING MORE OF THIS INTERVIEW, CLICK ON THE BANNER BELOW!!!!

2009-04-28T20:41:00.001-07:00

2009-04-26T19:47:00.001-07:00

Did you know....?

2009-04-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

Did you know.....?
A little Trivia about Skully and his music!
* Skully set up a language school in France called Communicaion International.
* Aida & Skully both speak French.
* Skully's favorite song from My Fault is PRAY.
* Aida's grandmother was also a dancer & singer.
* Skully used to be a machine operator for Canada Dry.
* Skully's band, Chapter House were voted Band of 86 by the people of Ireland.
* Aida played the congas in a Cuban band and doing backing vocals at the same time.
* Skully's first band was called "Real Mayonnaize".
* Aida sand in Creole, Spanish, and Portuguese (Brazilian songs) before she met Skully.
* Skully was interviewed for Alan Swan's book "From the Cradle to the Stage".
* Skully's hobby is genealogy.
* Metisse's first concert was played at Conolly"s in Leap.
* Metisse's biggest concert was the O2 gig in Dublin - 100,000 people attended.
* Metisse means mixture in French.
* Metisse's video for Sousounde was filmed in reverse.
* Aida had to learn Sousounde in reverse for the making of the video.
* The video of Sousounde cost 80,000 stirling to make.
* On New Year's Eve 2000 to welome in the new Mellinium, the biggest Irish party was held in the Point Depot in Dublin. At midnight, the crowd went into overdrive to the music of Metisse.
* Skully's dad was one of the greatest big band stars in Ireland.
* Aida is a highly qualified instructor in Traditional African dancing from all West Africa.
* Aida loves cooking meals from different countries; Africa, France, Asia, Mexican & Ireland...and Skully from Japan, India, Italy & Asia,
* Aida used to teach dance to children between 4 & 12 years old.
* In the shower Aida loves to sing in an opera voice as a Mezzo-Soprano.
* Skully did his first DJ gig at age 14.
* Skully earned the nickname "The Professor" for his master of the electronic music world.
* Metisse signed to Sony Publishing International even before they had any record deal secured.
* Metisse's debut album was called "My Fault".
* Metisse went to number 4 in UK and most European dance charts with their first single "Sousounde".
* Metisse's song "Boom Boom Ba" became the theme song to Madonna's film "The Next Best Thing".
* "Boom Boom Ba" reached #1 USA Billboard soundtrack Album chart on "The Nest Best Thing" soundtrack album.
* "My Fault" reaches #6 in teh Asian charts on the "Bondy Chiu" "Inside" album.
* "Sousounde soundtrack was used as soundtrack to the Olympics.
* "Boom Boom Ba" features in "The Bill" and French program "Y'a Pas Photo".
* Metisse appear on many compilation albums including "The Chill out albums 1 & 2, "Essential Soundtracks", "The Love Album", "United Breaks Nation", "FSuk4", "Y3K", "Inside", "Go Move Shift", "Ministry Presents".
* Metisse license "My Fault" to French Company Sempre/BMG (territory France).
* Metisse reach #4 in French airplay charts.
* Metisse license to Swiss company "Disc Office" (territory Switzerland).
* Metisse 33rd most downloaded artist on the net (ref: Audiosurge)
* Metisse's "Boom Boom Ba" is used by Italian giant "Laura Biagiotti" for perfune "Emotion" promotion.
* Metisse sell 30,000 singles of "Boom Boom Ba" in Italy & Germany.
* Metisse license to "Reekus Records" (territory Ireland).
* Metisse's official website metissemusic.com, received over 19,000 visits in two
years.
* Metisse's "Boom Boom Ba' used as theme to "The Man Booker Prize" promotion on BBC.
* 2002 Metisse license to Asian giant "Avex" (territory Asia).

***Taken fron Metisse's website, metissemusic.com, which is no longer in use.

Only $ .99 Each

2009-03-31T06:08:00.001-07:00

Metisse - The beginning

2009-02-10T08:28:00.000-08:00

Metisse.....The Beginning
From ShowBiz.ie by Kevin Barry August 18, 1999

It's high summer in Fountainstown, a beach village 20 minutes from Cork city, and July is proving to be something less than a swelter: sheets of apocalyptic rain fall from the blackened skies, a nasty south-westerly is rippin' up from the Azores and there is somehow an icy bite in the seaside air. But inside a small quaint house overlooking the beach, something discordantly lush and humidly tropical is pungently a-brew.

Surrounded by banks of space age recording equipment, hemmed in on all sides by swanky keyboards, sophisticatedly humming computer gizmos and assorted techie playthings, a man called Skully is fiddling merrily with samplers and sequencers and gazing good-naturedly at the deluge outside. "Well, there's a lot of wetness that runs right through our story" he says. "A lot of water and a lot of rain". Skully is a tall, gangly, looming sort of character, mid-30's, kind of weather beaten. You see him as the sort of fellow who might have only recently crawled down from the side of a mountain in West Cork. You wouldn't be so far out, as he hails from the town of Bantry, a windswept ( and yes, very watery ) place on the verge of the Beara peninsula.

Aïda, Skully's partner and collaborator, is somewhere around her late 20's, born in the Ivory Coast and brought up in France, all poise and composure and small elegant gestures. She's very gorgeous. Together, they make up Métisse, which means 'mixture' in French and it's probably as good a coverall description of their music as you'll come up with. It's a kind of organic electronica, a blend of pastoral idyllic shades and smoothly sauntering melody lines, all of it moulded with a shrewd technological nous.

When it began to seep through about three years ago, it proved the kind of music that would quickly ignite that terrible inferno of music biz lust that is generally referred to as an A&R frenzy. A small and tasteful Parisian label you've never heard of was first off the mark, tabling a small deal, but they were shunted back down the queue ( merde! ) when Trevor Horn got to hear a Métisse tape, and sent his label, the legendary ZTT, in with an offer. According to various industry guesstimates, anywhere between six and thirteen other labels became involved in the catfight. Eventually, Métisse signed a deal with Sony Publishing and hammered out a recording contract with Wildstar, an offshoot of Telstar.

This pincer movement of a development project has to date seen a figure in the high, high six figures invested in the act. They're getting the best of everything: the best studio in the best recording house in London, the niftiest engineers, the tastiest video-makers, personal security people, and for the photo sessions, Rankin, the man who shoots Madonna.

It's a quare size of a leap from just a couple of years ago, when the pair were living in Bantry. " We were in the grocery shop one day," recalls Skully " and there were actual tears when we found that we didn't have the price of bread." But the ink dried on the contracts and the bucks started to roll in. Métisse relocated from Bantry to Fountainstown because it was handier for Cork Airport, facilitating the relay of agents and publishers and assorted industry gurus who now arrive from London on an almost daily basis. The house got kitted out with state-of-the-art recording equipment ("a happy day" - Skully) and work continued at pace. The act's first single, 'Sousoundé', has just been released in Ireland to test the waters and, next month, their debut album gets an international launch.

Sitting back in Fountainstown as the pair play back tracks from the record, you can understand why. The music is very polished, baroque and orchestral, very lush and velvety, with Aïda's stunning voice colouring the tunes in a many-hued wash. You could be cruel and say it's coffee-table-ambient-dance -music-for-adults, songs for swinging mortgage holders. It's very radio friendly, and it's just a little different, what with Aida singing in French and English and a couple of African dialects - Dioula, her mother's and Agni, her father's. It's all pretty catchy, and kind of cute. It certainly sounds as if it could sell a million. And so, as the rain gossips viciously on the windowpane, and the clouds thicken and squat on the deserted beach, we talk about the way it all panned out. "I was about 14," says Skully, "and I set up this band called Real Mayonnaize, with me on keyboards. We were megastars around the northside of Cork city and it was great fun, but we were kind of ropey. This was the heyday of Microdisney and Burning Embers and all that and we all hung out around Elm Tree Studios. That was just its own little world. "The first band split and I put together Chapterhouse and that got a little further. We were the best new band of '86 in Hot Press, there was airplay and TV and we met a guy from Virgin but he signed Something Happens instead and I gave up. I followed my heart and went to Toulouse." Music was by now off the agenda. "I gave it up completely. I started teaching English and enjoying the sun. France was very different from Ireland then, it wasn't in recession and I was living it up. I avoided music completely, I didn't even listen to it. In the end, I didn't touch a keyboard for nine years." So there was joy, there was fun, there were seasons in the sun. But it couldn't last. "I hit a low point in my life," says Skully, "I was down and a friend came to me in Toulouse and said go back to the music, give it a try. So I hauled the keyboard out from under the bed, an old DX7, and I started doodling onto a cassette machine and instantly, I was in love. That was it. It wasn't going to be put away again."

Things developed a little. Skully messed around with a reggae band and then a close-harmony girl group ("great fun") but he needed something to set his own music off. "I heard about Aïda. She was singing with this cabaret and I tried to get along to see her a couple of times but it never worked out. Then one day I was sitting in a coffee shop looking out the window and I saw this girl loading amps and speakers into a car and I knew it had to be her. So I went up approached her and said, "scuse me, you wouldn't by any chance be a singer?" Eventually, she agreed to listen to some stuff and I wrote some tracks specially. After a couple of weeks of hassling her, and stalking her, basically, she agreed to come up to the house." One thing led to another. Tapes were sent out and things started to roll at quite a clip. "For the first time in my life, I had record companies ringing me, pestering me," says Skully. "It all seemed kind of unreal." By this time a couple, Skully and Aïda decided that Toulouse was just a shade too far removed from the main action ( this was pre-Air, pre-Daft Punk ) and they hit the road for Bantry. "We gave up our lives in France," he says. "We packed everything into a van and took off in the middle of the night to catch a ferry. We drove right across France in lashing, pouring, awful rain, and we got on the boat and crashed and the we woke up and looked out and we were sailing past Cobh. It was just the most glorious sunshine."

The meteorology aglimmer with happy portents, they set up home and studio in Bantry and waited for a deal to be completed. "After we turned down ZTT, there was a scarey couple of months," says Skully. "We were broke and wondering if we'd done the right thing. We were a bit shaky about the whole business." Then Sony came through. "The guy came over from Sony and we brought him up to Sheep Head in West Cork, drove up there on the most wretched bloody awful night imaginable - pouring, lashing, pouring rain - and we got out the contract and the pencil and we signed it on the bonnet of the car." All the while, the pair had continued recording and with the move to the rugged splendour of County Cork, the music started to subtly change. "It had to really, I suppose," says Skully. "Looking out the window at Bantry Bay while you're recording, or down here, looking out at the beach and ships rolling into the harbour, it has to have an effect. But that doesn't mean it all went Celtic. Our music definitely isn't that sort of Afro-Celt thing. Actually, when you're away from Ireland, there's probably more of a temptation to go down that diddley-aye road." Much of the preliminary work for the album was recorded in Fountainstown before an intensive period in the plush environs of London's Townhous complex ("Studio A" - Skully ). All the vocals were put down in Cork. " It's just so much more relaxed," says Aïda. "In a big studio, everyones looking at you and talking to you and moving around and because the songs are so intimate, it's very difficult for me. But here it's quiet and dark. "

"And it's just the two of us." Says Skully. "and it might be four in the morning and we're talking to each other on headphones and the ships are rolling in and out of the harbour and the gas lamp is going." "And it'll usually start with some music," says Aida. "and that might give an idea for a line or a melody." By now, there are 37 tracks in the can, currently being whittled down to ten or a dozen for the record. Skully boffins together most of the music, Aïda most of the lyrics. " It's all about how we live," she says. "and the people who are around us. Some of it would be quite dark." Métisse first caused a stir in the clubs, when remix icons FreqNasty, 4 Hero, and DJ Cam reworked one of their tracks. It zoomed to the top of the deejay charts and got hyped in the dance mags. The band, however, see this element of their work more as a side project. "It's very useful," says Aida. "That kind of collaboration with people you never meet can send you in all sorts of new directions, can give you so many new ideas." But the album won't be a dancefloor thing. " It's got more of a late night feel," says Skully.

"We have done some serious dance tracks but we have ballads too. The technology allows us to do so much, we sample stuff around the house. You can record the sound of a pepper-shaker and with the equipment, you can give it emotion." Sometimes, the music needs to be opened out and for one track, a song about domestic abuse called 'My Fault', Métisse recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. "They did a take of it and it was technically superb," says Skully. " but it was kind of cold. So we went back in to them and told them what the song was about and the second time, it was unbelievable. It turned into a very emotional thing, the double bass player was crying. It was a huge day for us."

After the album's release, Métisse will do a series of live shows and they are confident of presenting something of a spectacle. "We just want to do it right," says Skully. "We've all seen the same stuff at gigs for so long, the same flashing lights and the same two speakers in front of the stage. We want people to leave our shows saying, 'well, that was different'. The music is kind of cinematic so we'll synchronise images with each track and the way we'll work it, I'll be in the middle of the crowd with the keyboards while Aïda will be alone on stage. So I'll be able to gauge the crowd's mood and at the same time, they won't have to look at me! We'll mess around with quadrophonic sound and we've been talking with Macnas about getting involved and The Light Surgeons and it seems to be coming together."

Right now, things are tensing up for Métisse as they await the album's release. They will stay based in Fountainstown, shuttling back and forth to th UK to take care of business. Aïda is happy with the place, though she sometimes misses French food and French sun. "Who could want more?" asks Skully, his eyes pinned to the sodden beach. "We're looking out to sea . . . making music . . . getting paid for it . . . it's unreal" I leave them to it and head back to Cork. The rain doesn't stop.

Kevin Barry . . . HOT PRESS . . .18th August 1999.

Skully - Back in the day.....March 2001

2009-02-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

15 March 2001 - Back in the day - Skully - Jobs
This article is from an interview with Harry Guerin after the release of My Fault single.
When I left school I worked for a bottling company in Cork. I was a filler operator, putting lemonade into bottles. It was soul destroying: no heating in the factory, raw concrete, you'd go in there at 6.00am on a winter's morning and freeze to death. From there I went on to do the same thing in Canada Dry, which was only a minor improvement. I stood in front of this machine that had 180 filling heads on it, the one in the other place had eight. I went to the interview and I said, "I'm a filler operator" and they said, "how much experience do you have? Oh, I've been doing it for two years. Right, you've got the job." I didn't lie in the interview but I was out of my depth there.
I was nearly shot one morning when the police were looking for Dessie O'Hare. I cycled through this checkpoint and they stopped me and questioned me. When I went into the factory I discovered I'd forgotten my keys to get in so I was waiting for the next guy to arrive and I got into a lorry and went to sleep. The next thing the door opened and there were all these army guys standing around me with machine guns, wanting to know what I was doing hiding in a lorry!
I was banging my head off a brick wall with my band and I was going out with a French girl who told me that the grass was greener in France so I packed my bags and moved. I sent my CV from Ireland and I had a job in an English school in Toulouse the day I arrived. It must have looked kind of strange, my CV going to an English school with 'operator of a filling machine' on it. When I went to France I couldn't even say the word 'merci'!
It was a huge language centre but the job was teaching adults so I was doing all this technical English stuff and making it up as I went along more or less. It was 99% bluff and I taught the same English lesson for the six years! Nobody used French - they all thought I was absolutely brilliant at French but if they knew...
I taught fascinating people. Toulouse is like the hi-tech capital of France so you've got the space and aircraft industries and I was teaching all those people. One of my proudest possessions is a photograph of Cork taken by the Spot 2 satellite. I taught the team which was involved in the building of Spot 2. I was with the team all the way through the whole process so they basically said that if the satellite fell into the sea it was going to be my fault for not teaching them the right numbers!
I went in at the bottom as a pleb teacher and I worked myself up until I was sort of head teacher. Then I went away and set up my own school. But I remained an 'Indian' - I was no good being a manager. I just had the ideas so I just used to go around, put all the ideas together and get other people to do it. I was actually the owner of the school but I worked teaching English all along. Cork was a big part any lesson: "where is the centre of the world?" "The centre of the world is Cork". "Paddy Whiskey is the best whiskey in the world." I'm probably half responsible for the Celtic Tiger!
I had some incredible experiences. One time I went in and taught this group and I had a dreadful cold. I was wrecked but I taught them numbers, went home and spent the weekend in bed. A couple of days later I had the same group again and I said, "right, I'm going to go back and revise everything we did last week. Who wants to start?" And this guy stood up and goes, "wub, choo, tweeb", They had all mimicked exactly the way I was speaking with a cold!
I taught another guy and there was a warning sent in with him saying, "this guy is a jinx". In he came and the whole building crumbled around him. Everywhere he went, everything he touched, fell to pieces. He made a cup of coffee and managed to bust the coffee machine, he went to class and knocked all the books out a 15th floor window. When we asked why he had been sent to us we found out that he was actually responsible for the department that did vibration tests on satellites! This multi-billion pound satellite had been brought in and his job was to set the numbers: 22.8 vibrates per millisecond or whatever. He set it all wrong and put in 200 instead of 20 or something like that and he nearly vibrated the satellite into cinders so they sent him into us to learn English to get rid of him!
All through my life up until then I had been sending out demo tapes of music and getting hundreds photocopied replies from record companies. Then I spent a weekend recording with Aida and sent the tape out. The day after the tape arrived in London and the next day companies were on the phone to me. That was the first time anybody had ever phoned me about my music. That was it: I walked into teachers' room and said, "this is it, this is my last day." Sold the house, sold the car, moved back to Ireland. I'm still shocked when I think about it.

Boom Boom Ba in new movie!!! Hear it now!

2009-02-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

Go to the Metisse MySpace page, and listen to the song Boom Boom Ba. It is being used in the new Dead Like Me movie. "Life After Death"!!! Help us make this song a hit!!! www.myspace.com/metisse

Metisse Music Used In New Movie!!

2009-01-28T15:50:00.000-08:00

METISSE LAND ANOTHER HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER !!!

There were more celebrations in the Metisse camp last night as confirmation came through from MGM that the duo's music was to be used in the movie of the now cult classic ‘DEAD LIKE ME.

The movie ‘Life After Death’ goes on release on February 17th.

Hot on the heels of his hit solo album ‘Irish Makeover’, Metisse's Skully says:

" This one is important to us, we have been involved with Dead Like Me from the start, they have used our music throughout both TV series, landing the movie, is just the icing on the cake"

Aida from Metisse says:

" A huge number of people have gotten to know our music through Dead Like Me, our website is already seeing a massive surge in visitors, since this announcement was made"

A spokesperson for Blind Faith Digital, the band's record company says:
" Metisse’s music is used in all sorts of productions around the world,
but this is one that Aida and Skully really wanted to happen. Their music became an integral part of the TV series and the movie just wouldn’t have been the same without it”.

“First the huge success of Skully's solo album, and now this !

2009 is shaping up very well indeed for the Irish based duo”.

To keep up to date with Metisse and Dead Like Me

visit the bands Myspace page www.myspace.com/metisse, where news is posted as it comes in.

Skully - Without A Voice

2008-11-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

Irish Musician and Producer Skully Releases His First Solo Album!!!

Article for The Echo by Mark McAvoy.

SKULLY STEPS OUT OF METISSE SHADOW AND GOES DIGITAL ON HIS NEW ALBUM.

Stepping out of the shadow of his popular and extremely successful duo Metisse, acclaimed Irish musician and producer Skully is blazing a trail to chart success with the release of his eagerly awaited solo album.

The culmination of two years' work, WITHOUT A VOICE (2007) has just been released worldwide and sees the Irish man explore new musical and technological territory.

The Cork-based producer, together with his management, has decided to break new ground with the distribution of his debut album.

Skully reveals : 'This is my first totally digital release. We felt that there was still a demand for CD's but the people that are still looking for them as a group is getting smaller and smaller and smaller, So we decided, lets be brave and just give it a digital release. So this is our first one."

Given the huge success that Metisse have enjoyed in various online Myspace Charts, Its not surprising that Skully would see the obvious merits of a digital online release. The talented Irish music veteran points out : " I'm number two to Metisse at number one. Metisse have been number one for seven months and I have been number two for nearly four months. Metisse are so far ahead that i'll never catch up with them." But it is striking the gap between America and Europe when it comes to using digital music as the famed producer discovered.

He recalls: "America seems to have decided that CD's are a thing of the past. We are using a digital system where we can provide radio stations in America with broadcast quality MP3s, "What we found was that we sent the same player out to radio stations in Ireland and their response was to ask us to send out hard copies. We did the same thing with America but when we sent them out to America we asked them if they required hard copies and none of them did."

WITHOUT A VOICE features 12 instrumental tracks. Asked how he would describe the album, the former REAL MAYONNAIZE front man responds ; " I won't describe it! the wonderful thing about MYSPACE is fans can come back and tell me. The feeling I'm getting back from everybody is that they love the emotion in it. There is a lot of emotion in the songs. There are two very personal piano tracks on the album. "With an instrumental album it is very difficult to vary it, but I'm very happy with the mix of tracks. It jumps from being very electronic to very acoustic to a kind of a strong jazz feel to it and yet it hasn't strayed too far from the Metisse sound."

Released on BLINDFAITH DIGITAL, WITHOUT A VOICE is now available on iTunes.

Fans can hear tracks from the album by visiting Skully's Myspace : www.myspace.com/skullymusic

WITHOUT A VOICE Tracklist:

1. Nomah's Land (for 3 pianos)

2. Arduity Sails By

3. Important Staff Announcement

4. Crime Of Honesty

5. Self Fulfilling Prophecy

6. Trouble

7. The Arcadia Ballroom

8. The Seaport Fudge Factory

9. Gare De Montrabe

10. Release The Balloons

11. It rained That Morning

12. My Waltz With Matilda

2008-11-09T08:27:00.000-08:00

The only site approved to sell Skully Gear! Check out all the Skully designs available. Sweatshirts, tshirts, caps, mugs and so much more!!!

Review of IRISH Makeover!

2008-11-07T19:40:00.000-08:00

What you say? Who? Well, there is a reason for this, trust me. My Space friend Skully has just released a very nice CD of Irish classics done up with a very modern twist. He is a master at the keyboards which is where most of the music is generated. His gift with the electronics makes this a very fun album to listen to. He is based in Cork, Ireland, and as it would happen, so is Mairead's younger brother Karl. In fact, Karl has two tracks on this CD. I received my copy, autographed by Skully, as a prize after winning a writing contest of his with a poem. So, here is the run down of the 11 tracks. You can visit the IRISH Makeover site on My Space and order a copy for yourself. You'll want to!

1) Molly Malone- Sung by Myles O'Reilly with instrumentation by Skully. This somewhat somber traditional piece is made very lively. It has a bit of a Mediterranean feel to it. It is the best arrangement I've heard.

2) The Lark- A wonderful instrumental by Skully. It is a gentle piece, and you can visualize a lark flying over the lush Irish countryside and over ancient ruins. It is as free as the bird itself. Lovely indeed.

3) The Lakes Of Pontchartrain- Sung by Mick Flannery with instrumentation by Skully. The voice almost reminds me of Leon Redbone from back in the 70's. It is a slow piece and sort of a lament.

4) Mardyke- Karl Nebitt on Bazouki with Skully in electronic percussion. This again has a bit of a Mediterranean feel to it, and almost nautical. It has a nice beat and is a very catchy tune. Quite the toe tapper. I can easily hear some great possibilities for Mairead fiddle parts in this air. It is obvious that Karl is as gifted as his sister at bringing a tune alive.

5) She Moved Through The Fair- Sung by Myles O'Reilly with instrumentation by Skully. This is a different setting and key than what we know from Meav. It is a soft piece with a nice keyboard break. There even are parts that sound like crickets/birds chirping.

6) Blackbird- Sung by Kate Murphy with Skully doing instrumentation. She has a very distinct Irish accent while singing this. It is a gentle piece that is very reminiscent of 1960's folk songs.

7) King Of The Fairies- Karl is back this time on the low whistle along with some lively instrumentation by Skully. It is a familiar tune that you can hear on LoTD/Feet Of Flames. However, this arrangement has a sort of urban funk about it. Another toe tapper. Is there an instrument that Karl doesn't play well?

8)Scarborough Fair- Sung by Annette Buckley with instrumentation by Skully. Very upbeat arrangement with lively electronic energy to it. This has a great beat and very happy feel about it. Not at all the usual. I like it.

9) Red Is The Rose- An instrumental version by Skully of one of the most well known tunes from Ireland. This is a funky urban rose that is full of life. Fun air that will stick with you.

10) All Around My Hat- Sung by Kate Murphy. I've never heard this song before. It is a very happy song that you could dance to. It almost has a Latin feel at times. A very catchy toe tapper. My favorite of the vocals on this CD.

11) Shirin- An instrumental by Skully. It is very lyrical and almost like a modern waltz. I could see myself waltzing with my love in various parts of the Irish countryside. Lovely.

What People are Saying about IRISH Makeover

2008-10-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT IRISH MAKEOVER!
Irish Makeover*****Irish Makeover is an enchanting album, full of character, soul and magnificent re-workings of timeless ballads. Cork studio wizard Skully reveals a whole new dimension to his musical talent by teaming up with rising stars to breath new life into classic Irish folk songs. Standout tracks include She Moved Through The Fair featuring Myles O'Reilly of Juno Falls. Myles's dark, eerie vocals fuse perfectly with Skully's instrumentation to capture a mystical, Celtic yet modern sound. The Lakes of Pontchartrain features acclaimed Cork singer songwriter Mick Flannery, who adds his husky Dylanesk vocals to great effect. Other talented musical luminaries who feature on this eleven track record include Cork chanteuse Annette Buckley, talented newcomer Kate Murphy and multi-instrumentalist Karl Nesbitt. Irish Makeover was released nationwide on October 20.*****************************

From the Fans:

Hello and good evening Skully!! My cd arrived today :)))) And I was even more thrilled when I opened it and discovered that you had signed it!!!!!Listening to it now and loving it!!All the best from Turku Finland.love, Eva xx*****************************

It sounds Brilliant!Pete Briquette (Boomtown rats)*****************************

God bless itunes!!! Love your work Skully, it's on the ipod ready to go to work with me tomorrow.Jo*****************************

Congrats on CD release. it really is a fun one to listen toCelticcow*****************************

All around my hat, Maddy Pryor with status quo.You did a wonderful job with it....ed****************************

I have really enjoyed your music and look forward to more. Keep up the good work. HomeAgainKathleen****************************

Thank you,such beautiful music.Robin***************************

wow! love your tracks & especially Blackbird! Who is that awesome singer? Very beautiful voice & awesome instrumentals & arrangements!Qristina & Quinn***************************

you have great songs. i have really gotteninto themTifany***************************

today your MUSIC is like the sunshine after a hurricane Love and PeaceClaudia**************************

Each time I listen to Molly Malone, I get swept away!Julianna**************************

Hi SkullyGreat music - I'm really enjoying listening to your tracks!RegardsPhil*************************

Mardyke! So love the guitar...can't stop listening. Also have to compliment you on your sketch of Molly Malone--she's a favorite character of mine. You've truly captured her indomitable spirit (the one that transcends even death) it's all there ;-) made my day!danni************************

"Mardyke" wow really good music.John************************

Hi Skully.....Love the music. I look forward to the CD. By the way, my family is from Cork County. Have a GREAT DAY!!Lori************************

Enjoying all the music very much!!Hope you have a great week.Blue Moon.L.************************

Thank you, Skully - Love your music! It is fantastic!Rhonda***********************

Thanks for introducing me to you fine music. I really do like your makeovers!Mexicajun***********************

I am LOVING the music that I hear on your MySpace page, and looking forward to getting a CD! Thanks for the add!Jean***********************

nice to have you as mine :) but you can call me tori if you want :) i really like the irish songs... they're pretty fun to dance to... even though that probably sounds odd lolTori***********************

Hello,Thanks for adding me.I really like Style of your Music.Sounds Super Awesome.Greetings from Idaho USA and have a super Week,Ron***********************

Thanks for the add! I'm digging the remixes!Maddie***********************

Thanks for the add. Had a listen to Blackbird. Nice sound... I liked both the voice and the arrangement!Best wishes,AyJay***********************

hi hope your weekend going well. Just jumped in to listen to your music...love red is the rose, although my fav is the blackbird ....will be buying CD for sure...Anne***********************

my god i loved molly mallone, lovely song Cian***********************

THANK YOU so much for adding this song back!!! Scarborough Fair rocks!!Mammajuggz***********************

The feeing is mutual Skully, I have been listening to your music and can say I have another favorite artist to add to my list.thank you Willow :-)***********************

I absolutely love your music, got a chance to sit and really listen. I am totally hooked! :0)BarbaraS***********************

Skully, You've got some brilliant music boyo! Keep on wit it!Cheers mate, Charlie***********************

I enjoy "She moved through the fair" Beautiful voice!!!Kari***********************

Thanks for wanting to befriend me your music is great and the irish folk song are electric and INTENSE i LOVE IT...Kanti***********************And many many many more :-)

Songs from IRISH Makeover!

2008-10-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

I cannot take credit for the concept here, that accolade must go to Charlie Pinder Sony/V2/Burlywood. One rainy winter's night in Cork, he came up with the idea of doing Old Irish folk songs, a la Skully! And so two years ago I set to work creating Skully versions of these beautiful old Irish songs. Although very electronic (after all that is what I do!) I strove to maintain the powerful emotion that these timeless master pieces possess. The album was recorded at the beautiful Rushbrook Hotel in Cobh, where I was spoiled rotten! and at my little cottage. I would like to sincerely thank all the artists who gave me their time and talent, each adding his or her own color and style to the songs. We had great fun making it!

IRISH MAKEOVER songs.
1/ Molly Malone
2/ The Lark in the clear air
3/ The Lakes of Pontchartrain
4/ Mardyke
5/ She moved through the fair
6/ Blackbird
7/ King of the Fairies
8/ Scarborough fair
9/ Red is the Rose
10/ All around my hat
11/ Shirin

BLACKBIRD
Kate Murphy and I recorded this into the small hours of the night at this little cottage. At one end of the room, my racks of hi tech recording equipment, samplers and computers, the other Kate's beautiful black dog Jake, asleep in front of the open fire, with an oil lamp burning and just one microphone.And that sums up what this version of the Song is about, BLACKBIRD is an old folk song with old world feelings and beauty, and here it meets the 21st century. Beautifully sung by Kate, Its a wonderful example of how timeless these old IRISH songs can be.

MARDYKE
I wrote Mardyke for another prominent place in my life! It is a beautiful leafy area in Cork, lines of colored doors, beautiful old bridges, close to the river Lee. Blindfaith had their second recording studio there, ELM TREE, it is where my career started, and is the place where I became addicted to Coffee, and where music became my mistress....We would finish at 5 am and I would walk home alone, thankful of the cold crisp air after the heat of the studio, and the silence, just the birds singing. Karl and I recorded this at my own recording studio at the beautiful Rushbrook hotel, just a little way down the same river from the MARDYKE.

OVER 70,000 HITS ON THE IRISH MAKEOVER PLAYER! Check it out at www.myspace.com/irishskully

Release of IRISH Makeover cd!!!

2008-10-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

October 20th, 2008 saw the release of the long awaited cd IRISH Makeover, a compilation of old Irish folksongs given a new twist by Irish electro musician and music producer Skully, of Cork, Ireland. Skully is well known as one half of the duo Metisse, and has worked with many well known musicians. Below is an article about the new cd, IRISH Makeover.

How IRISH Makeover was produced!

Mark McAvoy's (DOWNTOWN) article.

Having firmly established himself, both nationally and internationally, with acts such as Chapterhouse, Métisse and more recently as a solo artist, Cork producer and musician Skully embarked on an ambitious and bold new project. Working on his new album Irish Makeover (2008) saw Skully recruit and collaborate with emerging talent in an effort to bravely reinterpret and revamp classic Irish folk songs. The fruits of this labour are a triumph: a record which should achieve both longevity and critical acclaim.Skully, who is based in Ireland, reflects on how the album was conceived. He reveals: "It was on a winter's night in Cork about two years ago. Métisse had kind off wound down. We had stopped recording together. I was working on my solo album and I met Charlie Pinder from V2 and Sony Publishing in Cork. I remember the brutal rain pouring out of the sky. We were running back to his hotel and he turned around to me and said: 'I have a great idea! Why don't you do Skullyized folk songs?' None of us took it very seriously. I had never thought of it before. Even the thought of Irish folk songs would have put my barriers up. After a couple of weeks of living with the idea, I kind of thought: "Let's give it a crack!" I started at the Rushbrooke Hotel in a little garage looking out over the river and it was just a stunning backdrop. It represented the turning over of a page for me musically and the beginning of a new era. I was now going to work with lots of different people on a very exciting project."Skully enlisted an impressive array of talented musicians to aid him on this new musical departure. He enthuses: "I didn't want to go for the old favourites. I wanted to use what I thought were the up and coming vocalists. So everybody is very young on the album. It is a Cork project and this album was made on the shores of Cork harbour, although it is very colloquial and very local with very local ideas, it is still a worldwide project."One musician enlisted by Skully was Cork troubadour Mick Flannery, who recently entered the Irish top ten album charts with his second long-player White Lies (2008). Skully is delighted with Flannery's performance on the track The Lakes of Pontchartrain. He explains: "What I was trying to do here was take these songs into the 21st century. What is The Lakes of Pontchartrain? It is one of the most beautiful folk songs that we have. Everyone is used to listening to this, sitting at a fireplace in a pub down in West Cork or in Kerry or somewhere like that. Mick Flannery has this incredible raw voice. Although he is very young, he sounds weathered. My brief to Mick was to sing this like he was in a pub, which he did sitting on a chair with his head in his hands. Then I just twisted this piece of music so far away from what you would be expecting. It has suddenly become a very electronic sound, very far away from its origins, which were the pub. Mick's voice was the only voice that could have done that."Another well-established Cork vocalist who appears on Irish Makeover is songstress Annette Buckley. "Annette did Scarborough Fair. Although it isn't really an Irish song, it is on every single Irish compilation album. It's a beautiful folk song. Again, I wanted to break down all the preconceived ideas of what Scarborough Fair is about. We all know the song and the Simon and Garfunkel version. Nothing of that is in this song. In fact, there is a quality to Annette's voice which is like a 1920s voice. There is a gorgeous quality to it. Here you have an Irish version of an English folk song sung by an Irish Girl that sounds like it comes from the 1920s, yet it is electronic. It's very odd! But it works."During the process of recruiting vocalists for this project, Skully discovered a newCork vocal talent - Kate Murphy. Skully recalls: "Kate Murphy is from Douglas. She is a friend of my sisters. That is how I recruited her. I was at a party one night and I heard Kate singing and she blew me away. She is a folk singer and a very talented songwriter. She sang Blackbird and All Around My Hat, which I still think is an Irish song, but some people say it's English. Kate was a stunning vocalist to work with!"Juno Falls main-man, Myles O'Reilly, was given the unenviable task of singing on the interpretation of the classic The Ballad of Molly Malone, which for this release has been simply renamed Molly Malone, presumably to distinguish the new dark version from the original. Skully confesses: "Miles and I go back a long time and he is an awesome, awesome vocalist. Miles did two tracks; She Moved Through The Fair and probably the most recognisable, yet weirdest track on the album, Molly Malone. This is a really sinister, twisted version of the song that we all know and Miles's voice cuts through it."Thanks to the Internet, Skully sought input from his fans across the world while working on this album. This was also a factor in terms of creating the album's quirky artwork. Skully admits: "Sean O'Leary who designed the cover wanted a dog with a pair of headphones. So we decided to ask everybody online from our My Space page if they could send us in photographs of their dogs wearing headphones. We got llamas, rabbits, pigs and dozens of dogs. We even had people complaining that their dogs ate the headphones. Eventually we got our dog and headphones for the album cover

To listen to and purchase the cd, please visit the website www.myspace.com/irishskully.