GARDNER ARE back! Following possibly the longest break in Galway musical history, the band is releasing a new single, and proving that, for some, lockdown has been a real spur to creativity.
Gardner - Neil O’Connor, Bushy, Gavin Duffy, and Garrett Farrell - were a prominent part of the Galway music scene in the early noughties, winning Magpie magazine’s Best Band in the West of Ireland competition, playing gigs in Cuba and the GPO, and supporting the Frank & Walters, Mic Christopher, and Whipping Boy’s Fearghal McKee. Then it all came to a close.
“We went our separate ways only after a few months and didn’t get to record anything proper,” says Neil. “The band parted due to the usual issues, but remained friends and musical companions since.”
That sense of unfinished business, and the time afforded by lockdown, has resulted in the quartet reforming to record an album, a first taste of which comes via the new single, ‘Looking On’ out today, Thursday April 29.
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“The song is sort of about the spirit of someone floating about the place, still looking out for you after they've gone - a comforting familiar presence that's hard to put into words,” says Neil. “Bushy also did the string section that gives it that soaring uplifting feeling in parts.”
Neil says the forthcoming album has been “a slow work in progress” over a number of years, but that “the lockdowns have definitely helped” in its completion.
“Getting this album finished is a lesson in perseverance and a dedication to a musical cause that started 20 years ago,” he says. “We'd hope to have some form of an album launch party when the world is fixed and get everyone together for a long overdue drink.”
