MARK LANEGAN, the American singer-songwriter, former Screaming Trees vocalist, and collaborator with The Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli and former Belle and Sebastian vocalist Isobel Campbell, returns to Galway in January.
Lanegan and his band play a ‘Róisín Dubh presents...’ concert at the Seapoint Ballroom, Salthill, on Thursday January 15 at 8pm. As well as performing music from across his distinguished career, Lanegan will play songs from his new album Phantom Radio, released on October 17 through Flooded Soil/Heavenly Recordings. A taster for the album comes through the song ‘Floor Of The Ocean’:
Lanegan has cited this as one of the songs he is most proud of from the new album. It contains a bleak lyrical rumination on a life lived on the hard shoulder: “Clear eyes, can’t avoid the searchlight/Hope that they don’t find me/Find me where I’m lying.”Reflecting the impact of digital media on recording processes, Lanegan’s chief compositional tool for Phantom Radio was an app called Funk Box on his phone. “I didn’t bother to hook up my 909 and 808 this time,” he says, “because the app had ’em. I’d write drum parts with it then add music with the synthesiser or the guitar.”
When it came to musical inspiration, Lanegan looked back to some of the favourite bands of his youth and what he was hearing on Sirius satellite radio.
“They have a few good shows but the ‘80s one in particular I like,” he says. “That’s the music that was happening when I started making music. Although the Trees drew on Nuggets psychedelia, 13th Floor Elevators and Love, we were actually listening to Echo And The Bunnymen, Rain Parade, the Gun Club. A lot of British post-punk. We loved that stuff. I just waited until I was in my late forties before I started ripping it off.”
The track-listing for Phantom Radio is: 1. Harvest Home, 2. Judgement Time, 3. Floor Of The Ocean, 4. The Killing Season, 5. Seventh Day, 6. I Am The Wolf, 7. Torn Red Heart, 8. Waltzing In Blue, 9. The Wild People, 10. Death Trip To Tulsa
In the meantime, Galway audiences can also check out Mark’s recent EP, No Bells On Sunday, which was released in August. A track on this EP, ‘Smokestack Magic’ inspired the title of Phantom Radio.
Tickets go on sale on Friday September 26 at 9am from www.roisindubh.net, the Ticket Desk at OMG Zhivago, Shop Street, and The Róisín Dubh.
