Mundy filled with renewed passion for musical career

The ever-popular Mundy plays Róisín Dubh this Saturday, November 5. As well playing hits like July and his version of Galway Girl, the Birr songwriter will be showcasing songs from Shuffle – the album he released earlier this year in which he re-interprets work by his favourite songwriters.

For this show Mundy is backed by the Painbirds, a band whose sound is not as rocky as the band he previously toured with.“There are four of us,” says Mundy. “No drums, but there’s double bass, violin, keyboards, a bit of electric, acoustic. It’s more of an organic approach, but it’s still very musical – it’s not as bare as it might sound.”

Ohio by Canadian Neil Young is the only song on Shuffle that isn’t written by an American. Is there any reason that Mundy concentrated on songs from the USA?

“It just happened that they were the only ones I knew,” he says. “I was in a recording studio and I decided to play about 20 of my favourite songs in a row and see which ones sounded better. The ones that I knew the best were all from that neck of the woods.”The late Mark Linkous is another artist whose work has inspired Mundy. Before taking his own life in 2010, the Sparklehorse frontman had collaborated with the likes of PJ Harvey and Tom Waits.

“I’m a huge fan of Sparklehorse,” says Mundy. “It was a huge shock to me when I heard he died. I was meant to support Sparklehorse when I was quite young, but he had an accident. When I found out the tour was cancelled I bought whatever CDs they had at the time and I got really into them.

“It’s very rootsy underneath,” he says of their music. “All the crazy lo-fi beats and noises, I love feedback and quirky drumbeat machines and samples. Underneath it all, he’s a great lyricist and songwriter, and has a beautiful voice.”

Painbirds is the Linkous song that Mundy chose to cover – and he explains why he chose it as the name for his new backing band.“I went on the internet and it said that the painbirds were a fictional bird that came to your town and took the pain away. And I thought, wow, that’s a good idea, let’s take that on board and try to add a bit of joy to what’s going on at the moment.”

Speaking of current events, how does Mundy feel about Michael D. Higgins’ election as president?

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.