Paul Brady tour to end on high note in Galway

A true force of nature will sweep through Galway when Paul Brady plays the Radisson on Sunday, May 2. The Strabane born singer is one of Ireland’s most enduring talents, an artist who comfortably flits between folk, rock and traditional music.

Hooba Dooba is Paul’s latest album and has been met with much acclaim since its release earlier this month. The title sounds like a reference to early rock and roll but it’s actually something the singer came up with himself.

“It’s just a phrase I used to use – or still use if I get a bit over excited!” he explains. “The art director who was working on the sleeve of the album was showing me stuff and I came out with ‘hooba dooba’. He said ‘is that the album title?’ and I said no and he said ‘it should be’.”Hooba Dooba was recorded in Dublin, about as close to home as Brady can get.

“I have a studio in the garden and put it together there. I went to London for one day to put a couple of backing vocal singers on it. Otherwise, the whole thing was recorded [in the studio] at home. It’s a pretty well-constructed, state-of-the art studio so I can do what I want there.”

Given how intense the recording process can be, did he find it difficult to switch off?

“Yes and no!” he laughs. “The fact that it’s in the back garden, and you can always go to it when you want, allows you to take some time off. The difference between that and, say, hiring a studio is if you hire a studio you have to hire it a certain time, for a certain period. That means you have to work then!”

One of the stand-out tracks on Hooba Dooba is Rainbow, where a lover is seen through a prism of colour.

“I have used that before, in a funny way, in a song I wrote called Blue World back in the mid-90s on an album called Spirits Colliding,” Paul says. “It was the first time I used the image of colours to describe emotions. I don’t know whether I forgot about it but that song wasn’t in my mind when I finished writing Rainbow. Somebody pointed out to me that I’d used that kind of device before.”

Paul Brady is blessed with one of the most distinctive voices in Irish music, an instrument that has endured through 45 years of singing. What does he do to keep it sounding so good?

“Ignore it!” he says. “I basically do nothing to look after my voice. It’s a strange thing but I never seem to have any problems with it. I don’t sing from my throat anyway, I tend to sing from down in my diaphragm. I’m not really putting a lot of strain on the vocal chords themselves. Sometimes, singers will sing from their throats and that puts a lot of strain on your voice-box.”

But, surely, someone with such a powerful voice would have to some vocal warm-ups to reach the pitch he does in concert.

“I never bother! It’s not a very subtle instrument, my voice. I wasn’t trained as singer, in the sense that I don’t have a lot of vibrato; I’m not worried about not being able to hit certain notes. It tends to be natural with me.”

Paul Brady plays the Radisson, Galway on Sunday, May 2. Tickets €38.70 from Zhivago, Shop St or www.ticketmaster.ie.

For more read this week's Connacht Tribune.