City based music academy aims to hit the right note

Galway Music Academy, based in Galway City, will have an open day on this Saturday, August 24, giving people a chance to meet the teachers and enrol for classes that will begin on Monday, September 16.

“It’s an opportunity for people to come and see the facility, and to meet the teachers,” says Jamie O’Neill, the Academy’s founder. “Primarily, that’s the main thing – we’ve got a great team of teachers together, across a number of different genres.

“Parents can see firsthand the quality of teachers we have – they’ll be giving free workshops and people are welcome to join in. We’ll have all the information about this school’s philosophy.”

The Academy will operate from Galway Rehearsal Studios, which Jamie opened in the Ballybane Industrial Estate last year.

“That was a bit of a scary proposition, to launch a new business in a recession,” Jamie says.  “But my perspective was that this particular way of doing rehearsals – facilitating creativity with the band and producers, was based on the fact that it works in every other city in Ireland. And, therefore, it should certainly work in Galway.

“There was a lack of these sort of facilities in Galway, with 24/7 access to purpose-built studios,” he adds.  “The bands that are here are able to produce in their own way and in their own time. By the end of this summer, there’ll be half a dozen full albums recorded here. Bands like Dott, Christians Vs Lion, Them Martyrs.”

Recording a debut album is a nerve-wracking prospect for any musician, and being comfortable in a room is a vital. But Jamie is surprised that what he had conceived as a rehearsal space has become something of a recording hub.

“Initially, I didn’t really see the recording side of things being a big part of this place,” he says. “But now with the affordability of music recording software, the process has been demystified. Very shortly after I opened the doors, within a matter of weeks, there were recordings happening here.”

Jamie had initially planned to open a music school and a rehearsal space at the same time, but it just wasn’t feasible, so he held back on the Academy until now.

“I looked at opening the music school about four years ago, but I suppose because of the economy at that time, the rates and so on, I wasn’t quite brave enough to take it on. So I started to look more at the rehearsal space side of things.

“I eventually got around to establishing this,” he adds. “There was a lot of research, and persistence more than anything. It was always the short- to medium-term plan that once the studios were established enough, that the music school would be the thing.”

Classes at the Galway Music Academy will encompass traditional Irish, classical, pop/rock and jazz. Jamie, who drums with the excellent Brad Pitt Light Orchestra and has also played with Galway band, The Timbertramps, is excited about launching the school.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.