Are Ye Looking Up?

Niall Teague
1 day ago
3 min read

Things are definitely looking up for us at the moment as we get ready to release our new single “Looking Up” on March 6.

Since our last release we’ve been lucky enough to get some lovely support, with the songs featured on BBC, RTÉ and loads of brilliant Irish radio stations, which we’re hugely grateful for.

“Looking Up” was recorded live in the studio and it’s a little preview of our forthcoming album Lost on The Wander, due out later this spring. “Looking Up” is the first single from the album.

The song came from thinking back on what it was like growing up in Belfast in the 1980s and ’90s. It’s full of the small adventures and back-street escapades of childhood — and especially the bond between brothers.

I wrote the song a few years after losing my older brother Alan suddenly. That’s the two of us on the cover — he’s the happy red-haired fella at the front. The photo was taken around 1984, in the playground beside the Botanic Gardens in the Lower Ormeau area of Belfast.

Rather than making it a sad song, I wanted to remember us as little kids with big imaginations — the things we got up to and how much I looked up to him growing up. We all looked up to him in our house, not just me. He was the best big brother to all of us. The song itself begins as far back as I can remember, when we were living on Rugby Avenue, just around the corner from where that photo was taken.

It’s not the first song I’ve been inspired to write about him — come to think of it, there’s nearly a mini album about him at this stage. I was paying tribute to the man even when he was still around to give me feedback on songs I’d written about him.

This one went through a bit of an evolution. At first it was a bit on the moany, sad side. I blame a new synth toy with a sequencer that sent things off into a dark 1980s direction for a while — which I’d be happy to share if anyone’s interested!

In the end I’m really happy with the more upbeat version we’re releasing. It’s got plenty of life in it, and I reckon he’d approve. Somewhere along the way it picked up a kind of trad-like hook with a pop, folk and country feel.

There’s also some serious Galway talent on the recording. Jim Higgins (Stunning, Christy Moore, Paul Brady) plays drums, Neil Fitz adds fiddle, Sam Wright is on double bass, and Jenny Groarke and Martina Flaherty bring beautiful backing vocals to the track.

Galway has always been a bit of a musical melting pot, and it’s great to have some of that spirit captured on the recording.

We’re also just about to head out on our Lost on The Wander Tour, starting in Boyle at the First Thursday Folk Club, followed by Richmond Revival in Fermoy, with more dates to follow including appearances at Galway Folk Festival.