The collaboration between Side 4 Collective & Sacred Animals happened via a mutual friend who works with Ann Marie Shields, Stephen Byrne from GoldenPlec.
Stephen called me up & said ‘do you know Dave Hingerty, the Frames/Kila drummer?’ I said I knew the name definitely but not the man. ‘Well he has a project called ‘Side 4 Collective’ & invites many collaborators to find inspiration in a folder of carefully curated drum loops & works with them to get them over the line, would you be interested in joining & seeing if you find inspiration yourself?’.
So I liked the idea very much, quite out of the box thinking & if something sticks, it sticks. I found a loop I like the sound of pretty quickly & just sat at the piano with the drum loop grooving away through the speakers. I don’t remember spending much time trying to create anything, the song kinda just fell out in that nice way that songs do occasionally. I took a little time to demo it out & send it over, & thankfully Dave seemed to like it a lot. We discussed various options (Dave’s suggestions) including a deeper voice in the second verse onwards to provide a little contrast from my falsetto. He said he’d see if Adrian (Crowley) would be into it & he tracked his vocals at home & sent them over. There’s also some lovely ambient synths that drift in & out that were added by ‘Franco’.
Overall the song came together very naturally & I like all the collaborative elements as it gets me out of my usual processes, & you know, it’s good to meet new people & create things, always. Months after finishing the track I was listening through my regular playlist of favorite tunes & noticed a familiar voice & realised the song, ‘Little Prince of Fireworks’, was a song from the first Side 4 Collective album & is a collaboration with Adrian Crowley.
(Darragh, Sacred Animals)
DAVE HINGERTY
Dave Hingerty is one of the most prominent drummers in Ireland. He has played on some of the biggest stages in the world and recorded with renowned artists such as Kila, Paul Brady, Bronagh Gallagher, The Frames, The Swell Season, Eddie Vedder, Josh Ritter, Jerry Fish and Mary Coughlan. Dave has also jammed with such luminaries as Chris Martin (Coldplay), Black Francis (The Pixies), Rosanne Cash, The Waterboys and The Corrs, as well as working with producers such as Steve Albini, Trevor Horn, and Dave Odlum. Dave has also exhibited in music and street photography, has a regular online blog ‘The Diary Of A Drummer’, produces Side 4 Collective and is a course designer and lecturer in BIMM University.
SACRED ANIMALS
Life is about small moments.
Moments in between doing the things you absolutely need to do.
Moments where uncontainable excitement bursts through.
Moments of quiet contemplation, of stopping for a minute, of trying to be still.
Moments of existing within the gaps.
The whole idea of Sacred Animals as a project is to find such moments & capture them however possible.
That magic I feel when I listen to the songs and artists I love, my intention is to bring that spark & energy into all I create.
Whether this is achieved or not is entirely subjective, as each listener will bring their own story into the frame.
I find it’s always a collaborative picture that’s created, with the artist(s) painting via the words and melodies, and the listener brings their own unique perspective to it with their mental and emotional state.
I love this, as it creates a completely unique listening experience for every new set of ears.
Photo credit – WOLFF