31.10.11 - DAY 304 - Debris

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SADFAY 304. Halloween. 2011. The end of the October SADFAY album. One year ago today I completed my Sober For A Year challenge.

This is another piano piece. Similar to yesterday's "Fluff" and Saturday's "Waiting For Snow".

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

30.10.11 - DAY 303 - Fluff

Listen (and/or buy) now on Bandcamp

Fluff.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

29.10.11 - DAY 302 - Waiting For Snow

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I've spent about 2 hours this evening, playing piano and tinkling about, so it seemed fitting to make a SADFAY that is entirely piano. In my head I'm hearing all sorts of other counter melodies and instruments and percussion, but I think it's good to restrain myself sometimes: Let the ideas in the song breath instead of piling more things on top. I must say, it was a bit frustrating limiting myself to 'just' piano, with all those other ideas flying around, but I'm pretty pleased with the results.

It's quite sombre. It has a wintery feel about it (hence the title). I was getting genuinely moved as I played and listened, maybe I'm just a big softie or maybe I've captured some nice 'drama' or emotion in this. That's for you to decide, innit?

Also I must confess, I stole the above image from the internet while google searching the word "snow", it seems very fitting on a number of levels, one of them being: sometimes it's a dogs life! But that's even better when you have a dog to share it with... And generally dogs are cool and I love their seemingly endless supply of love and affection.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

28.10.11 - DAY 301 - Chances

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A wee song about the difference between being an artist and being financially stable.

Spoken words in the background are Jamie McDowell, writer for the Belfast Telegraph.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

27.10.11 - DAY 300 - CCC

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Firstly this one keeps with a spooky / unsettling / horror theme, since we're getting closer to Halloween.

Secondly, here are a bunch '300' related elements to this track:

• It's 300 BPM
• It has 3 instruments, (guitar, synth 'piano' and synth strings) each one plays 10 notes and is layered 10 times (3 x 10 x 10)
• It changes motif every 300 beats (which is also the time it takes the above instruments to play their 10 notes)
• It is 300 seconds long (5 minutes)
• It is centred around a 300 hz tone.
• 300 is a triangular number, (apparently) the sum of all positive integers up to 24. So the structure of this song is arranged into the shape of a triangle.
• On the master channel there's a reverb effect with 300 m/s decay time and an echo effect with a 300 m/s delay time.
• The first 300 words of the plot description of the movie 300 are read out over the music, while 300 m/l of cool water is sipped.

Aside from all this ridiculousness, I've added an extra guitar track and two tracks of percussion to fill things out a bit.

Other fun facts about the number 300 here: http://www.archimedes-lab.org/numbers/Num201_500.html

300 is a triangular number, that is the sum of all positive integers up to 24.
is the largest possible score in bowling.

= 22 x 3 x 52

= 149 + 151 (sum of twin primes)
= 13 + 17 + 19 + 23 + 29 + 31 + 37 + 41 + 43 + 47 (sum of consecutive primes)

300 m/s is the speed of the sound in the air.

Different late Roman notations of number 300:
CCC, or XVxx, or IIIc.

All human beings are born with 300 bones, but adults only have 206 because some fuse together naturally.

The Spartan king Leonidas led an extremely small army of300 Greek Soldiers to hold off an invading Persian army more than 20 times as large. The "Three Hundred" (οι τριακόσιοι) was the name given to those Spartans who fought to the death at the Battle of Thermopylae.

"Scovilles" are the number of units of water needed to render a unit of pepper ‘untingly’ to the human tongue. For instance, habanerosare the hottest chili peppers and rate around 200,000 - 350,000 Scoville units; that is, 1 cc of habanero chili after being diluted in 300 liters of water still gives the feeling of hotness!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

ImprintThisOnYourMind Podcast #22 Feat. SADFAY

So yes!!

All the way back to DAY 289 of SADFAY : 16​.​10​.​11 - DAY 289 - Imprint This On Your Mind

I mentioned that I was making the track, while the process was being documented for the ImprintThisOnYourMind podcast.

Well now it is here for your listening pleasure!

ImprintThisOnYourMind Podcast #22 features some very lush, leftfield ambient tracks from artists such as Tim Hecker, Fennesz and Walls. Then me, mumbling nervously about SADFAY and Matt cool-as-a-cucumber Hazley interviewing me as I put together one of the songs for the project.

It's a good listen!

Check it out.

The iDig Your Blog Award

Well, this is all very flattering indeed.

James Gracey of Behind The Couch fame has just nominated my blog for the iDig Your Blog Award.

So I am told that I am to spread on the good love and nominate 5 other blogs for which I believe are 'dig' worthy.

Not an easy task, as I don't follow many blogs, though the one's I do are definitely worth your time, so here is my selection:

1. James & Paddy's Big Adventure

Basically, just a blog documenting the several months of travelling the globe that two friends from London are currently doing. It's better than that sounds though, as they have a keen eye for a good snap, they know some very interesting places and they're men of exquisite taste, so I am enjoying checking this out when I get a chance!

2. Well Done Fillet

Manuel T. Walter, the mysterious waiter writes about, 'the psychotic tendencies of chefs, the petty foibles and rudeness of restaurant diners and the heroic undertakings of those magnificent bastards, the Waiters.'

3. Dodgy Stereo

The blog of Barry Cullen, possibly the most talented, tasteful, knowledgable and inspiring musician and sound creator I know. Barry's based in Belfast, N.I and occasionally runs workshops teaching people how to 'circuit bend' electronic equipment and how to build their own sound boxes and instruments. When he's not teaching, he occasionally performs improvised soundtracks for obscure black and white films. He has also written and produced quite a bit of music under the name B.E.W (Barry's Electric Workshop), some of which is available on Acroplane Records.

4. Good After-Morning!

This blog is actually no longer running, but it doesn't really matter. It is a collection of an amazingly mind boggling events and the tenuous relationship between the author and his (now ex-)boss. There are many side-splitting and torturous moments among the pages from the mysterious "Silent Koala". WARNING: Read from the start, otherwise you'll spoil it for yourself!

5. Hyperbole and a Half

This is tEH funniez blog, by a girl called Allie. It's a collection of very amusing comic strips and illustrated stories, looking at everyday situations and events with an eye cocked to the madness of it all. The artwork has a lovely twisted innocence to it and I do LOL at the blog entries regularly.

So, if any of you 5 bloggers above find this all very nice and flattering and want to keep this thing going, here are ze rules:

1. Gratefully accept this award.

2. Link to the person you received it from.

3. Post 3 interesting facts about yourself.

4. Pass this award around to at least 5 blogs you dig.

5. Notify them.

hmmm 3 interesting facts... hmmm 3 interesting facts... hmmm...

OH!!! ... Oh no wait, that's kinda boring...

Hmmmm....

1. I have a massive beard that is apparently so striking that EVERY ONE has to comment on it when I am out in public. It's wonderful and hilarious and a great and original topic of conversation and not at all tired and redundant at all.

2. This man:

(Jimmy Cricket)

...visited my primary school when I was 7 years old. I never got his autograph.

3. Currently I can barely type because my fingers have frozen due the lack of heat in my house!

26.10.11 - DAY 299 - Sleepy Pig (ft. QUBe)

Listen (and/or download for free) now on Bandcamp

A free download tonight folks! This track was a collaboration between myself and the QUB ensemble. I've been keen to make a SADFAY track with QUBe for a long time, so I'm pleased to have gotten the chance to capture some of the (controlled) madness we create every Wednesday!

QUBe is a forum for improvisation, conduction and new music involving students, staff, and musicians from inside and outside the University. QUBe brings together performers from a variety of artistic backgrounds to develop performances that explore ensemble interaction, audio-visuals, open scores and free improvisation. More information on the group (and some performance video clips) can be found on here: http://www.somasa.qub.ac.uk/~mgurevich/?page_id=108

Tonight's track is made up of three separate performances, two conducted by Steve Davis and one conducted by Paul Stapleton. I've edited the recordings together in a (I hope) creative way. I've also recorded in some extra voice stuff (but kept it quite subtle).

Look out for details on a live QUBe performance mid-December!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

25.10.11 - DAY 298 - The Slasher (ft. The Niallist)

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A collaboration with the frighteningly talented Mr. Niall O'Conghaile (AKA THE NIALLIST), who is a writer & Recording artist. Niall co-runs the label Little Rock Records. He is resident dj / ball host at Menergy and he writes for the websites Dangerous Minds, Weaponizer & Shallow Rave.

We went for something of a spooky retro vibe for this one... Tis the season, after all.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

24.10.11 - DAY 297 - Romanescu

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The first idea with this was: Something fast or intense. I wrote some words and they inspired the rest of this song. There's some big noise, some skitteriness, futtering about and general wigged out shenanigans.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

23.10.11 - DAY 296 - Lambda Socks & Penguin Heaters (ft. Owen Boden)

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A collaboration today, with Owen Boden, guitarist and songwriter for Hexxed: http://hexxed.bandcamp.com/

A homage to the wonderful Gong, who used to write songs about 'Pothead Pixies, Teapot Taxis, Radio Gnomes' and an assortment of other weird and wonderful hippyish things.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

22.10.11 - DAY 295 - Hater

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I'm very happy with this bit of riffing. Tuned my guitar down to C# and rocked out! Quite pleased with that fuzzy bass sound too. The vocals were done in one take, because of time constraints (I have quite a busy day ahead of me and I'm running behind. Eek!) but overall, it's a nice wee tune so it is, so it is like.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

21.10.11 - DAY 294 - The Writers' Tune (ft. Dan Leith, Matt Faris, Emily DeDakis and Richard Lavery)

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Emily DeDakis gave me the idea to make a SADFAY song out of the sound effects, drones and textures I created for Accidental Theatre's play "The Writers' Room" (written by Michael Shannon). We were performing it tonight in the Baby Grand Theatre and will be performing it for one more night only! More info here: http://www.goh.co.uk/showdetails/1531/the-writers-room.aspx

The turn out tonight was great (it looked like we had a full house) and the cast were on fire. I am sad that tomorrow will be the last time we perform this great, darkly funny, one act masterpiece: So get your skates on and book yourself a ticket now!

Hopefully the end of this run of The Writers' Room doesn't mean the end of working with the lovely team from Accidental Theatre.

So this piece is a live jam, playing my Writers' Room samples and sounds. Earlier, while sitting in our rather fancy dressing rooms, Dan Leith, Matt Farris, Emily DeDakis and Richard Lavery made some silly noises and let me record them, so I've included that too.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

20.10.11 - DAY 293 - Silly Cybmin

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mmmmm.... In the sacred words, beamed directly down from Planet Gong, "Have a cup of tea. Have another one. Have a cup of tea."

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

19.10.11 - DAY 292 - Dark At Six

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A wee short, chilled one tonight. I just took it easy and strummed a few chords. Used my recent D.I.Y vocal booth to record myself singing. Bish, bash, bosh. Tune's a goodun'.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

18.10.11 - DAY 291 - Carnation Lizard (ft. Robyn G. Shiels)

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Today I had the pleasure of collaborating with Robyn G. Shiels, who has been playing and writing songs in the Northern Ireland music scene, for a fair number of years now. There was good banter flying all day and ideas coming and going. Robyn played all the guitar parts and then added some very moody spoken word. I think we've hit on something pretty dark and groovy.

From his website: "Darkness has always been more appealing than the light. Truly, that moment between day and night is where we find the real truth about ourselves, and there are none more adept at chronicling this netherworld than Belfast based songwriter Robyn G Shiels."

Check out more from Robyn here:

http://www.rgshiels.com

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

17.10.11 - DAY 290 - Tundra

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Guitars and stuff. I'm pretty chuffed with the overall mix for this one. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to recording guitars and layering them for a clear, full sound, but felt this was a big improvement over similar tracks I've made in this vein.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

16.10.11 - DAY 289 - Imprint This On Your Mind

Listen (and/or buy) now on Bandcamp

Today was fun! Matt Hazley, who runs the "Imprint This On Your Mind" podcast, called round to interview me and document my creative process, making one of my SADFAY tunes.

Imprint This On Your Mind is a great show. I feel guilty that I've only discovered it recently, there is always quality new music, interviews and live recordings on there. I plan on delving into past shows over the next few days and weeks, to catch up on it. It's always encouraging to see people invest so much of their own time and money into supporting great music and Mr. Hazley has done this in bucket loads over the years.

Anyway, this track was made while Matt watched and occasionally asked me questions about what I was doing. It was fun to share the creative side of this project. You'll have to listen to the podcast to hear more details of how it was put together. Hopefully the finished show will be available online in about a week! Check the website for updates: http://www.imprintthisonyourmind.co.uk/

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

15.10.11 - DAY 288 - GET PRIMAL

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More techno today! Yes. Having been so chuffed at the notion of being able to produce this kinda 'old skool' harder edged stuff, I was in the mood for more of it today. To me this kinda techno is cathartic, similar to metal or full-on noise stuff: It provides a platform to lose yourself and shake all the "ARRGGHHH" and "GRRRR" that builds up in subtle ways via daily, general head melt. Perhaps.

There's definitely a tonne of other stuff I could do with this track. There is potentially no end to the number of layers and edits you could add (more electronic squeals, creepy vocals, eerie noises etc...) so perhaps I'll return to this one. But saying that, I'm mega pleased to be dabbling in this old, dark disco kinda stuff. Get primal!

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

14.10.11 - DAY 287 - Stridulous Winds

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Stridulous Winds is a fairly nasty, low-down, dirty hard techno tune. I realise I've only made one other track like this for the SADFAY project (Quali-Tea Klang) and I'm not sure it was really 'dance floor friendly'. This one you could potentially dance to. Possibly. With the aid of a large variety of chemicals. Maybe. Pretty chuffed with the overall sound though. I remember back around 1998 trying to make this kind of music and being annoyed that synths I played with never seemed to be able to make these kinds of sounds. Huzzah! I've finally achieved that nasty techno sound! And it only took me 13 years.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

13.10.11 - DAY 286 - New Toys

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This afternoon was spent:

• Experiencing an excellent lunchtime concert at the SARC, watching Paul Stapleton, Steve Davis and Simon Rose perform.
• 
  
• Eating lovely chip butties.
• 
  
• Building a vocal booth in my spare room
• 
  
• Making this twee little number.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

A Big Flanger - Video

I ran out of cigarette papers at 02:27am. I decided to go to the 24 hour shop up the road...

12.10.11 - DAY 285 - Insert Pretentious Coded Words & Numbers

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So before starting this song I had a little lie down for 10 minutes and closed my eyes. I thought about all the 29 ideas flying through my head. I tried to clear my mind of all the ranting and heavy thinking in the last 24 hours.

In the end I liked "small sounds" the most: Something that we had talked about a little, today in QUBe (an ensemble for improvisation that I'm playing in). So this track is exploring short, little, quiet sounds and what fun ways I can create these little ticks and snaps in the tools I have. To me, it feels like it's referencing Autechre (again), but hopefully it's not too derivative. And if it is... Well fuck it. It was a happy accident! I didn't intend for it to be like them. Maybe anything to do with little, electronic sounds will always have some sort of nod to the Godfathers of progressive electronica. That's fine with me. Anyway, quite pleased with how this one progresses and I am fairly comfortable with how I got through this: i.e. I felt the creative process was 'pure', I didn't contrive anything with other people in mind, as far as I'm aware (who knows how the subconscious pours it's influence into things).

Insert Pretentious Coded Words And Numbers, is definitely a bit of a dig against Autechre and all those electronic artists and bands who choose 'meaningless' (or coded) letters and numbers as song titles. I don't really have a problem with it, other than how impractical it is. "Hey, have you heard that new Aphex track, ummm... Squidgy Bok Doken Key???" "Huh?" "Err... track 4 on that new EP" "Oh right, yea, that's hot shit!"

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

Thoughts on Yesterday's 'Rant'

So yesterday, I had a bit of a rant regarding how I need to change my approach to my creativity for the SADFAY project.

I worry that some people got the wrong end of the stick:

I said that I have to stop thinking about anyone else and stop comparing my work to others and instead, let myself create freely and to create for myself and no one else.

I still stand by this.

However, this doesn't mean that I don't want to collaborate with other people in that creative process. I'm still always excited to work with other people's ideas and I still definitely, definitely want to collaborate with people throughout the rest of this year on SADFAY songs.

Anyway. I feel I have to backpedal somewhat: Yesterday was a strange day for me. In some ways, it was a real lift and a real treat to spend time doing things for me. In other ways, I was very tired and emotional yesterday: As I mentioned, I was exhausted, obsessing over being 'good enough', but I was physically tired too. I was also weary and fretful that my ATL appearance wasn't well received, as I had ZERO response from asking people to 'Tweet' SADFAY 284 suggestions. So perhaps I reacted in a somewhat 'huffy' way, but mostly I was just worn out.

However, I firmly believe that my 'creative self' does need a break sometimes. And I firmly believe that I need stimulation, in the form of relaxing, free exploration. I need time to myself. I need to shake off all the pressures I feel from this project sometimes.

It's those breaks and times of 'self nurturing' that keep up the creative energy levels, I reckon. And I definitely need more of those and less of the long, burned out days, that don't seem to match the reward.

And then I realise that it's me doing this. I've chose to put this pressure on myself. No one else has. I don't need to respond to criticism (no matter how well-meaning or constructive), I don't need to bother myself with any notion of 'standards', 'quality' and all those other spurious 'conformist' terms. ... Frankly, I can do whatever the fuck I want and you can choose to listen or not.

I guess that's always been the case, but it helped me to realise that, when I was fretting and biting my nails and feeling so tired and emotional yesterday.

That was yesterday though.

Today. Well... I feel, standards are good! It is good to consider criticism. It is good to have feedback and use it wisely. It is good to let myself take ideas from all sorts of sources, because ultimately, anything can be a positive influence on developing as a creative person.

Also, I am proud of the songs where I've really pushed myself hard. I don't want to use yesterday's revelations as an excuse to spend the rest of the year making instrumental piano improvisations.

At the same time, I don't want to be trying to "crack the mould" with every SADFAY either.

So in summary, nothing new has really been established here at all... Everything's going to continue as it has been, by the looks of it, aside from forcing myself to give myself more 'artist breaks' and making sure I'm 'nurturing' my 'creative self' a bit more.

So...

Nothing to see here... Move along...

NB: terms like 'creative self' and 'self nurturing' I picked up from a very influential book for me: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I've ranted to many people about how great this book was for me, but more importantly, I think it's telling that many of her lessons are coming back to me at a time when I really need to think about them. I might have to get back into reading her 2nd book, Walking In This World, which takes over where The Artist's Way left off....

11.10.11 - DAY 284 - Mental Health

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I've had a fun and interesting day, with an important discovery I want to share:

My mental health is important to me.

This project has taken me through lots of places within myself and at times I've felt frustration, getting caught up in the notion of being 'good enough'. I'm sure all creative people do it: We constantly compare our work to others' and are disappointed that our own efforts don't match up to our peers. Sometimes this is good as it spurs us on to be better, to try things in a different way. It can give us inspiration and motivation to try harder. Other times, these attempts to live up to unrealistic standards, destroy us.

Today, I needed to step back from worrying about 'you'.

I realised I needed to satisfy me: For the sake of my mental health. I need to stop 'trying harder' and instead, listen to what my heart wants to say and do and proceed from there.

Right now, I've never felt stronger that I need to put me first and forget about anyone else.

It's not anyone's fault that for so long I've felt frustrated and angry. It's completely my own doing. I have been aiming for these unobtainable goals, comparing myself to others in a totally unproductive way, but where has that got me? In the last few weeks I've been feeling completely burnt out, I've been having trouble sleeping and generally feeling totally empty.

What matters is that I'm now learning to ignore the notions of being 'good enough' and instead, I'm going to create for me: Create what makes me feel happy.

My Song A Day For A Year project is about many things, it's not all about my personal creative journey, but ultimately, as a creative person, I cannot sustain the agonising process of caring about being 'good enough', every fucking day. And I am sure many, many creative people deal with this all the time too.

But I am happy, happy to realise that I can continue enjoying this project, (not that I would have quit this far into it anyway) and by stepping back, stepping away from needing the approval or validation of anyone else, I can listen to who I am and create music that is 'good enough' for me, because that's all that matters.

Anyway, if you enjoy this piece, that's great and thanks for listening, but if you don't, well... *shrug* ... so what. You didn't get it. It didn't make sense to you. It was lame / gay / stupid / weak / FAIL .... Fine. To you I say .... Smeh.... This one's for me.

Cheers.

10.10.11 - DAY 283 - Sexy Rigsy Disco

Listen (and/or download for free) now on Bandcamp

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions for this SADFAY track... I took them all on board and filtered them through my creative processing bank. All your lovely ideas are in here, somehow, somewhere, in an abstract form... mmmmyessss... This one is a free download!

OK, well I was on Radio Ulster tonight, playing SADFAY songs for the Across The Line show... I'm dedicating this one to sexy Rigsy disco stud... DJ and presenter of the Across The Line show. Cheers for having us in!

Special thanks to Rachel Austin, Caroline Pugh, Conor Barry and Korny Devenney.

And for your extra enjoyment tonight, here's a picture of Tron Bon Jovi. :D

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^

S.A.D.F.A.Y. - BBC RADIO ULSTER - Across The Line!!

Tonight I will be performing some songs from the S.A.D.F.A.Y back catalogue for your listening pleasure, live on BBC Radio Ulster, for the Across The Line show. The show starts at 8pm and you can tune in via t'interwebs: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radioulster/

I am pretty excited and nervous about this, it should be fun getting to perform the songs and having Rachel Austin, Korny Devenney and Conor Barry on board fills me with confidence! So far this year, I've performed SADFAY songs at a handful of gigs (in Belfast and Derry) but always on my own. I'm curious to hear how these songs translate in the context of "live band" as I've spent this year writing and producing from a studio, mostly by myself.

I will only know when I get to hear the show on the BBC iplayer afterwards!

Hope you all tune in!

If you're as excited as I am and can't wait, here's a recent interview I did on the SADFAY project for All Gone Pop, to tide you over. http://www.allgonepop.com/?p=5356

09.10.11 - DAY 282 - Noisy Neighbourz Wub Wub (ft. Rachel Austin, Conall Molloy and Dillon Mc Donnell)

Listen (and/or buy) now on Bandcamp

I had some visitors 'round the new pad last night. Strange creatures, clearly not of this world. At around 5am this morning we stopped annoying the neighbours with our weird noises and crazy wub wub wub-ness... This track was a collaboration with Rachel Austin, Conall Molloy and Dillon Mc Donnell.

Enjoy

Cheers ^_^