Alanalda & Dermostat & Ican Ican't

Artist Information

Biography

ALANALDA
were Dermot O'Leary, Dylan Curran, Pauline Freeman, Evan Harding, Andrew Cooke and Michael O'Dowd. We didn't play many gigs. We self-released a self-financed EP in April 2007 called 'demonstration'. Following excellent critical reaction to the EP we played a few more gigs and then ceased to play any more for various reasons...

DERMOSTAT
I subsequently started to make home recordings under the moniker Dermostat. The Year Of The Stat was the result of this. Never officially an album as such I loaded it up on to Myspace and left it there for whoever wanted to hear. My brother and I made a few videos for the tunes (an Alanalda tune and a Dermostat tune) and I just kept writing.

ICAN ICAN'T
I moved out of Dublin and into the Kilkenny countryside almost 2 years ago now and, for the first year especially, hit a groove of writing and recording, learning as I went along. I’m still nowhere near any good as a sound engineer and none of the tunes are professionally mixed or mastered but they’re the best that I could do at the time. I’ve changed the name (again!) because I googled ‘Dermostat’ and discovered several references to it as some sort of skin treatment! For now this latest batch of tunes are simply to be known as Ican Ican’t (a line from the brilliant BBC Comedy ‘The League Of Gentlemen’). I think it kind of sums up my frame of mind a lot of time…

D

Instrumentation

Dermot O'Leary - Everything.. at the moment

Discography

ALANALDA

Demonstration EP - self-release April 13th 2007
now available for download at www.cdbaby.com/cd/alanalda

Not Since The Day (single) - Sept 2011 - available for download at www.cdbaby.com/cd/alanalda2

Official Website

http://www.alwayssomeonewatching.com

Links

• MySpace
• Facebook
• CdBaby Artist Page

Audio

• Always Someone Watching
  Listen  
• Shortcut Thru The Park
  Listen  
• Good Days Bad Days
  Listen  
• Your Move
  Listen  
• Steve's Shirt
  Listen  
• In The Past
  Listen  
• I Am The Law
  Listen  
• Not Since The Day
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Always Someone Watching
• Shortcut Thru The Park
• Good Days Bad Days
• Your Move
• Steve's Shirt
• In The Past
• Not Since The Day
• I Am The Law

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• First cuts [+ Show ]
  

  "their use of violin brings echoes of Scarlet Riviera on Dylan's Desire album." "In The Past has a W..."their use of violin brings echoes of Scarlet Riviera on Dylan's Desire album." "In The Past has a Waterboys gloss to it, but it's neither pastiche nor imitation, and it has some neat guitar playing. Steve's Shirt....a poignant song that hovers nicely between genuine sentimentality and warm-hearted whimsy, with a build-up to a fine chorus" - Jackie Hayden

• Dublin is known for churning out some of the best musical talent around: the tradition continues. Top demo. Top band. [+ Show ]
  

  It's not very often in the current climate of hook-stealing and lyric photocopying that you get the ...It's not very often in the current climate of hook-stealing and lyric photocopying that you get the chance to hear something really different. Therefore, this Alanalda demo officially qualifies as an audio treat: sound chocolate, ear candy, soul cookies. Yes, soul cookies. You heard me.
  The first track, The Past, is like a jaunty stroll down tree-lined avenues, with small pauses to pet dogs and smile at babies. The second track, Always Someone Watching, is much more upbeat: think skipping down Carnaby Street trailing ribbons from each hand. There's quirkiness, happiness, melody, and above all, there's a slightly sardonic smile. For a split second, you might imagine you hear a little Kaiser Chiefs, then a little Madness pops in there, then a smidgen of Cake, then you hear the swell of violins and realise. You realise that everyone sounds of something... but Alanalda sound like everything and more. Which makes them original, insomuch as anything is original. And then you smile.
  The lyrics are something else altogether: bizarre. Random, and wholly brilliant. Dermot O'Leary sings like he doesn't care - not to say he's careless, more carefree. The third track, Steve's Shirt, is about buying a shirt from a thrift store with a name written in the label.
  But this shirt is no longer his, it's mine, and I wear it all the time.
  So I guess that I'll just cross out his name, and I'll fill in mine instead.
  Yes, random. But wholly refreshing, because I don't know if you agree, but I'm really really sick of songs about how much in love / not in love with some girl / boy / place / carrot the singer is. I do not care. I'm actually much more interested in some shirt some guy bought for 50 cents. It's got that desperate.
  Yes, folks, Alanalda are different... messy, clanky, sweet, classic, peculiar... running out of adjectives here... well, work it out for yourselves. What's more, they recorded the whole demo in various living rooms. I probably ruined it there, since you can't tell. Watch out for this lot. I rate this my demo of the summer, and it therefore receives a 9.

• FIT TO WEAR THE SHIRT [+ Show ]
  

  Slick, tasty and mean. Much like that greasy sausage roll you're going to fight me for later. The me...Slick, tasty and mean. Much like that greasy sausage roll you're going to fight me for later. The melodies here are of the towering and timeless variety, sheeted out with madder than early Cockney Rebel violins, sniped out with guitar or vaseline splashed with sweet vox. The influences are classic, easily spotted, but coming in cutely new combinations ; "Always Someone Watching" is that ole Cockney Rebel stealing from The Beatles while "In The Past" marches Johnny Cash straight into dark night of Steeleye Span. "Steve's Shirt" is something all of their own, something beautiful too.

Setlist

Basic Requirements

Calendar