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John Strong from Monaghan trades a fine brand of bluesy pop that echoes of surfer Dick Dale, Bowie, riff metal and occasionally the bleakness of Ian Curtis. 'Bring It On Home' skates smoothly along a thudding riff that underpins a tight band and has Strongs emotive vocals on top. On 'Timeout' he slows the pace down to a bluesy crawl replete with expressive guitar and lets his voice loose too. His forthcoming album has a track 'Who Told You That' with echoes of Zeppelin in their Whole Lotta Love heyday, but with added subtlety minus the bombast. Strong exudes a natural instinct for lyrics that match the mood of the moment and his voice carries a maturity that belies his youthfulness. Definately one to watch and listen to. - Jackie Hayden
Discography
demo: the psychedelic torture circus
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Bio
I have an overactive imagination which reflects definately in my music and lyrics which range from '...pink bannana trees...,' to '...the black fish in the bowl...'. I started writing songs when I was fifteen and recorded my first demo when I was sixteen. Songwriting to me is my vocation and theres are always so many new song ideas floating about my head.
As with all good muscians you must start off witha bad band...well we we're that bad, yes the school band. Nobody could miss the sizeA1 poster in the window of boyles cloths shop in the town centre during the renovations. Evenso not many people turned up for that gig but more importantly it brought me to my first real guitarist, Mark Clerkin, who had been teaching music in the town for many years and was interested to see what this new songwriter had to offer. Even then he saw the real potential in the songs.
When the rest of my friends went off to college I took a year out and worked, using much of my funds to try out some new recordings in a studio.
The sound engineer was surprised at the uniqueness of my work and suggested that I bring in a local musician Ronnie O' Flynn who also played with Sharon Shannon, Donal Lunny and Ben Reel (but turned down van morrison!!) to play drums and bass, and guess what, he's still cuffed to me now. Ronnie also enjoyed the music and he introduced me to many other musicians in the scene.
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