Raized

Ray of beaming vocals
with an Eighties vibe
RAIZED is the solo project
of music graduate Ray
Murphy.
Ray has been playing
for 20 years or so and
during that time has played with
a variety of cover bands, been a
sideman for a number of jazz
units at the Cork Jazz Festival
and also played with the likes of
Donovan.
“I’ve been playing covers for
years and never sang,” he exp
l a i n s.
“This whole writing and
singing thing is something that I
have never thought of. If you had
said to me two years ago, ‘you’ll
be writing songs and you’ll be recording
an album’, I would have
said, ‘no, I’m not a singer’. I don’t
even do backing vocals.
“People used to stick microphones
in front of me at gigs and
I’d go ‘ugh’. I’d stand back from
the microphone and I’d say, ‘no, I
don’t sing’.”
The whole singing lark occurred
through his three-piece
cover-band Azzurro.
“When there’s only three of
you and you only have one
singer, it makes things a bit
s p a r s e.
“You really do need to have a
bit of variety and I said to myself
I’ll try it. I started off singing a
few covers and I actually enjoyed
it.”
Ray’s next step was to build a
studio. His starting point was to
buy a PC and load it with recording
software.
“I was able to record a verse or
two, go back and listen and say,
‘ok, well I don’t like that, I don’t
like that, I do like this section’.
And I got very good at editing the
m u s i c. ”
While he uses a variety of effects
for the lead guitar, he only
uses basic reverbs and delays for
vocals. Despite the negative connotations
of being a cover musician,
Ray maintains that you
learn what makes songs work.
With a demo album under his
belt, he is currently planning his
debut album.
“Genres are such a negative
thing because everybody gets put
in a genre. If they can’t categorise
you, they put you into alternative
or something. I think what
I’ve done with the music so far is
a mix of pop and indie and a little
bit of rock here and there but it
does span all of them. I haven’t
actually found one particular
sound.”
Ray listens mostly to
guitar-based music such as Snow
Patrol, Foo Fighters, Kaiser
Chiefs and Stereophonics but
what he is striving for is the
Raized sound. For more, log on to
www.raized.com.
- Evening echo / downtown