Track x Track | I Have A Tribe on his new No Countries EP
Buzz, as it were, has been steadily building in recent months for Patrick O’Laoghaire’s I Have A Tribe project.
This Friday December 4 sees the release of the No Countries EP, a five-track collection of winsome wanderings, beautifully decorated balladry and piercing flourishes of emotion and controlled aggression. There’s a reason why comparisons to Villagers have popped up – and it’s mercifully not a tired soundalike thing – and why vocalists like Fight Like Apes‘ MayKay, who appears on No Countries, have been so drawn to O’Laoghaire’s deft work. Following on from last year’s debut Yellow Raincoats EP and produced by Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey, Anna Calvi, Torres), No Countries is the next step in a most intriguing path and it is assured as it is impactful.
The Dublin native offered a few words on his latest venture. Read ’em below:
‘Medicine From Calgary’
Patrick O’Laoghaire: For me, the medicine from Calgary is laughter or friendship. I’m not quite sure why it comes from Calgary – it could be from anywhere – this is the place that arrived on my page when I went to write, and maybe there’s a reason for that. This song found its way to my friend Rob, by a nice twist of fate, and he added a drum beat and a groove to it that changed it entirely. He lifted the idea towards a sound to dance to, which was the initial point of writing the song. So I’m glad he added his playing to the song, to give it the lightness I was longing for.
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‘No Countries’
I had a picture of a map of the world on the wall by my bedroom, and I wondered how the map would look if there were no lines or borders on the map, only green to signify land and blue to show water. This song was written about this idea, and to imagine the movement of people between places as a natural and beautiful and necessary thing, with the hope that all borders, if they must exist, are places of welcome.
‘Tribal’
This is a song I wrote maybe seven years ago, but I think it was written many times before that by many others. It is simply my version of a chord progression through E flat minor, with my own expression of a melody added… this progression is timeless, and probably the melody I added was added before, though perhaps the words are different.
‘Lungs’ / ‘Psalm’
‘Lungs’, probably, is self explanatory. I am reluctant to offer direct meanings, because that’s the listener’s choice. ‘Psalm’, for me, is similar to ‘Tribal’ in that it is just my attempt to add a version to a timeless catalogue. It’s not a new melody or musical progression, just my interpretation of a lullaby.
The No Countries EP is released via Grönland Records this Friday December 4. I Have A Tribe headline the Workman’s Club on December 9.
