Limerick artist shares nostalgic new EP

ONE Christmas morning, singer-songwriter Pa Sheehy opened his present to find an array of GI Joes and a little tank - the best day of his life. Even though he’s not one to engage in festivities before December, this year, he decided to be a “fool” and share his new EP - just in time to cosy up for the holidays.

“I was only four or five, I remember thinking this was the best day of my life. And I just spent the whole day messing with these little figures and playing games. It was very simple and rich, I’ll never forget that particular Christmas,” Pa recalls.

A feeling of cosiness is all over The Christmas Fool - the perfect EP to listen to while curled up next to a fireplace. Among a Phoebe Bridgers cover and a lovely take on Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, stands Abigail - an original song that instantly makes us nostalgic.

“Abigail stands for a symbol of loss during Christmas, around a group of friends. As teenagers, or in your early twenties, you're all very much together. As you get older, that group of friends gets smaller and people kind of fall out of touch and the group gets smaller. I suppose it's just a look back at how it was and realising that it's never going to be like that again,” he explains.

He worked on the EP over the summer, just to make sure it would be ready in time.

Speaking of the festive offering, he says: “I usually get this idea around November. By that time, it's usually too late. So, I was well prepped this year. I spent about six weeks during the summer really honing in on this EP. I suppose it's not a traditional Christmas EP in the sense that the songs I've chosen are not really classic songs, but they're about Christmas and what goes on at Christmas.”

Pa loves Christmas. However, he doesn’t really get in the festive mood until December.

“I love Christmas, however, I do think it's a little early for Christmas music, even though I've released some. I think the first of December seems like a decent time to do it. But when people are ready for it, the music is ready. That was my kind of thinking behind it,” he says.

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The singer-songwriter has been busy this year, as The Christmas Fool is not the first EP he has released in 2023. In June, he shared Lost In A ‘90s Arcade, a collection of songs he wrote when he was feeling unsure about his musical career.

“I was going through a period where I didn't know where I was going. I questioned if music was the right path for me any more,” Pa recalls. “I found myself reverting back to things I knew when I was a teenager, like PlayStation games, or I was listening to punk rock bands again. It was kind of all nostalgia and that was feeding me. But I also realised that it was almost like I was regressing, it's like I stopped moving forward, I was happy to stay still and go backward.”

Releasing Lost In A ‘90s Arcade helped him - almost as if he had a breakthrough.

“I feel like I'm in a new place now and I'm a bit more forward-thinking and a little less inverted,” he admits.

“For me as an artist, I just hope people know that this path is a risk and it's unsure, but it’s all that I can do at the same time.

“Deciding to do music when you don't have any experience of it is very naive and very hopeful. I did a few normal jobs in my early 20s and one in particular really destroyed my soul, so I said to myself well worst case scenario, at least if I'm doing something that I love. It kind of mathematically made sense for my soul, whether I was going to be successful or not, it just felt like I had to do it or else I would have been miserable."

When he is working on new material, Pa does not have any strategy. Sometimes, the lyrics pop into his head, or the melody comes to him.

“It happens in various ways. My most successful way in sitting and being at peace and having no distractions. That's when I feel like you're at your most willing to receive from wherever these songs come from,” he explains.

But his most creative times are also his darkest.

“When I'm in the most pain emotionally, when my mind is suffering, my heart is suffering. That's probably when it's easiest to create because it's almost bursting out of you,” he notes softly.

He can always count of his wife and children for feedback. They might be part of his biggest fans, but are also his toughest critics.

“I show my wife every song that I write and we go through it. Then my kids, I often play a tune that I think that they might like, because they're the most honest people on the planet. There's no messing around with them, so they’re a good gauge into what people will feel what is melodically pleasing,” he laughs.

“My wife can have a really good sense of if a song is really tuned in emotionally and is hitting all the right parts. My kids are in charge of the melody part.”

Next, Pa would like to explore something new. Although, he keeps falling in and out of love with several genres.

“I feel like every time I'm in the middle of making a record, I fall in love with a new thing and I want to make something like that. So I'm always a little bit behind on what I want to do. At the minute, I'm in a kind of folky, blues, pop, creative world.”

If you ask him where he wants to be in 12 months time, he can think of of a place or two.

“I'd like to have an album in my hand and I would love to play shows around Europe and Ireland, particularly in Cork Opera House and the Olympia Theatre,” he concludes.

But first, he will be back to a venue that holds a special place.

Pa Sheehy will be performing in Dolans, on Thursday, December 7. Tickets are now available via dolans.ie