Off The Record: Limerick's own Paddy Dennehy loves to love

WHEN folk singer-songwriter Paddy Dennehy was six-years old, he told his babysitter with “supreme confidence” that he was off to bed to write a song. Fast-forward, the musician has now two albums under his belt. With his new and second album, Paddy calls on people to “stop fooling around” but instead, to Love and Be Brave.

 “My mother ran into my old babysitter. She was saying that I was tediously good as a child, I was a complete teacher’s pet – I was that kid,” he recalls. After going to his first gig, Paddy got this “kick in the tummy feeling”, that's when he realised music “really meant something” to him.

A “continuation” of his first album, Love and Be Brave is a beautiful collection of songs with honest and vulnerable lyrics tackling a theme that will resonate with most, one that can be just as painful as it can be wonderful – love.

Interestingly, the Limerick city native didn’t mean for his album to be thematic. “You stay on a familiar thread sometimes when you’re writing consistently. And it was always love and be brave,” he admits. “You’ve had relationships before, they don’t work, and you think, f*ck it, I’m gonna go live on an island.” After a pause, he chuckles: “I’m aware we’re on an island, but a smaller island. Further away from other things. It’s like, I’m done now, I’m a monk, I’m out.”

But he can’t help himself. Paddy Dennehy loves love, so there’s only one thing to do. “The idea of love is to be brave because if you care about someone, they have so much more capacity to hurt you.”

And even if he gets hurt, it’s all worth it. “There’s such a greater capacity for joy in loving someone who has loved. Even with the most miserable song, there’s always this little seed. As painful as it is sometimes, isn’t it wonderful to care about someone this much?” he ponders.

99% of the time, Paddy can be found sitting down at the piano. If there’s one thing he loves more than love, it might be numbers.

“I like music theory because it’s all numbers, which is comforting. It’s like how authors write books or how poets write poems,” he notes. “Music is different, there are more defined rules. If I don’t have an idea, I can sit down and know what the strong melody notes are on a scale, I know this might be an interesting chord to go here, this is a cool thing you can do.”

The artist prefers to write at home, by himself. “There's no one else there. Then I'll be really nervous showing it to the band. And they'll make it better, and then we go and play it. I'm really lucky to work with them. It's great being the worst musician in the band - that's the way it should be. I can show them something, go, and they have what I was hoping for,” he says.

According to Paddy, it’s one thing listening to the recorded version of a song, but the way they play it live is different. That’s why the one thing he’d like people to know, is that if they see him and the band live, they’ll get a glimpse of what they’re like and a sense of what music means to them.

“Sometimes it’s heavier, sometimes it’s softer,” he explains. “It depends on how the room is feeling and how we’re feeling. It stresses me out a lot, but the talking between songs is sometimes the bit I enjoy the most to get a sense of what artists are like, and of how they’re feeling when they’re playing.”

At his gigs, people can expect the singer-songwriter to crack a joke. Although he refuses to share his best joke with the Limerick Leader. “I can’t tell you now, they’re gonna read it. If I need the joke, I’ll use it – it’s like an ‘in case of emergency break glass’ joke,” he laughs.

Paddy will be playing in Dolan’s soon as part of his album launch tour, and he’d love for people to chat with him after the gig.
“I just want to go around, chat to people and say thank you for coming. Also, what’s really nice is after you do the compliments part, you can actually have a conversation and say ‘what are you listening to?’ That’s cool because I don’t like most music, so I need to work hard to find things. I like when people give me suggestions.”

Speaking of the “compliments part,” how does he receive them? “Poorly, and with a slight squirm,” he admits. “Then I say thank you, and we move on.”

Before he takes the last sip of his pint, this reporter wonders what was the most memorable gig he went to.

He names Randy Newman at Vicar Street, in Dublin, before mentioning Leonard Cohen. Speaking of the latter, he recalls: “It was pretty special. There was this 16-year-old girl in the room in front of me with her dad, and she was like, f*ck you dad. Why did you bring me here? Everyone's old. Everyone smells funny. And by the end of the gig, half of us are crying, and she's like, thanks so much. This was wonderful - That was special.”

Paddy’s second album, Love and Be Brave, is now available on all streaming platforms. On Sunday, June 4, he will be performing upstairs at Dolan’s. Tickets via dolans.ie