The Goo 1
FEB '25 had never written a song Bren sure knows
how to string a lyric together. The album is full of literary references - the title is inspired by Seamus Heaney’s ‘The Cure At Troy’ - and Berrys words shift between the political and the personal with grace and elan. “I did a creative writing course during COVID. A nice easy one, very basic but that opened up a new avenue for me. I’d done a few eulogies and a few bits, and people always said, you’re a really great writer, so I’ve always had a hankering to write. I read all a lot, but I’m a very slow reader but books are a huge influence. Books on this particular occasion, really set off a lot of ideas for me. I found them great during the album process”. Bren’s love and devotion to his wife and children is glaringly evident throughout the album, especially on ‘We Have It All’, a gorgeous Soul inspired song that almost didn’t make it onto the final platter. “That was the last song I wrote and I’m glad now it’s there. I initially thought it was too different stylistically but it works. I approached this one totally different from the others, initially it was inspired by an electronic beat I stumbled upon and then I just started playing this little riff, and it reminded me of the Stylistics. The Stylistics were huge for me watching Top of the Pops when I was a kid. I spent every Christmas in the 70s in Brixton, I just loved that the black culture. My mother was from just here in the Iveagh Buildings, and her best friend and sister, my aunt Nari, didn’t get married, so she stayed with her other sister in Brixton three times a year, and she took me every Christmas for nine years running. I loved just strolling around the Brixton markets, soaking in all that Caribbean music and reggae and enjoying the smells and the sounds. That was very formative in ways that I can’t necessarily put a finger on.” The inherent sentiment within that song is also shared on the first single from the album, ‘Winter Song’ a track that Bren reckons was the one that made him realise that he could get his dream over the line. “ That song was a major breakthrough for me. I was listening to the Velvet Underground a lot during the pandemic and Winter Song is a love letter to that band and The Liberties where my mother is from and where the venue is but ultimately it was a 15 love letter to my wife. I wrote it quite quickly and really liked the way I was singing. I woke her up in the middle of the night to play it for her, I was so eager and when she heard it she cried and said I should give this album a proper go. It was the encouragement I needed to go for it. We made sacrifices, I had blown so much money on this but when we got the vinyl test pressing, we sat down a nice bottle of wine at home and played it, and she turned to me and said, it was worth it. That was my Grammy right there.” In Hope Our Stars Align is out now in record stores and online from www.brenberry.ie