The Goo 1
Interview Words: Oran O’Beirne - powered by overd
rive.ie Oran O’Beirne sat down with Celtic Legacy’s Dave Morrissey to learn about their new single ‘The Crow’, and plans for the year ahead. Celtic Legacy’s history goes right back to 1997 when the band was formed. What was the reason the band went on hiatus and what was the catalyst for your return? We hadn’t intended on coming back as a full band again. The original plan was just for myself and John Bonham to record music under the Celtic Legacy name and not worry about doing live shows. But John kept on at me to do live gigs and to do that we had to fill out the band all over again, which I wasn’t keen on. It’s a long process getting the right people on board and then there’s months getting it all to gel. But John just wore me down and then Slim (Dave Boylan) came back and suddenly I was getting it in the ear from both of them. Once Dave Shorten agreed to do a few shows I didn’t have any legitimate reason to hold out. How has the band’s dynamic evolved during the hiatus? Did the break bring new perspectives or influences to your songwriting and recording process? It’s added new voices to the creative process for a start. The first time around it was really just the two of us coming up with ideas. John and Fuzzy bring a more modern perspective to the process now as 26 they’re a bit younger. Shorten isn’t shy about wanting to try out different things either rather than just following standard metal tropes. The lyrics of ‘The Crow’ carry a powerful narrative. Can you elaborate on what exactly resonated with you about the cult movie that led to the song? That’s really for Slim to answer as they’re his lyrics. He brought it to me and asked me to knock the music into shape. But we both liked the original movie and it made for great song content. I watched it there again recently and it’s just a great story. What seems to get lost is that outside the themes of justice and revenge it’s basically a love story at its core. Having been involved in the Irish Metal scene for a very long time, what have you noticed upon the band’s return to the live stage, and also, what would you like to see change for bands of a heavier/underground nature? I think there’s a bit of a nostalgic element there for Celtic Legacy that obviously wasn’t there before. People have heard the name so there are more coming along to check us out. We’ve also had people talking to us at gigs about when they saw us back in the 2000’s and sharing stories. Some of the younger bands we’ve shared stages with this year have said that they have a lot of respect for us for keeping going this long and that’s nice. Now we just need to get a few more steps up the ladder. What hasn’t changed is the difficulty in getting people out to see bands play, especially in Ireland. People always say they want new music, but digital sales are on the floor so more than ever, bands like us are relying on physical merch sales to generate some form of income to push things on. But to get merch and new music out there, we need to get money in to pay for it so it’s still the same vicious circle as before. With a new year upon us, what are the bands goals for 2025? We’ll be following up the release of The Crow with at least two new singles, maybe more depending on how we feel and what the writing brings. The main goal for next year is to grow the fanbase and finally get the band’s name out there properly. “The Crow’ is out now on all good streaming platforms. Find Celtic Legacy on social media platforms using @celticlegacy.