The Goo 1
Words: Adhamh O’Caoimh JUNE/JULY '25 PADDY HANNA
True to his reputation as a ‘musician’s musician’, I first heard the name Paddy Hanna uttered by sorely missed alternative songwriter Naoise Roo, and first saw him as a guest at her final live performance. His new record, ‘Oylegate’, is a rich tapestry of pop infused indie rock , inspired by Russian cinema, disappointment and a dramatic shift in perspective. Congratulations on ‘Oylegate’. How has the week of release been going? Thank you! It’s been a long week. In a nice way, though, but, you know, I don’t know if time has moved fast or slow or I’m in some sort of different time zone or what the heck, but it’s been interesting. You recorded with the venerable Daniel Fox, I believe? It was just myself and Danny Fox for the most part, and then Tim Falcon Prime and Danny Fitzpatrick came in at the tail end. It was just a really nice experience. In the morning, I kissed my wife and kid goodbye and it was like going off to work. I had my little lunch packed. And there was a real purpose this time. This wasn’t rock and roll bullshit where there was staying up till 5AM drinking beers going”Yeah! Rock and roll!” I got up early every morning, had my lunch made, and I held my family, and I went to work. What can you tell me about’ Oylegate’? A lot has changed since you put ‘Imagine, I’m Hoping’ together. I was talking to a friend of mine, Ryan Lee. He’s a writer for Stereogum, at least he was. He’s now working on the great American novel as they say. He just rang me by chance yesterday, and he was talking about how annoyed he was that nobody heard that album. I’ve been kinda talking a little bit about how I felt downhearted that the album didn’t kinda do the business I’d hoped it would. On some level, I thought “Dude, you need to relax. Get over yourself.” You know?But while we were talking, he sort of reaffirmed my suspicions by saying how annoyed he was that no one really got to hear it. On some level, I felt slightly gratified but also slightly frustrated, I suppose. But, as I was saying to him yesterday, if ‘Imagine I’m Hoping’ is a success, we wouldn’t get ‘Oylegate’. If ‘Imagine I’m Hoping’ is a success, we get ‘Imagine I’m Hoping’ part two. So in many ways, I had to eat a giant shit sandwich in order to get to where we are now. It’s a difficult one to kinda gauge what will catch people’s attention. Especially in this modern tumult. I’ve always seen it as a challenge is something to rise to. Whatever it may be, like streaming or whatever that makes it harder to earn a crust in music, I’ve always kind of had that 15 optimistic idea that it’s all the more reason to really work that little bit harder and to carry that big heavy bass amp with a little more vigor and all this sort of stuff. I think that when that record didn’t take off. And going into this one, how did you get out of that mindset? I was doing it for my family. I was doing it for the people who believed that I could do it. I’ve never had such a sense of purpose before making a record. Every record I’ve made, I’d made it for myself. But this one, I was making for my family.I was trying to truly kind of make them proud more so than myself. You know? And so it was a very humbling and lovely experience. It’s also nice to kind of realize that all of the trappings and presumptions that come with music, you don’t need them. Oylegate is out now. Paddy plays Beyond The Pale Festival on June 14th. www.paddyhanna.bandcamp.com