The Goo 1
Interview Words: Adhamh O’Caoimh SEAN MULROONEY F
or more than two decades, Tau & The Drones of Praise have been putting together psychedelic spirituals centred around the enigmatic visions of Sean Mulrooney. His first solo album, ‘This Is My Prayer’, sees the bardic bandleader strike out with some familiar collaborators, but a fresh perspective on his songcraft. It is ostensibly the only record this year that deals with the subject of aquatic mammals repurposing the defense mechanisms that Tetraodontidae have evolved, battering their wee bodies for the psychotomimetic properties of their poison. Elsewhere the album focuses on dealing with heartbreak, self reflection, and Mulrooney has put together a beautiful and intimate collection of work sure to catch the ears of Tau acolyte and new listeners alike. This is your first solo album after a lengthy and storied career. What were you not finding in Tau & The Drones of Praise that you were looking to do in your solo project? Sean Mulrooney: Songs like ‘No Two Sides’ (Mulrooneys debut single, a plainspoken and plaintive song released as a fundraiser for The Palestinian Child Relief Fund) felt special, because I did that for something that was way bigger than me. The momentum that it got was really inspiring, as 12 were people’s reactions and their support. At around the same time I uncoupled with my partner, so the record became my channel for the grief, the loss and the heartbreak. I retreated to Wicklow, on my own for the whole of January 2024, and I went to a very deep space, as you do. Reflective. Contemplative. These songs started, coming through, thankfully. And I was like, wow, this is very different to anything that I’ve done before. It kind of has its own.. vibration, I would say. It’s own message and its own sound. So then I thought “Okay, this sounds like me.” I felt the whole thing to be very raw, and spontaneous. So the music felt like it should be under a different name different to Tau & The Drones of Praise? Tau is more like an outlet for my creativity, and it’s about the collective, whereas these songs are about what’s going on inside of me, really.