Get to know Eimhin, a plucky chap from Ireland who now calls Australia home. And he’s ‘Lately’ dropped his debut single.
‘Lately’ is a beautiful, guitar-based pop number that starts off slow, allowing us to be wooed by Eimhin’s fine vocal. It builds from there, luring you further and further into its spell.
And we’re also sure it will be a spectacular one to hear in a live venue.
But how did Eimhin get to here?
Discover a little more about his journey and get to know Eimhin!
01. Name : Eimhin.
02. Where are you based? I’m from Ireland originally but I am based on the Gold Coast.
03. How did you get your start in music? I started out when I was 15 when I started learning guitar to try and impress girls!
04. Give us five words to best describe you as an artist. Acoustic guitar, defying gender expression norms, karate kick, songs about feelings, friendship.
05. Tell us a little bit about your sound and how it developed. Around the time I picked up the guitar, I was into glam, punk rock and emo. As I started getting more and more into it I moved into melodic hardcore and then into post-rock and shoe gaze with bands like Explosions In The Sky and My Bloody Valentine.
I had started singing at that point so songwriting suddenly became important to me and I fell in love with artists like Damien Rice and Bright Eyes. What I’m making now is sort of a combination of all of those things!
06. What’s your earliest musical memory? I wasn’t very musical growing up. One of the earliest musical memories I have is of getting handed a tin whistle in primary school and being really terrible at playing it.
I remember there was an end of year performance where I was confident with like 40% of the material so I just pretended to play! Afterwards my parents told me I was great. Haha!
07. Who have been your musical influences? That’s a tough one! It depends on the era of me, I suppose. Early on I was into emo and hardcore and stuff but, I wasn’t good enough at playing at that point to really aspire to be like any of those bands.
At some point I was in a car with some friends and they were like, have you listened to this band Radiohead? That’s the first moment when I was really like, ok yeah that’s the sort of band I want to be in, this is peak art, haha.
I was writing songs a lot back then and started to realise that anybody can make a cool sounding song, the real challenge was writing a song that stood the test of time, a song that really meant something. Not to say that Radioheads lyrics lack substance!
Right now I have a lot of time and respect for songwriters like Christian Lee Hudson and Dave Le’aupepe from Gang Of Youths. There’s something really interesting and conversational about how they write. I feel like they are doing so much more than singing a song, they are reading poetry over music.
08. What are your favourite songs of all time? ‘Life On Mars’ – David Bowie, ‘Older Chests’ – Damien Rice.
09. What’s your favourite lyric of all time?
Not everything means something, honey
So say the unsayable, say the most human of things.
10. Who are your top three favourite pop artists of all time? David Bowie, The Beatles, Oasis.
11. What’s the one song you’d kill to release a cover of? ‘Country Roads’. WEST VIRGINIAAAA!!!
12. Who would your dream duet be with? Lily Budiasa. My god she is a beautiful singer!
13. Where’s your favourite place to listen to music? I’m a big listening in the car kinda guy! I also enjoy listening while taking a lil’ walk.
14. What was the first album you ever bought? The first album I ever bought was a this wild trance compilation album that I can’t remember the name of but the first song was ‘The Logical Song’ by Scooter and it blew my MIND.
I dunno, I was just really into trance when I was 11 for some reason! The first actual album I had that I listened to a bunch was ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’.
15. Give us a little fun fact about yourself that people might not know. Oooh, um. I volunteer playing songs on acoustic guitar at my local hospital to lift the vibe of the place once a week. Its super cute and fulfilling!
16. What would your chosen career be if music wasn’t an option? I think without music I’d be a whole other kind of person; it’s my whole identity. I can’t even get in the headspace of not writing songs… hmmm, maybe I’d be one of those guys who goes out on those super dangerous fishing expeditions and grow a giant ginger beard and develop a love-hate relationship with the sea/possibly a whale.
18. What’s been the highlight of your musical journey so far? I fell out of music there for a bit so I think a real highlight has been reconnecting with people that care about me and what I’m trying to do right now. That, and making new connections with people who want to be part of the journey. It’s been really special building this thing with them.
19. What’s been the strangest experience you’ve had in the business? I’ve been pretty lucky actually, nothing super weird has happened! *touches wood* Hmmm, this is sort of random but I’ve always said to myself if I’m ever in a position where I can advise an upcoming band or artist about the industry I would tell them to avoid band competitions, battle of the bands, stuff like that. It’s a strange vibe in environments like that. They are great for a bit of a laugh but music isn’t a competition!
20. If you could trade places with any artist in the world right now, who would it be? It’s a funny question and maybe I’m just no fun but it doesn’t make sense to swap places with anybody right now. I’m in this to express myself and tell my story. I’ve got this thing in me that I really need to get out you know? If I just immediately swap places with Harry Styles then I miss all the good bit!
21. Tell us about your debut release. My debut release ‘Lately’ is about a dark point in my life where I went through an intense period of depression. After some soul searching and with the endless love and support of my family I ultimately realised that the most powerful thing in the universe is love and that we should put it first in everything we do.
It’s acoustic guitar led with drums, bass and some fancy Mellotron parts to make it feel vintage and cool. The song is out now and there will be a music video to follow soon too!
22. How have you spent your time during the pandemic? Oh wow, funny you should ask! I actually had an emotional breakdown followed by a spiritual awakening. It feels weird boiling it down to just that but we’d be here all day if you wanted me to go into details!
The less dramatic version is that I moved back to the Gold Coast from Melbourne and started recording my debut album. I’ve pretty much spent the whole thing writing, recording and playing music. I’m very lucky, not including the breakdown part anyway! Haha!
23. What do your future plans involve once we’re back to some semblance of normalcy? My plans are to write and record the most honest and authentic music I possibly can. When I’m done doing that I’m going to play gigs all over the place to let everyone know that everything is going to be ok and we just have to love a little more.
24. Where can our audience catch you live? I’m doing gigs at the moment between the Gold Coast and Brisbane but in time I’m gonna be all over the place!
25. Give us the final sell on the debut release. ‘Lately’ is for people who are going through something rn, and I think maybe we are sort of all going through something rn. The song was really born out of being sad and going to therapy about it.
I’ve never been one to share my feelings and being vulnerable was always something I viewed as weakness. But it’s not true, we are conditioned to feel that way because of the effects of toxic masculinity and stuff like that.
‘Lately’ is my story of learning to look inward, it’s about realising that love can change the world if we just gave it a goddamn chance.
INSTAGRAM : https://www.instagram.com/eimhin
FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/itseimhin
YOUTUBE : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ_Wd3Dy3b4bbdfIriOptHQ
SPOTIFY : https://open.spotify.com/artist/18S5ViIsJIaJd6vbHRkIVD
Australia's first stop for pop!