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In his Eoin style

Just because your father plays guitar and sings and your mother is a former chanteuse of some repute and your grandmother is a piano teacher, it does not necessarily follow that you will be bitten by the musical bug.

However in the case of local lad Eoin McDonagh, he has soaked up all the influences of home and is now embarking on what appears to be an illustrious music career of his own. The award winning singer / songwriter is still only nineteen and plays his first major solo gig at Draíocht next week.

“I gave up the piano for a while a few years back,” he smiles ruefully. “But I’m really glad I got back into it now. I suppose with music being in the family, it was only natural that I should turn to music as an outlet and it is one that I find really satisfying.”

Eoin, who lives in Blanchardstown, attended Castleknock Community College and in fact won that school’s prestigious Starsearch competition in 2006. In the same year, he entered an Irish version of Stars in your Eyes and unsurprisingly scooped first place and last November, he took first place in the much-reported Battle of the Bands competition in Eamonn Doran’s in town.

Within the last two years, Eoin has been writing and performing his own material and is currently studying music performance for one year at Kylemore College in Ballyfermot, alma mater of many an Irish rock star. The course was chosen specifically to develop his music career.

“When people ask me what kind of genre my music is, I find it hard to give a definitive answer,” he says. “People describe my voice as ‘soulful’ yet I would describe it as more rock / pop orientated with a bit of a soulful twist!

“The lyrics are just as important as the music. In my view, there is a large amount of music out there that sounds good at first but when you actually stop and listen to the words, it really is very shallow and banal. I always enjoyed poetry in school and always seem to have had the knack of writing. For me, the important thing is that everything I write is based on my personal experience, so that I retain that honesty,” says Eoin.

Samples of Eoin’s music can be downloaded at www.myspace.com/eoinmcd

Critics have said that the singer / songwriter displays as much star quality as any of his contemporaries from James Morrison to Amy Winehouse, both of whom he has a tremendous admiration for. “Amy Winehouse would be one of my biggest influences,” he asserts. “She writes all her own stuff and everything she produces is simply brilliant. To be mentioned in the same breath as her is a great honour.”

In fact Eoin has promised to include some of La Winehouse’s material in his forthcoming Draiocht appearance. Although he has tended to promote his own music at the smaller, more casual gigs he has played around town, for his first big break, he intends to play a mixed set of covers and originals (“so the audience don’t fall asleep!” he laughs) So is he nervous at the prospect of appearing in front of his home-town crowd?

“No, I’m not nervous,” he smiles, with the confidence of youth. “As the time approaches, I will probably get more excited by the prospect but I know that when I get up there on the stage, everything will be okay!”

Eoin McDonagh plays Draiocht Studio on Wednesday 9th April at 8.15pm.

Tickets are a derisory €8.

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