Advanced Utopia, 'Black & White'
Info: Soundwaves is a pop-up summer course in Letterkenny, bringing young talent together to explore musical boundaries and develop the skills needed for a 21st century musician. Over the past 2 weeks our young people have formed 5 bands, written, recorded, filmed and promoted their songs themselves using DIY/accessible technology, and with a bit of help of industry professionals from Wall2Wall Music, such as producer Rocky O'Reilly, Cheylene Murphy from Wonder Villains, songwriter Sarah Cullen and video producer Jeremy Fitzhoward.
One of the acts to emerge from the current Soundwaves course are Advanced Utopia, a six-piece alternative indie-pop group made up of Feargus Murphy, Kyle Macaulay, Keith Watson, Jennifer Kilcoyne, Oisín Ó Raifeartaigh and Aisling Ní Fhionnáin. I was genuinely impressed with both their video and song for the single, 'Black & White', especially given the short timeframes involved in putting it together. Ní Fionnáin's vocals at the beginning of the song bring to mind Nico's Chelsea Girl before she slides into more modern tones. Equally impressive is the nice solo on electric guitar courtesy of Ó Raifeartaigh. The track is also brimming with creativity as Jennifer Kilcoyne on violin, Macaulay on acoustic guitar duties and digital sound effects via Keith Watson throw up interesting atmospherics to compliment the overall drive of 'Black & White'.
Kudos to the team at Soundwaves for providing a platform for such talented young musicians and also providing invaluable experience with regard to putting themselves out there in the bold new digital age as budding musicians. It's not a case of hopefully, but more definitely, that we shall come across Advanced Utopia in some form or other in the future, go n-éirí leo! They'd really appreciate a Like or a Follow on Facebook and Twitter as well if you can show them some social media love.
