Brendan Monaghan is an Irish singer songwriter who is based in Bangor, Co.Down.

He grew up in a home where there was always music around. His mother singing or the radio blasting out the popular songs of that particular time.

This music that has influenced him in his musical career was Irish, country and pop songs. Members of his family in Donegal where his late mother was from were very musical. At school he was happier writing stories, poems and singing in the school choir than working out mathmatical calculations.

At an early age Monaghan started putting his poems to melodies he had in his head. Then when he started to learn to play the guitar this made the writing experience a little easier. His teenage years saw him playing in new wave type bands, always wanting to perform his own original material.

In the early 90‘s Monaghan formed a band called the Cattle Company. This outfit performed alternative country roots music. The band was relatively successful with many television and radio broadcasts plus tours both at home and overseas including America and Europe where they won a couple of music awards for all their efforts.

The band released three albums with mainly all Monaghan‘s material on Loose Records. The albums “hero

„, “love to be

loved“ and “big town after dark“ received very healthy radio airplay especially in Europe. With the ups and downs of running and looking after a five piece band Monaghan decided to break the band up feeling that the Cattle Company had probably run its course.

He wanted to put things on hold and refresh his sense of musical direction thus came the beginning of his solo career.After being in a band for so long Monaghan found it a little strange at first when he started playing his first solo shows.It was either just himself solo or with Niall McClean on fiddle and tin whistle, he had already worked with McClean in the Cattle Company for a few years.

With this new found kind of artistic freedom getting away from the hassles of running and playing in a band plus working with several other musicians, the singer songwriter started work on his first solo album which was to be called “precious time“. The year was 2003 and the recording started in the early part of that year with the much praised and much sought after

engineer, producer, writer and music arranger Michael Keeney from Co.Donegal. The sessions were recorded at Keeney‘s private studio which he called the “Igloo“ just outside Belfast. The album had a more Irish traditional acoustic feel to it, the songs with the Monaghan full of mixed emotions running through them, “heart on his sleeve“, which can be heard on the tracks “if there are roses“, “sister‘s lament“ and “will I see you again?“. Guitarist Richard Murray like McClean had previously worked with Monaghan in the past now assisted with occasional writing and guitar in the studio.

The album was released on Roxon Records, a Dutch label.

Now with his solo career fully up and running Monaghan was out and about promoting the new album and received very enthusiastic reviews and radio airplay. Belfast singer songwriter and journalist David Ballantine wrote:

“Brendan Monaghan is one of Ireland‘s great unsung songsmiths who writes straight from the heart. He has such a strong body of material that you sometimes forget how wonderfully varied his work is, and how he can hit the spot emotionally in so many different ways.

He is also a performer of electrifying energy and enthusiasm, a troubadour undiminished by the rigors of is art, sparkling like a diamond every time he throws a guitar strap round his neck“.

The next album “no more words“ also released on Roxon Records was also recorded at the “Igloo“ by Michael Keeney.

Monaghan by now going through a marriage break-up found a release via his music. This period of the writers career and life was highly charged with emotion, hurt and the „not knowing what tomorrow will bring“ feeling. This is very evident on several of the tracks for example

“suffer for you“, “I‘m not the one“ and “faith, love and hope“ plus the two songs which were also released as a single and video, “Caledonian girl“ and “the road to Ballintra“, this song was dedicated to his late mother.

Monaghan continued to perform both at home and abroad and he shared the same bill as many major Irish and international artists.

In 2008 Brendan Monaghan signed to the well respected and long running international independent record label Swiss based Brambus Records. He also returned to working with Gary Aiken at Novatech studios just outside Belfast whom he had previously worked with very early in his musical career. Novatech are one of the top recording studios in Ireland. The next batch of songs when recorded and put together with the title “look no further“ was released it was late 2008. The album featured some of Monaghan‘s well known live songs “Katie shines“,

“I will never be alone“, “deep dark Rosaleen“ and the single “love me“ which received a fair amount of radio success along with a very clever and fun video. Backing vocals for the last two Cattle Company albums and the first three solo albums was provided by Ciaran Gribbin aka Joe Echo.

In that same year of 2008 Monaghan performed shows in New York and all over Europe and the regular gigs in Ireland as well as England and Scotland.

Monaghan being a singer songwriter who is not at ease with too many labels attached to his music, when asked says his music is contemporary roots. Others have labelled his material Celtic pop.

The next album release on Brambus Records was in 2010 and was titled “flicker of hope“ once again recorded at Novatech studios. The title track features beautiful haunting uilleann pipes performed by Declan Plummer. “Alleluia morning“ a track written for Easter Sunday and like several other of Monaghan‘s songs there is a strong spiritual feel running through. “39 days“ a song written for a friend struggling with the problems of

alcohol and “miss those days“ dealing with the writer‘s childhood hopes and dreams. The album “flicker of hope“ like its predecessors received rave reviews along with the very substantial radio airplay.Irish journalist and broadcaster John O‘Regan wrote recently “Brendan Monaghan‘s music evokes the best elements of classic folk rock, singer songwriter artistry and Irish folk sensibilities in an attractive listenable package“ Monaghan is currently working on material for his fifth solo album due for release late 2012.

This summer sees the release of an EP featuring the first cover the singer songwriter has ever recorded. It is his version of an old song that he heard his mother singing when he was a child “I love how you love me“ plus a new song “leaving Portaferry“ and three previously released tracks.

www.brendanmonaghan.com