€24.99
JANUARY 27, 2022
THE BUTTON FACTORY
Strange Boy
Strange Boy is a 1000-year-old poet channeling through the body of a young man from Limerick. With hard-hitting, thought-provoking lyrics, Strange Boy’s mastery of flow renders him one of the most important rappers of our time. Strange Boy combines hip-hop and Irish traditional music, the old and new cultural influences dominant in this country. After performing at Make a Move festival in Limerick, Strange Boy (FKA Jonen Dekay) began working with Rusangano Family and Deviant/Naive Ted on his debut mixtape: Passionate Example. Since then, he has worked with Px Music and artists such as Hazey Haze, Citrus Fresh, Naive Ted and was featured on delush’s single ‘It’s Alright’. Singled out by Blindboy of the Rubberbandits as having the “best song to ever come out of Limerick” and named a “national treasure” by District Magazine, Strange Boy is an artist for the new generation in Ireland. Strange Boy’s debut album Holy / Unholy was ranked in the top 6 Irish albums of the year by both Nialler9 and District Magazine. Strange Boy will play support to the Hot House Flowers on their 2022 Ireland in Music tour in the United States.
Enda Gallery
Enda Gallery offers up his truest realisations and experiences in his songs using any and all musical colours to do so. Enda Gallery released his debut album ‘The Journey to Zero’ in 2021. It was named RTÉ ‘Album of Week’ with the ballad ‘Don’t Let Me Win’ winning favour from Cerys Matthews on BBC6 and his follow up ‘It’s Alright’ featuring on the ‘BBC Introducing mixtape’ and the break-out series ‘Normal People’. His history of producing and enabling unconventional artists such as Tolü Makay, Strange Boy and Kid Simius across many genres has gifted him the capability to create from the soul and mix and combine genres as a chemist mixes elements. For 8 years Enda Gallery lived and performed in Berlin, a city which is itself a character within his songs and has inspired feelings of challenge and liberation in all of its forms. Now based in County Clare, he most recently released his surprise collaboration with the two-time Grammy-nominated producer duo Christian Rich called ‘So Easy, Pt. II’
Shane Davis
Shane “Dyrt” Davis is an Irish actor, spoken word artist and rapper from Limerick City. He has performed around the country as well as internationally along with a performance for President Michael D Higgins. As of July 10th, 2021, he is working on a joint musical project with Irish speaking Belfast rap trio Kneecap along with appearing in multiple short films and documentaries expected to be released in 2021. In 2020 he wrote and starred in his own short film “imbas Forosnai” which was partly funded in accordance with the Limerick Arts Council and Culture Ireland. As part of Irelands edge 2020 he performed a 13-minute spoken word titled “An File” telling the story of Ogma the god of Irish poetry.
Branwen
Branwen is a musician and performance artist who was raised on a diet of salty sea air and sideways rain in the West of Ireland. Her work is inspired by mythology and folklore from home and around the world. Her live show involves storytelling, puppetry an array of unmusical objects employed as instruments, as well as actual instruments including loop pedals, banjo, and guitar.
Aindreas DeStaic
Aindrias Stack is an Irish storyteller & fiddle player who uses rhythm, and a natural dramatic delivery in his work. He performs in both Irish and English. Aindrias Stack is best known for his award-winning one man shows Around the World on 80 Quid, The Year I Got Younger, The Summer I Did the Leaving and The Man From Moogaga.
Meg LaGrande
Fiddle player, singer, and songwriter Meg LaGrande harnesses and remixes the power of Irish tradition, its earthy stories and ethereal strains. She uses loop pedals and age-old musicianship to summon Ireland’s wild storms and bittersweet tenderness, having honed her craft criss-crossing continents playing for the National Dance Company of Ireland and entrancing crowds on the streets of Dublin.
The sought-after session player has now gone solo. Her debut single, “With The Dawn,” is a breathy, exuberant tribute to a night spent playing music in the sands after the Willy Clancy festival near the picturesque town of Lahinch, where La Grande now lives. Produced by Alex Ryan, the bassist and musical director for Hozier, “With The Dawn” channels the bittersweet evanescence at the heart of many an Irish song. The track is a treat for both rootsy indie fans (think Aurora and Mumford & Sons) and Celtic music lovers (think Lorenna McKennitt and Clannad).
Captured in its accompanying video directed by Roisin El Cherif (Vikings, Fantastic Beasts, Game of Thrones), It’s also a love song to one of Ireland’s cultural hearths, the coast with its North Atlantic gales, its crystalline waters, its imposing cliffs.
LaGrande channels them all in the curling reels of her fiddle and the airy urgings of her voice. “There is such profound beauty here,” she reflects. “This part of the world evokes storytelling. It begs you to live in the moment, aware that time moves on.”