Living With Lucy
Woah, coming into June already. Well, it’s the final day of May, as I sit here on the first Sunday I have had truly ‘off’ in months… I can hear the faint hum of an aeroplane somewhere high in the sky as I sit in my studio looking out the window, where I can see the tall crown of what seems to be an oak tree above. I need to learn my tree species…
I generally teach yoga on Sunday morning, but after a busy week of yoga all the same and teaching three hot vinyasa classes back-to-back yesterday, I felt I deserved a Sunday truly off! I’m glad to be here. Nothing to do, nothing to achieve.
What have I been up to since my last blog post? Gosh, it’s been a long while. My last post was when I released When The Party Left You in the new year! Well, we did the headline show in Workmans Club in March: my first return there since I did my 360 show back in 2024 for WETLANDS. The response was incredible. I think I sold the most tickets I have ever sold and also sold the most merch I have ever sold. Possibly it was the first show, too, where I didn’t go into debt. I just about broke even, I think; that’s if I only consider the costs associated with running the show and the day itself.
It was the first time I think I was truly able to step into that frontman role, and it felt great. It was so visceral and physical. I loved it, and it felt like a newfound discovery for this project, and it’s something I want to explore more if given the opportunity. I hadn’t slept properly for about four days and was jacked up on steroids on account of fighting off a chest infection, so the show didn’t come without its challenges. But considering all of this, it went really well, and the audience was just perfect.
Shortly after that, my keyboard player had to back out of the project because, given his UK location, it was just becoming too difficult for him to commit, which is totally fair. I was very upset to hear this, but shō ga nai, as they say in Japan. It will be a big job to replace him as he is such a talented guy and a very good ear, but I have time yet to begin rehearsing and setting up the new band with our new keyboard player. Hoping to begin rehearsals after summer to begin preparations for my album launch show in Whelan’s upstairs in November! ( more on that later - tickets on sale now! )
Since then, I have just been in yoga mode to be honest. It’s such a difficult thing being a solo indie artist today, trying to make works that stand up against the commercially successful; it costs a lot of money. From the production, manufacture and right up to the marketing costs. For that reason, to fund what will be my third album, Queen of Ashes (18/10/26), I decided I'd, for the last few months, just teach a lot. And what a blessing, because it never feels like work. It takes up most of my time and energy but it’s still a blessing. I love getting to connect with people, in new ways, and Yoga is such a special practice and something I could not live without.
On that note, that’s in many ways where my new single, Living With Lucy was born. I wrote it when I had returned from my yoga teacher training in Rishikesh, India. Rishikesh is a beautiful, spiritually abundant place on the foothills of the Himalayas in Northern India. I’ll never forget that place, and I’m sure I will return there sometime. Living With Lucy was written after a fall-out that had occurred with somebody I thought I was falling in love with, whom I actually met in Rishikesh. The fall-out forced me to recalibrate and really consider what love is, and it brought me back to when I truly felt love, and where love still lingered. It became a tapestry in that regard; it’s not about one single person but multiple.
It’s one of my favourite tracks on the new record because it’s a celebration of everything. It’s a truly joyous and feel-good song, even though behind it there is more than meets the eye; for that sole reason, I love it. It’s one of the most authentic pieces I’ve done; it really just came out of me when I wrote it. It always gave me a summery feeling, so I was delighted it dropped on the week of an Irish/UK heatwave! I really hope those few who may read this can connect with the song and get something from it. Let me know if you do! I'd love to hear.. It features the great Alex Reeves of (ELBOW) and my good pal/old university compadre Ben Janning on bass. They both did such a wonderful job and so did Michael Heffernan, producer, mixing and recording engineer and my studio accomplice. We had so much fun in London tracking this one. Many a laughs were had!
My great friend and wonderful film director Tristan Heanue made a music video to accompany the release that will drop on the 11th of June! The video perfectly encapsulates this joyous and slightly nostalgic energy the song has. I’m so lucky to have these other unbelievably talented people and friends around me; it’s sometimes important to remind myself of that, especially when I get caught up in all the traps and facades of this industry.
And with this release *drum roll please * I finally got to officially let the cat out of the bag and announce what will be my subsequent third LP titled Queen of Ashes, due for release on 18/10/26 and announce the album launch show, which will be in my home city of Dublin, at Whelan’s upstairs venue! Grab tickets here! (13/11/26). I lost sleep last night, tossing and turning in frustration/confusion cause a few online publications had announced Queen of Ashes as my fourth album! That’s when I realised the publicist who issued my press release wrote it was my fourth album…Very frustrating, as it takes two seconds to look at my catalogue and count that it will be my third album, but who is the real schmuck in all of this? ME. I didn’t spot the error when they wrote it initially, and if I’m going to practice what I preach, I also need to practice letting things go more; letting ego and all of that stuff be. Equanimity. Not taking things so seriously and not taking everything personally either. Whether it's my third album or 10th, on that matter, I can't wait to share it with you all!
When The Party Left You
When The Party Left You
I've just released a direct-to-streaming single, a special New Year's Drop. The new song is called When the Party Left You.
It’s Tuesday afternoon here in Dublin, and it’s freezing. Or at least it was the last time I stepped outside. Radiators have been on all morning. It’s been around zero, dipping to minus one; frosty, sparkling roads, frozen cars, the lot. Pretty though, in fairness. That’s about 30 degrees for the Fahrenheit people, I think.
Anyway, it’s my first day off in a while (I’ve been teaching a lot of yoga to pay the bills). I’ve been trying to slow down a bit — finishing off a lot of mixing and producing new material for release this year with my bro Michael Heffernan, then straight back into teaching a tonne of yoga. It’s been pretty hectic. I was off Christmas Day and St. Stephen’s Day, and then it was straight back to sweating in hot yoga rooms, ha!
I’m trying to slow down a bit when I can, you know? Today is certainly one of those slow days… I love slow days. Of course, I’d love an entire week of slowness. But instead of wishing I could have more, I’m trying to fully be in them when they come along. Next week, I’ve got to start rehearsing with the new band for gigs coming up, getting everything ready to properly showcase this big new chapter, so next week things will begin to speed up again.
Anyway, now cosy at home with a large cafetière of brewed black coffee, I decided to finally sit down and write this blog post about the new single.
I’m incredibly proud of how it turned out. It was co-produced and recorded/mixed by my good pal Michael Heffernan, and mastered by Noel Summerville. The song brims with energy, thanks in no small part to the incredible musicians involved, including drummers Alex Reeves of the great British band Elbow, Cian Hanley and Ryan McClelland, who added further percussive layers throughout.
Michael flew over to Dublin to jam out some synth ideas with me later on into production, and we added loads of nice layers, arps, and little notes here and there that lift it all up into that gorgeous, ethereal space using my DX7 FM II and Korg Mini. Towards the end of the process, once all the drums were in and sounding great, we realised it needed a bass guitar to properly ground it. I tracked the bass myself, keeping it simple but with the right driving energy it called out for.
As the song took shape, it slowly became what I’d always imagined: driving, band-led, expansive and atmospheric. When my songs come to fruition, I often hear echoes of the artists that have meant something to me, or colours I’ve drawn from like a painter’s palette, usually arriving by instinct, even by accident sometimes. Here, it felt a little The War on Drugs-esque, married with the raw, restrained dynamics of bands like Talk Talk.
When The Party Left You means a lot to me because I see it almost as a quiet follow-up to my last LP, WETLANDS. That record was, in many ways, a break-up album, and this song arrived as a response to standing in the aftermath of that…perhaps lingering there for too long. It reflects a clearer sense of who I was, who I am now, and who I’m trying to become. While the track takes comfort in the familiar emotional terrain of love and loss, it also urges movement: to rebuild, to stand up, and to be courageous. What began as a call-back slowly became something more complex: a self-study of how my understanding of love has changed, and where I see myself heading next.
I hope you guys enjoy this track!
Regards,
Christian x