Seán Mulrooney's decision to launch a solo career marks a significant and deeply personal turning point in his musical journey. After years of success with Tau & the Drones of Praise and over two decades of rich musical exploration, including 13 years spent in Berlin, the Ireland-based Mulrooney felt a powerful creative pull to step away and craft something distinctly his own, and the result is the psych-folk masterpiece debut 'This Is My Prayer.'
This shift began to materialize with the release of "No Two Sides" in December 2023, a poignant song addressing the genocide of the Palestinian people. The track resonated widely, reaching No. 7 on the iTunes charts, and became a major catalyst for Mulrooney's new direction.
In 2023, not only did Mulrooney embark on this solo-project, but he also founded a new record label, Ómós Records. The label's first offering will also be Mulrooney's first LP under his own name. 'This Is My Prayer' is set for release on February 14th.
"The creation of this album was deeply influenced by a period of solitude following a breakup," Mulrooney explains. "I retreated to a cabin in Wicklow in January 2024, where I could channel this grief into music." It worked. Six songs were crafted in February. Describing the tone of the album, Mulrooney speaks of "Love as a supernova that removes all shackles, that sweet spot between you and I, sorrow and joy." Intensely personal and broadly resonant, blending darkness with moments of profound beauty, 'This Is My Prayer' sees Mulrooney's songwriting exploring new paths with an intimacy of purpose drawn out amid a cosmic expanse. It is decisively and definitively his.
Musically, the album is dense, authentic, and rooted in Irish folk elements, while also incorporating worldly (and otherworldly) influences. It's been compared to Michael Gira's Angels of Light, suggesting a blend of the spiritual and the raw. The album reflects Mulrooney's reconnection with his Irish roots after returning from Berlin in 2019, a move that reawakened his sense of belonging and fuelled his creative evolution.
Themes on the album range from heartache and self-love, reclaiming personal power, men's work, with one track even featuring a story about how dolphins get high on a psychoactive compound called tetrodotoxin found in -- wait for it -- pufferfish excretion. While this new sound diverges from the psych-folk traditions of Tau, it still draws from the deep well of inspiration that has always characterized Mulrooney's work.
Self-produced and recorded at la Briche audio in France with long term collaborator Earl Harvin of Tindersticks on drums and co production, 'This Is My Prayer' is a powerful manifestation of Mulrooney's artistic growth, continuing to deliver music that is 100 percent spiritually charged and straight from the heart.
A project conceived in early 2024, album delivered in early 2025. As Mulrooney says, "If not now, when?"