With an adventurous spirit and a passion for charting the road less travelled, Beoga have shown that Irish traditional music can take fresh new directions. Constantly evolving, the quintet have proved that new audiences are eager to embrace the genre’s life-affirming energy.
That world-facing potential was proven by the popularity of their collaborations with Ed Sheeran on his all-conquering ‘÷’ album. Those two songs - ‘Galway Girl’ and ‘Nancy Mulligan’ - have been streamed over a billion times on Spotify alone. Their creative connection continued with some huge outdoor shows, including an unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime moment when they joined Ed during his headline set at Glastonbury.
Emboldened by the experience, Beoga focused on creating attention-grabbing hooks rather than exploratory instrumentals. As accordionist Damian McKee notes, “We were making music like we’d never done before. It was like starting again from scratch.”
“Irish music can sometimes be complicated for complicated’s sake,” adds bodhrán player Eamon Murray. “We had to step back, make it more direct and get to the point quicker.”
Key to that new approach was identifying the collaborators who could help Beoga continue to explore fresh territory. They called on some old friends (the Grammy-nominated producer Jonny Coffer, Irish artists Foy Vance and Ryan McMullan, plus regular touring partner Niall McCabe) alongside some fresh creatives in the shape of Lissie and Devin Dawson. Beoga put together a wealth of new material during sessions at Foy Vance’s studio in the Highlands, at multi-instrumentalist Seán Óg Graham’s home studio in County Antrim and at Angelic Studio in Northamptonshire.
The result is Beoga’s forthcoming mini album ‘Carousel’, which will be previewed by the brand new single ‘In A Rocket’. Featuring vocals from Lissie and a topline written by James Bay, it blends Beoga’s Irish-fuelled rhythms with Lissie’s Midwestern folk-pop as it looks ahead to better times to come. “Spent too long in this lonely room,” Lissie emotes, “Kicked out the locks, going to run with you / Sun’s waiting on the other side.”
“It’s taken on a different meaning now,” says Murray. “Now more than ever, looking forward to getting out of here and escaping your own head is very important.”
‘In A Rocket’ is the third taster to be taken from ‘Carousel’ following ‘Matthew’s Daughter’ and ‘Make A Mark’. Uniting the worlds of American and Irish contemporary folk, the former features lyrics written by Ed Sheeran about his wife Cherry and is already Beoga’s second most streamed track at Spotify. Meanwhile, ‘Make A Mark’ shows their growing flair for embracing elements of pop production into their sound.
“We’ve been skirting around with sequencers and programming for the past few years and then teaming up with Jonny’s pop wizardry,” explains Murray. “It’s a healthy progression for us because we were starting to run out of road making acoustic instrumental music together. If it’s done sensitively you can marry the two worlds, but it’s a delicate balancing act between being Clannad or Bewitched. People can feel if your intentions are right.”
‘Aurora II’ is the best example of those two worlds colliding. Based upon a regular staple of Beoga’s live set, it was reconstructed and infused with dynamic electronic elements by Jonny Coffer. He also contributed to ‘We’re Blood’, a multi-layered mix of organic live instrumentation, Foy Vance’s haunting vocals and an explosive drop inspired by EDM. And yet Beoga also excel when stripping things back to their roots. It's a trait that's particularly evident in the songcraft and jazz leanings of closing track ‘Homebird’.
“There’s a certain thread running throughout the mini-album,” summarises Murray. “There’s a draw to the places that you’re from, your family and the things that we care about. It’s not in any way political, but we’re all in agreement over the stuff that’s important: friends and home.”
The mini-album is completed by ‘Carousel’, which also proved to be a fitting choice of title track. In recent years, Beoga have navigated the murky waters of the music industry, signing and then escaping two recording contracts before teaming up with AWAL. “'Carousel' felt like the right thing to call it,” smiles Murray. “With everything we’ve done to get to this point, it felt apt.”
‘Carousel’ adds a new chapter to a story that goes back almost two decades. The band were formed when Eamon Murray met future bandmate Séan Óg Graham through childhood classes at the Irish music institute Comhaltas. Graham played the accordian, later with tuition from Damian McKee, and also took up the guitar in his mid-teens. Soon enough, Murray, Graham and McKee connected with pianist Liam Bradley, who had been inspired to play tin whistle and then the piano through a background in Irish dancing.
The quartet toured Ireland, performing at dancing competitions and fleadhs. “I was usually only there for the drink,” laughs Bradley. “But when the four of us got together at one of these fleadhs in 2002, that’s when we decided to start the band.”
It was a good opportunity to travel and have fun, but it was clear that something special was emerging. Before joining the band on fiddle and vocals, Niamh Dunne was already a fan. “Their first album [2004’s ‘A Lovely Madness’] was its own thing,” she remembers. “They weren’t trying to be like other bands that were around. They were breaking new territory and it was exciting.”
In the years that followed, Beoga toured the world, released several albums and experienced things they’d never dreamed of doing, such as performing at BBC’s Proms in the Park. The Wall Street Journal even heralded them as, “‘The most exciting new traditional band to emerge from Ireland this century.” At times, says Graham, their leftfield take on the sound didn’t fit the biggest Irish-American festivals, yet the connection with Ed Sheeran ultimately helped to make their singular style not only viable but rewarding.
Now they’re poised to take that talent to a whole new audience. In the time they’ve been away, they’ve not only delivered ‘Carousel’ but they also have the bones of another two or three albums’ worth of material. As Murray concludes, “It felt at times like we were knocking our heads against the wall, but looking back at it now we realise we are being more creative than we’ve ever been. We know our strengths and that’s a fortunate position to be in.”