Cathal Fitz | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome everybody to Matt Connorton Unleashed, and we are live

0:03 Speaker 1: from the studios of wm NH ninety five point three

0:07 Speaker 1: FM and Glorious Manchester, New Ympshire. Of course, you can

0:09 Speaker 1: stream the show live from anywhere. Go to Matt connorton

0:13 Speaker 1: dot com slash live for all your streaming options, social

0:16 Speaker 1: media links, contact info, show archives, et cetera, et cetera.

0:19 Speaker 1: If you are listening to the show live, today is Saturday,

0:22 Speaker 1: January twenty four, twenty twenty six. We have an exciting

0:25 Speaker 1: show for you today. In a few minutes, we're gonna

0:27 Speaker 1: hear some world radio premieres. We get a bunch of

0:29 Speaker 1: new music to share with you. But the track we

0:32 Speaker 1: just heard that is called Pushing thirty. To open up

0:35 Speaker 1: this week's show, the artist is and I'm gonna bring

0:38 Speaker 1: him in a moment. I'm gonna as him if I'm

0:39 Speaker 1: saying his name correctly, because it's not a name I'm

0:42 Speaker 1: used to saying. Ca hal Fits, I don't. I don't

0:44 Speaker 1: know if I'm saying that right. Let's go ahead and

0:46 Speaker 1: bring him in though he's joining us via Microsoft Teams.

0:48 Speaker 2: Hello are you there?

0:51 Speaker 3: I'm there, my friend, har are you you did a

0:53 Speaker 3: very very good stob of my name.

0:54 Speaker 4: I must say, I'm very very impressed.

0:57 Speaker 2: Well, I had to look it up.

0:58 Speaker 4: You know.

0:58 Speaker 2: It's amazing.

0:59 Speaker 1: You can go on YouTube and just type in how

1:01 Speaker 1: to pronounce, and just put in whatever name you're looking for,

1:03 Speaker 1: and someone's inevitably posted a video explaining that.

1:06 Speaker 2: But you know, and I should know, I am.

1:08 Speaker 1: Of Irish descent myself, so I should have had I

1:11 Speaker 1: should have had a clue, but I really didn't until

1:14 Speaker 1: I actually looked it up.

1:16 Speaker 4: Do you have any idea where your Irish descendants come from?

1:19 Speaker 1: I do not.

1:19 Speaker 2: I do not. I need to research that. I haven't.

1:23 Speaker 1: I just know that I've got some Irish in me,

1:27 Speaker 1: not only because my you know, my dad was of

1:29 Speaker 1: Irish descent, but also if I go out into the

1:32 Speaker 1: sun in the summer without sunscreen, I burn immediately. So

1:34 Speaker 1: I'm definitely I'm definitely Irish.

1:37 Speaker 3: You become one of those red and white sweets that

1:39 Speaker 3: we have over here. You red. Yeah, we're very close.

1:43 Speaker 3: That's the tell tale sign that you've Irished genetics. That

1:46 Speaker 3: you don't do the sun very well. And we also

1:48 Speaker 3: don't do the rain very well. It always rains here

1:50 Speaker 3: and no one ever has any proper rain gear, so

1:52 Speaker 3: we're just kind of stuck in this middle of people

1:54 Speaker 3: wearing shorts in December.

1:56 Speaker 4: And so yeah, it's good fun though. It's a lovely

1:59 Speaker 4: place that's interesting.

2:00 Speaker 2: Yeah.

2:01 Speaker 1: Yeah, So I love the song Pushing thirty, although as

2:05 Speaker 1: someone who pushed thirty quite a while ago, it makes

2:08 Speaker 1: me feel a little well, we'll talk about that, but

2:11 Speaker 1: it is a great song.

2:12 Speaker 2: Can you tell us about it.

2:13 Speaker 1: I know that this came out in November, but you're

2:15 Speaker 1: getting a lot of traction with this single.

2:18 Speaker 3: Yeah, Like it's doing well, and I suppose a lot

2:20 Speaker 3: of my songs in general, like I started writing music

2:23 Speaker 3: in July twenty twenty four. I used to be a

2:25 Speaker 3: personal trainer. I left that job to start writing music.

2:29 Speaker 3: I just had some sort of away thing where I

2:31 Speaker 3: was like, this is what I want to do. And

2:33 Speaker 3: most of my songs, and especially Pushing thirty was a

2:35 Speaker 3: reflection of people around me and also myself that I

2:40 Speaker 3: think because of everything the way the world has gone,

2:43 Speaker 3: that I think people in their late twenties and early

2:46 Speaker 3: like they still feel like teenagers, you know, and we're

2:49 Speaker 3: still kind of stuck in these routes that a lot

2:50 Speaker 3: of us in Ireland can't get houses.

2:52 Speaker 4: We can't, you know, like everything's.

2:54 Speaker 3: Expensive, and I think you can if you're living without purpose,

2:56 Speaker 3: you can get caught in that rut of you know,

2:58 Speaker 3: let's go out and number selves the weekend and let's

3:01 Speaker 3: adhere to social peer pressure of you know, the latest

3:04 Speaker 3: trendy close or the latest exposed, and you just get.

3:08 Speaker 4: Stuck in the row.

3:08 Speaker 3: And I suppose I saw that in myself, and I

3:11 Speaker 3: saw that in people around me. And I'm very lucky

3:13 Speaker 3: that since I started doing this that I have the

3:15 Speaker 3: most amazing support network of producers and managers and everything

3:20 Speaker 3: that it's.

3:20 Speaker 4: All kind of falling into place.

3:21 Speaker 3: But yeah, it's a special song and it took me

3:24 Speaker 3: four or five minutes to write and it's having good impact,

3:26 Speaker 3: which is what I want from my music, just for

3:29 Speaker 3: someone to listen to it and no matter how old

3:31 Speaker 3: they after pushing sixty, you or pushing thirty, say, I

3:33 Speaker 3: like that. It feels familiar and it feels relatable.

3:37 Speaker 2: Just for the record, I'm not pushing sixty.

3:39 Speaker 1: That's not what I meant, just to clarify, no, But

3:45 Speaker 1: so I'm curious, like, was there a specific moment that

3:47 Speaker 1: kind of sparked the song, or was this something that

3:51 Speaker 1: was kind of building up in you over time, or

3:53 Speaker 1: because it sounds like it sounds like you haven't been

3:57 Speaker 1: necessarily actively pursuing music for very long, or maybe you have,

4:03 Speaker 1: but from what you said, it kind of sounded like

4:05 Speaker 1: or at least on this level, this is kind of new.

4:08 Speaker 3: No, It's like, like July twenty twenty four, I quit

4:13 Speaker 3: my job to do pub covers, like literally just playing

4:15 Speaker 3: a few covers in a few wo in a few pubs,

4:18 Speaker 3: you know. And then last January, my missus was saying

4:21 Speaker 3: to me, She's like, you know, you're too good and

4:23 Speaker 3: too talented to be a pub singer, so you need

4:25 Speaker 3: to push yourself. So I released my first song last January,

4:28 Speaker 3: and since then, I've like I've wrote, I've written fourteen

4:32 Speaker 3: songs or something. In the last two three weeks, I've

4:34 Speaker 3: another twenty twenty five recorded, and it's just flowing out

4:38 Speaker 3: of me. And I just cannot tell you how much

4:41 Speaker 3: I love it, Like I just I've never again I

4:44 Speaker 3: picked up a guitar like again a year and a

4:45 Speaker 3: half ago, having not played it. I used to strumgle

4:47 Speaker 3: my bedroom at home four or five chords. But I've

4:50 Speaker 3: just found something that for the first time in my life,

4:52 Speaker 3: I've haven't given up on. Yeah, and like you know,

4:55 Speaker 3: I've bounced around loads of different jobs. I'm kind of

4:58 Speaker 3: like that typical Australian man with a hyvas jacket. You'd

5:01 Speaker 3: think of doing anything that used to be me, you

5:02 Speaker 3: know really, but I found I found music and that

5:06 Speaker 3: song in particular is almost just a flow consciousness. I

5:08 Speaker 3: sit down with the guitar five time minutes later the

5:10 Speaker 3: song written.

5:12 Speaker 4: It's not like that all the time.

5:13 Speaker 3: Like I've got a few weeks where you know, you

5:15 Speaker 3: just you don't have anything to say. But I found

5:18 Speaker 3: that I've channeled music into the craziness in my head

5:21 Speaker 3: and the thoughts I have. It gives me a platform

5:24 Speaker 3: to allow me to say what I need to say

5:26 Speaker 3: to myself and maybe to the world. And if someone

5:28 Speaker 3: gets something from it, then that's a bonus too.

5:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fantastic. You mentioned too. You know.

5:32 Speaker 1: The miss is it's great that you have a supportive

5:34 Speaker 1: partner who encourages you to do that, because that that

5:36 Speaker 1: makes a huge difference, you know obviously. I mean, and

5:40 Speaker 1: I'm sure you don't take that for granted because that's

5:43 Speaker 1: I'm sure you know, she's very proud of you.

5:45 Speaker 3: No, she's she's incredible. She's actually inside now minding the

5:48 Speaker 3: small fellow with my mum. So shout out to my

5:50 Speaker 3: mum as well. So I looked away for ten minutes

5:51 Speaker 3: from parenting Judies to.

5:54 Speaker 4: Take my world famous rocks.

5:55 Speaker 3: There prem here of pushing thirty, you know, but no, look,

5:58 Speaker 3: it's almost like it's all meant to happen.

6:00 Speaker 4: That, you know, my partner.

6:02 Speaker 3: My parents are very supportive, and my dad was that

6:04 Speaker 3: typical kind of Irish dad where you know, you get

6:07 Speaker 3: a job now and you stay here and you you

6:09 Speaker 3: have security. And when I told him I was going

6:11 Speaker 3: to be a musician, he was a bit like Aaron Jesus,

6:13 Speaker 3: I don't know about that. No, that's that's not very

6:16 Speaker 3: secure as this, but he kind of sees that it's

6:18 Speaker 3: you know, it's it's going somewhere like I'm talking to

6:20 Speaker 3: a radio station in the US and he's kind of like,

6:22 Speaker 3: jee's fair play.

6:23 Speaker 4: Tore that's brilliant.

6:24 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's cool, it's cool, and yeah it's supportive people.

6:28 Speaker 3: My producer like, I've met all these people very organically

6:30 Speaker 3: in the last year and a half a producer, videographer, manager,

6:33 Speaker 3: and they're almost like the perfect team for me to

6:35 Speaker 3: be around.

6:35 Speaker 4: So I know I'm meant to be doing this and

6:38 Speaker 4: based on just keep around me.

6:39 Speaker 2: Oh, that's fantastic.

6:42 Speaker 1: Do you feel any kind of you know, because I

6:44 Speaker 1: know there's sort of this Irish storytelling tradition and music.

6:47 Speaker 1: I mean, is that something that you're you're conscious of

6:50 Speaker 1: and your your approach to because you as you mentioned,

6:53 Speaker 1: you're you know, you're writing a lot of songs.

6:55 Speaker 3: Yeah, So like I think I actually went back to

7:00 Speaker 3: native languages, guelgap, so it's I went back to study

7:03 Speaker 3: that about two years ago, so I'm kind of learning that.

7:06 Speaker 3: And the Irishness is a very very particular character.

7:12 Speaker 4: We love to tell stories.

7:14 Speaker 3: If you asked us for directions, right, the shot could

7:16 Speaker 3: be up on the right. We'll tell you on the

7:18 Speaker 3: way to the shop about that tree that's been there

7:20 Speaker 3: for ten thousand years and that was once you know,

7:22 Speaker 3: And that's kind of part of our charm and part

7:24 Speaker 3: of our imprint on the world. And what we have

7:27 Speaker 3: to offer is is kind of this unique way of

7:29 Speaker 3: looking at things. And I think as my songs progress

7:32 Speaker 3: in terms of my songwriting, the last few songs have

7:34 Speaker 3: written are a bit more metaphorical, a bit more imagery based,

7:36 Speaker 3: a bit more trying to tell a story. And I'm

7:40 Speaker 3: trying to channel into that. I'm trying to lean into that.

7:42 Speaker 3: Like we're called the Lands of Saints and Scholars. You know,

7:45 Speaker 3: we've some of the most amazing English writers ever, you know,

7:50 Speaker 3: James Joyce and Seamus Heaney, all these amazing poets and

7:54 Speaker 3: scholars that have gone before me. And I feel like

7:56 Speaker 3: I have almost values uphols. You know, I'm very proud

8:01 Speaker 3: to be Irish. A lot of people will know that

8:02 Speaker 3: about me. You know, I learned this, I learned the language,

8:04 Speaker 3: and I love where I'm from. In particular, Cork is

8:07 Speaker 3: where I'm from, and everyone from Cork loves being from Cork.

8:11 Speaker 3: That's just kind of you know, we have very special

8:13 Speaker 3: connection to the land. We have a very special connection

8:15 Speaker 3: to storytelling. And you know, over the last few hundred years,

8:19 Speaker 3: we weren't allowed to speak our language because of things

8:21 Speaker 3: that had gone on, and we had a very unique

8:22 Speaker 3: way of preserving that, which was keeping the you know,

8:26 Speaker 3: the spoken word alive and exaggerating stories to try and

8:30 Speaker 3: make it seem magical, you know, and that's kind of

8:33 Speaker 3: even what I'm doing now, the gift of the gap,

8:34 Speaker 3: you know.

8:35 Speaker 2: Right right exactly.

8:37 Speaker 1: And so so this track Pushing thirty that we played

8:40 Speaker 1: that came out in November, and then you've got another

8:42 Speaker 1: single which we're going to play at the end of

8:44 Speaker 1: our conversation called Enemy of Love, which is also a

8:47 Speaker 1: great song. But I'm curious, now, what what are kind

8:50 Speaker 1: of your plans in terms of releasing music are you

8:53 Speaker 1: Are you going to do continue to do singles, do

8:55 Speaker 1: you have an EP in mind or an album or

8:57 Speaker 1: what's what's kind of the forward trajectory for you?

9:00 Speaker 3: See, I'm kind of stuck in a bit of a

9:02 Speaker 3: crossroads at the moment because the way music is in

9:06 Speaker 3: the industry is you know yourself that it's very dependent

9:09 Speaker 3: on algorithms and dependent on a single getting picked up.

9:12 Speaker 3: So I have loads of songs ready to go and written.

9:15 Speaker 3: My next song is coming out hopefully in the next

9:17 Speaker 3: four or five weeks. Will have to submit it to

9:20 Speaker 3: Spotify and do all those bits.

9:21 Speaker 4: But I'm also I wrote, as.

9:24 Speaker 3: I said, maybe twelve eleven, thirteen, fourteen songs, which I'm

9:27 Speaker 3: not exactly sure which ones are going to make it

9:29 Speaker 3: to production. But I wrote a good chunk of those

9:31 Speaker 3: in the last kind of three weeks, and I think

9:34 Speaker 3: I have a kind of calling in me to I

9:37 Speaker 3: have two studio dates booked in February, and I want

9:39 Speaker 3: to record them live, completely live, Yeah, because I think

9:43 Speaker 3: the way AI is going at the moment in synthetic music,

9:46 Speaker 3: I think people are crying out for that authenticity and

9:49 Speaker 3: that wrongness, and even if a chord gets wrong when

9:52 Speaker 3: you're recording it, it's almost like magic now. Imperfection is

9:55 Speaker 3: almost perfection now. So I'm kind of leaning towards getting

9:59 Speaker 3: those A songs recorded. I feel the very strong we'd

10:02 Speaker 3: record them live, and I may go against the arms

10:05 Speaker 3: and just push it as an album, because I think

10:07 Speaker 3: that's the music should be. If you're releasing single by single,

10:10 Speaker 3: the story of what music is supposed to be gets lost,

10:13 Speaker 3: Whereas if you have eight songs together, there's a whole narrative.

10:16 Speaker 3: There's a whole world to get engrossed in and feed

10:18 Speaker 3: into for eight songs.

10:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, That's something that comes up a lot on the show,

10:22 Speaker 1: because you know, everyone kind of approaches it differently, and

10:25 Speaker 1: there's so many different you know, I'm old enough to

10:27 Speaker 1: remember when I was growing up, it was, you know,

10:29 Speaker 1: an artist would release an album. Well, actually, first single

10:32 Speaker 1: would go to radio six to eight weeks before the

10:34 Speaker 1: album came out. Then the album comes out, and then

10:36 Speaker 1: if all goes according to plan, you know, maybe there's

10:39 Speaker 1: a second single. If things go really well, there's a third,

10:41 Speaker 1: et cetera. But that was kind of the set way

10:42 Speaker 1: of doing it. Now there's so many different ways to

10:45 Speaker 1: release music. You can, you know, you can release singles,

10:47 Speaker 1: you can do an EP, you can do an album,

10:49 Speaker 1: you can do a series of singles that eventually coalesce

10:51 Speaker 1: into an EP or an album, kind of.

10:53 Speaker 2: The inverse of what it used to be.

10:56 Speaker 1: And but but it's so interesting, And then that's why

11:00 Speaker 1: ask those questions, because I'm always really curious, you know,

11:02 Speaker 1: what everyone I talked to, what their thought process is

11:06 Speaker 1: in terms of how they approach releasing music, because there

11:09 Speaker 1: are so many ways to do it now. Yeah, the

11:13 Speaker 1: other thing that oh yeah, go ahead.

11:16 Speaker 3: No, Like I think for me with that, and you're

11:17 Speaker 3: very it's very interesting as well. I look at everyone

11:21 Speaker 3: else as of an artist, and I see what they're doing.

11:23 Speaker 3: And for me, I've had plenty conversations with my manager

11:26 Speaker 3: and I think I've decided, not in a very hippy,

11:28 Speaker 3: nonchalant way, but the right thing will will provide itself

11:33 Speaker 3: when when the right moment arrives. So if an album

11:35 Speaker 3: feels right, I'll do that. And I think the way

11:38 Speaker 3: my songs are written and the message and the meaning

11:40 Speaker 3: for me about my music is, you know, I wasn't

11:44 Speaker 3: supposed to be doing this, or maybe I was, and

11:46 Speaker 3: I don't really know where I am, and I'm just

11:47 Speaker 3: releasing music and having fun. And if it means doing singles, great,

11:51 Speaker 3: If it means to an album, I just think the

11:52 Speaker 3: right thing will come along. But for me, like the

11:55 Speaker 3: first album I ever listened to was an Irish artist

11:58 Speaker 3: called Damien Rice, and the album is Oh, and it

12:01 Speaker 3: was the most it's it's it's still a masterpiece.

12:04 Speaker 4: And when I think of.

12:05 Speaker 3: Releasing music, that's the standard I want to hold myself to.

12:08 Speaker 3: I want someone to listen to a full album and think, well,

12:11 Speaker 3: there's so much in that, there's so much to take

12:13 Speaker 3: on that you have to keep listening to it, and

12:15 Speaker 3: then you find your favorite song and then you say, oh,

12:17 Speaker 3: I love coming up to this part because it's three

12:18 Speaker 3: songs here which are really strong, and yeah, it's just

12:21 Speaker 3: a it's a whole, it's a whole other universe of

12:24 Speaker 3: looking at music.

12:25 Speaker 2: You know, is he your biggest influence? Would you say

12:27 Speaker 2: Damien Rice?

12:28 Speaker 3: I think Damien Rice. I think Damien Rice. I think

12:30 Speaker 3: Tom Waits is another one. I absolutely love Tom Waits,

12:35 Speaker 3: Johnny Cash.

12:37 Speaker 4: When I was growing up as well.

12:38 Speaker 3: I'm very lucky that my parents, my mom and dad,

12:40 Speaker 3: had these CDs and tapes that would play on the car.

12:42 Speaker 3: They were older music, and I just I love that.

12:45 Speaker 3: I think I think Damien Rice and Tom Waits definitely

12:48 Speaker 3: as well. Would be would be two that I you know,

12:51 Speaker 3: if I had to have a dinner in the morning

12:52 Speaker 3: or a breakfast in the morning and to.

12:54 Speaker 4: Invite two people to be would be the two of them?

12:56 Speaker 4: You know?

12:57 Speaker 2: That would that would be interesting?

12:59 Speaker 1: Tom Wait is uh what would be uh fascinating to

13:02 Speaker 1: uh to sit down with?

13:04 Speaker 2: Although probably probably a little hard to understand them at times.

13:06 Speaker 1: But I'm curious too because you did mention AI and

13:14 Speaker 1: that's another subject that, as you can imagine, comes up

13:17 Speaker 1: a lot on the show and its impact on music.

13:20 Speaker 2: And I'm curious.

13:21 Speaker 1: I mean, is that something you're you're concerned about or

13:24 Speaker 1: you sounded you struck Uh, I felt like kind of

13:26 Speaker 1: an optimistic tone about it when you said, you know,

13:29 Speaker 1: it's almost like music that is made entirely by humans.

13:33 Speaker 1: If it's got little flaws in it, that's okay because

13:35 Speaker 1: that's what people really want. They want the humanity of it,

13:38 Speaker 1: and not sort of you know, just completely synthetic music.

13:41 Speaker 1: But I'm curious if you can expand on that a

13:43 Speaker 1: little bit, and how concerned are you about AI and music?

13:47 Speaker 3: Like I think if you if you had say, thirty

13:50 Speaker 3: years ago artists and you know about synthetic drums and

13:52 Speaker 3: synthetic you know, like synthesizers or like using you know,

13:56 Speaker 3: to say even laptops or computers for card music said no,

14:00 Speaker 3: we've our eight tracks and right, so, like, I can't

14:04 Speaker 3: remember who said it, but I was listened to a

14:06 Speaker 3: video the other day and it was really really interesting.

14:07 Speaker 3: They were talk about AI music and your man asked them.

14:10 Speaker 3: He was like, you know, how worried are you about

14:13 Speaker 3: people you know, gravitating towards.

14:15 Speaker 4: AI music and are getting lost?

14:17 Speaker 3: And he said, well, you can go to a supermarket

14:20 Speaker 3: and you can buy organic, fair trade bananas, and you

14:23 Speaker 3: can buy five's bananas that are grown you know, in

14:26 Speaker 3: a greenhouse down the road.

14:28 Speaker 4: It's your choice, you know.

14:30 Speaker 3: And I suppose I would probably lean into the market

14:32 Speaker 3: that I would want to make music for the people

14:34 Speaker 3: who want to buy the organic, fair trade bananas. And

14:36 Speaker 3: I think there's always going to be a market for that.

14:38 Speaker 3: I think there's always going to be a market for

14:40 Speaker 3: imperfection for you know, seeing someone live and all the

14:43 Speaker 3: different instruments and even someone making a bum note and

14:46 Speaker 3: everyone in the crowd laughing because it's just, you know,

14:49 Speaker 3: that's what music is. It's a gathering, it's a celebration.

14:52 Speaker 3: It's someone that you know, you look up to who

14:54 Speaker 3: is able to speak words that you may not able

14:56 Speaker 3: to speak yourself, but you can listen to them say

14:58 Speaker 3: it and it hits something with you, you know. And

15:00 Speaker 3: if that and even my opinion is is that if

15:03 Speaker 3: AI music does that for you, then you know, at

15:06 Speaker 3: least you're conceiving music. It may not be the music

15:08 Speaker 3: I enjoy or may not be the music I'd like

15:10 Speaker 3: to make, but and there's I think again, like there's

15:14 Speaker 3: tools you can take from AI. You know, I actually

15:16 Speaker 3: use it for like I'll say to chat GBT, can

15:19 Speaker 3: you make me a two week calendar for my content ideas.

15:24 Speaker 3: You know, I'll ever use it for music directly, but

15:27 Speaker 3: I think there's ways that we can't. If you duck

15:29 Speaker 3: your head in the sand and say it's not happening,

15:31 Speaker 3: it's not happening, then you're going to get lost behind.

15:34 Speaker 4: And I just think if you can use certain tools.

15:38 Speaker 3: You know, there's a great book by Cal Newpoort called

15:40 Speaker 3: Digital Minimalism, and it's like, you know, use technology to

15:43 Speaker 3: your advantage, you know, make it work for you.

15:45 Speaker 4: So you know, I don't really care too.

15:47 Speaker 3: Much, to be honest, I'll go and play shows to

15:49 Speaker 3: twenty people and they pay twenty quid for a ticket

15:52 Speaker 3: and I'll be laughing, you know, I know it doesn't

15:54 Speaker 3: really you know, people will always want to hear what

15:56 Speaker 3: you want to hear if you're saying the right thing, right.

15:59 Speaker 1: Right, I agree, and I fundamentally agree with what you said,

16:02 Speaker 1: you know, And it's not like you can't hold back

16:04 Speaker 1: technology anyway. You know that toothpaste is already all the

16:07 Speaker 1: way out of the tube. It's here, and you know,

16:09 Speaker 1: and it's been with us longer than people realize too.

16:11 Speaker 1: I mean, you know, every major recording studio that is

16:14 Speaker 1: you know, sort of technologically up to date, shall we say,

16:17 Speaker 1: is already using AI and a lot of its software

16:20 Speaker 1: and you don't necessarily realize it, but you know, you've

16:23 Speaker 1: got programs that can, you know, pitch correct, and you

16:26 Speaker 1: got all kinds of AI already happening.

16:29 Speaker 2: Anyway.

16:30 Speaker 1: Of course, now you can go on some of these

16:31 Speaker 1: apps and just create songs out of whole cloth, not

16:35 Speaker 1: even whole cloth. You put in a prompt, you tell

16:37 Speaker 1: what you want, and it spits out something that in

16:38 Speaker 1: some cases is actually very high quality.

16:42 Speaker 4: I tell you a phonny story.

16:43 Speaker 3: I was actually on holidays or Alcante no Albaferra this year,

16:48 Speaker 3: and we were start down and having a cup of

16:50 Speaker 3: tea and someone was playing music and a speaker next

16:52 Speaker 3: to me, and I says, well, that sounds like Mumfort

16:54 Speaker 3: and Sons or something that's incredible.

16:56 Speaker 4: And I went up to them and I was like,

16:58 Speaker 4: who's that.

16:59 Speaker 3: They're like, oh, it's our friend. He's her neighbor. He

17:01 Speaker 3: makes music. And I was like wow and he was.

17:03 Speaker 3: They were like, yeah, it's all done through AI. And

17:05 Speaker 3: I was like, oh, I've been caught. I've been caught,

17:10 Speaker 3: but look, yeah, just look it's something's sounds sonically great

17:14 Speaker 3: on our ears, and you know there's a niche that

17:16 Speaker 3: needs to be scratched there too, So you know, I

17:19 Speaker 3: kind of had to I kind of had to take

17:21 Speaker 3: take the eld there as the as the young kids

17:23 Speaker 3: would say, and yeah, I was like, you know, sure, look,

17:26 Speaker 3: it's it's it's it's happening.

17:28 Speaker 4: It's here. We can embrace it, we can use it.

17:29 Speaker 4: We cannot use it.

17:30 Speaker 3: You can complain about it, but you know, at the

17:32 Speaker 3: end of the day, there's a message.

17:33 Speaker 4: Out there, which I feel what music.

17:35 Speaker 3: Is supposed to do, and you know, just let it happen,

17:38 Speaker 3: Let it happen, lean into it.

17:39 Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with you. I absolutely agree with you.

17:41 Speaker 1: And by the way, so you mentioned playing live. Are

17:44 Speaker 1: you doing a lot of shows?

17:46 Speaker 4: Yeah.

17:46 Speaker 3: So I'm kind of in this weird position where I

17:49 Speaker 3: do cover gigs most nights of the week, and I'm

17:51 Speaker 3: really lucky that I'm really busy, you know, and that

17:53 Speaker 3: finances bills and like the studio time and everything. And

17:58 Speaker 3: I got signed with a manager just before Christmas, which

18:01 Speaker 3: was really cool considering it's been like, you know, say,

18:03 Speaker 3: it was ten months since I had started releating music,

18:05 Speaker 3: and then I got picked up by a manager and

18:08 Speaker 3: even last year I played countless support slots to quite

18:12 Speaker 3: big artists in Ireland and we're Yeah, I'm currently organizing

18:16 Speaker 3: an Irish and kind of UK tour which is going

18:19 Speaker 3: to be starting in April, hopefully myself a manager in

18:22 Speaker 3: close contact doing all of that. And I just I

18:25 Speaker 3: love performing, like I'll always be someone that just I

18:29 Speaker 3: love performing two people in a room and like, you know,

18:32 Speaker 3: my ambitions from music is you know, obviously there's a

18:36 Speaker 3: nice monetary reward down the line when you put in

18:38 Speaker 3: the graph, but as long as I'm just playing music

18:40 Speaker 3: to people who want to hear for the rest of

18:41 Speaker 3: my life and I'm able to you know, live comfortably

18:44 Speaker 3: and have a roof over my head, I really am happy,

18:46 Speaker 3: you know.

18:47 Speaker 2: Yeah.

18:48 Speaker 4: I just I love performing.

18:49 Speaker 3: I Like the first gig I ever did, I got

18:52 Speaker 3: a buzz from people, you know, it was actually in

18:55 Speaker 3: a restaurant, you know, it like a lunchtime slot in

18:57 Speaker 3: a restaurant, and people's you know, turned around put down

18:59 Speaker 3: the knighte from four for a minute and watched me

19:01 Speaker 3: and I was like, wow, I have that impact with

19:03 Speaker 3: my voice, and you know, so, yeah, I just love

19:06 Speaker 3: performing live. I constantly just pick up the guitar at

19:08 Speaker 3: home and then, like each cover gig I do, I

19:11 Speaker 3: try my best to make it seem like it's my

19:14 Speaker 3: last gig.

19:14 Speaker 4: You know.

19:15 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you never know, and you know, you know,

19:18 Speaker 3: I could be paralyse smart and not be able to

19:19 Speaker 3: play the guitar again, and I'd be kicking myself if

19:22 Speaker 3: I didn't, even if I.

19:23 Speaker 4: Was playing a pub.

19:24 Speaker 3: Just just give people in there something to remember because

19:27 Speaker 3: you never know who's watching, you know, that.

19:29 Speaker 2: Is absolutely true, absolutely one. No, that's great. That's great.

19:34 Speaker 1: So where's uh, where should people go online? Where's the

19:36 Speaker 1: best place to go online to keep up with everything

19:38 Speaker 1: that you're doing, Like.

19:41 Speaker 4: There's just the usual.

19:42 Speaker 3: If there's Instagram, cahole fits music, Spotify, cahole fits, TikTok,

19:46 Speaker 3: cahole fits, you know, the usual stuff.

19:49 Speaker 4: You you'll find me somewhere.

19:51 Speaker 3: If you do a Google start cahol fits music, You'll

19:53 Speaker 3: find me somewhere. And if people have been listening to

19:55 Speaker 3: this and they're like, you know what I have to

19:57 Speaker 3: say and they like the music, send me a message,

20:00 Speaker 3: connect and have a chat, and you know, it's all

20:02 Speaker 3: it's all gravy, it's all gravy.

20:04 Speaker 1: Absolutely, you should spell your name too for our Americans

20:07 Speaker 1: who have no idea how to have no idea how

20:10 Speaker 1: to spell that.

20:13 Speaker 3: So it's C A T H A L F I

20:19 Speaker 3: t Z. You'll find me there somewhere.

20:21 Speaker 2: Excellent, excellent.

20:23 Speaker 1: Well, so in a moment, we're going to play this

20:25 Speaker 1: track enemy of Love after we let you go. It's

20:28 Speaker 1: been wonderful speaking with you. What should we know about

20:30 Speaker 1: this song? Is this the I know this is the

20:33 Speaker 1: previous single right right before pushing thirty.

20:36 Speaker 3: Yeah, like this was like I would consider myself mostly

20:40 Speaker 3: kind of The stuff that I'm writing now is quite

20:42 Speaker 3: a bit more folky and a bit more stripped back.

20:44 Speaker 3: But again, I didn't want to tie myself to one

20:47 Speaker 3: genre because I think some people get to focus that

20:50 Speaker 3: I'm a focus singer, and I'm like, yeah, fantastic.

20:53 Speaker 4: But I went into the studio with a song.

20:55 Speaker 3: That had been fingerpicking at home with my guitar and

20:58 Speaker 3: my producer. I have to give him a shout out.

21:00 Speaker 3: His name is Keel, and Kenny is a magician. He's

21:02 Speaker 3: just he's so incredibly talented. And I went into him

21:05 Speaker 3: and I said, let's just make the funnest song possible

21:07 Speaker 3: we could out of what we have here. Yeah, and

21:10 Speaker 3: you know, he put down he got a drummer in.

21:11 Speaker 3: We put down some drums in it. I had never

21:13 Speaker 3: had drums on a song before, and I was like, interesting.

21:16 Speaker 3: He put some funky guitar on it, some funky mandolin,

21:19 Speaker 3: which is an Irish instrument that we use here, mandolin,

21:22 Speaker 3: And I just said, I went into the studio and said,

21:25 Speaker 3: the people, the session musicians, listen to the song once,

21:28 Speaker 3: whatever comes to you naturally, let's track it down and

21:32 Speaker 3: let's just make something fun.

21:33 Speaker 4: And it turned out quite well. Like it.

21:35 Speaker 3: It's a little bit different to what the direction I

21:37 Speaker 3: kind of have normally for songs. But again, I think

21:40 Speaker 3: if you tie yourself to one genre too much, you'll

21:43 Speaker 3: become closed off to different types of music. Like I

21:46 Speaker 3: started listening to like rap again, you know. And it's

21:48 Speaker 3: not that I'm a rapper, but I think music there's

21:51 Speaker 3: so many different genres, but it all.

21:53 Speaker 4: Says the same thing. It's expression, you know.

21:55 Speaker 3: So I just said, you know, let's just make this fun,

21:57 Speaker 3: let's make it different, and you know it's it's done

22:00 Speaker 3: quite well locally, and like all this has happened really

22:03 Speaker 3: in the last year, so I'm not as happy with

22:06 Speaker 3: it as other songs, but I can also I'm so

22:08 Speaker 3: lucky that I was open minded enough to say, let's

22:11 Speaker 3: just go a little bit of a different route and

22:13 Speaker 3: see what happens.

22:14 Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I love it.

22:15 Speaker 1: I think it's a great song. We're gonna play that

22:18 Speaker 1: for everybody in a moment call fits. Thank you so

22:20 Speaker 1: much for joining us today. This has been wonderful. Oh,

22:23 Speaker 1: by the way, are you where you do?

22:24 Speaker 2: You have a show tonight? Are you playing anywhere tonight?

22:27 Speaker 3: I'm playing again. It's a kind of local pub in Cork.

22:30 Speaker 3: It's called the Hideout. Probably not many Irish listeners here,

22:33 Speaker 3: but yeah, just my local, one of the local pubs

22:36 Speaker 3: in Cork. I'm very lucky that we're I live in

22:38 Speaker 3: particular like in Ireland, that there's live music like seven

22:42 Speaker 3: nights a week in multiple different locations, so there's no

22:45 Speaker 3: shortage of work. So I just bounced around the different

22:47 Speaker 3: pubs and small live music venues, excellent tunes, get some.

22:50 Speaker 4: Money and go home.

22:51 Speaker 1: That's fantastic. That's the way to do it, my friend,

22:53 Speaker 1: very very good. Well listen, thank you so much. We

22:55 Speaker 1: will definitely do this again in the future. Especially it

22:57 Speaker 1: sounds like you've got you've got a lot of new

22:59 Speaker 1: music coming, so we will. We'll have you on again,

23:02 Speaker 1: and you know, and we'd love to as you're releasing

23:03 Speaker 1: new music, we'd love to continue to kind of be

23:05 Speaker 1: your your conduit into the American radio market here.

23:09 Speaker 4: So I really appreciate that.

23:11 Speaker 3: In Ireland, in Irish we have a phrase which says

23:13 Speaker 3: gir of Mela mahagods, which means one hundred thousand thank

23:16 Speaker 3: yous to you. So it's been an absolute pleasure to

23:18 Speaker 3: have to speak to you as well, So I really

23:20 Speaker 3: appreciate the time and opportunity.

23:22 Speaker 2: Oh wonderful. All right, very very good.

23:24 Speaker 1: We're gonna hit this track Enemy of Love and we'll

23:26 Speaker 1: let you go call Hall Fits again.

23:27 Speaker 2: Thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon. You

23:30 Speaker 2: got it. Bye bye,