From Kilkenny to the World: Burnchurch Lights Up the Irish Music Scene

Emerging from the heart of Kilkenny, Burnchurch is not just another band on the rise—they're a powerhouse of musical fusion. With a unique blend of blues-pop and traditional Irish music, this dynamic family group has already made waves, scoring soundtracks for boxing legend Katie Taylor and anthems for Kilkenny hurling. Their debut EP, 'Maidin,' showcases their boundless creativity, and with their latest single 'Round & Around,' Burnchurch is set to electrify audiences far beyond their hometown. As they prepare to headline the Puball Gaeilge at Electric Picnic, Burnchurch’s journey from street buskers to festival headliners is one you won’t want to miss.

1. Your unique blend of blues-pop and traditional Irish music is captivating. Can you tell us more about how you developed this distinctive sound and what influences have shaped your musical style?

Firstly, as a family - we had an advantage in that we grew up together in a very musical house, where anything went. Irish was our first language, and we were immersed in Irish culture, language and music since day one. Musically, we all play traditional irish instruments such as uileann pipes, fiddles, flute, and vocally we sang Sean Nós with all its intricacies from an early age. 

We all learned the piano first, and Éanna in particular became fascinated with piano blues music, and started listening to the likes of Ray Charles but also more obscure blues and jazz music, which crept its way into the sound itself. The piano is the fundamental instrument that drives our sound - along with the vocal harmonies. Being family, we find vocal harmonies work really well, and we exploit them to the fullest. We all write songs, and they can be different as we all have our own individual influences - however we try to keep a consistency of sound - the Burnchuch sound, which keeps evolving and which we like to refer to as a new sound in irish music.

2. The band started busking on the Parade by the Castle in Kilkenny and transitioned to creating original music during the lockdown. How did those early experiences shape the music you create today?

It's hard to pinpoint a time when the band started, because we were so young, but we remember our first busking experiences on the Parade in Kilkenny - when we were all still in primary school. Busking was great fun, it gave us great confidence, but also we made great money too! The Parade outside the castle park in Kilkenny is a very touristy place in the summer, and was handy as it was on our doorstep - but we also went over to the Rock of Cashel for a bit of variety, and when we'd go to Kerry on holidays we'd set up in Killarney and Waterville where the busloads of tourists were coming in. We realised from a very young age that the tourists were more attracted to our traditional music than the pop songs we'd also sing (Uileann Pipes always made them whip out their cameras and phones, not to mention their coins!) We were even offered on one occasion to do gigs in Germany, but most of us weren't even teenagers. This all caused an early realisation that we should incorporate our culture and language in the music we create. 

In 2020, with the pandemic, the only thing we could do to pass time was sing and play music together. Out of the blue, Síofra wrote the first song, called 'one wish'. Suddenly, the songwriting took off, and now, consciously, we had a band. 

When we were busking, we were always referred to as 'the kids from burnchurch' (our homeland in Kilkenny) so the name picked itself. Nothing sacrilegious there! 

3. Burnchurch writes, arranges, records, and produces its own music. What are some of the challenges and rewards of managing all these aspects of your music yourselves?

It takes an enormous amount of work to bring a song from a concept to the finished product.Writing and arranging is something we've always done without any great effort, it comes naturally and is fun. The main challenges for us would be around all the elements of recording and producing. 

None of us are particularly good technically, and we've lived with a myriad of glitches and snags - some days the computer just stopped working completely and it was. In terms of the advantages of recording & producing ourselves - recording is a very expensive business our dad played in a band from a very early age, so we were very lucky to have a small recording studio in the garden, and during the pandemic we took it over. Over the years, Éanna has become proficient at pro tools, and he's learned a lot from the renowned Leo Pearson in Thomastown, who is always quick to give a helping hand with production tips. Over the years the band has accumulated expertise and good recording equipment - but there were challenges. There were countless technological nightmares but we learned on the job. 

4. Your songs are performed in both English and Irish. How important is it for you to include your native language in your music, and what has been the response from your audience?

It would feel unauthentic for us to move forward in the music scene without singing in Irish. It is a huge part of our sound as we were exposed to lots of Sean nós from an early age. 

Our listeners frequently comment that their favourite songs of ours are in fact the Irish ones, and we think this speaks levels about the cultural revival and awareness of the importance of the language in our generation. We love writing and performing in Irish in a believable way - in other words Irish can compete if it's right and we think we can do that. We look forward to releasing our latest single ‘Take us back’ in both English and Irish, and seeing which one performs better. 

5. You’ve recently released your debut EP 'Maidin' and your new single 'Round & around'. Can you share the creative process behind these projects and what listeners can expect from them?

We feel that our debut EP is the first taste of Burnchurch that was put out in the world. We were delighted to find that ‘feeling’ found its way onto the biggest playlist for Electric Picnic, and was played on RTÉ 1, giving us our first national exposure. Most of the songs from our EP began by improvising on the piano and often just by jamming, sometimes together and sometimes alone - seeing what unique melody comes to mind and how it can grow into something more.

Éanna mainly looks after the production, and the finished songs usually end up with some of the influences which we spoke about (trad, blues, etc.) - and that is what gives us our unique sound,  which we believe is new and fresh and has the potential to grow, maybe into a new kind of Irish music. After all, we have time on our side!