Doyle and Keogh
Doyle and Keogh are two Irish songwriters who believe in a seamless combination of music and words, clarity of sound, and songs with the versatility to be played by different performers.
Visit their homepage at http://www.doyleandkeoghmusic.comBand/artist history
Doyle & Keogh is a friendship, a band, a songwriting partnership, a production team all in one. It's a bit like a cottage industry. They write songs in a traditional way: one does words, the other music. While there is always going to be a bit of overlap, this has been the general pattern since they started.
They have known each other since the late eighties, when they started secondary school together in Dublin. Like most other secondary school friends, they loved music, and they wanted to write songs. Neither joined bands in school. School bands usually lasted three weeks if they were lucky. There was also the matter of ability. Matt had learned clarinet and recorder, but he'd never really tried to sing. He could pick out tunes on the piano, but didn't know how to harmonize them. Graham knew a few guitar chords, he owned an old acoustic, and he wanted to learn bass.
They wrote their first songs in February 1994. One was called 'Shattered Glass' and another 'Wind'. They were bad, but they were a start, and over the next few months they continued to write. It was usually words first then music at this time, but sometimes Matt would have a musical idea on the keyboard, and Graham would write words to complement it.
They started at the same university in autumn 1994, and over the next two years they went to see most of the bands that regularly played around Dublin then: Lir, Revelino, Something Happens, The Frames, Whipping Boy, Sack, Mexican Pets and others. A lot of forgettable, overwrought songs were written around this time, but things began to improve in early 1996 when they wrote "I See You", and "Virgin Sympathy". Graham bought a bass guitar, and learned how to play it.
In the summer of 96 they tried using real recording equipment for the first time (as opposed to a tape recorder) and they borrowed a friend's four-track for a weekend. Recording 3 hours of material in a weekend without worrying too much about making mistakes was fun, but the result was very patchy. After that, they recorded regularly every two months on the four track. There were always new songs to try out and older ones to polish off. They started to get the hang of recording and mixing tracks.
Matt took a year off his studies in 1996-7 and spent most of his time doing musical things. They wrote a lot of songs that year which they are still proud of, like 'I Wasted You' and 'The Reason is Gone'. Matt also feels that he learned a lot that year by borrowing CD's and tapes from the music library at the Ilac Centre in Dublin and that way exploring all forms of twentieth century music.
By the spring of 1998, they were making recordings which sounded good. They spent time getting the parts right, and mixing the tracks. They could both play reasonably well, Matt on the piano, and Graham on bass and rhythm guitars. They used a four track that spring, and an eight-track in the summer. Some of those recordings feature on this site: 'Blitzkrieg', 'I Am But a Man', 'and 'Indecision'.
These were their last recordings for some time. After writing and recording over 100 songs in two years, there was a recognition that they had gone as far as they could go with what they had. They found themselves unable to write. And there were new challenges. Matt started a history MA in September 1998, and then moved to Toronto, Canada two years later to continue his studies. Graham had a full time job. There was a period when they didn't play or listen to any of the songs they had written.
But they were still playing and trying to improve, just as they had always done. Graham was taking bass lessons, and playing the instrument in different bands around Dublin. Graham joined local band The Panic first where Matt was drafted in to record keys on a few tracks in the studio and to play on stage during a few memorable gigs!. Matt decided that he wanted to be able to play the music he liked on piano, not just his own creations. He learned to play music by his favourite composers, like Finzi and Milhaud, and his abilities on the piano improved, as did a lot of other things.
Doyle and Keogh have realised in the past year or so that their songs are still worth listening to, and they are tired of keeping them to themselves. In December 2003 they recorded together again for the first time in five years, and they are planning to write more songs too. They have put this website together so they can share their songs with as many people as possible.Your musical influences
Lir
New Order
Joy Division
Francis Poulenc
Billy Joel
Suzanne Vega
Miklos Rozsa
Queen
Gerald Finzi
PrinceAdmin
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