With his great grandfather’s fiddle in hand, local musician Sean Magee recently recorded a single at the iconic Abbey Road Studios, a place made famous by The Beatles.
Calling the experience of recording in the same studio as The Beatles “surreal,” Sean explained how the opportunity arose.
“I’ve just recently joined up with a guy called Rory Gallagher, he’s from Kilcar, Donegal, and his project is called Rory and the Island for he owned the Island Bar over in Lanzarote for five or six years before he came home. He asked me would I come along and join him so we have been out on tour and we were over playing in Camden, in London last week,” said Sean.
He continued: “He signed with a record label called Buddy Records and they got it all sorted for us to go in and record with Abbey Road, so we were recording our new single ‘Call My Name.’”
With the new single due to release on Spotify at the end of next week, Sean said: “We’ve got it all nearly ready to go so there’s just a few mixes that need to be done.”
Talking about the recording day, Sean said: “We were in early morning and we were just straight into it, I never really got thinking about it and about midday we took a walk around the building and seen all the big studios.”
“We recorded in the Gate House studio and we went into Studio Two and Studio Three to do wee bits of sample and background vocals. That was where The Beatles, Ed Sheerin and Adele all would’ve recorded in as well. So it was just madness,” he added.
During the recording of the single Sean played his great grandfather’s fiddle, an instrument which has a tale of its own to tell. Sean explained: “My great grandfather had ordered this fiddle in 1914 before the First World War broke out and he’d sent the money with the order. Basically then the war broke out and the fiddle didn’t turn up so he thought all was lost. As soon as the war was finished in 1918, the fiddle arrived at the door. He couldn’t believe it. So I took it with me to Abbey Road and the song we were recording was a slow song, and there’s a lovely deep tone out of the fiddle so I took it with me.”
“It was my grandad’s father and my grandad was delighted that I took it with me,” he added.
When asked how he first met Rory, Sean explained that it was through his dad, Conor Magee. He said: “Rory was in a band way back years ago called The Revs and they would’ve been doing sets at the likes of Slane Castle. My dad is a sound engineer, and he done the sound for The Revs about 20 years ago. We were going over to Lanzarote and I didn’t know Rory at all and dad had messaged him to see if he would get me up for a song in the Island Bar.”
Sean continued: “He got me up and shortly after that he sent me a message to see if I wanted to do a couple of gigs over in Lanzarote. He asked me then if I wanted to go out on tour with him when he was home. So it came out of nowhere really.”
Sean has since been touring with Rory and the Island for the last six months, travelling all over Ireland and the UK. Talking about their upcoming gigs, Sean said: “We’ve Germany for St. Patrick’s weekend and America then in April, over to New York.”
He added: “We also have a local gig in Charlie’s Bar on March 23. We’re really looking forward to it.”
Rory and the Island’s new single ‘Call My Name’ featuring Sean Magee is out on Spotify on February 22.