“What was I doing all those years?”, asks Morgan Macintyre, one half of the mesmerising Irish duo Saint Sister on their latest single ‘Causing Trouble’. Reflecting on past relationships and the age old truth that the people you knew in the past never really change despite the fact that everything else does. “The song is about transitioning, from Belfast to Dublin, from an old love to a new, and the gaps that can be found between you and another person or place when people transition at different paces and in different directions. "Causing Trouble pulls from a wide range of disparate influences. The arrangement courtesy of Gemma Doherty takes the shimmer of ‘90s pop stalwarts Moby and Massive Attack, combining luscious harp textures, crisp vocal harmony with 808 thuds and subterranean bass to create a chasmic slice of modern electronic folk.

The track builds on the success of 2016’s ‘Tin Man’. Released in December via the Communion Singles Club the single was met with widespread critical approval and championed on BBC Radio 1 by Huw Stephens. The success of this single saw the band named as “The Best New Band in Ireland” by the readers of The Irish Times as well as receive a nomination for Song of the Year by the prestigious Choice Music prize alongside other Irish heavy hitters Niall Horan and James Vincent McMorrow. The band has had an extremely busy year on the road with a schedule including performances at the BBC introducing stage at Glastonbury, Longitude and Electric Picnic as well as standout showcase performances at Eurosonic and The Reeperbahn festival. They were privileged to join Brooklyn outfit Mutual Benefit on their UK tour in November and last month they were hand picked by Lisa Hannigan to support her on an extensive 20 date European tour.

The band return to the UK in May for a series of headline dates, including a show in the intimate confines of the St Pancras Old Church. Having played their last London show to a sold out Roundhouse, the stark contrast of the ornate and beautiful church will create an ambience not to be missed. At home they perform at the prestigious National Concert Hall, in early June. This is set to be a monumental occasion for the band, a particularly impressive feat given that they have only played three headline shows in Dublin to date.

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Tour Dates

27 May - Mountshannon Arts Festival - Clare, Ireland

30 May - The Louisiana - Bristol, UK

31 May - Ort Cafe - Birmingham, UK

1 June - St Pancras Old Church - London, UK

2 June - Gullivers - Manchester, UK

3 June - The Old Hairdressers - Glasgow, UK

7 June - National Concert Hall - Dublin, Ireland

29 June - Innenhof Rathaus - Binzen, Germany

30 June - Guggenheim Kulturhotel - Liestal, Switzerland

1 July - Cafe Verkehrt - Murg-Oberhof, Germany

2 July - Werkraum Schöpflin - Brombach, Germany

3 July - Kesselhaus - Freiburg, Germany

4 July - Fernet Branca - St Louis, France

13 July - Earagail Arts Festival - Donegal, Ireland

14 July - The Band Room - Yorkshire, UK

15 July - Latitude Festival - Suffolk, UK

29 July - Galway Arts Festival - Ireland

1-3 Sep - Other Voices @ Electric Picnic - Ireland

1 Oct - 7 Layers Festival - Amsterdam, Netherlands

Nonesuch Records releases Dark Matter, Randy Newman’s first album of new material in nine years, on August 4.  The record is the follow-up to 2008’s acclaimed Harps and Angels, which the Guardian praised for its ‘sumptuous melodies, devastating pathos and thorny, irony-laden character songs’, calling it, ‘the work of a true master of popular song’.  Dark Matter was recorded in Los Angeles and produced by long-time Newman collaborators Mitchell Froom, Lenny Waronker, and David Boucher.  The album’s nine songs include the 2016 digitally released ‘Putin’, plus songs about the Kennedy brothers, Sonny Boy Williamson, science vs. religion, love and loss, and more (full track list below; album available on vinyl August 18).  Tour dates will be announced soon.

Newman, who is known for writing from the perspective of various narrators, many of whom are unreliable, tried something new on Dark Matter:  “If there is anything consistent about the songs, there is often more than one voice, in the big ones, and it’s different for me, a difficult thing to bring off, to make it comprehensible,” he says.  “I think it works.  They cover more ground than most songs do and portray a number of different characters.  Audiences are smart.  They’ll understand the songs.  I hope they like them as well.  I’m proud of the record,” Newman continues. “I think it’s entertaining – I hope it’s entertaining – and that’s eighty percent of what I try to do.  Also, I’m doing something different than I’ve ever done before.   It’s a step forward for me.  And considering how long I’ve been doing this, I’m kinda proud of that.”

After starting his songwriting career as a teenager, Newman began recording as a singer and pianist in 1968 with a self-titled album.  Throughout the 1970s, he released several other acclaimed albums such as 12 Songs, Sail Away, and Good Old Boys.  In addition to his solo recordings and regular international touring, Newman began composing and scoring for films in the 1980s.  The list of movies he has worked on since then includes The Natural, Awakenings, Ragtime, all three Toy Story pictures, Seabiscuit, James and the Giant Peach, A Bug’s Life, and most recently, Disney/Pixar’s Cars 3.

Between 2003 and 2016, Nonesuch released three volumes of The Randy Newman Songbook, comprising solo recordings of songs from throughout Newman’s five-decade career, along with a three-CD box set of all volumes (a four-LP, limited-edition vinyl version included bonus tracks).  The New York Times said of the first disc: ‘The great craftsmanship is more apparent in the stripped-down context’, and the Associated Press said, ‘Few singer-songwriters could inject more new life into solo piano versions of their work than Randy Newman.’  In 2011, the label released a live CD and DVD recorded at London’s intimate LSO St. Luke’s, accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra led by Robert Ziegler.

Randy Newman’s many honors include six Grammys, three Emmys, and two Academy Awards, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 – the same year he was given an Ivor Novello PRS for Music Special International Award.  Newman also was presented with a PEN New England Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award in 2014.

Tracklisting

1. The Great Debate

2. Brothers

3. Putin

4. Lost Without You

5. Sonny Boy

6. It’s a Jungle out There (V2)

7. She Chose Me

8. On the Beach

9. Wandering Boy