Photo Credit: Joel Stevens
Dan Raza chats with singer-songwriter Michael J. Sheehy for his podcast Spirit & Roots, which can be heard here on The Sound Cafe on our podcast page.
After the demise of Dream City Film Club in 1999, Michael J. Sheehy quickly emerged as a solo singer-songwriter. While many of his U.K. contemporaries were exploring melodic guitar rock or neo-prog, Sheehy struck out in a different direction; his dark and often darkly humorous, punk-spirited songs drew on everything from early American rock'n'roll, blues, gospel, and country to the British hymnal tradition.
Michael is currently fronting the band Miraculous Mule along with his brother Patrick McCarthy and drummer Ian Burns doing Rock 'n' Roll infused spirituals.
You can listen to the entire interview and music HERE
Michael J. Sheehy was born in 1972 into a working-class Irish Catholic household in Kentish Town (North London, UK), where pop music consumption centered on American artists like Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, and Patsy Cline. Although country music would later exercise a considerable influence on his work, Sheehy disliked it as a child. While Elvis remained a firm favourite, in his teens Sheehy gravitated to glam rock - particularly Marc Bolan and David Bowie - and American proto-punk bands like the Stooges, rather than the homegrown class of 1976. Other artists to attract his attention were Marvin Gaye, Tim Buckley, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave.
By his own account, Michael J Sheehy has pissed away two or three careers. His first band Dream City Film Club were signed to Beggars Banquet towards the end of last century and despite early promise they crashed and burned after recording their second album.
Sheehy then released three critically acclaimed solo albums with Beggars Banquet and toured Europe and the USA with the likes of Kristin Hersch, Tindersticks, Ed Harcourt and Bauhaus front man Peter Murphy.
Despite a few bumps along the road, he has continued making music as a solo artist and as part of the rock band Miraculous Mule as well as one half of psychedelic electronic duo United Sounds of Joy. His latest solo album - ‘Distance is the Soul of Beauty’ - is his first in a decade.
You can listen to the entire interview and music HERE
Website: michaeljsheehy.bandcamp.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/michaelj.sheehy