“Bead avoids introspective singer-songwriter hell and ploughs a furrow that keeps him on the right side of the commercial track.”
– Jackie Hayden, HOTPRESS
Bead® is the moniker of Irish musician and songwriter Dave Dwyer.
Early influences – Born in North County Dublin, from an early age, I was fascinated with making music and purchased my first acoustic guitar for £100 from a music shop on Capel Street. I taught myself a few chords and began a lifelong habit of songwriting.
Growing up in Dublin, I drew inspiration from going to see Irish bands such as Paul Cleary and The Partisans, A House, Power of Dreams, The Cranberries and That Petrol Emotion. I tuned into the Dave Fanning Radio Show every night to listen to live sessions and interviews with the likes of U2, The Smiths and Echo and The Bunnymen.
Early days – In 1993, I began recording demos of my original songs with local producer Dave McCune who I met through a mutual musician friend.
Soon after, I distributed the demos to radio stations and received national airplay for my songs ‘Superman’ and ‘Heaven’ on the Dave Fanning Rock Show (on Irelands National Radio Station 2FM) and gained interest from two Major record labels at the time.
I played gigs in Whelans on the IMRO showcase tour and received favourable live reviews from Hotpress magazine. I headlined gigs in the DA Club and played the Dublin music scene including Sin é, the Mez Bar and the Ruby Sessions.
Album #1 – In 2003, I teamed up with local music producer Dave McCune to record my first album. We recorded 10 original songs including Superman, Heaven and Monkey With The Bloodshot Eyes. Recordings complete, I travelled to Enniskillen to work on mastering the songs with Robyn Robbins at Mid Atlantic Digital. In 2004, I formed my own label (Núa Records) and released a short run of CD’s of the album entitled ‘High Time’.
Album # 2 – In 2010, after seeing a poster in Tower Records, I got the idea to work with Morrissey‘s guitarist and musical director Boz Boorer. A fan of Morrissey, I was very familiar with the work of Boz Boorer. I tracked Boz down and after discussing the project over a few emails we agreed to meet in Portugal where we recorded my album ‘Battle Stations’. It includes ‘Dirty Dog’, ‘Animal’ and ‘Roses’. It was released as a CD and download on Bandcamp and later released on iTunes and Amazon.
Album # 3 – In 2017, I built my own studio at home and started working on new material. Once I had enough material recorded, I contacted Boz again and he roped in The Ruts drummer Dave Ruffy to record a session in Portugal. We worked on a combination of the new material I recorded at home and some new songs. The session was released as an EP called ‘Country Mountain’ featuring five songs ‘Just Like The Beatles’, ‘No One Ever Told Me’, ’The Highway’, ‘Black Irish Dogs’ and the title track ‘Country Mountain’.
‘Country Mountain EP’ was mastered for iTunes by Grammy award winning engineer Tim Young in Metropolis Studios London. It was released as a download only on September 10th, 2018.
BATTLES STATIONS ALBUM
COUNTRY MOUNTAIN EP
