What a name for a band.
Gypsies on the Autobahn are a guitar-based quartet from Cabra on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. The band comprises of brothers James and Dan Smith, playing alongside their old school pals, Gary Quinn and Niall Mooney.
Their new single, Kelly, taken from their Top 20 charting debut album, Born Brief, is out now through Universal Music Ireland. The release of, Kelly, follows on from the success of previous single, Hidden, and a sold out headline show in Dublin’s Whelan’s.
Their debut album, Born Brief, is produced by the highly distinguished Rob Kirwan, who has worked with numerous illustrious artists including PJ Harvey, Depeche Mode, Editors, Delorentos, Bell X1, The Horrors, 30 Seconds To Mars, Hozier, and U2.
“We spent four or five days choosing the songs from our catalogue and figuring out how to improve them and take out what we didn’t need,” Niall says. “Rob is great at relaxing us and he is a very chilled dude. His way of telling us to do a take again was to delete it. In a joke way he’d let us know we’d have to do better. The minute it felt good we’d move on.”
Recorded in Westland Row and Exchequer Studios, Born Brief is a beguiling and brilliant record, which is permeated by a palpable sense of loss.
“The songs deal with human relationships, but most of the songs came from the death of my father, who committed suicide when I was quite young,” James reveals. “I wasn’t able to talk about it and I needed to talk about it, so writing music was the best way to do it.
“It is amazing how many songs you can write about the one person. They’re about reacting to certain situations and the fact that he wasn’t there. I realized I hadn’t written a song about my mother, so the last song on the album ‘Home’ is about her, and how much she has done for us.
“Niall and I have always had the idea that the songs had to bring some hope to people, although we never actually had to talk about it.”
This is the acoustic version of the song but the guitars, piano and the harmonies make this stripped back version very powerful.
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