Enda Mulloy of the Biblecode Sundays told David Hennessy about his new solo album and the poignant words from a homeless man that inspired his forthcoming single.
Well known for playing bass with The Biblecode Sundays, London-based musician Enda Mulloy is about to release his debut solo album Notions in Midlife Crisis with a launch at the London Irish Centre in Camden.
From Mulranny in Co. Mayo, Enda started his musical career with his family band, The Mulloy Brothers – known worldwide for their distinctive sound and character.
Enda then emigrated to London in the 1990s where he co-formed the well known London- Irish band known for songs such as Drinking All Day and Maybe It’s Because I’m an Irish Londoner.
The band have shared the stage with the likes of Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy and The Cranberries.
Releasing a solo album was never on his radar, but Enda felt moved to create something with the material that he had written and continued to write when the band decided against any further recording following the passing of drummer Carlton Hunt in 2017. Lead singer Ronan MacManus would also leave the band.
Batten the Hatches Down was the first taste of Enda’s solo endeavours when it was released in December 2021 going to number one in the Irish download charts.
He would follow this with Bridge out of your Heart which came out last October and reached number seven in the UK charts.
Enda told The Irish World: “I’m delighted. I’m really looking forward to the launch.
“I’ve put an awful lot of work into doing this over the last long while and I’m very happy with the album and the way it’s come out.
“It’s very eclectic, and the lyrics are quite dark and deep.
“I put a lot of thought into the lyrics really.
“And of course, I’m absolutely honoured that Marquee Records have picked it up and given me a deal with them.”
Of course since Enda came out with his first solo single, there have been developments regarding the BibleCode Sundays with Ronan rejoining the band. Back together again, they have played big dates at Powerhaus in Camden and said there are plans for more recording.
But since it is going so well, how does Enda enjoy going solo as opposed to being in a band? “That’s a really good question.
“You know, I love playing in a band.
“I’m a bass player first and foremost, and I love that.
“But to write and record is something I always loved to do.
“It’s in me to write songs and to write music and I have to keep that process going.
“It’s the same as if someone’s a golfer, they’ll always play golf.
“If someone is a gardener, they’ll always garden.
“I’m into music and I’ll always be doing music.
“I’d be doing it either myself or in a band or with others. It doesn’t matter to me.
“I’ll always be involved in it for sure.
“It’s just absolutely incredible how it’s going.
“I’ve started songwriting again.
“I’m back on the horse again for maybe the second album or who knows?
“I’m happy about that because sometimes it comes in fits and starts.
“Sometimes you wouldn’t write a song for months, next thing you write three or four in two days.
“So I’ll always be doing something for sure.
“What? I never know.”
Notions in Midlife Crisis is an album that contemplates many issues including homelessness.
“Homelessness has come out in two songs.
“I wrote them pretty much straight after each other.
“I’ve got a single coming out on 7 July, which is called A Message from Stephen (Carry Me Home).
“Stephen was a homeless guy who used to sit outside Whelan’s in Uxbridge.
“The BIbleCodes used to play there, he used to always come down.
“We used to always come out and give him a few bob and sit beside him and talk to him and have the craic.
“He used to love it. He was a lovely man.
“I haven’t seen him in years.
“We sort of stopped playing Whelan’s after the lockdown and stuff.
“I haven’t seen him since, God knows where he is.”
Enda remembers the moment that inspired his forthcoming single.
“I was sitting beside him one night and there was a girl there talking while she was smoking.
“This girl said to him, ‘If you had one wish, what would it be?’
“And he said, ‘My care worker told me that my mum took me home from the hospital before she gave me up’.
“And he said he spent his life in care, ‘She couldn’t take me so I ended up in care’.
“And there was the typical bad spiral for a young lad who was going through foster care and whatnot.
“And he said, ‘If I had one wish, it would be that my mother would carry me home again’.
“I just thought, ‘That’s so powerful and so painful to sit and Listen to’. It inspired me to write that song.
“That’s coming out on 7 July and then the album’s the week after.
“We shot a video for it in Brighton and John Murry plays the character.”
John Murry is a singer- songwriter from USA. His debut The Graceless Age was listed as one of the best albums of 2012/ 2013 by industry magazines like Mojo, Uncut and The Guardian. His last album The Stars are God Bullet Holes charted at 22 in the UK indie charts in 2021.
“He’s from Tupelo, Mississippi where Elvis is from.
“They went to the same school albeit 50 years apart.
“He agreed to do the video for me if I played the bass on his upcoming album.
“I think that was a fair deal.”
That sounds like a win-win.. “Yeah, it is a win-win absolutely.”
Heartbreak is also dealt with in the album in songs like Bridge out of your Heart which deals with love gone wrong.
“When we were in lockdown, I was going through social media reading people’s comments about, ‘Oh, Jesus, I’m stuck with the husband’.
“Or, ‘I’m stuck with the wife in the house’.
“And then, of all the stories of how difficult it was for people to come away from their normal lives and just come home and actually be stuck in the house with the person that they’re married to.
“Some of the songs made me think of that sort of thing.
“There’s one song called Trouble.
“It’s about the trauma of family life.
“It’s not all happiness, sometimes it’s trouble.
“Sometimes everything is trouble.
“How people approach life.
“Difficult marriages, some people stick together because they have to or the opposite of that, people separate when they shouldn’t.
“It touches those sort of themes as well.
“That was a particularly deep song, I don’t know where I went with that.
“I remember just sitting down thinking about a man and a woman talking about the difficulties of life and so that’s how that one came about.”
Gráinne Fahey, Enda’s cousin guests on the track to balance it out with a female voice.
“I might bring a single out after the album is released.
“One of my favourite tracks on the album is called Grey and Iconic.
“Everyone knows the guy at the bar who’s been there, done that.
“He’s a little hero but he’s thinking back on past glories and he’s crying into his beer.
“He’s not there, he’s lost in his own world.
“To everyone he’s iconic but the grey symbolises how it’s all gone and all passed for him.
“That’s my favourite song for sure.”
Enda pays credit to his producer Michael Smith who helped to make the album what it is.
“Everything we did was positive thinking and experimental.
“We never approached anything with anything other than positivity and, ‘how can we make it work?’ rather than, ‘We’ll scrap that’.
“There was none of that.
“There was a lot of songs I scrapped but in the main we were positive to try different things.”
We said the BibleCode Sundays are now back with lead singer Ronan back at the helm, is there any update regarding new material there? “Nothing in particular.
“We’ve no plans to record. Me and Andy are going to do some writing but there’s no Biblecodes plans.
“We’d love to do it one day. I’m sure one day we will but it will just happen organically.
“I’m really looking forward to the launch,
“It will be a brilliant night.
“I’ve got Hungry Grass, Matt McManamon and I’ve got one surprise guest artist.”
The single A Message from Stephen (Carry Me Home) is out on 7 July.
The album Notions in Midlife Crisis is out on 15 July.
Enda launches the album at London Irish Centre on Saturday 15 July, doors open at 7pm.
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