I Have A Tribe Announces New Album Plus Video To New Single

NEW SINGLE ‘FLY LIKE A BIRD’ OUT TODAY
DOWNLOAD WAV FILE // WATCH THE OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

“One of Ireland’s most exceptional musicians.” - The Irish Times
“I Have A Tribe’s way of saying everything concisely is a wonder all of its own.” - The Last Mixed Tape

I Have A Tribe writes songs that feel like an extension of his soul. Every carefully considered lyric and intimately constructed production possesses the character of an artist who composes music with a compulsive intensity that contrasts the meditative aura of his songs. It’s a trait which has made him a musician’s musician, leading to Bon Iver and The National inviting him to perform at the PEOPLE festival where he collaborated with Beirut, Feist and Damien Rice. He has also played shows with Villagers, Anna Calvi and Lisa Hannigan, and performed in CARM’s live band for arena shows with Bon Iver.
 

If I Have A Tribe is a new name to you, now is the perfect time to fall under his spell. The Irish musician - real name Patrick O’Laoghaire - will release his second album Changing of the Guard on October 6th, and launches the project by unveiling his new single ‘Fly Like A Bird’ today, Thursday 13th July. 
 
Changing of the Guard is profound yet unpretentious, precisely performed yet playful in its approach. It’s a record that’s vibrant, warm and full of humanity, one that has the subtlety to soundtrack routine moments of our daily lives or to spark inspiration within more vulnerable times. His influences are evident: the plaintiveness of Anohni and the unorthodox balladry of Devendra Banhart, as well as following Leonard Cohen’s guiding principle that the cracks are where the light gets through. Yet amongst these echoes, this album can only be the work of I Have A Tribe.

Patrick O’Laoghaire says, “I’m not a man for straight lines. I’d have made a bad architect. If I designed buildings they wouldn’t last long but while they were standing I’d hope there was plenty of space for love in them. For a while I wanted to be a carpenter and construct things well balanced and solid and secure. But after a while I swapped rulers and measuring tapes to come back to song-lines. 
 
“There’s no straight lines in a song, there’s only song-lines. A song's shape you can play with and it changes all the time. It can shape itself to fit the room it's being sung in. It changes shape to embrace whomever it's being sung for. So in that sense, everybody in the room has a part and an effect on the song being sung. 
 
“I haven’t travelled in straight lines myself and I tend to resist the notion of beginnings and endings. I’ve had the fortune along my way to play with musicians whose songs and whose ways I've loved for a long time. It’s a fine feeling, to share a tune with a musician who moves you, and I’m grateful. I sat down with Feist once and she said to me, ‘Let's write a song, but let’s pretend it’s already written; Let’s see what happens if we start to sing, and trust the song will make itself known.’ So we started to sing, and it turned out, it wasn’t pretending at all- the song was there in the room waiting and all we had to do was listen and translate it into words and notes and song-lines. And this is the way I tend to write songs. It’s not writing at all really, it’s more like listening. If you listen close enough there’s a song there and if you listen closely to a song there’s love in it somewhere.”

The new single ‘Fly Like A Bird’ neatly encapsulates the album’s many charms. His voice - all tender feeling and gravelly soul - floats above a jazz-tinged chamber folk song which provides an ambience of such intimacy you feel as if you’re eavesdropping through the studio door. Which actually isn’t so far from the truth.
 
As Patrick explains, “I had no idea that this song was actually being recorded. A man stuck his head out of a studio and said he was looking for someone to play a piano so he could check if he had the microphones set up correctly. So I sat down and played and sang a tune. Afterwards he said, ‘I hope you don't mind, I recorded that.’ And he played it back, and another man passing by heard it and said, ‘Hey, I like that, mind if I add some trumpet?’ And then it was done. It was only afterwards that I realised they were both musicians who's playing I'd been enjoying for years: David Chalmin [Thom Yorke, Rufus Wainwright] and Trevor Hagen [Bon Iver]. I never knew what they looked like.”

The majority of the album was recorded over the course of several sessions with producer Willi Sieger (Josef Salvat) in Berlin, with some moments recorded live with a full band in Dublin. Another renowned collaborator is featured on the album in the shape of Conor O’Brien of Villagers, who contributes trumpet to the recent single ‘Teddy’s Song’. The set also features another previously released track in the shape of ‘Oh Man’. Collectively, ‘Changing of The Guard’ sees I Have A Tribe demonstrate a masterly command of songcraft with a timeless set that reaches back to somewhere distant and at the same time, lands in the now.

Patrick O’Laoghaire A.K.A. I Have A Tribe
 

'Changing of the Guard'tracklist:

Changing of the Guard 

Cafe 

Teddy's Song 

Vitruvian Man 

For Bringing us Home 

Fly like a Bird 

Sweet Day 

Oh Man 

Sunshine 

Songbirds