The weight and beautiful melancholy in both his classical and contemporary work clearly draws on the folk tradition, while traces of punk-rock lend an acerbic bite.
Pat first started making guitar music aged 12 with friends he met at his high school in Northern Ireland. He later moved to Dublin, then on to Liverpool where he met Steve Pilgrim (Paul Weller’s drummer) and started a band called The Fools. Later they formed Smokey Angle Shades, a four-part harmony band with ex-747 members Ned Crowther and Fred Stitz.
Then, one sleepless night five years ago, Pat began playing the piano and hasn’t looked back since. The instrument now forms an integral part of his songwriting and has opened up new possibilities in his compositions.
Soon after Smokey Angle Shades fell apart, he began suffering from a debilitating fear of music known as melophobia. For seven months he would run past shops playing music, avoid bars and gigs, and completely stopped listening to anything at all.
He decided to address the phobia by writing his own compositions, which quickly became the only music he could listen to, and gave birth to his solo album.
Below you can listen to Pat perform a stripped down version of his upcoming single Friends, out on 29 October. The piano and vocal-only rendition accentuating echoes of the Great American Songbook tradition that flows through all of his work.
Friends is followed by The Ides of March. Watch our interview with Pat here.
Pat first started making guitar music aged 12 with friends he met at his high school in Northern Ireland. He later moved to Dublin, then on to Liverpool where he met Steve Pilgrim (Paul Weller’s drummer) and started a band called The Fools. Later they formed Smokey Angle Shades, a four-part harmony band with ex-747 members Ned Crowther and Fred Stitz.
Then, one sleepless night five years ago, Pat began playing the piano and hasn’t looked back since. The instrument now forms an integral part of his songwriting and has opened up new possibilities in his compositions.
Soon after Smokey Angle Shades fell apart, he began suffering from a debilitating fear of music known as melophobia. For seven months he would run past shops playing music, avoid bars and gigs, and completely stopped listening to anything at all.
He decided to address the phobia by writing his own compositions, which quickly became the only music he could listen to, and gave birth to his solo album.
Below you can listen to Pat perform a stripped down version of his upcoming single Friends, out on 29 October. The piano and vocal-only rendition accentuating echoes of the Great American Songbook tradition that flows through all of his work.
Friends is followed by The Ides of March. Watch our interview with Pat here.
