Nine years after viral debut, 24-year-old Dylan James Tierney launches his debut album Old Misty Road at Ironworks Inverness live gig with line-up of local musicians
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Inverness singer songwriter Dylan James Tierney launches his debut album this week with a live gig at the Ironworks on Friday.
Though Dylan is just 24, it has taken a while – as by the time he was 15 years old, he was writing and performing his own songs. And a song he wrote and then played online in a video made in Inverness islands, went viral.
Dylan remembers: “It was a song called Do You Ever Think and that is where it really started.
“I did a video with a company called Nut Productions that we made down the islands when I was about 15 years old.
“I only wrote that song the night before!
“I was kind of nervous about playing it at that session because of that, because I’d only just written it.
“It was the first time a song put me on the map, to be honest.
“When it got put up online, I remember at school it was just madness.
“Everyone was coming up to me, all the teachers were playing it in school, everybody was just… It went quite well!
“If I remember rightly we did a gig in – was it Nelly Dean’s? an old pub in the town. We did a fundraiser night, or something. A lot of people came to that gig – it was a very long time ago,” he laughs.
Now Dylan is releasing his nine-song album Old Misty Road, named after one of the first songs he ever wrote.
To make it, he worked with local musician and producer Marc Clement, with the album recorded at a leisurely pace over about a year.
“It was just before the first lockdown I was introduced to Marc who has produced the album,” Dylan said.
“At the time I was speaking to the musician Ben Hesling and he said he would like to introduce me to Marc. I went up to Marc’s home studio and we got the crack and decided we would start recording together.
“Originally, I wasn’t sure if we might do a wee EP.
“But Marc and I had a discussion and he had asked me how many songs I had. I told him I probably had enough songs to record two albums!
“Then I sat and just played quite a lot of my songs to him and he thought it was probably worth doing an album rather than an EP.
“I thought it would be really nice to release an album – and that it would make up for all the time of not putting music out.”
Dylan enjoyed working with Marc, he says.
“Marc said at the start that he would suggest things as we were recording, but he would always ask me what I was wanting. And Marc’s ideas really worked with what I was thinking as well.”
On final track Paradise, it sounds as if there is a big choir on backing vocals – was there?
Dylan said: “Marc hears some harmonies I don’t, so he hit me with some of those, notes I didn’t even think I could reach!
“These were some really high-pitched ones and to be honest with you, it was a wee bit uncomfortable. But Marc said to me ‘I know it will be uncomfortable but just try it! If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work!’ So I did and there must be a good four or five harmonies on that track – and that’s the benefit you get of working with a top class producer!
“And I was really surprised about how some of the tracks on the album turned out. We would just record and I would go home and then Marc would send me the file and say ‘Have a listen to this’, and I would put the headphones on and be like ‘Wow!’. I’ve only been playing the songs by myself, but to hear the progression of them in the studio is amazing."
Dylan has already had two singles out from it – Brand New and Lovers Hold Hands – in the run up to this week’s launch of Old Misty Road.
Now he is set to play songs from the album at the launch gig, some with Marc on piano, at the Ironworks on Friday when lots of local musicians will also play for a special night at the venue which is due to close in the near future to make way for a hotel which will be built in its place.
“Everyone will have about 20 minutes and the idea is I will probably be on last,” Dylan explained. “Me and Marc Clement will be a two-piece for the night, he will be doing some piano. Marc will be playing about three or four songs with me and then we will break things up by me doing a few songs by myself.
“It is going to be a busy weekend for me,” Dylan revealed. “On Saturday I’ll be going back up to Strathpeffer Pavilion to support Callum Beattie there again.
“He has asked me back as a special guest. We were both also on the bill for the Amy Macdonald gig in town a couple of months ago.”
Though Dylan’s career was originally launched by that first video filmed in Inverness Islands, his most recent ones have taken him farther away.
And if he would have an excuse for feeling a little nervous about presenting his album live for the first time on Friday, he possibly needed much more courage to fulfill an idea Sean Stuart, who filmed the video for Brand New, had.
“We went out to the West Coast to Loch Maree. We did some filming at the start of the day, me walking through the trees, me getting stuff for the fire by the water. But we had to wait until it got a wee bit darker before we could go back and light the fire. So me, Ben Hesling and Sean went for a chippy and still had a lot of time to kill.
“We actually filmed a music video for the final track on the album, Paradise, in the time that we had to spare."
Then it was time for Dylan to plunge, fully-clothed into the loch…
He said: “We went back and lit the fire and I had to get the scene of going into the water right first take.
“I had to do two dry runs, then the third time I had to walk to the end of pier, turn round and fall straight backinto the water. I had to nail it first time!
“The midges up there were unbearable. Half the time I was shooting that video we were all getting eaten alive – but it turned out really well!”
Though his debut album is only just out, there are already plans to get back into the studio to record more of Dylan’s bank of songs.
“I feel I know this album is good, but I feel my next album will be better,” laughed Dylan.
“It’s a good headache to have!”
An Evening With Dylan Tierney And Friends is on Friday, October 7, doors open at 7pm (music starts at 7.15pm). Joining Dylan on the bill are: Robin Abbot & Ashley Mackay; Iain Mclaughlin; Sara Bills & Colin Cummings; Craig Robertson; Jake Bolt & Lauren Mackenzie; Kenna Ross, Jemma Tweedie; TJ Bawden & Joshua Mackenzie.
You can buy the album on https://dylanjamestierney.bandcamp.com/ and Spotify.
Keep in touch: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tierney.dylan and on Twitter: @dylantmusic
