There is something about West Cork. It may be the landscape, or the people. It holds a powerful attraction.
Katrina O’Kane was well aware of it as a child when, growing up in Belfast, her mother took her “down south” to visit a friend on their beautiful farm in Borlin Valley. Ever since then she had talked about her dream of permanently moving to West Cork one day. Unfortunately, her mother passed away before it was possible to realise that vision.
“I was studying Music Technology at South Eastern Regional College in Bangor (Co Down) where I learnt about music production, recording and sound engineering. After this I was DJ-ing and performing live electronica regularly in clubs and bars but my mother’s death made me stop and rethink where I wanted to be.”
She decided to revisit West Cork to see if she could fulfil the dream of living there one day. After the move, she spent two years wondering if she would ever return to music. During this period she found a teacher who taught her about the breath, emotions and herself in relation to the world. It gave her time to settle and process some of her grief while learning to face into and release some of the blocked emotions. This also helped to unblock her singing voice.
Eager to get back into music, she discovered the wealth of creativity in the West Cork community. “It was amazing to come across so many creative people,” she smiles. “Musicians, visual artists, designers, writers, holistic teachers. Sometimes all rolled into one person.” In 2019, she started a band called The Bella Coola. A funky phone recording on YouTube of the band practicing a song called ‘What Where Why Who?’ in a garage sounds promising, tight, and well-oiled. But this was just as the pandemic broke out and the band scattered, which forced, or allowed, Katrina to carve out her own path.
As a musician and singer-songwriter she has gone solo. Using a loop pedal and guitar, she weaves intricate tapestries of sound and rhythm underneath haunting, melodic vocals. Her main focus is on original material. An interest that extends far beyond her own songs. Two years ago she decided to showcase the local singer-songwriters that she found in abundance in West Cork, “People who pour their heart and soul into their music.” This led to a series of gigs in a celebrated pub called Arundels by the Pier, in super-scenic Ahakista, on Sheep’s Head. It also features more established songwriters such as Luka Bloom, Polly Barrett, Leevy, Emma Langford, Clare Sands, Rónán Ó’Snodaigh and Myles O’Reilly.
Katrina organises the concerts under the heading ‘KIN’. Not an acronym but a reference to kin, as in family, relations, kindred spirits. The performance space is an intimate setting, upstairs in the Loft. Each concert is allocated its own featured set designer, with the brief to creatively transform the small stage and delight the audience. There may be lights, flowers, coloured shapes, representations of animals or the suggestion of a woodland glade. Last October, the musician, illustrator and (coastal) forager Samuel Arnold Keane (aka Samyel) created a backdrop for Luka Bloom’s concert using seaweed.
On Wednesday, January 18, Kin will stage its first event of 2025, some two years after it kicked off. Molly O’Mahony, Rubymoon Hilliard, Brian Leach, Samyel, Ambient Pizza and Katrina O’Kane share equal billing. This “beautiful show of original music” is jointly organised by KIN and Rudaí Nua (Irish for New Things), which is the name of another series of songwriter sessions in a different location, O’Brien’s Pub in Ballydehob. As Katrina writes on Instagram (@kin.westcork), “Rudaí Nua and KIN have been hosting evenings to give space and appreciative ears to local or travelling songwriters and musicians at all levels, to share their new songs, their creativity, talent and passion in a nurturing environment.” Instead of in Arundels, the concert will be held in Ahakista Church, a larger venue. It is a fundraiser for the Rushnachara National School next door, in association with the Ahakista Community Association.
Molly O’Mahony (who is also spearheading Rudaí Nua, together with Samyel) will be playing on the 18th. Now 33, Molly is a prolific singer-songwriter who started her singing career in Dublin after college, at the age of 20, in the four-piece band Mongoose, which produced two albums. Locked down in the family home near Ballydehob during the pandemic, with her siblings, some of whom are also musicians, she started to work in earnest on her debut solo album, ‘The House of David’, which was crowdfunded and released in November 2022. It is still available on Bandcamp and sounds stunning. The songs were polished, as she played them live (to the extent possible under Covid) but they revealed their true colours in the studio. Her lyrics do not seem out-of-the-ordinary at first glance but she gives glimpses of an inner world to listeners that is both startling and very relatable. ‘The cogs of contrition working overtime’ (In-between) or ‘… the light illuminates something unseen’ (a line from her song Velvet Morning).
She applied a similar process to her upcoming second album, which was financed via Kickstarter, with the goal reached around Christmas.
Before going into the Black Mountain Studio in Dundalk to record with four musicians and a producer, in early January, she played Levis Corner House in Ballydehob on December 28. Apart from the occasional guest musician (including her sister), on the stage, it was just Molly and her acoustic guitar, played deftly and naturally, as if it was part of her body. Emotionally, she was utterly compelling; in control and at the same time, open and vulnerable.
That is how she wants to be, she says, speaking from the studio. “Big, big, big feelings inspire me. Be it love or grief or overwhelm or despair. These songs allow me to express myself.” Collectively, the audience seemed to track the same frequencies. Up to and including the moment when tears appear in Molly’s eyes, as she sings ‘Blue-eyed girl’, dedicated to her young niece, a toddler. “I can always feel when the audience is resonating with what I am putting out. And the more vulnerable I can be, the more rewarding is the experience for both parties, the audience and myself. It’s not always easy. That night in particular, I didn’t really have a choice. I felt such love for that little girl but also sadness due to the realisation that suffering is inevitable in this world. The interaction is like a conversation, an exchange between raw emotion and compassion. I try to reveal different aspects of myself. As a performer, authenticity is my main concern. Writing offers a kind of catharsis. I did Gestalt therapy for a while. The idea was to try to complete processes, finish unfinished business, and find some sort of closure. I guess that, for me, songs are a way to push through energy that is stuck.”
KIN and Rudaí Nua, Saturday, January 18, 7pm, Ahakista Church, tickets €15 https://tiny.cc/kinxrudainua
To join the mailing list, email kinwestcork@gmail.com
