Eugene McGuinness
Eugene McGuinness is a man, is 23 years old, and from London (well, near enough). He’s been playing music since he was 15, and moved to study at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts after leaving school in Essex. Spent a fair bit of time in Ireland, too. Whilst at the LIPA, he sang a song for Paul McCartney once, at which Paul was heard to remark “wow, my entire solo output has been, comparatively, utter sh*te.” Eugene giggled to himself at the correctness of this statement.
Many a bedroom recording was made, and many of these were taken in to the studio to make up the basis of the boy’s first record, one of those ‘is it a mini album or is it an EP?’ things entitled The Early Learnings of Eugene McGuinness, which came out on Double Six records on the 6th of August 2007. Double Six is a subsidiary of Domino records, don’t you know. Sure, the results of his first time in the studio didn’t sell too much or dent the chart, but all what heard it deemed it top notch singer songwritery and noted to themselves to keep an eye on the fella.
One of the many excited onlookers were Domino records, a label sufficiently giddied up to the extent that they decided to offer Eugene a deal to release his next record through the label proper, rather than a subsidiary. Now, they do Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Animal Collective and stuff, so that’s a rather big deal. Eugene, predictably, stepped up to the plate with aplomb, releasing his debut LP on the 13th of October last year. It was called Eugene McGuinness, because it’s not only a very good name for a person, but a very good name for a very good record.
MYSPACE.COM/EUGENEMCGUINNESS85: According to the URL, there are 84 other Eugene McGuinness’s out there in MySpace land, but we know which one’s our favourite – these four songs wee all over any of the other Eugenes we listened to in our investigative quest.
EUGENE MCGUINNESS @ DOMINO: Now his label proper, Domino do a fine job of collating Eugene-related news, videos and sound on their official site.
BUY EUGENE MCGUINNESS: Eugene’s fine debut album available digitally for the paltry sumof £7.99, thanks to our partnerts at 7digital.
THE EARLY LEARNINGS OF EUGENE MCGUINNESS: “His brilliant voice reveals more with each listen. At a time when every man with a guitar is lauded as the new this or that, it’s refreshing to find a young talent whose aim is to sit apart from everything else that’s going on...” – Michael Cragg
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