Finglas songwriter is more than a name

FINGLAS singer/songwriter Ian N Brennan is determined to make it as a solo artist, but it isn’t easy to stand out when you share a name with a Grammy winning producer.

Aged just 24, the Northside Ian has just released his debut EP and has lots of time, and plenty of talent, to make a real name for himself.

Led by lead single ‘Game Over’, Keep The Tape Rolling is a musical EP journey into the life and times of Brennan, who is going it alone after a very successful stint with Dublin rockers, Future Phantoms.

After three and a half years as the band’s lead songwriter, and an EP that went all the way to #2 in the Irish iTunes Rock charts, Brennan wasn’t enjoying himself and decided to breakaway from the talented quartet in 2015. 

He originally considered quitting music altogether, but after a friend convinced him to cover for her support act, she accidently launched what looks like, and what more importantly sounds like, a promising solo career.

“When the band ended I was heartbroken,” Brennan told Northside People.

“I was like ‘I don’t know if I want to do it anymore’, but what happened was my friend was playing a gig in Portobello and her support act let her down and she asked me to play for 20 minutes.

“I said ‘okay I’ll do it’, because I kind of still had a few ideas lying around from the old band.”

Over a year later and Brennan has his new EP on streaming service Spotify, and plans to shoot a music video for a single ‘You and I’.

Brennan hates coming up with concepts for music videos but understands their importance in today’s industry.

“If you’re going through Facebook or Twitter or any of the social media sites, if you see a link that says ‘here listen to my music’, you’re not going to click the link,” he explains.

“Where if it’s a video, I can view it, I can visually see and hear it, so I’ll watch it.”

Brennan will be opening for Dublin rock band Late City Edition at the Opium Rooms on Friday April 15 with tickets available for €7 from eventbrite.ie.

Jack O’Toole