Belfast born singer-songwriter and producer Gareth Dunlop has been recognised as an accomplished talent ever since the BBC tipped him as ‘one to watch’ in 2010. In the decade since he has released several singles, a handful of EPs and one album that have been musically eclectic yet have all showcased his highly soulful voice, with several of his songs going on to be used in the hit TV series ‘Nashville’, and other shows and movies such as ‘Lucifer’, ‘This Is Us’, Bones’, ‘The Best Of Me’ and ‘Safe Haven’.
Inspired by icons such as The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Tom Waits, plus a dash of Pink Floyd, Dunlop picked up a guitar aged 14 and soon began performing covers and original songs in live venues around Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. In 2011 he won a Young Songwriter of the Year award in Belfast that not only earned him an invite to collaborate with seasoned writers in Nashville, an experience he has repeated many times since, but it also enabled him to tour the US extensively.
Having spent so long away from Belfast following his initial breakthrough, Dunlop decided to record and co-produce his 2017 debut album, ‘No. 79’. A winning fusion of folk and soul, the album earned critical acclaim and was playlisted on several Irish and UK radio stations, while in Ireland it earned an Album of the Week slot on the prestigious RTE1.
Dunlop subsequently established Sycamore Studios in Belfast, where he has recorded his forthcoming new album ‘Animal’, while also producing albums by friends and fellow singer-songwriters including Foy Vance’s ‘Signs Of Life’ and Lee Rogers’ ‘GAMEBLOOD’ (due for release in Spring 2022). All three artists will be on tour together in 2022, with Dunlop also on additional duty as a member of Vance’s live band.
Dunlop’s lead single ‘Look Back Smiling’, from the forthcoming ‘Animal’ evokes memories of the 1980s yet exudes a timeless laid-back ‘60s dream pop.
Speaking about the single, Dunlop states:
I wrote it as a message of sorts for my son. In these weird pandemic years, I had noticed him retreating into himself. He’d missed out on most of his first year at school and bypassed an important year of making those first connections with would-be friends. It set my head off in a direction of wanting him to grab life by the horns and be as much of a kid as possible before the real trials and tribulations of life seeped in. In a time when it was hard to be a normal kid, I was desperate for his young sense of wonder and childlike fearlessness to rule his heart. When I was young I couldn’t wait to grow up, and now I’m older I’d give anything to go back and be a kid again.
To coincide with the March 2022 release of ‘Animal’ Dunlop will embark on a Spring tour with Foy Vance commencing in late March, with dates scheduled across the UK and the USA in May.