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Hometown: DUBLIN CITY,IRELAND, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Influences: BILL HICKS, MORRISSEY, TOM WAITS

Website: http://www.nialljamesholohan.com

Our Story:

ATTACHED BELOW IS THE OFFICIAL NIALL JAMES HOLOHAN / dark prince of pop ARTIST BIOGRAPHY DETAILING NIALL’S INFLUENCES,WHAT HE WANTED TO BE AS A KID ..WHERE HE’S MADE THE BREAKS THUS FAR AND WHAT HE PLANS FOR THE FUTURE ..ALL OF THAT.
THOSE OF YOU WHO KNOW NIALL KNOW HE’S A HUMBLE MAN SO WE’VE BEEN CAREFUL TO EMBARESS HIM WHERE WE COULD!!


PAST

“an accomplished songwriter” - HOT PRESS 2003

Alive, well and kicking in the youth of every generation is a vital energy & unbridled passion that has the potential to move masses and change the world as we know it .Every new generation picks a voice that offers them an alternative to that which is omni-present and yet full of holes and an artist that gives them something to identify with -- something to prove to them that the unsupported angst and empathy they feel is not only normal but necessary for the survival of the soul.
From Dublin,Ireland ..Niall James Holohan is that voice.
Born in 1979 on the south side of the other dirty old town,
writing & recording (with the assistant of his dad) as early as his 10th birthday.

“I never held a mike I didn’t like”

- so it’s no surprise Niall owns a rich voice (he says he inherited from his mother) that sears with the kind of effervescent vitality that only youth can produce.

Holohan's foundation building 2002 & 2003 were spent sorting out the men from the boys,recording demos,gigging & promoting his work through both independent & mainstream press & radio as well as documenting & publishing some 1000 original of popular song which reveal holohan's unique musical vision & his ability to translate pain & suffering into the fulcrum of his art.
Posing as the cunning mister president in the summer, he held the great satan up to ridicule before the world while managing to commit eleven more releases to his own LA FABRICA ARTS INTERNATIONAL label before the year was out.Of all the precipitously emergant solo artist in the continuing renascence of the self-assertive tradition none have equalled nialljamesholohan, a compound of spontaneity, candor, slicing wit & an uncommonly perceptive eye & ear.
Through tireless live performance the dark prince of pop had blazed a trail for post-genre artist the world over.

So ..you may ask ..what brings us to him here sitting in a city cafe with the sprawling back catalogue stretched out behind him & his tea & the Daniel Johnson record underneath his arm?

The answer to that question lies long & travelled somewhere in the corners of Europe Niall has been to and dusted over the past couple of years (Brussels, Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, London & Madrid) & also in certain parts of the states (Boston, New York, Austin & San Diego) where he has often been everyone's friend, occasionally everyone's enemy but most important proudly introduced himself each time as a new figure on each particular scene, leaving sometimes days, sometimes weeks later, with a notebook full of words & e-mail addresses ,a fat head full of memories of the exitement that inevitably surrounded the last of his appearances in each town with scenes of ardent fans singing his praises a constant throughout the long and winding tour.


PRESENT

“far more than a singer ..he is a presence
his songs are smashes ..every one”
- AUSTIN CHRONICLE 2004

The reasons for this are subjective of course but as it is my job to observe ..Niall’s talents take many forms.
He is indeed a compelling singer as can be heard on all of his 15 releases to date - stretching as far back as his albeit dated debut record "the boy when" (recorded as a document of teenage suburban melancholy in his house in South Dublin in 2001) -
A composite of some of the best singers in the past twenty years he is also a songwriter of increasing versatility.

But since his return to Dublin to record ‘the boy when’
trawling through the crooked way of all his old notebooks, photographs & tapes, Niall has been growing a fast experience hungry rate ,eagerly discovering what it means to be Niall James Holohan - the performer - for which there are not enough adjectives.

In these performances there is a marked change from his early work (‘DRIVING BAREFOOT‘ // ‘EVERY BELGIANS WORST NIGHTMARE // ‘HERE COME THE PLANES’ ep)
When previously you could see a different Niall show up on any given night, now you get it all with no apologies,
An extraordinarily original single entity, tied at the heart.Driving, witty, caring, angry, threatening ..we witness the creative act of the performer who revels in it's magic which gives him the power to seduce, to degrade, to elevate and to expose those emotions and those people he has both left behind & await him in the future.
Even though we hear brushes not only with personal hero and self-proclaimed "rejected unknown" Daniel Dale Johnston (Niall's recording of Johnston's ‘sun shines down on me’ appeared on tribute album 'hi how are you?' released on Valient Death in 2002) but also with Waits, Dylan, Pavement, Morissey, Johnson, Cotton Mather, Neutral Milk Hotel, Brittish Sea Power ..even Ani di Franco and more.
We soon realise there is nowhere else you can hear a young solo artist perform such a wealth and depth of music & there are surely more dimensions to come.
For this - all of this - is the continuing surge of a complete individual, a young man growing free rather than absurd on the road to recovery and candor that makes Niall James Holohan
A.K.A. the dark prince of pop so powerful, so personal & so important an artist ..


FUTURE

“vulgar,raunchy,heretical and irresistible
the dark prince of pop is subversive music genius”
- BELFAST TELEGRAPH

Still,enough of interesting curio and ‘look what he can do‘
2005 is upon us and now's the time for real action.
Do you dare shock and disturb?
With a sound drawn of everything, colouring outside the lines of genre or sometimes simply ignoring them - with sharply observed & superbly informed lyrical cries against the degenerate conformism, Holohan is like Pip in the house of Miss Hamilton, tearing down the mouldering curtains that have shielded the subject of these songs from the bright and healthy daylight for too long, uncovering some hard truths with a big ol’ grin.His gift for composing and delivering those songs is a purely poetic pursuit and something he has regularly described as “a way of life”
As a founding member of the critically acclaimed
FRESH BLOOD FOR THE EMPTY HEADS
collective, Holohan’s prowess found an encouraging & light hearted home to flourish in (taking in all manner of dives,holes & prisons along side ..amongst others ..JINX LENNON // KEITH MOSS // PETE JOHNSON // MARC CARROLL // RONAN LEONARD “THE MAN WITH THAT HAT” & STANLEY SUPER 800) but recently Niall’s been admitting a new horizon, often talking of the constraints of being the resident acoustic troubadour & billing his latest release (revoltingly titled “A BEAUTIFUL CORPSE”) as his final lo-fi record and the last he’ll make alone.

And I think I know why.

On Holohan’s preceding 14 releases it is clearly evident to this journalist, albeit through the static and low-fidelity recordings, that a brilliant songwriter was emerging. It was the release of this record which marks an end to the lo-fi approach & creates an easy listening (by his standards) bridge to next year’s long awaited ‘commercial debut’ “CATTLE OF FISH” with which
Niall & his band plan to successfully capture both the hi-fi quality of the studio as well as the intimacy of Holohan’s own previous recordings.
It is certainly set to be the dark prince’s most focused & conceptually complete release to date yielding songs of brutal honesty & ingenious storytelling which will bring us a bit closer to this undeniable talent.

But ..hey ..the time still remains for you
to discover Holohan’s amazing budding talent for yourself.

He is more than a dab hand in the pool that combines well-crafted lyrics with melodies that are reminiscent of every one of our teenage pop experiences.He will inspire love & anger for the city you live in and love and anger for the two sides of yourself that simultaneously limit you and make you fly.

It is a rare thing for an artist - particularly a musician - to yield a discernable point of view and nialljamesholohan’s body of preparatory work (which is colossal for a man still shy of his mid twenties) could be described as visionary, moral & extraordinarily active.
With diverse and triumphant industry showcases at HARD WORKING CLASS HEROES (DUBLIN),SOUTH X SOUTH WEST(TEXAS),IN THE CITY(MANCHESTER) and NEMO (BOSTON) & a recent BBC MUSIC LIVE appearance under his belt ..it looks as though the awesome fearless song writing talent & searing live performances of the dark prince of pop are set to find an ever increasing number of devotees in the coming months.
This luminous and talented young artist who above all things wants to be heard has fast established himself as one of Ireland's brightest prospects & now simply needs someone fighting his corner within the industry to take it to the inevitable next level & help push the culture forward into the light of open and honest expression.

NIALL most recent recording entitled \"A BEAUTIFUL CORPSE\" is availeable from NOVEMBER 2004 on www.nialljamesholohan.com

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