Adrian Crowley

Hello my name is Adrian Crowley.Here's a brief history of what I do. In 1999 after a year spent living and performing in Toulouse, South France I recorded my first album ("A Strange Kind") in a Dublin city house and self released it in Ireland in July of that year.It was a very low key affair with no formal distribution but some of the local music papers took notice.I tried my hand at playing guitars, harmonium , alto saxophone, piano,rabada on the recordings.
The flickering, low flying super 8 video for the opening song 'Capricorn' became a regular on the (now discontinued) music video programme 'No Disco'.This was thanks to the beautiful and sadly missed Uaneen Fitzsimons who one afternoon phoned me up to say she had received my carefully packaged video tape which I had sent to the TV studio in a moment of self assuredness.
Then one day in 2000 I picked up the phone (I actually hate speaking on the phone) and called Steve Albini and asked him if he's like to record my next album.Someone had passed on some of my music to him.Anyway he said 'Yes absolutely'.I had the idea of recording an album in a live setting.At this stage I had begun playing gigs with the incredible cellist Kate Ellis and the remarkable drummer Thomas Haugh (who now makes music under the alias of 'Hulk').We got Arts Council flights and headed off to Electrical Audio in Chicago.I was a bit nervous to be honest and the session came at a time of personal unease but Steve was super nice and when we started on the first day's recording it was clear that all the stars were aligned in our favour.We recorded and mixed the album in five days.We just set up and played.So all the drums, guitars, cello and vocals went down to tape simultaneously.I hadn't planned on doing the vocals live but listening back to the tracks we decided to keep them the way they were.
I called the album 'When You Are Here You are Family' after seeing tiny graffiti on a wall in New York after I had spent the day wandering around taking photos in Soho.(I only noticed the writing when I developed the photos a few weeks later)
Shortly after this time Ben Goldberg from 'Ba Da Bing!' Records contacted me and subsequently released 'when you are here you are family' alongside a reissue of 'a Strange Kind'.Then in 2003 I headed out on tour in The USA with Sarah Fox playing bass and Kate ..o.We did about 14 dates mainly on the East Coast.Some people who played with us on that tour were Greg Weeks (Espers), Kurt Heasley (Lilys),Mazarin,Fern Night, The Eyesores, The Black Swans,Animal Collective.Also for part of the tour we had extra band members in the form of drummer Otto Hauser (Vetiver, Espers) and Jesse Sparhawk.Irene Trudel at WFMU invited me to do 2 sessions in as many years.She has continued to be one of the most supportive people.
Then in 2004 I recorded album number 3,'A Northern Country'.This was mostly recorded in my house and my sister's place after she had moved all of her furniture out getting ready to move house. It also came out on Ba Da Bing! and saw a UK release on Misplaced Music home to records by HOOD, LOW, Simon Joyner, Charlie Parr and others.Since this time I toured with Hood in Spain and Portugal, Charlie Parr in the UK, Damon & Naomi in USA, James Yorkston a few times in UK & Ireland,opened for Jose Gonzalez, Howe Gelb,Badly Drawn Boy, did a month long UK tour with Adem played Greenman Festival 2006, Homefires, Homegame (Fence Collective) twice , Pitenweem Festival ...
Then some time last year or so ,in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine Ryan Adams mentioned my name when talking about some of his favourite things that people might not have heard.
SOME REVIEWS OF 'LONG DISTANCE SWIMMER'
"Smart lyrics and a sense of gentle melancholy make this a perfect January listen, with tracks such as Walk On Part and Theft By Starlight unassuming triumphs"
**** The Daily Express
"On his fourth album, this great Irish songwriter continues to creep under the skin and behind your defences, his hushed songs, spare lyrics and diffident baritone detonating with real impact, for all that they arrive by stealth and without the slightest suggestion of an imminent explosion. Crowley deploys restraint as a deadly weapon, the self-recriminating Leaving the Party merely a repeated guitar figure and mumbled, mournful singing, which gives the eventual entry of added instrumentation, rhythm and ghostly backing vocals incredible force. The sawing and swooping strings on Walk on Part (“Of all the bedrooms in this town, you walked into mine”) create a similar frisson. This is a wonderful album."
**** THE SUNDAY TIMES
'A striking grace and dignity'
****DAILY MIRROR
'A gem of an album but not one for a party'
**** SUNDAY MAIL
**** METRO
"A high intensity collection of acoustic musings that suggest Van Morrison singing with Red House Painters"
THE GUARDIAN
"The shivers begin to run up and down from the moment Crowley starts singing Bless Our Tiny Hearts, and you get the sense that you're in the presence of one of the year's most beguiling collections of songs..Long Distance Swimmer elevates Crowley to a completely different class"
**** THE TICKET (IRISH TIMES)-album of the week.
"Emphatically lovely"
NME
"Stately melancholy with a glistening grace"
Q magazine
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