Charismatic singer / songwriter John McKeown releases his debut single ‘Candy Girl’ via Beatroute Records on 3rd May 2010. ‘Taken from his forthcoming debut album, ‘Candy Girl’ is produced and mixed by D’Mitri Tikovoi (Placebo, Ed Harcourt, The Hours).
This enigmatic musician and performer has a diversity of real life experiences, careers and hardships behind him that he brings to his music which resonate with emotion, realism giving him a genuine cross-generation appeal. There is an unwritten and frankly nonsense maxim that all Next Big Things must be young and vibrant and thrusting. John, it is safe to say, is vibrant and thrusting with the best of them but he also just happens to be 49 years old. “By the time you’ve reached your 40s,” he says, “you find a level of communication within yourself that doesn’t have to be cynical or world-weary, but that still has something useful to say. I’ve had a pretty full life, I think it’s fair to say, but my best years have by far been the ones between 40 and 50. Why? Well, I’ve done so many more things that weren’t solely focused on being hormonal and 25 – and I was hormonal and 25 for long enough, trust me. If I can still perform and sing and write a good song at 49, why shouldn’t I?” He can, he does and he will. It’s unlikely you will hear a finer debut album all year when it is released in the summer.
John’s musical ventures started in earnest aged 12, after being given a guitar as a child, this is when he began song writing and also formed his first band. Despite experiencing acclaim for the quality of his writing John became disillusioned with the idea of music as a career. In 2007 John’s passion and innovation alongside the lure of writing and making music convinced him to start a band again He co-founded and fronted ‘Hero’ and before they had even recruited a drummer, the band had been booked to support The Stereophonics on a 4-week European tour. The tour gained the band respect and admiration for their songwriting and live performances across Europe. However in 2008 they had a typically un-acrimonious split without releasing a record. And then John decided to go solo…..
