Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

Since 2014, Karen Cowley has been known as one third of acclaimed alternative pop outfit Wyvern Lingo – but over the last year or so, with the band taking a hiatus, Karen has penned a new series of songs under the moniker Krea.

Fuelled by nature and full of imagery, her new project has seen her awarded a prestigious music bursary by the Arts Council, as well as a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.

Emerging from that period is The Callows, Krea’s debut, four-track EP set for release on July 13.

Inspired by the flat grasslands along the Shannon – and in particular Shannonbridge on the Galway/Offaly border, where her mother hails from – Karen writes about the Irish landscape with care and attention to detail. It is no surprise to hear her explain the extent to which the EP was informed by the places around her.

“Connemara actually had a big influence on me for this EP,” she recalls.  “I ended up demoing a lot of the stuff for my artists’ bursary application in January of 2022 when I was in Connemara for the month. I finished some of the songs up there and the application was successful which was brilliant.

“I think place has a huge effect on me. If I hadn’t done that – if I hadn’t gone away and put the head down and had the quiet of the countryside, I don’t think I’d have been able to do it the way I did it… I’ll hopefully be recording some of the songs I wrote [in Paris] soon.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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