For over 50 years, Paul Brady has proven his worth as a highly-proficient artist and performer, who is creatively fluent in many genres, with songs that blend innate melody with lyrical strength. His song-writing style was once described by U2's Bono as "the iron fist in a velvet glove."

We are delighted to have Paul Brady on this episode of the IMRO Podcast to talk to Tony Clayton-Lea about his life, his music, his recent memoir, and how he has successfully maintained relevance, in an ever-evolving music industry. 

Ahead of the release of a much-anticipated second album, and a run of gigs in North America culminating at SXSW, Zara caught-up with Ailbhe Reddy for this episode of The IMRO Podcast. 

Direct from New York City, we hear all about the process, hard-work and passion that has gone into Endless Affair - which is set for release on March 17th. 

Endless Affair follows the critically acclaimed, and Choice Prize nominated debut, Personal History from 2020. They talked about the different approaches Reddy had with those albums, and hear about whether she felt the pressure of the dreaded 'difficult second album'.

For our first member spotlight of the year, Zara Hedderman speaks to Constance Keane and Roisín Nic Ghearailt of the 5-piece feminist post-punk band M(h)aol.

Following the February 3rd release of their debut album 'Attachment Styles', they discuss the themes and experiences that are engrained within their lyricism, the wider impact of their work and their approach to the music industry as a whole.

International touring often raises a complex range of challenges for artists, now more than ever in a post-Brexit and Covid-19 world.

Moderated by radio’s Paul McLoone, this live discussion will help explore and demystify the process with advice from a broad range of voices working in the sector:

Ciaran Walsh – Culture Ireland

Maya Cullen Petrović – Jawdropper Music

Mick Roe – Faction Records

Constance Keane – Fears / M(h)aol

Jump to Topic

1 minute: Introducing panellists

3 minutes: Ciaran Walsh explains what Culture Ireland does

8 minutes: Maya Cullen Petrovic on setting up EU and UK tour dates

12 minutes: VISA Issues for US touring

18 minutes: Carnet - what is it, why does it matter?

20 minutes: Rising Costs for Smaller Venues

23 minutes: Selling Merchandise on the road

26 minutes: Demand for Culture Ireland support

32 minutes: Advice on Culture Ireland applications

34 minutes: Online Shows and Streaming

40 minutes: Challenge of smaller venues disappearing

44 minutes: Should artists focus on EU ahead of UK touring?

46 minutes: What can we learn domestically from EU promoters and venues?

48 minutes:  Panellists general advice on international touring

Further information available here: https://imro.ie/event/imro-live-panel-discussion-international-touring/

Last weekend at the 21st birthday celebrations of Other Voices in Dingle, host Tony Clayton Lea sat down with three of the five acts that took to the stage for this year's IMRO Other Room. 

How did they get on? Listen in to hear from Galway-born hip-hop/rap artist Celaviedmai, Dingle-native and ex-Walking on Cars frontman Pa Sheehy, and Corey & Fatboy of Ballymun's very-own neo-soul, R&B, jazz, & hip-hop group Bricknasty.

In this month's episode of The IMRO Podcast, Zara Hedderman sits down with Conor O'Brien of Villagers. Over a cup of tea, they spoke about everything from the last twelve years and five albums of his career - including the evolution of his song-writing and artistry as a whole. 

In this episode of The IMRO Podcast, host Zara Hedderman speaks to Ronan Kealy a.k.a. alternative folk artist Junior Brother about his brilliant second album, The Great Irish Famine, which came out earlier this month.

True crime has become one of the most popular genres across film, TV, podcasting... however, there aren't many albums that come to mind that take the details of an unsolved murder and transform them to music. 

In this episode of The IMRO Podcast, Dublin-based musician and songwriter Keeley Moss joins our host Zara Hedderman to share her passion for all things music - biopics, books, as well as the key influences that inspires her work as lyricist, lead-vocalist and guitarist with her band Keeley. 

On this episode of The IMRO Podcast, host Zara Hedderman joins the wonderful Paul Noonan (Bell X1, HousePlants, Printer Clips) to chat all things life, career, inspirations and most importantly, favourite desserts.

In this series of The IMRO Podcast, join our host Louize Carroll as we explore the topic of mental health and mindfulness in music. 

How do we work through our own growth? How do we cope? How do we cope well? And what are the kind of things that get us through tough times in this industry? Taking us away from the statistics and numbers and placing us directly into the lived experience of people.

On this episode, Louize speaks to guests from Minding Creative Minds which include, founder, Dave Reid, director, Kim O'Callaghan, Musician, Shobsy and industry professional, Siún Moriarty.