BALLYPOREEN, CO. TIPPERAPRY

1996 -

OVERVIEW Gemma Hayes is from Ballyporeen in Co. Tipperary. As a child she was surrounded by music. However, it was when she went to Dublin to go to university that her love for music took over. In fact, Gemma ended up leaving university to puruse her love of music. For the next few years she took a job in a launderette by day, and honed her songwriting skills playing the Dublin circuit by night. Despite audiences and critics instantly warming to her gorgeous melodies and haunting songs, she gradually grew tired of the restriction of the acoustic guitar and started to put together a band. Her vision to combine the singer songwriter elements of her acoustic work with the layered harmonic discord of her favourite artists like My Bloody Valentine. It's been this aim to combine the opposing forces of fragility and chaos that has remained central to her work since. Gemma eventually signed to Source Records early in 2001. As if mirroring Gemma's career path to date, her first two EPs revelled in the extreme forces at work in her music. The debut "4:35am" displayed her in a chilled acoustic setting. Songs like "Evening Sun" and the title track capturing the contemplative melancholia of the darkness before the dawn, and drawing immediate comparisons between Gemma and female songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez. Such comparisons however couldn't be further from the truth as the follow up EP, "Work to a Calm" proved. Here she could be found with full band exploring layered distorted harmonics. Indeed if there was an argument against her being placed in the role of the stereotyped image of the female songwriter, it comes on the stunning opener "Tear in My Side", in which she repeats the same lyrical refrain over and over, subsequently underpinning the full force of the melody. It's a mood song which paints a picture more vivid than the storyteller ever could. 2002 - Gemma is nominated for the Mercury Music Award 2003 - Gemma performs as part of the second series of Other Voices, Songs From A Room which was recorded in St. James Church in Dingle. The series is broadcast on RTE Television in the Spring of 2004. 2005 - Release of 'The Roads Don't Love You' [October] - Release of 'Happy Sad' single [11 November] 2006 - Gemma wins the Best Irish Female Award at the Meteor Music Awards [02 February] - Release of 'Undercover' single [06 March] - Gemma Hayes represents Ireland at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas [10 - 19 March] 2008 - Release of 'The Hollow Of Morning' album [02 May] 2009 - Release of 'Oliver' EP [13 March] 2011 - Release of 'Let It Break' album [27 May] - Release of 'The Dylan' EP along with Roddy Hart 2012 - Release of 'Keep Running' single [13 March]