Jim Murphy is the creative centre behind the very talented Irish Roots/Rock band, Blue Fish Diamond. He decided to concentrate on a full-time career in music back in 2014 and his band have gone from strength to strength ever since. Jim describes the music as Inde/Folk but there are many other colours to discover in the songs and their excellent musicianship. Lonesome Highway wanted to get Jim’s thoughts following the release of their second album, written and recorded during Covid Lockdown.
When did you first start playing music?
I played traditional Irish music when I was young (the accordion and the tin whistle) but I gave it up in my ‘teens. When my eldest son was born, I found that I had more time on my hands as I wasn’t going out much anymore (!) so I bought a guitar and fell in love with it. That was 20 years ago.
Did you always want to make a career in music and who were your earliest influences growing up?
They say that there’s a link between maths and music. In my case, maths came first. When I left school, I studied to become an actuary and worked in the insurance sector for 25 years. In 2014, I made the decision to pursue music full time. I had been thinking about it for a few years but kept finding reasons not to do it but in the end I decided to take the plunge and I haven’t looked back since! I think that some of my musical influences can be heard in the music of Blue Fish Diamond – The Beatles, Tom Petty, R.E.M. and Paul Simon.
Can I ask about the band formation back in 2016?
When I finished work in 2014, I went to BIMM in Dublin where I did a four year degree in Commercial Modern Music. It was there that I met all of the band members – Shay, Laura, Axel, Matilda and Ronan. We played our first gig upstairs in Whelans in October 2016 and I still remember it vividly!
Your debut album, From Dark To Light, arrived in 2018. How long had the project taken before the launch date?
I started writing the material for the album in 2015 and in 2017, we went into Orphan Studios in Inchicore to record it (the studio has since moved to Wexford). The album was mixed and mastered by autumn 2017 and we released the first single from it in early 2018.
How did you find the media reaction to the album release?
We released a couple of singles before the album and then a third single at the same time as the album release. We got some great radio play for the singles including on RTE Radio 1 and some lovely write-ups about the album, notably one from yourself which we were very proud of. Hot Press also reviewed the album and described it as “essential listening for those who like their music powerful and heartfelt”.
The new album is now available, FROZEN STARS ON THE NIGHT, – how did you arrive at this interesting title?
The title is taken from the lyrics of the last track on the album Secret Bill. The song is about an ethereal spirit that’s woven through the fabric of life and the verse in question is:
“Snowflakes fall from a ledge / Hear his breath, its hollow edge / Frozen stars on the night / Secret Bill again”
The songs seem to focus on relationships and the quiet beauty contained in nature. Was there a specific pattern running through the songs as you were writing them?
The theme running through the album is one of human emotions. Each of songs deals with one or more emotions – love, anger, despair, hope … they reflect personal experiences and experiences of friends and family.
How did you find the last two years and all the frustration of Covid lockdown?
It was tough not being able to gig but we recognised a couple of months into the pandemic that it would be some time before we would be able to perform live again, so we turned our attention to writing new songs. During the periods when restrictions were eased, we’d race into the studio and record some tracks! Having the time to work on new material and refine our sound was definitely a silver lining and we would not have been ready to release our second album last year without the space that the pandemic provided. In fact, we’ve made significant inroads into album number three.
What is your approach to song-writing – is it sudden inspiration or melody first and words follow?
Some of the songs I’ve written have come quite quickly in a spell of inspiration. I learnt last year about a state of being called the “flow state”, where you suddenly find yourself immersed in a creative zone and come up with ideas that afterwards you look back on and think “where did that come from?”! I’ve also learnt that you can be waiting a long time for the “flow state” to arrive and so I also follow a structured approach to song-writing. I’m constantly making notes/recordings on my phone of lyrical/melodic ideas and I make time every so often to sit down and go through the various ideas and craft them into a song – a combination of creativity and process.
You are self-managed and I wanted to ask about the administration and management side of things. Do you enjoy being involved in the process of putting gigs together and making sure that everything runs to schedule?
To be honest, I don’t really enjoy the process of putting gigs together and the various other administration tasks but they need to be done! We played at a festival in the Iontas theatre in Castleblayney recently and it was a joy to just have to turn up on the day with all of our equipment, do our sound check and then play the gig that night.
Is it difficult to get your music noticed on the busy traffic of social media these days?
Definitely! There’s a lot of new music being released every week as, like us, many musicians were busy writing songs during the two heavy years of the pandemic. In addition to trying to get noticed above the crowd, it’s hard to get good organic reach on social media platforms since the various platforms moved to a “pay and play” model a number of years ago and so to get any decent reach you really have to pay for sponsored posts.
How does the band dynamic work in the recording studio?
We worked with the same producer, Gavin Glass, for the two albums we’ve released to date and he is also producing our third album. He’s great to work with, both in terms of the creative elements he adds to the mix and also the way that he gets the best out of all of us. Our approach to date has been to record the rhythm section together live with guide vocals and then to add various overdubs afterwards such as lead guitar parts, piano licks, redo vocals and so on.
What are your mid-term plans for the band?
We are currently in the process of organising an Irish tour to promote our latest album, which will take place in the autumn. We are also putting together some videos of recent live performances and have plans to make some concept videos for a couple of our songs. As I mentioned earlier, we have made good headway on album number 3 and our plan is to get into the studio at the end of the summer to finish it off with a view to releasing a few single next year and the album itself in late 2023. Watch this space!
Interview by Paul McGee