27-07-2025
Behind the music - Padraig Cooney & Bedtime Now
Photo credit: Eoghan O'Brien
Pádraig Cooney & Bedtime Now have released their new single, The Hardest Thing. We asked Pádraig the BIG questions . . .
After seven years in rock bands Autre Monde, Skelocrats, and Land Lovers, Pádraig Cooney & Bedtime Now is the new project from the Popical Island founder.
Formed in late 2024, the quartet of Pádraig (vocal and rhythm guitar, Ross Hamer (bass), Danny Carroll (lead guitar), and Dónal Walsh (drums) recorded their debut album with producers David Tapley (Tandem Felix) and Daniel Fox (Gilla Band).
Recorded in Sonic Studios, The Hardest Thing marks Pádraig's return to earthier influences like Neil Young, John Cale and Warren Zevon.
Speaking about the new track, he says "I am drawn to the sound of records made in the 1970s, especially a certain strain of antagonistic singer-songwriter, and music fitting that description informed the production choices that we made".
Bedtime Now's debut album will be released via nascent indie collective No Effort this October and the band make a rare live appearance in Anseo, Dublin on 20 September.
Tell us three things about yourself . . .
I am the only member of my extended family who did not become a professional footballer.
I am blessed with a full and luscious head of hair.
I have worn glasses since the week after Roy Keane's Ireland debut v Chile in 1991, as at that game my dad challenged me to read out the writing on the tricolours around the ground and I struggled pathetically in the effort.
How would you describe your music?
It usually arises passively, i.e. I get a tune in my head and go from there. Sitting down to write a song from nothing is not something I have ever done well. It can be played on wooden instruments and electronic gadgets alike. I work very hard on lyrics.
Richard Thompson, Warren Zevon, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Randy Newman, Brian Eno, John Cale... aul lads from yesteryear like me.
What was the first gig you ever went to?
Oasis in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in 1996.
What was the first record you ever bought?
I was given a voucher for Christmas and used it on R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People, Out of Time and Monster in one gluttonous moment in HMV in The Square, Tallaght.
What's your favourite song right now?
Shirley Collins and The Albion Band doing Claudy Banks from 1971. I don't know many current songs but Hamer Place's Gerry's Retired from a couple of months ago is a banger.
Favourite lyric of all time?
There's no answer to this but here's one that tickles me, it's Dermot, Dermot, Dermot, Dermot by Groom from their 2014 album Bread and Jam: "I went to the National Gallery Where I met up with Tom and Valerie, We started talking about Tom's salary, And some other kind of mundane things, And then talked turned around to Dermot, And how every day he's becoming a doormat, Wouldn't be surprised if he'll be losing his job soon, He's only got himself to blame Dermot, Dermot, Dermot, Dermot, What's to become of Dermot? He's a real nice fella, yeah he's totally sound until the moment that he's not around, So I left the National Gallery, Said good bye to Tom and Valerie, Made my way up there to Merrion Square, And who'd I meet, but Dermot, there, Hey you know I was just talking to Tom and Val, And if you ask me I don't things are going so well, Wouldn't be surprised if they'll be breaking up soon, They've only got themselves to blame Dermot, Dermot, Dermot, Dermot, What's to become of them, Dermot? They're real nice people, yeah, they're totally sound, Until the moment that they're not around."
Walking out on Love by The Breakaways.
Here.
Alan Corr
