Damien Rice

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Damien Rice
Damien Rice at The Troubadour, 2003
Damien Rice at The Troubadour, 2003
Background information
Birth name Damien Rice
Born December 7, 1973
Origin Republic of Ireland Celbridge,
County Kildare, Ireland
Genre(s) acoustic, folk, indie
Website www.damienrice.com

Damien Rice (born December 7, 1973) is an Irish alternative folkpop singer most famous for his album O.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Rice was born in Celbridge, County Kildare. He was originally in the band Juniper, a rock band which released the singles "The World Is Dead" and "Weatherman". On the eve of recording their first full album for Polygram in 1999, Rice became disenchanted with the commercial label and quit. His Juniper bandmates became Bell X1. He moved to rural Italy where he played acoustic guitar, wrote songs, and busked around Europe until he was able to form a band and get coffeeshop gigs in the Dublin area. Exploiting a lucky connection to David Arnold, his second cousin, Rice was able to record O, for which he won the Shortlist Music Prize in 2003. The other members of the band are Lisa Hannigan who sings and occasionally plays guitar and bass; cellist Vyvienne Long; percussionist Tom Osander (aka: Tomo) a member of the 90's jam band God Street Wine; and bassist Shane Fitzsimons.

In 2004, "Cannonball" was re-mixed for UK radio to make it more 'radio-friendly'. Rice later was reported to be very unhappy with it, saying to Tom Dunne on PetSounds (Today FM) that he did not "...really like it". He stated that he had allowed the remix to go through only if he signed a contract that would forbid anyone from ever remixing one of his songs ever again.

Rice recorded an old Juniper track, "Crosseyed Bear" (originally titled "Jewellery Box"), for the new War Child album. He spent 2004 and 2005 recording the follow-up to O. The new album, 9, was released in Ireland on November 3, 2006 [1] and North America on November 14, 2006 [2].

Rice's song "The Blower's Daughter" features prominently in the 2004 film Closer.

In recent years, with the increase of digital cameras and mobile phone cameras, Rice has stopped mid-song to ask the audience members to simply watch the concert rather than record it. At a gig in Toronto in 2006, he changed the lyrics of his song, "I remember" from "I remember it well, taxied out of a storm, to watch you perform, and my ships were sailing" to "I remember it well, when we used to watch concerts, not through a camera, please turn, them off please".[citation needed]

[edit] Activism

Rice is involved in a human rights campaign to free Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is presently being subjected to her third house arrest in Rangoon by the Burmese military. Suu Kyi has been confined to her home since September 2003. Rice and Hannigan recorded a charity song, campaigning for her being set free, called "Unplayed Piano". [3]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

O (LP)

1 February 2002
IRE #3
U.K. #8 (3x Platinum)

U.S. #114 (Gold)
9 (LP)

3 November 2006(ROI)
IRE #1
UK #4
14 November 2006 (US)

US #22

[edit] EPs

[edit] Singles

  • "The Blower's Daughter", September 2001, #27 UK
  • "Cannonball", May 2002, #32 UK
  • "Volcano", October 2002, #29 UK
  • "Woman Like A Man", March 3, 2003
  • "Moody Mooday" / "Lonelily" (vinyl only), April 19, 2004
  • "Lonely Soldier" (featuring Christy Moore), June 2004
  • "Cannonball", July 5, 2004 (re-release), #19 UK
  • "The Blower's Daughter", December 13, 2004 (re-release)
  • "Volcano", March 21, 2005 (re-release)
  • "Unplayed Piano", June 20, 2005, #24 UK
  • "9 Crimes", November 27, 2006, #29 UK
  • "Rootless Tree", February 19, 2007

[edit] TV appearances

[edit] Collaborations

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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