Joe Echo

Irish Singer/songwriter Joe Echo has this year already opened for Paul McCartney in Hyde Park, Paolo Nutini, The Script and has played at Oxegen Festival. He is going from strength-to-strength recently in his work with his continual touring, writing and recording.

Joe Echo has been described as having ‘one of the most extraordinary voices I’ve heard in a long time’ by Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody.

He is not only a strong performing artists he has also co-written the Grammy nominated song ‘Celebration’ for Madonna. Joe has also just finished writing the songs and even producing the soundtrack for the movie ‘Killing Bono’.

‘Killing Bono’ will be released on Paramount Pictures in march 2011 and Joe Echo wrote and produced in total 8 songs for the movie.

His other movie work includes recording, co-producing and performing the songs for Philip Ridley’s award winning dark fantasy movie ‘HEARTLESS’, starring Jim Sturgess.

He has recently re-mixed tracks for Thailand’s multi-million selling female artist Tata Young and just completed the recording of his first Joe Echo album.

Love Music; Love Life were lucky enough to have the chance to catch up with Joe Echo taking time out from his busy schedule.

If someone hadn’t heard of your work, how would you best describe it to them?
It really depends on the mood I’m in but possibly passionate dance infused with rock and roll, that can move your heart and soul as well as your feet.

What’s been your favourite gig you’ve played so far?
There have been many, but if I had to choose one it would be playing at the Ulster hall in Belfast. I’d seen so many of my heroes there, so to walk out on that stage in front of a full house was so great, great memories.

What do you feel is the most powerful song you’ve written?
This is a tough one. I have a song called ‘Sold Out Hallelujah’ which is more or less based how most of the organised religion’s in the world have made a mockery of the teachings they base their faith on. I suppose man is just programmed to make mistakes, sadly some of these mistakes are massive and affect the way the world is run. The Song means a lot to me and always goes down well live.

What genre do you feel most comfortable writing for?
I Don’t think to much about styles when im writing. I’m influenced by so many genre’s. When I was young it was all Metal Rock and grunge like Metallica and Nirvana, then I fell in love with Dance music like The Chemical Brothers. I just write a lot of music and the songs tend to pick the style/direction they want to go.
A lot of songs come together and develop over a period of time, the live gigs tend to beat them into shape and direction. If im co-writing with an artist, then the style tends to comes very easily.

How did it feel to write, record and even co-produce all of the original songs for new movie ‘Killing Bono’?
This was a dream come true for me.
I felt very comfortable writing to spec. The Director and Producer of ‘Killing Bono’ had a lot of input early on, but for the most part I could see their vision when I read the script, so I found it quite easy writing the songs for the scenes in the movie.
I co-produced the music with a friend Michael Keeney, who is a great musician and engineer.
All the music for the film was recorded and mixed over a period of about 6 weeks. It was great to work with the actors in the recording process and I was on set as music advisor which was great fun!

Do you plan to do your own UK tour anytime soon?
Yeah, I can’t wait to get out and do my own tour! I will be supporting quite a few bands in the UK over the next few months and all the UK festivals. I have just signed up with a massive agent called Steve Strange from Xray touring. Steve looks after many massive bands including Coldplay, Eminem and Snowpatrol, so it’s great to have the right team around me!

What can we expect in the future from Joe Echo?
The debut Joe Echo album will be released in March 2011.
I will be touring to promote the album, but im also going to be writing more for movie soundtracks and co-writing for other established artists. For me, gigging is what it’s all about, so I will see you on the road!

To find out more about Joe Echo, you can click here to visit his website or visit his MySpace page.