Ad

Latest Posts

Goss Meets…up and coming singer-songwriter Keith Cullen

Not the typical singer-songwriter story, Kildare native Keith Cullen packed in his Sales and Marketting company to follow his dreams.

From meeting Beyonce to bumping into Kelly Osbourne Keith is rubbing shoulders with all the right people…

How difficult was it to leave a cushy job and take this risk into music?

I definitely was a bit naive. I had a very successful business and I was like I don’t want to do this anymore and I gave myself a three year time frame and now we are here, really only getting started on year five so you know with the new management deals and record deals, things are moving. I thought that would happen way before.

There was a part of me that was naive but then when you’re learning an entire industry from the bottom to the top, I don’t know if anyone can do it in 36 months so for me a little bit was to figure out who I was as a singer, a musician, as a public figure and then the other side of it was I had to figure out the business model that goes behind music because you can have all the talent in the world but if you don’t make the right choices and you don’t have the right people around you, the team or the management structure, it can go very bad very quickly.

Keith Cullen music

Tell about your label and record deal?

I’ve just very excitedly finished the album in Los Angeles in March and for me that was a huge thing. It’s probably my highlight because I was sitting on all these songs and continuing to write.

I’m working with a guy, a producer called Bob Cutarella, a two time Grammy award winning producer, 160 platinum selling record, he is just amazing to work with. He’s worked with everyone from Michael Jackson to one of his first record Celine Dion, Chaka Khan, Josh Stone, Sting, all the greats.

When you walk into the studio Whitney Houston is hanging on the wall, Michael Jackson hanging on the wall, the people who your parents brought you up on, the music you heard in the house, they were all my mam and dads influences and ours. They just translate, you get stuck hearing them records when you are a child.

Keith Cullen

Music: Keith Cullen and Phil Quartararo hanging out | TWITTER

Was it a hard decision to leave Ireland and go to the States?

I haven’t left, my home is here. I get to travel a lot. It is a difficult decision because you miss the people who are really important in your life. LA can be scary, New York can be scary. When you come from a small town, people think Dublin is big but when you are in LA there is 18 million people, when you are in New York something like 8 million visitors a day so that’s scary.

You kind of have to climatise into Ireland. People here are so friendly and they talk to each other but when you are in New York it is so different, when you are in LA it is very different.

I haven’t made a conscious decision to leave Ireland, it’s just you go where the work is essentially and for me amazingly it’s in America so I’m going to roll with that and also it’s nice to wake up and its sunny every day.

Back to the music, you said pop is your thing, what is your inspiration?

In the States they call it honest pop, adult contemporary and pop is one of them words that people have their own perception of. I wouldn’t say I’m technically a pop artist. It’s not costumes that come into play with me or big productions.

It’s about a song and a vocal and it’s about connecting to people so it’s a singer/ songwriter vibe. Saying that its very radio friendly and its very commercial and when you do go down a commercial road people automatically put you into that pop category.

The music for me was just about being really honest, being really true to who I was in my experience and then finding that balance of being able to connect with other people because I just think music is one of those beautiful things that allows people to connect..

Keith Cullen Hozier

Irish: Keith met Hozier at his gig in America | TWITTER

You have met Hozier what was he like, what other stars have you rubbed shoulders with?

Hozier is amazing. If there is one persons footsteps I want to follow in terms of his career and credibility even the grammys and Annie Lennox and he is a lovely person, very humble and I performed with him when he was just starting off before America, lovely guy, listened to my sound check, and was like ‘Oh my god I can’t believe that’s coming out of one person’ about my voice which was really nice for someone to say.

Then in the music business here you grow up with certain bands. Gavin James was around, Kodaline are around, The Script were starting off a couple of years ago, Keywest, Bressie, I gigged with all of them bands so you know them and you know how hard they work and for me that’s a sign of how successful they are going to be.

I’d say the person I was most excited about was when I met Beyonce. She was here at show and I was lucky enough to have been introduced to her and I don’t normally get star struck be people but she is just so beautiful and she’s ridiculously talented.

She put on a show and we met her afterwards. She just looks amazing and she sounds amazing. I asked her ‘what are you doing in Dublin?’ and she turned and said ‘We are going to go bike riding’ and in my mind I was thinking no way are Beyonce and Jay Z going to get on bikes and cycle around Dublin and low and behold the next day there was pictures of them cycling to the Guinness factory.

Beyonce performs her 'I Am' Tour in The O2 Arena, Dublin, Ireland

Star struck: Keith met Beyonce at her gig | VIPIRELAND.COM

 

I thought “wow she is a woman of her word”. People respect people here and leave them to their own devices.

Another funny story, my sister was pregnant and we were staying in the Shelbourne, she had her baby in Holles Street. It was the time of the crazy snow and Bono came over and introduced himself to Jennifer and said ‘hope everything is good with the baby, when are you due?’ and small chit chat and she had her baby the next day and he sent her flowers.

My godson came into the world with flowers from Bono which I thought was lovely.

In LA you bump into them all. Kelly Osbourne was at Hoziers show. Met her a couple of times. Amy Huberman was there at the time. You’re randomly sitting in a restaurant and my friend knows Jessica Albas husband and we had breakfast with her, that was surreal.

I find people that I meet in the music industry are very humble, it’s usually he people around them that are the agro ones, the ones who cause all the fuss, the artists are genuinely nice. I think people are people. I don’t treat people any different. For me just be courteous and respect people.

Keith Cullen Kelly

American Dream: Brian and Amy Huberman in the States | TWITTER

Tell us about your new song and how it landed in a new movie?

Say Something was the first song we wrote when we got to Los Angeles. And the first line is Everyone Here Is Selling Dreams.

It was kind of just what I was feeling at the time because when you are in the music industry you work so hard to get a break and people promise you crazy things and if one percent of them crazy things even come true you have a career for the rest of your life so it’s kid of just what we were feeling at the time and we were in the studio when the director of High Strung, which is the dance movie, some really big names in Sonoya Mizuno, Jane Seymore, the main choreographer from Strictly Come Dancing in America and they were in editing the director heard the song and he said he wanted it so it wasn’t even finished at the time but its in the movie and they emailed me, they’re using it for the trailer as well.

They have done the screening in London and in Los Angeles, they done it in New York, they were at Cannes Film Festival so it will be released at the end of August so hopefully everyone gets to see that soon. It’s a really current song that people can enjoy, it’s on sound cloud so people can have a listen. It is surreal and when you see your name coming up in the credits. It’s a start and it’s a great start.

You’ve done so much, what’s your plan now going forward?

Everyday you have no idea, the random stuff that comes on your desk. I think now we’re going to promote the single, I’ve a radio tour in the UK in August and then I’m back to the States at the end of August and then we really get down to the hard work, there is a plan that has to be put in place, a plan for the album to be released hopefully at that stage we will have release dates in mind and I will start touring over there and go from there.

The world is funny place at times so you never really know but I am confident with the team behind me and a bit of hard work and a bit of Irish charm we will be alright.

Ad

Latest Posts

Don't Miss