After a great visit to Berlin in September I decided it would ha good idea for a flying visit while an route to Prague for the St Patrick's Day Festival.  I reached out to a venues I’d found on the trusted Facebook and booked a small gig in Frollein  Langner for the 14th March.  I got in touch with people I’d met the last time I was over, along with some of the folk from Cantus Domus – one of whom, Adrian, very kindly offered to put me up for the night.

I booked an early flight, which always seems a better idea when booking than when actually getting up at 4am! With a delayed flight, on a cold wet morning in Dublin, I eventually got to Berlin and got to meet my old work buddy Rob for lunch. Much catching up was done over lunch and Rob tried to convince me that moving to Berlin is the way to go!

Artwork by Joanna Bain

The first event in February 2018 focused on the experiences of eight female fronted acts who are making waves in the music industry. Women are under-represented at all levels in music, and Selfmade wanted to use their first event as a platform to hear from women who have pushed beyond this barrier. Selfmade know their stories and experiences will be valuable to people of all genders. The evening was a mix of artwork, acoustic performance, discussion and zines showcasing an intersection of music from Irish artists and celebrating the work behind the scenes. The event feature pieces from contributing illustrators, as well as a panel discussion chaired by vocalist, Jess Kavanagh (BARQ).

SelfMade is organised independently by artist and music enthusiast, Joanna Bain, and Julie Hawk (HAWK / Veta Records) in collaboration with a collective of Irish musicians.

I was delighted to be asked to play at the IMRO seminar for Festival and Touring during Trad Fest where we got to listen to and meet festival and musical directors from Merlefest, Milwaukee irish Festival, Celtic Colours Festival and Philadelphia Folk Festival!

I was very excited to have been invited to play Schottenfest in Vienna - getting there proved a little difficult however! I had booked a flight with Air Berlin from the island of Sylt for the morning of the 2nd December - and a week before that I got a message from Shane in Vienna asking me if Air Berlin had provided me with an alternative flight, as they had gone bankrupt and would not be flying me!! 

After a lot of calls, emails and internet searching - I settled on taking a train after the gig on Friday night to Husum, there I would be collected by a lovely couple, Sabine and Sterni, who gave me a bed and brought me back to the airport at 5am (even though I had never met them before!), getting a train to Hamburg and catching my new flight to Vienna! Thanks to Mel and Ulf for helping me get sorted! 

Arriving in Vienna, I was met at the airport by Michael, who was raving about the previous night's gig - making me very jealous I couldn't arrive earlier!  He dropped to my hotel (The RubyMarie) so I could get a little nap before the gig later, and try catch up on some lost sleep!  I was collected later by Dave who I kept missing in dance of lifts, lobbies and receptions, and we headed to the venue where I soundchecked and met more of the Schottenfest team - a nicer bunch of people you could not wish to meet! 

The gig started with a gorgeous set from Doug Andrew - a US native but Vienna dwelling singer songwriter.  I was up next to a room of incredible listeners, which was scary in the dark - but more so when they brought the lights up!  Dave Arcari closed out the night with an absolutely rocking and stomping blues set! 

Sunday was closing day - with an open session in the Ruby Lissi hotel and so much talent from the festival participants to festival volunteers and Vienna Songwriting circle members.  We played for a few hours and then the closing party was another massive sing song that started at 8pm and finished at 2am. We had the greatest night of music and friendship!