Michael J. Sheehy

After the demise of Dream City Film Club in 1999, Michael J. Sheehy quickly emerged as a solo singer/songwriter. While many of his U.K. contemporaries were exploring melodic guitar rock or neo-prog, Sheehy struck out in a different direction; his dark and often darkly humorous, punk-spirited songs drawing on everything from early American rock & roll, blues, gospel, and country to the British hymnal tradition. Michael J. Sheehy was born in 1972 into a working-class Irish Catholic household in Kentish Town (North London), where pop music consumption centered on American artists like Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Marty Robbins, and Patsy Cline. Ironically, although country music would later exercise a considerable influence on his work, Sheehy disliked it as a child. While Elvis remained a firm favorite, in his teens Sheehy gravitated to glam rock -- particularly Marc Bolan and David Bowie -- and American proto-punk bands like the Stooges, rather than the homegrown class of 1976. Other artists to attract his attention were Marvin Gaye, Tim Buckley, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave. Sheehy began performing solo pub gigs in his late teens and, after three years on the London "toilet circuit," he met Laurence Ash and Alex Vald, with whom he formed Dream City Film Club. Following two full-length releases (Dream City Film Club and In the Cold Light of Morning) and the Stranger Blues mini-album, the group was at the point of implosion; apathetic audiences, an indifferent music press, a lack of radio exposure, and inevitable financial strain had taken their toll and contributed to the disintegration of relations among bandmembers. Taking advantage of a short break between the release of Stranger Blues and a tour in support of the record, Sheehy spent two weeks in the studio recording...