Piano man
Musician and producer Cian Sweeney is going back to his roots with a project he always knew he should do. It's just taken him some time to get to that point in time.
Collaborating and finding common ground with other musicians is something that has been at the forefront for musician and producer Cian Sweeney, 33, since he went down the route of becoming a professional musician. As 1000 Beasts, he worked with musicians such as Elaine Malone, Rachel Mae Hannon, Shiv and Toucan.
Originally from Glanmire, Cian musical journey saw him become a full-time producer as 1000 Beasts (the ‘beasts’ are meant to represent each artist he works with, with a goal to reaching 1,000, although Cian admits its a lofty target). He was learning the trade and touring with other musicians.
Before the pandemic he was teaching himself the ropes of production and around 2018-2019 he went full-time.
“I ended up being like a musical director. I was touring around the world with a bunch of people for a few years, but my aim was always to be producer,” Cian said over coffee recently.
The pandemic brought changes, both drastic and small, but it was also a time when Cian decided to go back to his roots.
“This (new) project is me trying to get back up and play piano again, to be honest,” he says, and it was as if he always knew.
He recalls a gig he did a few years ago where he was able to try that concept.
“I did a gig with a poet called Felispeaks in Cleere’s in Kilkenny. She basically did an hourlong poetry thing and it was all improvised piano,” he says,
“It was a lovely gig and there were all sorts of magical things,” he recalled. “The audience is with you because it’s completely unscripted, and you let them know that from the start. In the first couple of minutes, everyone’s a bit like, ‘What’s going on?’ But then something clicks, and the entire room shifts into a certain headspace and the entire room comes with you and then you go on a journey.”
Although he enjoyed that gig and continued making music for as long as he could, Cian was never able to fully capture its essence. As a result, he only released music under the name 1000 Beasts.
New house style
Whenever he’d go back to his mother’s house in Glanmire, he’d play the piano until 1am or 2am, losing himself in the instrument. He would be the only person to hear it, and it would go unrecorded.
But this summer he moved into a new house in Greenmount with his partner Laura and the new space, and new place has brought new music.
With the new house came a new piano, and Cian picked up on the piano where he left off in Glanmire. His partner Laura picked up on what he was doing.
“She’s like ‘that's great, you need to record that’”.
AAnd that’s where the concept for As If I Always Knew came from. “I thought, alright, let’s set up some mics, film everything as we do it, and that’s it. That’s kind of why it’s called As If I Always Knew—it ties back to the concept.”
Piano fingers
Cian learned the piano not long after he learned to walk.
“My mother was a musician. She was a primary school teacher, but she was a music teacher as well, so we were given music lessons for as long as we can remember,” he said.
“I did the grades, so like, I remember being obsessed with Johann Sebastian Bach pieces and stuff when I would have been 10 and 11 years old.”
On starting secondary school he moved on to guitar influenced by drummer Cian O’Sullivan.
“We were listening to all the Kerrang! stuff, so I would have played a load of that then. But then I almost kind of stepped away from the piano for a year or two, went back to it when I was about 15 or 16 and then went really hard into it.”
Growing up in Glanmire, Cian took classes locally at the House of Rock, a local open house for young musicians to jam with each other, run by Dave O’Connell.
“I suppose one of the great things I did was the house of Rock in Glanmire,” he said. “Dave actually taught me guitar at the start.”
That was only the beginning of his musical journey. From there he enrolled in MTU Cork School of Music, where he graduated with a degree in classical music and from there he got into producing, and saw success under the moniker 1000 Beasts.
Success and frustration
However, Cian grew frustrated at the lack of hearing his own voice in the music.
“I probably shouldn’t say this, like the collaborating is amazing, but it can be frustrating at times because I might have a vision for what I want to do but you are beholden to your collaborators,” he said.
“Sometimes, you'll want to collaborate with artists that are quite established, but the more established the artists you try and collaborate with the more tied your hands are and in a sense like they might have a different release schedule. They might have different influences. So it means you can't do what you want to do.”
Finding his own voice is something he feels he wasn’t particularly encouraged to do while studying music.
His experiences growing up and attending music college shaped his musical output. At the time, he felt intimidated by the culture around him, by what his peers were doing and the expectations of what he should be pursuing. Now, though, he feels more confident and grounded in his identity. For this particular project, he sees it as a true expression of his own voice on the piano.
Several of his tracks have been streamed millions of times on Spotify. He’s hoping that this project brings him closer to his audiences.
“I've been lucky with 1000 Beasts in that it has streamed really well, but it's incredibly impersonal. Several of his tracks have been streamed millions of times on Spotify. He’s hoping that this project brings him closer to his audiences.
My dream for this project is, in a year or two to be able to play lovely small venues around Ireland and collaborate again, collaborate with different artists, spoken word or singers, but have the shows very intimate with a connection with the audience.”
He wants live performance to play a big part in where the project goes, because as he says “1000 Beasts is the complete opposite, it was all online,” he says.
But he’s not walking away from the online world completely, rather he’s going to use platforms such as YouTube and Instagram to build a community and start putting on gigs.
“I will put the stuff on Spotify, but I'll wait until I have like fully EP fully out and done and I'll put it on there or whatever, but I'm not really focused on it.”
As he says, everything online, especially on TikTok moves at breakneck speed and As I Always Knew is about slowing things down. To the point of well, being on your backside.
“My first concept was to have all the audience lie on a yoga mat, and then almost do like a sound back with the piano. So like people just close their eyes, and you just play for an hour, and that's kind of what I want to do for the first run of gigs, if I can find a venue that will let me do that!”
“If I was to sit down at the piano at one or two in the morning, this is exactly the type of music I would make, and that was kind of what I was trying to capture with this,”he said.
Mindful music?
Cian believes that sitting at the piano and getting lost in the music brings a sense of mindfulness that he has always known, though he recognises it’s not something everyone experiences
There’s definitely a market, or audience for all things mindfulness, but will people vibe to this?
“It's really interesting, especially during the pandemic when people started talking a lot more about mindfulness and meditation and I never really understood what people were talking about,” he said.
“Until at some point it all kind of clicked with me. I've never really had to worry about that because I play an instrument. So I think anybody that plays an instrument knows that if you get lost in the instrument, time stands still, you could be there for two hours just playing it and that is probably the definition of mindfulness so like I've always known that.”
“And then I realised that people who don’t play an instrument probably never had that experience. It all kind of clicked for me a few months or years ago, where I thought, ‘Alright, okay, that’s why people are talking about mindfulness so much, it’s something I’ve always been doing.’”
If anything Cian’s leaning into his instincts with his new musical direction and he’s worked with a wide variety of artists and musicians that he knows his way round and how to cajole.
“I love working with really talented of people that will do stuff that will blow my mind and again, I would love to do that with this so like in a year or two I'd love to work with different singers, who I think would come up with melodies I never would have thought of, we improvise. work with visual artists and create live experiences and kind of a community where I'd like to go with.”
What are your favourite pubs in town?
I never was much of a drinker. Coffee is more of my thing, so I’d have to put Myo Cafe top of the list. Nothing like sitting on the quay with the sun on your face.
What are your favourite live venues?
St Luke’s is my favourite in the city. Anything the Good Room lads do tends to be great. I loved seeing Ana Palindrome & Fixity up on the roof of North Main Street Car Park for Culture Night for instance. Those are the gigs we need.
What new bands are on your radar? (Cork and not Cork)
The Cliffords have to be up there. They make great music. I’m also working with Projective; a new neo soul seven piece from Cork and I’m loving their vision. Honourable mention to DeCarteret too, divine vocals and the fact she’s getting Sam Healy to perform on stage with her now is quite the combo.
Who is your favourite ever musician?
Tough question. James Jamerson for the bass tone maybe and the influence he’s had on music. I’m in the thick of learning lots of Debussy however, and the depth and colour of his music is wonderful. So I’m going to say he’s my favourite composer.
Who is your favourite ever footballer?
Stevie G. As is Stevie Grainger. If you’ve never seen him up in the Glen at 8pm on a Wednesday night you’re missing out.
Where is your favourite place to go on holiday?
Anywhere I’ve never been before.
You can keep up to date and follow Cian Sweeney on his various social media channels here.
