18th July 2008
Father Eugene’s Diary / Blog #1
Well, its been a very busy few weeks since the signing with Sony BMG on 23rd April ‘08. After the excitement and interest in the “deal” we returned home to our respective Parishes and other responsibilities in the Diocese (Down & Connor) and were each of us swamped by media interest. We had calls from local radio stations, Vatican Radio, Dublin based radio stations and French radio… all very different to what we usually face on an average day of the week. After the hype of media interest we were able to settle and look at our diaries to establish possible recording dates when we would all be available. That was an interesting exercise in itself. Each of us thought it would be fairly easy to grab a few days in June and July without much difficulty.not so! As we come towards the end of the academic year each of us have to dovetail our plans to suit the various schools where we are either Chaplains (spiritual advisers) and/or Chairs of the Board of Governors. This is made all the more complicated if a new school appointment has to be made if a teacher has retired and has to be replaced. There is a lot of paperwork to complete and dates to chisel into the diary… so, as a result, we found we were very busy doing much the same thing but at different times so that made it a little more difficult to organise our dates… difficult, but not impossible!
We have been inundated with good wishes from our brother priests, from parishioners and from many friends in the music world.it has been truly overwhelming. We are delighted at the reaction to signing with Sony BMG and it has really buoyed us up in moments when we have asked ourselves. “what have we done.” Many who know us well have said we should have done this years ago… of course, it had been our intention to “record” sometime, but since talking about it (some few years ago) we just never got around to it.so many other things intervened.it took Sony’s interest to galvanize the whole thing and make a small dream come true… it was our intention to make a record for posterity .But imagine what we felt like when Sony popped up out of nowhere and expressed an interest!!! Fantastic.unbelievable!
So what about the CD? Well we have been busy establishing the keys of the songs and we’ve made preliminary “tapes” of the songs we think might end up on the CD. We have met with the recording team headed by Mike Hedges (what a guy) and we’ve had great fun just singing the songs, playing with interpretation, dynamics etc etc. One mega demand on each of us has been getting used to “the cans” i.e. the headphones, which are essential to any recording. Imagine talking with your hand cupped to your left or right ear.your hear yourself in a totally different way and you hear others differently too. It has been a whole new experience and we have found it challenging to say the least. That said, with practice we are getting used to the experience and learning from it at the same time. In the midst of all this we are still working in our parishes as before, there are schools to visit, the sick to visit in hospital and at home, our families to visit.and everyone is hugely delighted that we are “making a CD” in time for Christmas.it has provided all who know us with a real “lift” and everyone is looking forward to the launch no one more so than “Daddy” O’Hagan who celebrated his 93rd birthday on 17th June. We had a family “brunch” at home with him on the big day i.e. a full Irish Breakfast, then he had a little rest before he cut his Birthday cake around 5.00pm washed down with a little sparkling white wine mixed with orange juice.a Bucks Fizz. A wonderful family celebration! We have a couple of days in the diary next week to continue “recording” and that will bring the CD nearer completion… watch this space!!
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