Ian Daniel Kehoe supports Daniel Romano

Dancing through his debut video in silver face paint and an assortment of wide shouldered sports jackets, Ian Daniel Kehoe appears somewhat like an apparition, an emissary from a brighter world. Secret Republic is a gorgeous pop song, a feast of analog synth surrounding a poetic evocation of a ‘spirit behind the clouds, talking backwards’. Anchored by a squelchy drum machine and sprinkled with buoyant melody, the song evokes an eternal summer.

Kehoe is better known to most as the serious, soft spoken sideman on the drums for The Weather Station, Julia Jacklin, and Andy Shauf. So it is all the more surprising when he reveals himself here as an eminently charming, eccentric, and confident pop music craftsman. Secret Republic was made in a home studio, where Kehoe played and recorded every note, and yet it doesn’t feel inward looking or introspective. The song is constructed as a crowd pleaser, a song to be played from bleachers or car windows, to soundtrack first dances or first kisses.

Ian Daniel Kehoe has always been a disciple of pop music, in the most traditional sense of the word.  A lover of Nick Lowe and Harry Nilsson and Queen, Kehoe adheres to the idea that music should be moved to, danced to, sung along to. To Kehoe, this is both the most serious thing in the world, and also not serious at all. And this is borne out on Secret Republic, a song to soundtrack a love either deep or glancing, a song for dancing or for thinking, a song that is both heavy and light as light itself.

These weeks Ian Daniel Kehoe is opening for Daniel Romano in the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden:

26/05: Groningen (NL) - Oosterpoort 
28/05: Amsterdam (NL) - Paradiso Noord 
29/05: Eindhoven (NL) - Effenaar 
04/06: Trondheim (NO) - Byscenen 
07/06: Karlstad (SWE) - Nojesfabriken 
08/06: Goteborg (SWE) - Pustervik 
14/06: Oslo (NO) - John Dee