:: Biography ::
~ Fia Rua ~ 
Hello folks and welcome to my website. Fia Rua (Eoghan Burke)
was born in Caragh Co.Kildare in the winter of 77. My first intrument would of been the drums when I
was 15, playing Nirvana covers with my school friends. I always had a guitar around my room and started
learning chords, while writing lyrics and singing with bands. In my late teens I became interested in
traditional and folk music such as Planxty aswell as listening to rock bands. When I was 19/20 I wrote
my first songs on guitar and did my first gig in the Happenny Inn open mic in Dublin. I went to Australia
and did a few open mics over there and on my return did a support slot with Liam O'Maonlai in Red House
Newbridge (now burned down). I moved to Galway and started doing gigs, and running a songwriters night
in a pub called An Gob Fluich (the wet mouth).
After gigging around the country supporting people like Sean Tyrell, The Chalets, and Kíla (most of the acts I supported were not aware I was playin, but it looks good) I decided to record my debut album. The sessions took place between Nov 2002 and March 2003 with Ross Rooney in 6yo studios here in Galway. I had done a few e.p.'s so I had a good idea of what I was after, and Ross was a real asset, indroducing atmospheric electronic and bass to the sound. I got my freinds Nicola Williams and Bushy to add their talents aswell as the legendary Squelch on evil vocals on the bonus track and by March we had 14 tracks I was, and still am, very proud of. The album was launched in April 2003 and was called Feeding the Hunger. The reviews were very possitive and it got a limited amount of airplay. The most important thing for me was the fans of my music seemed to love it as much as myself. Unfortunatly it didnt get much promotion or distribution, I did everything myself which is a difficult journey. Somewhere around 2004 I changed my stage name from Eoghan Burke to Fia Rua (red deer), no big deep story here, just needed a change. It turns out that the deer is a very significent figure in Celtic mythology so there must be something.. It was a tough time there for a while trying to figure out the next step following the album. I got into effects for a while and introduced Fergal Walsh to the act who played keyboards, effects, bazuki and guitar. I finaly started to find my way and got more into an organic sound using other musicians to build the sound up. Over the summer of 2005 I started hanging out with some trad heads around the town and rediscovered my love of the music (not that it was ever gone),I brought people like Chris Capewell a Dublin based fiddler from Shefield, James Haughey a drummer from Kildare, David a drummer from Ibiza, Des on bass from Galway, Nicola Williams on backing vocals and Fergal Walsh into the live set up and finally feel like I'm creating the music I want for my next record which should be ready by the end of 2006. The gigs have been great fun recently and hopefully it will only get better. Please check the gigs page for upcoming dates. In May 2007 Fia Rua returned to 6YO studios to record what has become a single (More Magic) release with 3 songs. Further recordings are expected with a second album release coming soon..... In 2008 Ive been giging more than ever, playing high profile gigs such as the Electric Picnic and creating a very exiting live act. Ive also done a video for More Magic with Dom Browne which was launched in Kildare. Ive recording projects lined up and hope to to a bit of gigging abroad too with a second trip to Switwerland coming and a trip to Isreal in the pipeline. Tóg É Go Bog É
|