Fiddler On The Hoof
He’s the electric fiddle playing bad boy who claims Foals as an influence and found fame via-reality television. No, you haven’t seen anyone quite like Daithí Ó Drónaí before!
Roe McDermott, 25 Jan 2011
As I shake hands with Daithí Ó Drónaí, something about him seems very familiar. I’m ready to put it down to his passing resemblance to Justin Bieber until Ó Drónaí puts me straight. “Hey, I thought I recognised you. You taught me in the Gaeltacht!”
That’s depressing. I now not only feel old, but thoroughly unproductive. While my former student was off making waves on the Irish scene, garnering a huge following on televised talent shows and playing acclaimed sets at festivals like Electric Picnic, I seem to have spent the last couple of years doing nothing more than sitting around re-watching episodes of House. And while knowing the symptoms of lupus is incredibly helpful, I think Ó Drónaí’s skills may be slightly more transferrable in the long run.
Playing original compositions on an electronic synthesised fiddle, 20-year-old Ó Drónaí uses loop pedals and sounds to create complex melodies, breathing some much-needed life into traditional Irish reels. He even uses his Nintendo DS to get distinctive sounds for his music – hipsters, eat your
heart out.
“I played fiddle when I was about seven but gave it up at 13, because I thought it was just kids’ music,” he admits. “My auntie has taught me to play traditional Irish music so it was my background but then started playing bass guitar, because come on, at 13, saying ‘I play bass’ just sounds so much cooler!”
Joining up with some schoolmates who were equally eager to up their cool factor a few notches, Ó Drónaí played bass and guitar in a band for a few years, which he now refers to as his “hibernation period.”
“It was really a development period, I learned not only how to play music but exactly what music I loved, how to start writing my own stuff and just developing my own style and taste, really. And when I went to college, it all exploded, because there was so much space and opportunity to develop my own kind of stamp and style
of music.”
Constantly reeling off the names of bands and musicians from a huge range of genres and backgrounds, it’s clear that Ó Drónaí just breathes music, listing artists like Foals as huge influences on his style.
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