New solo album from Oliver Cole

Following the break up of Turn in 2006, Kells man Oliver Cole says he "watched a lot of TV". He'd spent the guts of 10 years writing, recording and touring with Turn, and their predecessor, Swampshack, and was feeling a little disillusioned. Throughout the TV-watching, Oliver was still writing, and knew the route to take was a solo record, but didn't know how to go about doing it. In 2008, following a chance conversation via MySpace with a German fan, and a swap of some unreleased songs for a box of sweets, Oliver ended up in Freiberg in Germany, with friend and producer Ciaran Bradshaw (Dark Room Notes, The Chapters, Subplots), in a studio owned by Philipp Rauenbusch, bass player with multi-platinum selling act Reamonn. They stayed there, living in Philipp's house, for three months, and the outcome of it was 'We Albatri'. Cole played nearly all the instruments on the recordings, but some old friends pitched in too, in the shape of Graham Hopkins (Halite/Boss Volenti), Paul Noonan (Bell X1), Nick Seymour (Crowded House), and even his old wingman from Turn, Gavin Fox. The title, 'We Albatri', is a wordplay on the plural of Albatros, a bird who, from the time of birth, flies solo. Quite apt for Oliver at the time. Gone too was the angsty sound of former days, now replaced by a fantastic pop sensibility, influenced the likes of The Shins, Brendan Benson, Elliott Smith and The Beatles. The songs found their way to Tim Parry and Jazz Summers at Big Life Publishing, who snapped Oliver up for a publishing deal straight away. Following this, Oliver found his way back to the stage, to try out the new material. As well as solo dates, he played high profile guest slots with the likes of Ray LaMontagne and Wilco, and still found time to play guitar with, old friend, Fionn Regan too. With the fruits of his labours, 'We Albatri', just after hitting the streets, preceded by the single, 'Oh My Girl', Oliver has finished a journey of sorts. Now to take it to the stages of the country - see www.myspace.com/olivercole.