The Metaphorical Boat Podcast Episode 08 - The Northern Ireland Music Prize 2018

The nominations have been announced for the 6^th annual Northern Ireland Music Prize, the annual award given for the best album from Northern Ireland over the past 12 months. This year’s ceremony, on November 15^th, promises to be the biggest to date. It will be held in the Ulster Hall for the first time, and in addition to the best album category, it will also feature new awards for Best Single (which will be decided by a public vote), Best Live Act, and the Oh Yeah Contender award for the best up and coming act. And for the first time, there will be a cash prize for all the winners on the night. 

The nominees in each of the categories are:

Best Album

And So I Watch You From Afar - The Endless Shimmering
Ash - Islands
Bicep - Bicep
Brand New Friend - Seatbelts For Aeroplanes
Ciaran Lavery - Sweet Decay
Girls Names - Stains on Silence
Hannah Peel - Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia
Malojian - Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home
Robocobra Quartet - Plays Hard To Get
Ryan Vail - Distorted Shadows
Snow Patrol - Wildness
The Wood Burning Savages - Stability

Best Single

Arvo Party - Liberté
Ash - Buzzkill
Brand New Friend - Girl
Cherym - Take It Back
Hot Cops - Decay
Joshua Burnside - A Man of High Renown
Kitt Philippa - Human
Robocobra Quartet - You’ll Wade
ROE - Hey Thomas
Rosborough - Burn Blue
Snow Patrol - Life on Earth
The Wood Burning Savages - I Don’t Know Why I Do It To Myself


Oh Yeah Contender Award

Cherym
Hand Models
Hunkpapa
Rebekah Fitch
Roe

Best Live Act

And So I Watch You From Afar
Brand New Friend
Robocobra Quartet
Ryan Vail
The Wood Burning Savages

To discuss the 2018 Northern Ireland Music Prize, the captain of The Metaphorical Boat, Christopher McBride, is joined on the podcast by Robert Brown, the editor of Northern Irish music website Chordblossom, to talk through all the nominees, and who we think will win each of the prizes on the night. Plus, find out what happened to the captain when he found himself sat beside the lead singer of Snow Patrol at a prior Northern Ireland Music Prize ceremony.

Listen or download now on Soundcloud, Google Podcasts or on Apple Podcasts:

The Metaphorical Boat Podcast Episode 07 - Ciara O'Neill

On each episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast, Christopher McBride, the Captain of The Metaphorical Boat, will sit down with one of his favourite musicians, and over a cup of a lovely caffeinated beverage and a snack of the artist's choosing (The Captain always goes for Battenberg. Always), chat through the artist's life, musical highlights, and most importantly, how many sugars they take.

Our guest on this episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast is Portadown singer/songwriter Ciara O'Neill, who talks about her 2nd studio album "Arrow", her early musical upbringings, and her experiences of writing and performing in Nashville.

Listen or download now on Soundcloud or on iTunes:

Find out more about Ciara O'Neill on -
Official | Facebook | Twitter | Spotify

The Metaphorical Boat Podcast Episode 06 - Runabay

On each episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast, Christopher McBride, the Captain of The Metaphorical Boat, will sit down with one of his favourite musicians, and over a cup of a lovely caffeinated beverage and a bun or tray-bake of the artist's choosing (The Captain always goes for Battenberg. Always), chat through the artist's life, musical highlights, and most importantly, how many sugars they take.

Our guest on this episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast is John McManus from Antrim/Belfast six-piece Runabay, who talks about the band's new single "Too Soon", how Runabay's live set has evolved, whether he prefers songs that come together quickly or slowly, and whether he'd like to see their music used in adverts.

Listen or download now on Soundcloud or on iTunes:



Find out more about Runabay on -
Official | Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp

The Metaphorical Boat Podcast Episode 05 - Darren Doherty

On each episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast, Christopher McBride, the Captain of The Metaphorical Boat, will sit down with one of his favourite musicians, and over a cup of a lovely caffeinated beverage and a bun or tray-bake of the artist's choosing (The Captain always goes for Battenberg. Always), chat through the artist's life, musical highlights, and most importantly, how many sugars they take.

Our guest on this episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast is Strabane singer/songwriter and member of A Northern Light, Darren Doherty, who talks about his musical journey, his first solo album "What You Do" and its spontaneous recording process, and his new band, The Heathen Choir.

Listen or download now on Soundcloud or on iTunes:

Find out more about Darren Doherty on -
Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp

The Metaphorical Boat Podcast Episode 04 - Beauty Sleep

On each episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast, Christopher McBride, the Captain of The Metaphorical Boat, will sit down with one of his favourite musicians, and over a cup of a lovely caffeinated beverage and a bun or tray-bake of the artist's choosing (The Captain always goes for Battenberg. Always), chat through the artist's life, musical highlights, and most importantly, how many sugars they take.

Our guests on this episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast is Belfast trio Beauty Sleep. Cheylene, Ryan & Aimee from the band dropped by to talk about their music, being inspired by art, playing festivals, whether they really are a dream-pop band, and "The Seagull Incident".

Listen or download now on Soundcloud or on iTunes:

Find out more about Beauty Sleep on -
Facebook | Twitter | Website 

The Metaphorical Boat Podcast Episode 03 - Gerry Norman & Son of The Hound

On each episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast, Christopher McBride, the Captain of The Metaphorical Boat, will sit down with one of his favourite musicians, and over a cup of a lovely caffeinated beverage and a bun or tray-bake of the artist's choosing (The Captain always goes for Battenberg. Always), chat through the artist's life, musical highlights, and most importantly, how many sugars they take.

Our guests on this episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast are two of our favourite local singer-songwriters. Gerry Norman, best known as the lead singer of A Plastic Rose, who is now recording under his own name, and Mick McCullough, who currently records as Son of The Hound. 

Listen or download now on Soundcloud or on iTunes:

Find out more about Gerry Norman on -
Facebook | Twitter | YouTube 

Find out more about Son of The Hound on -
Facebook | Twitter | Website 

The Metaphorical Boat Podcast Episode 02 - Lauren Bird

On each episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast, Christopher McBride, the Captain of The Metaphorical Boat, will sit down with one of his favourite musicians, and over a cup of a lovely caffeinated beverage and a bun or tray-bake of the artist's choosing (The Captain always goes for Battenberg. Always), chat through the artist's life, musical highlights, and most importantly, how many sugars they take.

Our guest on this episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast is Strabane singer/songwriter/ukulele wielder Lauren Bird, who sits down with Christopher to talk about her new album, "The Inbetween", scoring soundtracks, loving pop music, and what the music scene is like in Strabane.

Listen or download now on Soundcloud or on iTunes:



Find out more about Lauren Bird on -
Facebook | Twitter | Website | Bandcamp

The Metaphorical Boat Podcast Episode 01 - Owen Denvir

On each episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast, Christopher McBride, the Captain of The Metaphorical Boat, will sit down with one of his favourite musicians, and over a cup of a lovely caffeinated beverage and a bun or tray-bake of the artist's choosing (The Captain always goes for Battenberg. Always), chat through the artist's life, musical highlights, and most importantly, how many sugars they take.

Our guest on this episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast is Belfast singer/songwriter/viola player Owen Denvir, who sits down with Christopher to talk about his classical upbringing, the differences between the music scene in Edinburgh and Northern Ireland, his "Motion Picture Soundtrack E.P", and about receiving support for his intricate cover videos from Coldplay.

Listen or download now on Soundcloud or on iTunes:



Find out more about Owen Denvir on -
Facebook | Twitter | Website | Bandcamp

The Metaphorical Boat Podcast Episode 00 - Aidan Logan

We've been floating on The Metaphorical Boat blog for nearly six years now, and have spent the best part of six years doing what we do best, namely finding the best new music, then writing about said music. Well, some would argue that there are other things that we do better, but for the sake of argument, go with us on this point.

So after six years of writing about music, we have decided to try something outside of the written word, and enter the world of the spoken word. Hence, The Metaphorical Boat is proud to launch its first ever podcast. About 10 years later than everyone else in the world, but hey, better late than never.

In each episode, the Captain of The Metaphorical Boat, Mr Christopher McBride, will sit down with one of his favourite musicians, and over a cup of a lovely caffeinated beverage and a bun or tray-bake of the artist's choosing (The Captain always goes for Battenberg. Always), they will chat through the artist's life, musical highlights, and most importantly, how many sugars they take.

The first ever guest, on Episode 00* of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast, is Aidan Logan. Aidan is a Belfast based singer/songwriter who is gearing up to release his new E.P "Turbulence". On the podcast, we talk about his musical influences, what the music scene is like in Belfast, replacing Garth Brooks, playing in Nashville, and most importantly, what his favourite bun is.

Listen or download now on Soundcloud (iTunes etc will hopefully follow in the next few weeks):



Find out more about Aidan Logan on -
Facebook | Twitter | Website



*We are cleverly calling this episode 00 of the podcast, for if for some unforeseen reason the podcast doesn't progress beyond this episode, we can write it off as a one-off, or pilot episode. See, we're not just pretty faces. In fact, some would say that we're not even that.