THE SHINDIG

Date: Friday 31 May
Doors 8.30PM
Adm £8.00
Venue: Black Box

A night of acoustic and folk music featuring three local acts Malojian, Robb Murphy and Band, and Kat Hepworth.

MALOJIAN

Armed only with his father's battered acoustic guitar and a collection of Neil Young LPs, Stevie Scullion began writing songs in his early teens. He spent the next few years making lo-fi home recordings on a 4-track tape machine, before forming acclaimed indie-folk act Cat Malojian in 2005. The band released two EPs followed by two albums and were invited by Gary Lightbody to support Snow Patrol at Ward Park, Bangor, in June 2010, a performance that saw them play to 46,000 people - the largest ever music audience in Northern Ireland.

With sold-out European tours and an abundance of critical acclaim, it seemed that Cat Malojian were on the verge of something special. However, in June 2011, midway through the recording of their third album, the band broke-up.

Embracing this newfound freedom, Stevie embarked on a solo career and soon found himself in the centre of a thriving Belfast music scene. After recruiting some of the city’s finest musicians, he has returned renamed, simply, Malojian and armed with a clutch of songs that have been described in rapturous terms as...

“really beautiful" Lauren Laverne, BBC 6 Music
"achingly beautiful" Q Magazine
"I'm completely obsessed with this gorgeous song (All I Need)" Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol)
"beautiful stuff" Stuart Bailie, NME, BBC Radio Ulster
"Choice of the Week" The Irish Times
"the North’s best songwriter over the last half decade" Hot Press Magazine
"a masterful piece of work" Belfast Telegraph
"one of the most charming, heartfelt and beautiful records you’ll hear this year." 9/10 AU Magazine
"a hauntingly beautiful hit‐in‐waiting" The Irish News
"The music is beyond pretty. It is sensitive, tasteful and beautifully judged." Live Review ‐ CultureNI


ROBB MURPHY


Robb Murphy’s inimitable style derives from his background as a producer/engineer. Retaining all the hallmarks that separates him from his contemporaries in the singer-songwriter world – he has the creativity, the passion, the raw emotion and the haunting beauty that great singer songwriters are made of. His debut album, 'Take A Stand', contains a pop folk flavour with a touch Irish heritage. Tracks such as 'Love In abundance' builds from nothing to a crescendo of devastatingly beauty sung straight from the heart.


Over the past few months Robb and his band have been have working on new material which was written in a month of seclusion in Italy. These songs are intimate, roots based, and the story behind the songs including demos recorded in Italy can be found on his blog.


Performing with his band, a recent Hotpress live review said; "On stage, Robb has the stance of a serious wordsmith, crouched sometimes sideways to the mic, intense and deliberate in his enunciation. His lyrics are exact, scarcely a syllable that’s not needed for the shape of the line. And he writes about points on the emotional arc where few songwriters ever stop off"



"Technically masterful and clear-cut” Goldenplec
"gentle acoustic pop, with hints of Jose Gonzalez and Damien Rice" BBC 6 Music
“The instrumentation along with his voice gives the whole collection of songs a distinct feeling of a classic summer album.” ChordBlossom
"Songs of sophisticated simplicity in a powerfully self-confident setting" Hotpress
“The album has become a constant companion. With it's organic nature and easy flowing melodies throughout, it is an ambitiously driven fine debut from Irish Singer songwriter Robb Murphy” File Under Good Music




KAT HEPWORTH


New to the NI music scene Kat Hepworth is a special talent that is not to be missed. Her gentle acoustic ways are a calming balm to any tired soul and a reminder of the dearest things in life, to dream, to travel, to love and to let go of the things that hold us back. Songs like 'Newyork' inspire the heart to adventure and chase the fabric of life.