Where Is Damien Rice?

By Joe Kavanagh

His rise to fame is widely celebrated in all sectors of the Irish media and with sales of his debut album already approaching three million and counting, he rose from the ranks of impoverished also-ran to one of the most powerful people in European music. But now, four years on from the initial release his multiple-platinum selling O, there is still no sign of a new album from the most successful Irish singer/songwriter of the past ten years.

Born on the outskirts of Dublin, Damien Rice was by his own admission always the intense character that his songs represent, happier whiling the hours away with a fishing rod in his hands and thoughts on his mind, until the purchase of a guitar as a present took his life in a new and ultimately thrilling direction. Whilst still at school, Rice and several classmates decided to form a band, calling themselves Juniper and going on to win over a large following in the Dublin area with their indie/shoegazing sound. The group were so dedicated to their musical project that all of the members even went to the same university upon finishing school, where they all took a degree in civil engineering by day whilst devoting all of their spare time to the band. For a brief time in the early 90s, it appeared that the band's devotion would pay off when they were signed by Polygram Records and even went on to score a measure of chart success in Ireland with their two singles, The World Is Dead and, Weatherman. Even as the band worked on their debut album however, fissures began to appear in the camp with Rice increasingly finding himself at odds with the other members, who did not seem to share the same vision as to how the band should proceed, or even be perceived. According to legend, the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back came when a fierce argument grew from a discussion as to whether the band's album should be packaged in recycled paper (Rice insisted it should whilst the other members - according to Rice - 'couldn't give a s**te'). Thoroughly depressed with how events were overtaking him. Rice decided that it was better to walk, leaving the band without a frontman and generating a degree of acrimony that would take years to sort out.

As most of you will know, the other members of Juniper eventually went on to form Bell X1, but Rice bolted first to the UK, then on to mainland Europe, where he spent the next eight months traveling, busking and working on new songs before returning to Ireland in 2000. Having already been burned by the recording industry, he decided to take a different approach with his solo material and made a conscious decision not to court any major labels until he had achieved something as an artist in his own right. The singer felt that such circumstances would allow him to retain creative control of his music, instead of having his creative process polluted with 'guidance' from labels about what direction he should be going. Using what meager savings he had to make a demo, Rice sent the CD away to his cousin, David Arnold (a producer known best for his work on the Bond themes). Instead of the anticipated advice, Arnold was so impressed that he actually sent over a mobile recording unit to Rice, in order to allow him work on his material.

The fruits of Arnold's decision were eventually revealed in September 2001, when his new single, The Blowers Daughter, hit shelves and went straight into the Irish top twenty despite only minimal fanfare. The album, O, followed in February of 2002, with Rice initially admitting that he would be delighted if it sold anything over a thousand copies. In a phenomenon that would repeat itself in virtually every country the album was released in, preliminary sales were modest enough but, like ripples in a pond, word of mouth became Rice's greatest - albeit unwitting -public relations tool. Simply put, those that were taken by Rice's laid-back, almost melancholy style were utterly smitten by the record and went on to rigorously recommend it to, or even buy it for, friends. Such was the momentum generated that the album has gone on to achieve double-platinum status in Ireland and is already one of the biggest-selling albums in the history of the state. O received its UK release a couple of months later and was initially once again met with warm reviews but less than stellar sales. It was only when Rice began playing regularly in the UK that sales picked up and it is testament to the strength of his live act that he sold over 14,000 copies of the album in the week after his performance in Glastonbury that year. Still, such numbers barely constitute mainstream status and it was not until The Blowers Daughter was featured prominently in the Natalie Portman/Jude Law movie, Closer, that sales really took off. Despite being out over a year by this point, sales of the album went up by over 100% and the record has sold almost 400,000 copies in the UK to this point. Rice was suddenly everywhere and such was the mass appeal of his music that he has been toasted by everyone from the Indie media to mainstream radio jocks like Terry Wogan

Rice made his US debut in the summer of 2003 when he performed as part of the CMJ showcase in New York and the album received its US release several months later. Once again, sales hardly set the world on fire and it was not until an obscure deejay on an even more obscure Santa Monica station dug out the album one day, decided it was pretty good and added it to his playlist. Within days, people were calling in requesting Rice songs and within weeks, radio stations throughout the US began adding his songs to their rotation as word spread ever faster about the young Irish troubadour. Rice managed to ride this wave of momentum right to the Shortlist Prize (the US equivalent of Mercury Music Prize), which has never been won by an Irish artist before. He was soon even a regular on the late night talk shows, putting in performances on Letterman and Conan O'Brien, whilst continually having to move tour dates into bigger venues as sell-outs became the norm on his US tour. He even has his own celebrity fans including Renee Zellweger, Julia Roberts and even Britney Spears (whom Rice recalls as being 'a pain in the a**e').

Now it is four years on and the wait continues for Rice's next musical movement, which he promises will be 'really ugly, really bitter.' Initial projections were for his follow-up to appear last year but it finally appears like the long wait is nearly over of his legion of fans with news that a release is expected in early autumn. Given that he has unwaveringly stuck to doing things his way, this much is for certain: the record won't come out until Rice is well and truly ready. As a man, who is on the record as saying, 'I have already sold enough records, I am already successful enough for me', you might think twice before holding your breath.