Conal Montgomery samples new sound

Conal Montgomery samples new sound

27 February 2019

KILLYLEAGH rocker Conal Montgomery is working on new original music for the first time in years.

The well-known singer who has performed at bikers’ rallies and conventions around the UK for the last 28 years may surprise some of his fans with his new sound.

Instead of the soaring progressive rock vocals he is known for, Conal’s new music is softer, more reflective folk style.

The 48 year-old says that his new music is indicative of where he is in his personal life now. 

The 48 year-old explained: “I haven’t felt like this for years particularly as  when I was drinking I really couldn’t be bothered with writing music. 

“I wrote songs in the early 1990s but alcohol and drugs just took over my life and my time was wasted.

“For 20 odd years I didn’t do anything and now that I’m sober, I just have a love for it. I just want to try and put out what I’ve been feeling for a long time.”

Conal first developed a love for music by listening to his big brother’s Elvis Presley records.

He later began to perform as the lead singer with the local band Bone Idle before moving on to Freak Out and then to Sweet Leaf — the band he fronted for 20 years.

“I’ve been fronting rock bands for the last 28 years since my early twenties and it was always just covers like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd,” Conal continued.

“But when I started to write music, that wasn’t what was coming out of me. It was more singer/songwriter, folky stuff.

“It wasn’t really a surprise to me as the stuff I would have listened to outside my giging would have been the likes of Bob Dylan and Steve Earle.”

Conal is recording his new songs with the band Stillwater, which also features Killyleagh musician Damien Hanna.

While he is experiencing a creative purple patch, the father-of-four does not yet know when the music will be available.

“I don’t have a title for my new EP yet as I’m still writing and I’m still recording. I would hope that the EP would be out by the summer and the album by the end of the year but you never know, the EP could turn into the album.”

He and Stillwater performed two of Conal’s new tracks, Venus and All of the People, in an interview on That Like That on NVTV.

Conal says that the second track is really resonating with people.

“This track is aimed at society in general, not only young people on Facebook, but all those who point the finger at somebody and gang up on some poor soul,” he explained.

“Then when something happens to that poor soul, then you’ll get the smiley faces and comments of ‘He was a great fella’ or ‘She was a great girl’ and hopefully it teaches them a lesson to realise what people might be going through on the inside.”

Conal is a regular at Denvir’s in Downpatrick and will next perform with Stillwater in Portrush Town Hall at the North West 200 in May

To watch Conal’s interview and performance on NVTV’s Talk Like That visit twww.nvtv.co.uk/shows/talk-like-that-conal-montgomery/Conal and Stillwater on their Facebook pages or ring Conal on 07990 500891.