Written by Marilù Ciabattoni
Discovered via Musosoup
This is for all the Meat Loaf fans out there. Kevin Walsh’s latest cover, “Not a Dry Eye in the House,” featured in Loaf’s 1995 album Welcome to the Neighbourhood, will bring you back to the good old times some of you feel so nostalgic about.
Prior to “Not a Dry Eye,” Walsh recorded his debut single “Embrace the World” with a supergroup and it was meant to raise awareness for autism. A life-long music lover, the artist experimented a lot in the past before opting for a more classic rock sound.
Make sure to listen to both of his tracks after reading our interview!
Introduce yourself: who is Kevin Walsh? How and when was the project born?
My name is Kevin Walsh. I am from Ireland. Last year I released my debut single “Embrace the World,” which was an autism awareness supergroup with a whole host of other artists. This year, I’m off on a solo run doing a cover of Meat Loaf’s “Not a Dry Eye in the House.”
I’ve been a lifelong Meat Loaf fan. Seen eight of his concerts here in Ireland. I can relate every milestone in my life to whichever Meat Loaf album or single was out at the time. Met him virtually at an event called GalaxyCon in 2020. That was very special. We struck up a bit of a rapport as two artists talked about music by the end of it. I’d done some stuff locally to do with singing, acting and writing but nothing in a way that I felt I had the confidence to stick with it. Being able to talk to him about that work gave me the permission I felt I needed to stick with it. He was very amiable and interested. So I’ve decided to do this cover version to pay tribute to him and what his music has meant to me over the years.
How has your music changed in the past few years?
With only two singles, I wouldn’t say there’s been a lot of change. However, between the cover and the original, I hope I am establishing a common theme of influence. So if you listen to “Not a Dry Eye” and then to “Embrace the World,” you can see how the former influenced the latter.
Who inspired your music? Who are your biggest influences?
Well, we’ve been talking about Meat Loaf so obviously is the biggest influence. Just in terms of the theatrical delivery, the drama and that sense of the songs taking place in a heightened world where all the colours are just that bit brighter and the emotions are all that bit deeper. After that, I was very influenced by musical theatre and musical theatre writers in general e.g. Alan Menken, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim. Every song has a moment in a narrative, every line moves the story along and every note in the accompaniment represents the intention of the character. I studied classical music and art song in college so I love a good melody and a song that works just as well when performed by a solo piano and vocal as with a one-hundred-piece orchestra.
Could you introduce your favourite singles you've released so far?
Well, I only have one single so far, which is “Embrace the World.” I released it last year and it did quite well; reaching #1 on iTunes, #19 on the Irish Homegrown. I performed it live on The Six O’Clock Show and while I can’t say too much right now, I’m in talks of doing a live version of the track which, if all goes to plan, will be out next year as well as a single, bundled with one other new song.
How did you develop this style? Will you experiment with other genres in the future?
The style is the style that comes naturally and what appeals to me so I wouldn’t say I had to work for it, per se. In college, I did everything and anything from musicals to operas to twelve-tone serial music, so just being around so much informed that anyway without it being this big conscious thing. I majored in popular songwriting and a lot of the briefs I got for that were to do with exploring other styles, genres and different chord progressions. I’ve done pieces with twinges of folk and others with more of a jazz leaning, but it’s always dramatic. I found those exercises a lot of fun.
Let's talk about "Not a Dry Eye in the House:" What inspired it and how did it come to life?
“Not a Dry Eye in the House” was originally recorded by Meat Loaf for his 1995 album, Welcome to the Neighbourhood. It was written by Diane Warren and it’s a breakup-themed power ballad where the character compares the relationship to a stage play. It was one of the first Meat Loaf songs I ever came across and even as a kid, I fell instantly in love with it. Meat Loaf’s voice is so expressive, all you’d have to do is listen to it and you can instantly see him crying in the middle of the abandoned theatre, as with the music video which was also very striking. So it’s a song I’ve always loved, I even performed it at my final year college performance. And I just wanted to keep performing it so I thought, “Why not do a cover version of it as a single?”
I can also talk about the inspiration for the music video of my version, which I did write the treatment for and it’s won several awards around the world. It was inspired by the reality TV singing competition show The X-Factor. Often, you’d have a group or a duo audition for it and then Simon Cowell would say to them “Well, one of you has what it takes to be a star, but you need to lose your groupmate. They’re holding you back”. And then it would be up to the person if they wanted to continue alone as a soloist or not. So that was the basic concept for my video, me auditioning as a duo with this girl (played by the wonderful Claudia de Luca – this was her first-ever music video), and we’re trying to make it big. It fits the title as well because that’s where the adage is most commonly used, “Wow! Leona Lewis did this very emotional performance on X-Factor. There was not a dry eye in the house!”
Who produces your tracks? How do you choose which producers to work with? Do you have some dream producers you'd like to work with?
Taylor Harris produced this current track. We came into contact on Fiverr. It’s a great option for independent artists as there are many multi-instrumentalist producers you can find on there for a very reasonable rate. In an ideal world, I would always go for the full band set-up in the recording studio and that’s what I did for Embrace. Aidan O’Mahony in Cork produced that one and it’s fantastic but it’s also tricky when you’re working on your own as you have to hire the band, the studio, the engineer and costs build up very quickly that way. So for this one, I was looking for a multi-instrument producer as to be more frugal. I was looking for such producers on Fiverr, found Taylor’s profile and really liked his portfolio and his reviews. He was outstanding to work with. If I could work with anybody and money wasn’t an obstacle, it would be someone like Rob Cavallo. Someone who just lives and breathes that big driven rock sound and can throw everything in there.
Is music your main occupation at the moment? If not, how are you conciliating your day job with your music career?
I’m a customer assistant at Boots. I work part-time so it’s very manageable balancing the two. I would go as far as to say one career helps the other. I’d gotten the job because the skills and situations I found and experienced from music helped; public speaking, and having a confident manner, that all translate into retail work. My job at Boots provides me with financial security and the ability to fund my projects, as I am an independent artist without any backing from any major labels or promoters.
Have you ever been on tour? If not, would you like to embark on one? If yes, tell us about it.
Not a tour per se but I’ve had a few small engagements here and there with promoting my singles. Like with this one, for instance, the music video has gotten into some festivals so I’ve been attending the ones in Ireland. And there are a couple of smaller gigs as well. I’m still really just building a following at the moment. I would prefer a residency rather than a tour, to be honest. You can design your show more to the venue that way, like a stage musical.
Who's your dream feature?
I would love to do a duet with Gloria Estefan and I would love the song to be about a mother and a son.
Where do you see yourself in one year as a musician?
I’m working on an EP at the moment, and I’m writing some stuff that I would like to have released by other singers so to have those out there by next year would be great. In the long term, I want to develop a movie musical that’s based on the plot of the Not a Dry Eye video. However, that’ll work better once I get some brand recognition and a following going on. So I’m charting out all these songs on a musical journey and this movie would be like Greatest Hits: The Musical. That’s what we’re going for.
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