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The Déann Macalla Project

pictured: Déann Macalla

The Déann Macalla Project began as an elaborate joke, a parody of a certain famous Irish New Age singer. I was a fan, but each new album never varied from the formula of the same pizzicato strings and piano arpeggiations. While she recorded songs in a variety of languages including Gaelic (Gaelige), Latin, Japanese, and Spanish, most of the (non-Gaelic) lyrics were little more than dictionary phrases. Even worse, some of her fans were foaming at the mouth about how she was actually fluent in all these languages. I also liked doing overdubbed vocals, having created one-man choirs on some King Jogo recordings. Certainly it was time to, as the British say, take the piss out of all this. I chose clichéd New Age themes (clouds, sky, air) and began writing an album around them. I also created a character to go with the album.

(watch for the Eye of Providence!)

Some of my songs were sung in Gaelic or Latin; while the lyrics and the delicate, ethereal music might have sounded mystical to non-Gaelic or -Latin speakers, the reality (snicker snicker) was different:

from Tarcaisne
Níl agam ach beagánín gaeilge Níl mórán gaeilge agam
	I'm afraid I only speak a little Gaelic I don't know much Gaelic

Go gcreime na gráinneoga cealgrúnacha do bhall fearga
	May malevolent hedgehogs gnaw at your dick

from Virgo Supercluster
Latine loqui coactus sum Quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur
	I have this compulsion to speak Latin Anything spoken in Latin sounds profound

The final song to be written and recorded was Pageant of the Clouds, which was just a series of harmonized chord changes (with the word for cloud sung in many languages, as well as names of clouds and some Latin verses from the Bible) accompanied by arpeggiating synth, but while mixing it and listening only to the vocals, I realized I had something a little more than mere parody.

I continued promoting Déann, hoping she might actually catch on (despite being a joke) and put her in the 2011 Jogovision Song Contest (where she unfortunately was voted 9th place out of 12 entries) and had her record a Christmas song for a Pla-Tonic brand commercial.

But I decided on the next project I would get rid of the joke and retain the name* for my my forays into more serious choral music. I did actually begin work on the next album, but have yet to record it. Sometimes life, and other projects, get in the way ...

Visit Déann Macalla's original website; may not render properly on all browsers or mobile devices.

*Déann Macalla's name comes from déanmacalla, which means something like reverberation in Gaelic.