Black Gate International: Peter Broderick & Shelley Short

The Mick Lally Theatre
Druid Lane
Galway
9pm, Friday, September 9th
€22.50

Doors at 8:30pm

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Peter Broderick

Born in 1987, Peter Broderick is an American-born multi-instrumentalist and singer, brought up in a musical household in Oregon. In his later teenage years he became entwined in the indie folk scene in Portland, recording for the likes of M. Ward, Laura Gibson and Dolorean.

2007 saw Broderick move across the ocean to Denmark, where he began a long collaboration with the band Efterklang, touring the world with them for the next five years. Meanwhile he recorded several albums of solo material, ranging from the sparse classical compositions of his debut album Float to the homemade folk music on Home — constantly experimenting with different musical genres, and also being commissioned to write music for several films and contemporary dance works. He then lived in Berlin for several years where he met and collaborated with many like-minded artists including German pianist Nils Frahm under the name Oliveray and Englishman Greg Haines as Greg Gives Peter Space.

Now known as one of the label’s veteran recording artist, Broderick joined Erased Tapes with his wanderings into the realms of film, dance and documentary scores. 2009’s Music For Falling From Trees, a 30-minute piece in seven sections, was created for a contemporary dance by London-based choreographer Adrienne Hart at Neon Dance. It was followed by Music For Congregation in 2010 and his classic score Music For Confluence, created in 2011 for Jennifer Anderson and Vernon Lott’s spell binding documentary film on five unsolved murders in Idaho.

Held together by a dialogue of voices, his 2012 album These Walls Of Mine reveals Peter’s innermost thoughts in an exploration from gospel and soul to spoken word, beatboxing and rap. In 2013 he re-located back to America, living at the Pacific Ocean near where he grew up. Returning to his home where his musical journey began, Peter completed the circle with the release of Float 2013. Encouraged by label founder Robert Raths the album was given a “second chance“ with the help of Nils Frahm who remastered the record.

Inspired by John Cage‘s so-called mesostics, his 2016 album Partners saw Peter experiment with chance, surrendering an entire song’s composition to the roll of dice in a series of voice and piano recordings. The composer closed the year with his equally exceptional Grunewald recordings — paying homage to the discrete yet majestic Grunewald Church, situated on the outskirts of Berlin, that's become a haven for an entire generation of contemporary composers.

2017 marked the birth of Allred & Broderick — a new duo project between Broderick and his musical partner David Allred.

On August 28, 2020 he surprised the world with a drop release of Blackberry, his first vocal based album in over five years. Peter continues to travel the world, performing solo concerts and collaborating with a vast array of different musicians and artists.

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Shelley Short

Shelley Short is a folk singer and songwriter who grew up in Portland, Oregon. Her parents, having unique artistic sensibilities, filled their old house with a slew of books, piles of records, reels of complex movie plots, not to mention the seemingly endless parade of musicians and artists who used the house as some kind of unofficial cultural headquarters. All of this stimulus fed into Shelley’s own very overactive imagination. In high school she picked up the electric bass, learning such covers as Mo Tucker’s After Hours and Hank William’s I'm So Lonesome I could Cry and performing them at house parties and coffee shops. But it was her love affair with the songs of Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding, and Lucinda Williams that spurred her to learn to play the guitar and to write her own.

Portland was a different city then and at the time of Shelley’s graduation the folk scene was still pretty much underground. She gravitated towards people with similar appreciations, and in a share house on Alberta Ave became fast friends with roommate Adam Selzer, a talented musician/engineer in his own right. Selzer had himself only just moved to the Rose City from San Louis Obispo and set up a studio in an old warehouse down by the rail yards, christening it Type Foundry. It was here that Shelley was provoked into recording the small collection of original tunes she had amassed. In 2001 Oh Say Little Dogies, Why? was picked up by a small label out of Arizona called Keep Recordings.

The process of writing, recording and performing songs came natural to her and all the decisions she was making were based on what felt right. When word of an empty room came available through an old school friend in Chicago she spontaneously boarded the Empire Builder with all her worldly possessions, including her 4 foot tall koto. She quickly found local musical collaborators to help hone new material, showcasing it in the little suburban music joints like the Hide Out, which attracted a small enthusiastic following. The album that came out of this fruitful time Captain Wildhorse Rides The Heart of Tomorrow was accepted kindly by the city of broad shoulders, garnishing praises by the likes of No Depression magazine: "Combining touches of artiness with a back-porch approach, Captain Wild Horse comes off as a bigger album than perhaps even its maker intended."

From there a short restless stint in LA saw her return to her home in Portland, completing a 4-year triangle. With renewed focus, a series of albums quickly followed: Water For the Day (2008), A Cave, A Canoe (2009), And Then Came the After (2011).

Throughout this time Shelley also grew to be a natural collaborator. With such a lyrical voice she was often recruited as a harmony singer for the likes of Tom Brosseau, M Ward, The Decemberists, Thao and The Get Down Stay Down, Darren Hanlon, Dragging an Ox through water, to name a few. She was also invited to perform outside the US, touring several times in Australia, America and Europe with Darren Hanlon, Laura Jean, Mick Thomas, Tom Brosseau, M Ward and Marlon Williams.

In 2012 her old friend Adam Selzer had a notion to produce and record live a covers album that would be built around Shelley’s beguiling voice. He hand-picked the backup band from local acts, the Decemberists, Black Prairie, Pure Bathing Culture and The Dandy Warhols. Shelley’s father and another good friend Eric Isaacson, owner of label and shop Mississippi Records, helped select the track list.

It was this resulting album Wake the Dreamers that caught the ear of musician/ producer Peter Broderick who was thus inspired to contact Shelley and offer his services in the way of future recording. A new batch of songs grew from this partnership, through many weekend drives out to his studio on the dramatic Oregon coastline. Whether or not the end result was inspired by this wild environment or Shelley’s own inward feelings towards the subjects of freedom, death and longing, it stands as a testament to a great lyrical, musical and sonic leap in her journey as an artist.

These songs will now be released as the new Shelley Short album entitled Pacific City on August 1st 2017 on Mississippi Records (USA) and Flippin Yeah Records (AUS).