Rough – 24th August 2012

Meet Danny Coghlan, frontman of the instantly loveable ‘Crybaby’. As a young lad, Danny was enamoured with Adam and the Ants, so much so in-fact that he entered a competition to play the drums for the band. Unfortunately Danny didn’t win his hearts desire and ended up amongst the many devastated Ants fans, in tears and wishing for what could have been.

However, at a remove from those tender years, Danny is now releasing his own album as ‘Crybaby’ with, Chris Hughes who is, more than a little ironically, none-other than one of Adams own drummers from the famed band. Funny how life works out, isn’t it… FYI ‘Crybaby’ is an ode to Garnet Mimms’s 1963 soul hit.. And possibly his reaction to losing out on the chance to be the Ants unofficial drummer..

Coughlan was born in Croydon, but grew up in Bridgwater, Somerset and had a childhood rich is musical influence. His grandmother played the piano, his Aunt was an end of the pier Wurlitzer player and his Father, part of a quartet that rehearsed out of the family home, was an avid Folk fan, often frequenting Irish social clubs with his son to listen to songs and storytelling.
In true familial form, him and his sister sang There’s A Whole In My Bucket in the local talent show of a holiday camp in Devon and won, appearing with accolades in the local paper.

With this fairly rich musical background, Danny was already set for some kind of musical career it seems and so it must have come as little surprise when, at the tender age of 11 Coughlan formed the Metal band ‘Soup’ who may have reached the great annals of fame if not for their prematurely exploding smoke bomb which resulted in the cancellation of their one and only gig.

In the ensuing years, Danny had travelled around quite a bit, forming and dissolving band here and there, but retaining all the best bits from those experiences until In November 2010, Coghlan bought a four track recorder and began to demo a mass of new songs, all of which drew on those records he loved. Crybaby’s debut album was made in-between his day jobs, and what was born from the sessions were beautiful renditions full of a certain muted angst that comes with age and experience. Danny says of his inspirations for the Crybaby Debut album,

“My family is a bit sentimental,” he says, “a bit soppy. So the songs I write are escapist. But I think love and pain represent the whole landscape of creativity – and that, ultimately, is the attraction of every beautiful, sad record ever made.”

Crybaby has an instantly timeless and hugely nostalgic feel, almost as if he is an already successful and widely-know parody of himself. His sound likens itself with the same bluesy feel as homegrown greats Morrissey, early soul legends such as Roy Orbinson, and more modern equivalents, the Weeping Willows from Stockholm, knowingly or not. There is a thin veil of conservativeness about Danny’s voice, behind which rages a swell of emotion, surging forward and retreating with a haunting beauty, rarely have I felt so moved by a male signer as with Danny’s heartfelt renditions.

Rough had the pleasure of hearing the PR release of some of Danny’s new tracks. One that really stirs brooding aspects of the psyche is ‘Gloomy Sunday’, a truly stunning Billie Holiday cover. Danny’s voice resounds with the those telling moments when everything seems lost and nothing could possibly get any worse, but the sheer emotive nature of his voice seems to redeem the sombre tone of the lyrics themselves.’Water to Wine’ employs the same kind of fatalistic beauty but with a sprinkle of vitality, I’m honestly not sure whether to cry or run a marathon when listening to this track and the lyrics ‘is it sorrow or joy?’ reflect as much..

Then we hear more uplifting tracks like ‘True Love Will Find You In The End’, definitely one for those leaving the local alone at the end of a night, despondent and determined in the belief they’ll die alone. Danny rebukes this as hogwash when he sings ‘Don’t be sad.. Only if you’re looking can it find you… Cause true love is searching too’, with lyrics like that even the most cynical of the ranks of the heartbroken can take heart, it’s not all doom and gloom!

All in all, Danny definitely has that mozzyt iconic sound of a generation, you can count on hearing more from him very soon. – Isaac A Fihosy