One Athlone man's journey as a singer/songwriter

It was a long time coming. After years of performing, writing songs and documenting them in home and amateur recordings, Athlone's Fergal Cox went into the studio and laid down the tracks for his debut EP, Devil's Island. The disc, which was recorded in Rosemount's Grouse Lodge studios, was released last year. "It's the pinnacle of my recording career to date," said Fergal. "I was really focused on getting it done. I put a lot of money and effort into getting the final product made, but hopefully it's the first of many recordings." The care and devotion that went into making Devil's Island becomes evident as soon as one puts the CD into the stereo and hits 'play'. The five-song collection is a well-crafted piece of work which neatly blends folk, blues, finger-picking guitar and Spanish music influences. Fergal, who is from Cornamagh, is a former Marist College student who works as a software engineer with Ericsson. He first established his songwriting credentials when he gave an impressive performance at the 2004 Midlands Singer Songwriter showcase in Athlone's Palace Loft. He has since gone on to play support to Mundy and The Coronas, and has appeared at festivals such as Moatrix and Helium while also receiving airplay on RTE Radio One, Shannonside, Midlands 103 and Athlone Community Radio. Digging through the records owned by his father, the late Paddy Cox, first sparked his interest in music. "My Dad had some really cool blues and soul records; Ben E King, Percy Sledge, Jackie Wilson, that sort of thing. That got me interested. Growing up, I got into Pearl Jam and Guns & Roses and then kind of regressed back to old rock like Led Zeppelin and Rory Gallagher." Listening to Rory Gallagher was "possibly the main influence in me picking up a guitar," which he did at the age of 16. "When I bought my first guitar I just started stringing chords together, playing and writing straight away. I was mostly self-taught. I learned what I could from badgering as many people as possible for new chords and songs," he recalled. In 1996 he spent a summer working in a rural part of Germany, near the border with Austria. "I got a few classical lessons when I was there. There were no distractions so it was a good place to learn. You had a lot of free time I suppose." The lessons he received in Germany influenced his style of playing. "I was already heavily into the plucking style of guitar, that John Martyn or Nick Drake-esque finger-picking style of playing. Those classical lessons pushed me towards that direction as well," he said. Fergal wrote his first song, entitled 'Still', just a few months after he started playing guitar. "It's a 'birth of a songwriter' type thing. I still play it the odd time, but not publicly." Writing a song is "a bit of a random process," he said. "Every now and again three or four songs will leap out at the same time. Usually the music will come first and the words will then be layered upon that. "My philosophy when it comes to songwriting is to write everything down. You can discard what you don't need but always keep everything because sometimes those lost little riffs that you've almost forgotten about will come back to complete a song in the future, and make it whole." So what songwriters does he admire? "John Martyn," he replied. "His style of playing and singing is so flowing and beautiful, and I love the rhythm of the guitar itself. Lyrically Bob Dylan, of course, is unparalleled in his painting of imagery and his creation of other worlds. That's something I definitely appreciate and would try to aspire to." Discussing his own lyrics, he said: "I can write from extremely personal relationships and experiences to the experiences of friends, or sometimes just comments or observations on society and how things are." At the moment Fergal is playing with a local guitarist, Fergal Milton, who he described as "one of the most technically gifted and naturally creative guitarists I've had the pleasure of playing with". When asked about his musical hopes and aspirations for the future, he replied: "I just hope to play, write and record as much as possible and see where that path leads. I don't have any lofty aspirations of becoming a number-one selling artist or anything. I would just like to be respected as a songwriter and a musician. That would be my main aim." * Fergal Cox plays support to folk act Jukebox Gypsy in Maud Millars, Ballinasloe, this Friday (August 19). Copies of his Devil's Island EP are available from Gordon Clarke's Sound Factory in Athlone and are also on sale at his gigs. See www.myspace.com/fergalcox for more information.