Music man: An interview with Stephen Heffernan

Trad music has taken him all over the world but these days Stephen Heffernan is happiest sitting at home on the piano composing.

His latest successful In The Round concert in Dun na Si, Moate took place on Saturday last, the sixth instalment of a series he started last year bringing together three different artists in the one setting, a concept that throws up a great variety of music and styles. 

Very much a home gig, it was a family affair too where he was joined on the night by his sister Clare, a singer who also plays piano and guitar, and brother Patrick, who plays whistle, bouzouki, and writes his own songs. 

Music entered Stephen's life in primary school in Castledaly and his love for it was immediate.

“I started with the whistle when I was nine in school, James Donohoe was my teacher. For some reason I loved music straight away.

“He later brought in an accordion and my eyes nearly came out of my head when when he started playing it! I got one for my 11th birthday and I never left it down.

“That was the start of my love of music. I get so much life energy from music,” he says.

From there, he got tune books, CDs, started learning more and more, immersing himself in it as much as he could. There was plenty of music and singing in the house too and he remembers fondly attending many trad sessions and Fleadhs down through the years.

Stephen later picked up a guitar and taught himself how to play. At 16, he moved onto the piano, smiling as he tells me “he liked the layout”.

Initially veering towards a sound engineering career, the Castledaly man's attendance at a summer school music course in University of Limerick (UL) changed all that and opened his eyes to a “fun spot”. So, after school, he went back to UL to study a BA in Irish Music and Dance and it was here he met many other musicians and the learning really began. 

Derek Hickey was his tutor for the accordion and he “soaked up” everything that he could from him and piano took a bit of a back seat.

“It was a great place to meet other musicians, up to that, there weren't that many, there were a few locally but not that many... We learnt a lot off each other,” he recalls.

Being around like-minded people was a whole new experience for him, and one he loved as he made friends from all corners of Ireland and the globe who came to study there and were passionate about not just traditional music, but all types of music. 

His music has taken him all over the world too. Most recently he spent several months working on a music and dance show in Germany, he's also spent six months in America, Japan, a place he said where they were “great listeners” and loved music, as well as Switzerland, Greece, France and a summer in Scotland, to name just a few. 

“It's great for seeing the world and meeting new people. Trad music is loved all over the world,” he says. 

While living in Ennis for two years, he was gigging several nights a week and teaching accordion amid a thriving music scene. Several months ago he took the decision to come home and he's now fully focused on the piano, and is enjoying composing and writing in a house full of instruments with the birds singing outside. 

He explains that he now dips in and out of the trad music world at different times but his primary focus is the piano.

“The stuff I write on the piano is soft, ambient with a jazz influence. I like a wide variety of musicians. I listen to a lot of jazz,” Stephen explains, adding that he hopes to bring out an EP soon and he would love to put on a big-band-style concert with a lot of musicians, like a smaller type orchestra playing arrangements of his own compositions in the next year.

Throughout our conversation Stephen's face really lights up when he's talking about the power of music, how it inspires him and how you just never know what will happen and where it will go. 

“Music is good pastime for anyone – you can use it as a vehicle to manage your life. Playing or listening deeply to music is a form of cleansing and renergising. If you're playing a piece, you can just be playing. Everything you were thinking about before is gone,” he smiles.

A fan of lots of types of music, he really enjoys Billie Holiday, Paul Brady is “a hero”, and he mentions Bill Frisell, a jazz guitarist he saw with his trio in the National Concert Hall recently. 

He also talks enthusiastically about music improvisation, mentioning Keith Jarrett in this regard. His idea is you just surrender to energy, something he is trying to incorporate into his playing.

For now though, Stephen says he is “just content sitting at a piano” coming up with new instrumental pieces. “When there isn't words the notes have to say a lot more, have a lot of depth. An instrumental piece is raw. It speaks to you in a different way. I like trying to get a story or a feeling across in the piece. Hopefully, people they can understand just like they could with a song.”

In terms of composing, he says you might be messing around on the piano and a phrase might set you off, or else you may be feeling a certain way or trying to figure something out. Then Stephen says sometimes you don't know what a tune is about, it sometimes just is. 

While he doesn't have a grand piano yet, the local musician is hoping to get one soon, and next on his list of ambitions is bringing out an EP of his own piano music. He already has eight tracks on Soundcloud where people can have a listen, and he'd love to do full solo piano gig in the future too. 

He pays tribute to James Donohoe and Derek Hickey, his accordion teacher in UL, his parents Stephen and Maria and family for all the support in his endeavours so far, and his many friends in UL.

In the shorter-term, Stephen is also looking forward to the next instalment of his In the Round concert series, taking place in Ennis on April 13 in Record Break, a cafe and music venue, before moving onto Dublin, Galway and, hopefully, Cork later in the year.