Tallaght musician releases debut EP at 57
“I LITERALLY started playing guitar the day after my Leaving Cert ended way back in 1986,” explains Tallaght-based musician Brian Edwards.
Brian, recording under the name The Linenhall Society, released his first EP on August 21 at the age of 57.
‘Baby Steps: The Boxroom Demos’ was written, recorded, and produced entirely at home.
He has played guitar since he was a teenager and even played in a few bands around that time, but “life happens”, and while he continued playing guitars, he did not play in bands again for years.
In 2016, he picked up a new recording gadget and started recording songs he had written.
Five years ago he started a band, which proved to be a “fantastic experience” in playing with other great musicians and becoming more confident about his own songs.
The band parted ways earlier this year, and Brian decided to move forward with his own music project, The Linenhall Society, with the name inspired by his childhood street of Linenhall Parade in Smithfield.
More particularly, it is inspired by the Linenhall Public Utility Society, who completed building the houses in 1927.
In 2025, Brian graduated to a small home studio setup and decided to re-record the demos, but he did not want to lose that
“raw, unpolished feel, so I opted to record and produce the songs entirely myself”.
He is “really happy” with the results; the recordings are “good enough to do justice to the songs that mean so much to me, but don’t sound like a big studio production”.
The lead track, ‘These Days’, is about letting go of the baggage from the past that “holds us back”, and the song ‘In A Lifetime’ is about Brian’s late father and is actually the first song he ever recorded.
Recording at home has presented challenges, as he lives in a busy house with a wife and two adult children.
Fortunately, modern recording technology means he can record most parts directly to the software, so there is no background noise.
Brian has much material developed at the moment and ideas for more, planning to record a full album in 2027.
He would like to thank his wife and children for their support and encouragement.
‘Baby Steps: The Boxroom Demos’ is currently available to listen to on Spotify and all major platforms.
