anamoe drive the freewheeling solo moniker of songwriter & multi-instrumentalists Oisín Leahy Furlong allows the lead singer for Dublin psych-pop band Thumper to explore his lighter side. His debut solo album ‘Breakfast in Bed‘ caught the attention of KEXP, BBC thanks to it’s distinct brand of lo-fi indie alt folk.

Just a year on and anamoe drive is back with a new album ‘thank god it’s friday’ set for release on November 7th. Lead single ‘the irish wolfhound’ sees Oisín Leahy Furlong putting further daylight between Thumper and anamoe drive.

‘In Irish mythology the Irish wolfhound is spiritually significant, a protective force, and a larger than life creature. In reality it’s just a dog. I guess I found some significance in that.’ states Oisín Leahy Furlong of the Elliott Smith-esque offering.

“As with many songs on thank god it’s friday, the song the irish wolfhound sat unrecorded and unperformed in the back of my head for years,” he says expanding on the meaning behind the track further. “The song attempts to unpack or untangle a myth I was wrapping myself in at the time; the myth of the struggling artist.

“I was struggling, and I was an artist, therefore I must be living up to some grander design? By virtue of this struggle, my arc towards success and fulfilment must be set in stone? In reality I was just living a fraught, lonely existence and any significance I placed around this was just armour that I wore out into the world. I had just come out of a relationship, and a lot of my closest friends had emigrated, so it served me to dress up my distress as ‘par for the course’ – something that would be the making of me.”

‘thank god it’s friday’ was recorded “almost knee to knee” in a whirlwind session in anamoe drive bassist and Irish indie legend Ian McFarlane’s studio.

“For the irish wolfhound we put foam and some duck feathers underneath the nylon strings of a classical guitar, overdubbed some steel string acoustic to broaden the sound, and added some vocals. We then grabbed a bass VI and a jazz bass to perform ad-libbed volume swells for the solo. We only did a take or two of everything and the song was finished in about an hour and a half.” 

The album was mixed by another Irish indie legend Rian Trench.“The resulting songs are short, intimate, and lean – a direct reaction to the expansiveness of my first album Breakfast in Bed” notes Oisín Leahy Furlong.

anamoe drive will celebrate the release of ‘thank god it’s friday’ with a special album release party in the newly refurbished Ballroom at The Grand Social in Dublin.

Album Launch Shows

Dublin – The Grand Social Ballroom – Thurs 13th Nov

London – Servant Jazz Quarters – Mon 17th Nov