Michael Patrick Kelly gives mini-concert for 50 fans on Radio ffn
With “Boats” he has just released his fifth studio album, songs like “Beautiful Madness” and “Throwback” run up and down: Michael Patrick Kelly (43) made a very special stopover in Hanover on November 25: At Radio ffn he played a “Meet your Star” concert in front of 50 selected fans.
Michael Kelly, your current album is called “Boats”, which does not mean that it was made on a boat, the title stands for “Based on a true story”. What real stories do you tell on it?
They are stories that I have experienced myself or stories from people I have met and who have inspired me to write a song about them. An example from my own biography is the song “Mother’s Day”. My mother died very young, she was 36 and I was five years old. Half a year later it was Mother’s Day and I wanted to bring her flowers to her grave. I picked whatever I could find in the fields. At the cemetery, however, I firmly greet that the neighboring graves had much nicer flowers – so I stole them all and placed them on my mother’s grave. I was back not that long ago with a pickup truck full of bouquets of flowers to make up for it. So the circle has come full. It touched a few people in the village and won some.
And what kind of someone else’s story inspired you?
Sometimes I perform in prisons, and a few years ago I had a very exciting encounter with an inmate who really wanted to show me his cell. He had a long beard, looks very peaceful and balanced. I find it hard to believe that he is a criminal. I don’t know why, but he was imprisoned for life. His cell was full of icons that he drew. No simple craft, it takes several months to create an icon. After serving his time, he went to a monastery in Greece and continued to paint icons there as a monk. This is how the song “Icon” came about, the message of which is that every human being – even the most serious criminal – has a seed of goodness in him. You just have to kiss it awake somehow.
If you unpack your insides so intensely, doesn’t that make you very vulnerable?
The nice thing about music is that you can talk about very private topics, even with strangers you don’t even know. But through the language of the music, you can tell an audience of millions without it appearing strange. The song makes it an art form that justifies expressing my feelings. I actually share very little from my private life, but I sing about private things all the time (laughs). I don’t want to explain some songs in order not to reduce them to just the “one thing”. Phil Collins, for example, never commented on “In the Air tonight”. That’s not the worst at all, so everyone can come up with something of their own for a song.
Michael Patrick Kelly
* 5. December 1977 in Dublin. He is the tenth child of the teacher Daniel Jerome Kelly, the sixth of the dancer Barbara-Ann Suokko, Michael Patrick Kelly has four half siblings and seven full siblings. The family travels all over Europe and the USA as the folk band The Kelly Family. His mother died in 1982. In 1994 he was responsible for the commercial breakthrough for the street music group, he wrote the song “An Angel”. He comes into focus as front man Paddy Kelly – they sell 20 million records. With the death of the father the group structure changes, soon the band has only six members. In 2003 he began his solo career, the following year he went to a monastery as a monk, Brother John Paul Mary, for six years, studying philosophy and theology. After his comeback he can be seen in TV shows such as “Sing mein Song”, “Theo Voice Kids” and “The Voice”. He is socially committed and is married to his childhood sweetheart, Joelle Verreet. www.michael-patrick-kelly.com
There are some things you do tell very openly, for example that you have been in therapy.
I can talk about things that are very far back, to which I have gained a certain distance. If I had told those around me 20 years ago that I was going to therapists, from their point of view I might have been the pushover. Today the topic of mental health has got a completely different weighting. It is also important to talk about such topics because many do not dare to do it. But once you’ve had a good experience, it can be redeeming and helpful – for others too.
It is said that in three years they wrote 60 songs all over the world. What was the principle behind your selection for the album?
I wrote some songs years ago, some are very fresh. I choose what I want to tell right now. There are songs that haven’t made it on the album now, but maybe in two or three years. It’s like a vintage has to mature more, a good twelve whiskey also takes years (laughs).
Sometimes you dream melodies. How do you manage to wake up and then sing them into the phone?
I’ve probably already missed so many melodies in my dreams that at one point I was so mad and the mechanism to grab my phone was there at some point. I sing something in, sleep on, listen to it in the morning and then assess whether it was good and wrong.
MfD extras such as photos, acknowledgments, maybe making of’s can be found on a plate. They deliver something completely different.
Right. A 45-minute documentary about this album will be out in ten days, and it turned out very well. Speaking of which: I totally forgot to say thank you on “Boats” in the rush and hectic pace. But thank God I have the song “Danke” on the album, which I now dedicate to everyone who was involved.
Is there anything that you particularly associate with Hanover?
Every autumn! Hanover is one of those cities that has given the world some really good artists, the Scorpions for example. I also recorded a record of spiritual songs here in 2016, a retrospective of my time in the monastery. And at the beginning of the 90s, I spent a year with my father and siblings at the Nordhafen on our ship. I have many fond memories of the city, including from the time in the pedestrian zone.
After three years you are going on tour again. How much are you looking forward to this little kick off at ffn?
I think small shows have a really great atmosphere. It’s intimate, it’s exclusive and unplugged. I also love to rock on the big stage in front of 10,000 people with loud electric guitars and fat drums. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to really realize that I have a dream job and that I can live from my passion. I am extremely grateful that so many people celebrate my music.
You really can’t avoid your songs at the moment.
I’m very sorry about that (laughs). Sorry guys I’m following you.
Michael Patrick Kelly will play on September 28, 2022 at 8 p.m. in the ZAG-Arena on the Expo-Plaza. Tickets cost between 40.95 and 89.15 euros and are available in the NP ticket shops (e.g. Lange Laube 10) or online at neuepresse.de/tickets
By Mirjana Cvjetkovic