LIMERICK 2000 -
OVERVIEW
Woodstar were formed in the summer of 2000. The collective union of mind and sound. A five piece band who take various additional members on the road to bring the full sound of the studio to the live environment. The influences are wide and varied from Dylan & Bowie to Smog & Red House Painters. Woodstar believe the song is bigger than both its parts and its players. Woodstar have lots of songs. Lyrically woodstar believe in honesty, at times uncomfortably so. It is intimate music to personal lyrics. Fin is not afraid to write about what is sad, and together woodstar attempt to turn pain into beauty by means of music, one of the few ways in which such a glorious transformation can occur.

Fin, Doug & Al built a studio in a field in Mungret, Limerick with their bare hands in July of 2000. They then set about getting a guitarist and bass player to accompany the piano and drums. Enter Kieran and Ronin two troubled souls with music in their bones. Fin and Al showed them the songs which Fin had written in the Arabian desert (another story entirely) and Kieran and Ronin were touched and subsequently hooked into woodstar. They immediately began recording three songs "These Scars, "Sorry Skin" and "She Catches", on an eight track machine in the freshly built studio at the end of the muddy field in Mungret.

The results were a revelation to the band, without even trying, they had found a sound. One which was not contrived or forced but real and natural. From a live point of view things didn't run so smoothly and it took nearly three months for the band to learn how to give the songs the justice they deserved. On October the 6th 2000, woodstar played "These Scars" correctly for the first time. It was a great moment. A sigh of relief, a realisation that they could make these songs breathe, make them live, summon the ghost at will.

With that they were finally ready to move. The first gig was in November 2000 in the Limerick heats of the Bacardi Hotpress Plugged Band of the year, which they won. They subsequently won the competition outright in April of the following year. "These Scars" was also short listed for the Hot Press Song of the year and was beginning to get national airplay in its own right, with Radio Guru Tom Dunne of Today FM being a particular fan. Since then woodstar have consolidated their position as an inspiring live act with some of the McGregors of Ellen Street gigs becoming the stuff of legend.

In the summer of 2001 the band were contacted by Matt Edwards of Hero Music, who came to see them in McGregors of Limerick. The following day he joined them for an afternoon in Mungret Studios. From there Dan Keeling of Parlophone got on board and suggested they release a five track E.P on the Regal Label.

Woodstar agreed and a month later found themselves in Parr Street, Liverpool with Ben Hillier for a weeks recording. The results being the "Time To Bleed" E.P. Though not fully representative of the full woodstar repertoire, nor the punkish energy (one would have to see a live show to fully appreciate it), it does serve as a taster as to the quality of the song writing and arrangements.

Biography Taken From Official Woodstar Website