Q&A with Danú star Benny McCarthy

Traditional Irish band Danú are set to release their latest album – Buan – on Jan 30th.

It is set be a big success for the band if early indications are to go by. The album was pre-released on iTunes and reached number one in the world music charts in Ireland, the UK and the USA.

Benny McCarthy speaks about Danu's latest album Buan

We caught up with Benny McCarthy, who is a founder member of Danú, and asked him a few questions.

Irish Music Daily: Tell us about the album? For example, how it differs from previous albums? How you selected the material? What kind of sound were you looking for?

Benny McCarthy: Buan is the name of our album, the word itself means Lasting or Enduring and I suppose it is quite a fitting title for the band celebrating 20 years as a band. All our albums are really snapshots of time for us all and Buan is the most recent. We have our own recipes in recording and it really keeps getting richer each year. We collectively have a broad wealth of music and song with all of us coming from so many different backgrounds of Irish music growing up, there is so much great Irish music out there and some lovely new music being composed every day also, Buan I think is a wonderful collection of all of these.

Danú has it’s own sound, this sound happens pretty organically when we all play.

IMD: Were your surprised at it going to number one on the itunes chart?

BMcC: We were quite surprised actually, we were delighted to see so many still paying attention to our music after 20 years, we are delighted that new Danú material has the interest of so many people.

IMD: What was it like working with Dónal Lunny? To what extent did he influence the album.

BMcC: Dónal Lunny is a fantastic man and it was a lovely experience having him produce this album. We grew up listening to all Dónal’s collaborations such as The Bothy Band, Planxty, Moving Hearts etc so we were all big fans anyways. He joins us for a few tracks which was a treat, he is a great energy to be around, we all now really know why he is such a great producer.

Thanks very much to Benny for speaking to us and look out for future competitions for a chance to win a copy of Danú’s latest album, ‘Buan’.

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By Michael Kehoe

Michael Kehoe is a writer for Irish Music Daily and Ireland Calling. His favourite Irish Music bands are Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys.