Biography Cian Ciaran

Here he comes. The dark horse. The bloke at the back. The odd one.

Cian Ciaran is a founder member of that democratic state of music known as Super Furry Animals.

He’s got this album, right. It’s a real beauty, songs of love and

longing; delicate, fragile and understated. People who know about

these kind of things have been whispering about it ever since Cian

started messing about in the studio. This is a bit special, they said.

Just so you know, Cian is the baby of the SFA bunch. He has a

performing history in music stretching back to his early teens. His

first love was acid house and he didn’t hear anything by Neil Young

until he was 21 years old.

In our desire to understand one of the most intriguing groups of their

time, we gave the Super Furries name tags and job descriptions,

praying they wouldn’t move around too much to confuse us.

That made Cian the one who sat at a keyboard and added vocal harmonies

when they played live. On occasion, he released techno tracks of his

own making. That was him sorted.

So it’s no wonder this debut album comes as a surprise, even to those

who’ve known Cian for donkeys. It was written entirely on the piano

and features contributions from fellow-Furries Dafydd Ieuan and Guto

Pryce, as well as regular collaborators Osian and Mei Gwynedd.

All Cian had to do was write the songs, sing and whistle a bit,

engineer, produce and do the mixing. Easy.

The difficult stuff was writing about things that really matter. Love

and relationships. Songs with universal appeal. Cian wants people to

take them on as their own : -

“The great thing about writing songs about love and relationships is

that it’s almost impossible to come up with something completely

original. Every lyric about love has probably already been written.

But that doesn’t make them any less meaningful. It gives people the

freedom to use them the way they want to.”

Outside In is an album that asks: ‘What’s it all about, then?’ and is

smart enough not to try to answer the question in line twelve of track

eight.

And just in case you’re looking for musical signposts, Cian has spent

the past year or so listening to hip-hop, r’n’b, experimental

electronica and bits of doo-wop.

The album sounds nothing like any of it.

- Iestyn George

Outside In by Cian Ciaran is released on July 23rd on Dell'orso

Records (vinyl and cd) and Strangetown (digital)

Cian Ciaran sings lead vocals for Super Furry Animals on the following tracks: Walk You Home, Cabin Fever, Carbon Dating, Mt., Pric.

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