My new single Any Other World was released 28 January 2021 on all download and streaming platforms. You can buy it for 69c here: https://tommykeyes.bandcamp.com/track/any-other-world

The first lockdown last Spring coincided with the most glorious weather in Ireland.  Every morning I’d sit in the garden, enjoying the warmth of the sun.  The birds were at their most active and they’d ignore my presence as they flitted through the shrubs, bringing snacks to nestlings and filling the air with song.  I contrasted their freedom with our confinement and the idea for a song emerged.At the time I was keeping myself busy by putting out a solo performance of one original song on Facebook every day, and the new song got its first airing that way. It got a good response and even led to an invitation to perform it on a TV show.  But, having done that, I parked it.   The basic tracks for the Ageing With Attitude album had already been recorded and I was waiting for the easing of restrictions so we could get back into studio and finish the album.  There was no room to work on a new track and I didn’t for a minute think that nine months later the song would still be as relevant as it was then. Back in December, as the restrictions tightened once again, I decided that the song just had to be released.  It’s a song of hope, and hope is what we need more than anything at the moment. 

I asked Rob Molumby, who does the string arrangements on my albums, to come up with a digital strings backing, and he also added the bass and lead guitar fills which help to shape the feel of the track.  Two wonderful young talents, Ellen O’Mahony and Martin McDonnell, added their voices to those of Rob and myself as we built up the layered harmonies that give the track a choral feel.  Recording was done in one session in Hellfire Studios in the Dublin mountains, engineered and mixed by Mick Heffernan and filmed by Peter Salisbury for the evocative video.

Any Other World secured my third ever top spot in the charts when it came straight in at no 1 in the iTunes Singer-Songwriter Chart on release day.