• Album Premiere: Our Krypton Son – Fleas & Diamonds

    March 10, 2017 - By 

    Four years ago Derry songsmith Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son released one of the all-time great Irish debut solo albums. A self-titled release, it traversed an extraordinary palette of heart-wrung balladry and fervent, at times quite remarkable pop majesty. Today McConaghy returns with its highly-anticipated follow-up, Fleas & Diamonds. A wonderfully refined release – in both senses of the word – it betrays the hallmarks of an artist whose knack for weaving exquisite, emotionally potent songwriting with crushingly resonant lyrics is unparalleled on this island at present. Conceived over two days, from a tent pitched in an abandoned building on…

  • 17 for ’17: Our Krypton Son

    January 25, 2017 - By 

    Our Krypton Son’s ethereal sounds may seem bathed in “the glow that flashes red” from the sun of Superman’s home planet, but we don’t really need to look as far as the celestial bodies. Those auroras closer to home should take just as much responsibility for where Chris McConaghy’s melodies emanate from, piercing every so often through the coastal skies to inspire and ignite. Written in the small village of Creeslough in northwest Donegal, the sonic themes of Fleas and Diamonds swell and meander like the landscape of the county that birthed it; impenetrable yet so welcoming once breached, a…

  • Our Krypton Son: The Bridge of Early Sorrows

    December 16, 2016 - By 

    Set to release the video for his single ‘Relics’ on Monday (which you can preview below) Derry singer-songwriter Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son returns with a Kafkaesque tale for the latest installment of his Thin Air column.   One morning I awoke to find I’d transformed into a gigantic animated turtle. I lay in bed, upended on my flat, brown coloured shell – which was two-dimensional and, having presumably been drawn by some celestial cartoonist (one clearly on a budget), lacking in any detail whatsoever. I stared terrified at the ceiling, unable to turn my body over. I immediately…

  • Our Krypton Son: Letters From Throat Lake

    October 27, 2016 - By 

    Derry songsmith Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son reflects on writing his forthcoming second album on a child’s acoustic guitar in a tent in Creeslough in Co. Donegal. Day one. I’ve been plucking the nylon strings of my child’s acoustic guitar for several hours. And glaring at a notepad. It’s bloody freezing and I’m shivering. Shivering with the starling, shaking with the gorse bush. I’ve come to Creeslough to stay for two nights. We’re to write an album, this village and I. An album to be titled ‘Fleas And Diamonds’. A song cycle about rebirth, the first growl of love…

  • Watch: Out Krypton Son – I See A Sadness

    December 10, 2013 - By 

    Off the back of the release of his stunning ‘Can’t Make You Come Back’ (not to mention a sublime cover of Willie Nelon’s ‘Pretty Paper’) Derry singer-songwriter Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son has unveiled a live video of a sublime new track, ‘I See A Sadness’. Filmed in Smalltown America’s studio in Derry, the video – edited by Paul Brown and his team from In Your Steps – is, according to the STA blog on the video, “delicate in every sense of the word and is sure to pull on the heart strings and bring a tear to a…

  • Video exclusive: Our Krypton Son – Can’t Make You Come Back

    December 2, 2013 - By 

    Ahead of the its release on December 16, we have an exclusive first look at the video for ‘Can’t Make You Come Back’ by Derry singer-songwriter Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son. Created by videographer Tristan Crowe, the video features McConaghy leading an isolated existence, contemplative and longing, ruing the void left by the song’s subject matter. A perfectly appropriate visual accompaniment to a song imbued with McConaghy’s instantly recognisable, masterfully melancholic songwriting style. ‘Can’t Make You Come Back’ will be released via Smalltown America on December 16. Watch the video for it below.

  • In Photos: The Thin Air Showcase feat. Our Krypton Son, Arborist, The Wood Burning Savages & Rory Nellis

    November 18, 2013 - By 

    Belfast-based photographer Diarmuid Kennedy was in attendance to capture our showcase at The Pavilion, Belfast as part of this year’s Belfast Music Week. Performing on the night were Rory Nellis, a fast-rising singer-songwriter – also frontman with Belfast-based indie pop four-piece Seven Summits – impressively progressing Derry-based quartet The Wood Burning Savages, the wonderfully Autumnal song of Belfast band Arborist and the ever magnificent Our Krypton Son AKA Derry singer-songwriter Chris McConaghy. Check out Diarmuid’s photos from the night below.

  • The Thin Air Belfast Music Week Showcase: Our Krypton Son, Arborist, The Wood Burning Savages & Rory Nellis

    November 6, 2013 - By 

    As part of this year’s Belfast Music Week we will hold a special showcase featuring some of the country’s finest songwriting talent at Belfast’s Pavilion on Wednesday, November 13. Headlining by Derry-based singer-songwriter Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son (pictured), the bill will also feature fast-rising Belfast-based band Arborist, Derry quartet The Wood Burning Savages and frontman of Belfast indie rock band Seven Summits, Rory Nellis. Go here for the show’s Facebook event page. Doors at 8pm, £5 in.

  • Revisted: Our Krypton Son – Our Krypton Son

    October 5, 2013 - By 

    In the second installment of Revisited – a feature looking back at some of the finest Irish album and EP releases of the last few years – we return to the spectacular self-titled debut album by Derry singer-songwriter Chris McConaghy AKA Our Krypton Son. Released via Smalltown America Records in 2012, the album is an eleven-track masterstroke of supremely wistful songwriting veering between internalised romantic afterthoughts, extroverted folk-rock forays and some of the finest lyricism and compositional work from a songwriter to ever hail from these parts. A self-proclaimed album about “memory, time, love, death, work, jealousy – the usual shit…