Declan Galbraith – “Danny Boy”.

Hey people! 🙂

Today I’d like to share with you a piece from another of my faza people – Declan Galbraith, these days also known as Child of Mind. – This song, however, was sung by him long before the Child of Mind project, as it’s from his very first, self-titled album from 2002, which he recorded at the age of 10. Some songs on it are original material, but mostly they’re covers of either pop classics or, as in this case, quite well-known Celtic folk songs. Declan definitely has a special relationship with Celtic music, even if it’s less apparent in his later music. This is because he is of both Irish and Scottish descent, and his grandfather – affectionately called Poppy Ben by Declan – with whom he had a very close relationship because he was looked after by his grandparents a lot as a child; played several instruments in a Celtic music bands, and would often take Declan along on rehearsals and concerts.

“Danny Boy” was written at the beginning of 20th century by an English lawyer and lyricist, Frederic Weatherly. He was introduced to the song “Londonderry Air” by his sister, and set this new song of his to its melody. It is not known how exactly this song should be interpreted and what the author had in mind writing it, but what comes to mind for many people is that it’s from the perspective of a parent, whose son is leaving home for war or an uprising, which makes sense to me.

Declan Galbraith – “Moody Blues”.

Hey people! 🙂

A moody blues is what my Sofi seems to be having right now, so it made me think of this song and I thought why not share it with you. Funny how the album from which it comes from (You and Me) was released in her birth year and how at the time Declan was almost her age. 😀

So You And Me was Declan’s third album, which he released at the age of 14, and it was also the last album of his that he released under his real name. While he is known for covering a lot of pop and rock classics, this seems to be his original song, although I’ve no clue if he wrote it himself or if someone wrote it for him. The title quite surely comes partly from The Moody Blues – the Birmingham 60’s rock band – which he likes and has covered their song Nights In White Satin on his second album.

Declan Galbraith – “An Angel”.

Hiya people! 🙂

Thought I’d share another piece from Declan Galbraith’s second album – Thank You – released in 2006, when he was 14. Currently (or at least in 2018, that was the last time I heard anything substantial about him) he makes his music under the stage name of Child of Mind, and writes his own songs, however back then, he mostly did covers of classic pop or rock songs, and this one is I believe one of his more well-known covers.

Originally, An Angel was a song of The Kelly Family (an European-American band which enjoyed quite a lot of popularity in the 90’s) and was written by Paddy Kelly for his late mother, Barbara, who passed away early from cancer if I remember correctly, and I think it’s not the only song he wrote for her. I don’t know a whole lot about The Kelly Family but since Declan is one of my faza subjects, and since he has covered more than one of The Kelly Family’s song and liked their music, I used to listen to them a bit because I like to know what my fazas like to listen to. Anyway, while The Kellys have some quite cool songs, I think Declan’s covers are a lot better, and so is the case with this one.

Declan Galbraith – “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)”.

Hi guys! 🙂

I don’t think I’ve ever shared with you a song from Declan Galbraith’s (currently known as Child of Mind) second album called Thank You, so I thought I’d do it today. It was released in 2006 when he was 15, and, what’s typical of his music at the time, contains mostly covers of popular classics of genres like pop, folk and rock. And one of the pieces he covered on that album was Don McLean’s “Vincent” often referred to as “Starry, Starry Night” from its first lines, and that’s also how it’s called on Declan’s album. Somehow despite this is a very weighty song in my opinion, tackling quite an intense topic like mental illness or suicide, I’ve seen a lot of children and teens cover it, Chloe Agnew and Jackie Evancho to name a few.

Despite it clearly shows that while recording this song, Declan was already undergoing voice change, so it impacts the quality of the piece a bit, and so does the autotune here unfortunately, which is not the case with the whole album because in some other songs he sounds a lot different, I still think his version is absolutely great! And the lyrics are just amazing but that’s obviously Don McLean’s merit.

Declan Galbraith – “You And Me”.

Hey guys! 🙂

Hope you’re having a great start of the new year. For the start of the new year at My Inner Mishmash, I chose a song from one of my major fazas – Declan Galbraith aka Child Of Mind. – Because I realised that while I shared music from his debut album while he was 10, and his most recent music now that he is an adult and writing his own lyrics under the name of Child Of Mind, I haven’t shared anything from any of his teenage albums. So today I chose to share the title song from his 2007 album You And Me. If I’m counting right, he was 14 at the time. As you may know if you’ve read my previous posts where I wrote about him, he is British of Irish and Scottish heritage, but this particular album, as well as the one released the year before, was recorded in Germany and brought him particular fame there. Maybe not like sky-high fame but if people were likely to know his music anywhere, it was most likely in Germany.

He was undergoing voice change at the time, so I believe there’s a bit of autotune in there even though normally he has quite remarkable vocal control, and he sounds quite characteristic on this particular album. Also his music was quite different at the time than what he’s been creating most recently as Child Of Mind, and he mostly covered other people’s songs, or at least if he did write some of them they were not as ambitious as they are now, which is totally understandable given his age, but it’s just kind of striking when you have a closer look at his music as a whole picture.

At the time of my having a dominant faza on him, which was about 2013 (I guess) this was his newest album to date and I liked it the most, mostly because it was the most versatile musically and a bit more light rock-y than pop-y which I liked. But now that I know his later music, I do like it a lot more than You And Me and I must say that if I didn’t know him now, at this point in my life, and my first encounter with his music would be with this 2007 album, I’d probably not end up having a faza on him. Which would be sad, and I’d miss out on so much! 😀 So I’m glad it went differently and I came across his music much earlier, being a teen myself. So here is You And Me. 🙂

Song of the day (5th December) – Child Of Mind – “Lay Me Down”.

Here is another song from one of my previous major fazas, Declan Galbraith aka Child Of Mind. Child of Mind is his relatively recent musical project, where, unlike in previous years of his musical career, he has been writing his own songs, rather than mostly covering. And, as I’ve written before, I think that’s a very good idea because he’s an interesting songwriter and that adds quality and a bit of a special feel to his music that makes him stand out a bit more. This song in terms of lyrics reminds me of one of his first self-penned songs that we were introduced to I guess it was in 2016, called “Strange World”. It has a similar embittered, you could say cynical even, feel. Here it is for you.

Song of the day (16th November) – Child Of Mind – “Maybe We Can Find A Way”.

Hi people! 🙂

I’d like to share with you a song by one of my main fazas, more exactly the object of my second faza – Declan Galbraith, aka Child Of Mind. I’ve shared some of his music, earlier and more current, before, so you may know that he has started his singing career at the age of 11, and is from England but has a lot of Celtic heritage on both sides of his family. Currently he has this Child Of Mind project going on, and although in the earlier years of his career he mostly covered some popular songs, now he writes his own lyrics and they are very interesting and often quite deep or at least can make you think. The song I want to share with you now is one of these and is called Maybe We Can Find A Way. I chose to show you a live version, for no other reason that I saw it first when looking for you on youTube, and lives are typically more genuine so if they’re good audio quality and well performed I’m all for lives instead of album versions unless I have some strong preference for the album version for some reason. As you’ll be able to hear, this is from his gig in Italy.

Declan Galbraith – “Carrickfergus”.

Hi people! 🙂

Today, I am sharing with you a song from my second major faza, or music crush – Declan Galbraith, also currently known as Child Of Mind. – But this song is much earlier than his Child Of Mind project, because Child Of Mind is his current stage name and also, as far as I’m aware, the collective name of all sorts of other activity his doing, while this song comes from his very first album. Declan had his very first album released in 2002, when he was 10. It contains mostly covers of pop songs (with most of them I believe that his versions are actually better than originals), and some traditional songs like Walking In The Air which I shared one year around Christmas or this song here – Carrickfergus. – Declan definitely has quite an interesting musical background, as his Scottish dad – Alec – listened to a lot of classic rock, exposing him to it, meanwhile his mum – Siobhan – comes from a large Irish family where folk music had an importantplace as her father, known as Poppy Ben, played in some sort of a Celtic music band and although he died when Declan was still a little boy, he has a strong connectioon with him, and through it, with Celtic music as well.

These days, when we see more and more children singing from an early age in social media, talent shows or even releasing albums, people often easily fall in love with and feel extremely moved by their music, but my subjective feeling is that it’s often just because they’re children, and this fact alone feels so moving to many. Meanwhile it happens rarely, in my humble opinion, that someone would be an extremely good singer since very early childhood. Declan was almost 11 when this album came out, so not that very little as many children we can hear somewhere online or in the TV these days, but still I think among all the famous singing children that I’ve heard he is the best. Obviously, I’m very subjective since he was my major faza so naturally I think so.

I like his later music much more, from after his latest full-length album You And Me which was released way back in 2007. Then he had a break for studying and other things, and came back with much more ambitious, but also mostly self-penned and quite intriguing repertoire. But I love to come back to these early songs of his.

Carrickfergus is a famous and well-known Irish folk song with long traditions that has been performed by many artists, also such like Declan who aren’t just focused on folk music. Ed Sheeran probably made it even more famous by referencing it in his Galway Girl. And in case you don’t know, the title of the song comes from Carrickfergus in co. Antrim, Ireland.

Here’s the song on Spotify, and for those of you who don’t have Spotify, the link to Songwhip where you can find it on your streaming service of choice. It is also available on YouTube, but the audio quality is not too impressive so I chose not to share the YouTube version.

Song of the day (23rd January) – Child Of Mind – “Take A Look At My Diary”.

I thought I’d like to share with you one of Declan Galbraith’s songs. Declan Galbraith has been one of my earlier crushes, and my crush on him started on 21 January some years ago, I don’t even remember exactly which year. Since Declan, I’ve already had two crushes, but I still like him a lot. So far I have showed you only 2 songs by him  one

“Strange World”

comes from his demo, and the other –

“Walking In The Air”

comes from his debut album – “Declan” – released in 2002 when Declan was 10 years old. Now he’s 27, and since 2017 I believe, uses the name Child Of Mind. He’s also working on an artistic project of the same name. He has released one EP so far, and it’s really intriguing. From a child who was mainly covering popular songs, he has come a long way, and developed tremendously! I find his lyrics particularly interesting. And the song I’m going to show you here – “Take A Look At My Diary – is the one that speaks to me the most, and is the most relatable for me. I think though that many other people with mental illnesses, but also other similar issues I guess, can probably relate to it easily. I am curious what has inspired him to write this song, as it is very true.