'My brain was wired to speak a language that I didn’t know existed' Longford man recollects

Paul Prior is from Longford and has studied music in Trinity College Dublin and piano performance at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM). He is the house pianist and musical director of the award-winning EGG.

Last year, in February 2024, he featured in an RTÉ interview called “Something For The Weekend: Paul Prior's Cultural Picks” where it revealed that he has also written for the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. Paul came to chat about the unique situation in how it happened.

Having a strong background in music technique and the theory behind it, Paul is also a passionate music teacher at the Music Academy, Baldoyle, which hires highly trained and dedicated staff members to guide new and experienced students through their own musical journeys.

With a love for creative projects and being involved in the industry, Paul spoke to us about his life growing up in Longford, his music influences and to now being a Dublin-based musician with a vast portfolio.

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Where in Longford are you from?
I am from Lanesboro, specifically Tullyvrane. If you’re driving out of Lanesboro to Ballymahon and take the Cashel turn, it’s around there.

How did you start getting into music?
I was actually a latecomer to music. I didn’t do much until I was well into secondary school. My grandmother was a musician, my mum sang. Nobody was serious about it or a regular performer. Now, I can tell that all my family are musical, have a good ear, tapping out rhythms. I was the first to do anything with it in my teenage years. When I heard ‘Someone Like You’ in 2011 by Adele, I liked the piano. There was a keyboard in the attic that our grandmother gave us when we were young. There was a YouTube video, it was relatively easy. There was satisfaction when I heard music and reproduced it.

It sparked something in me. I started lessons; within a year, I sat my Grade 8 and got a distinction. In later life, in my 20s, I got diagnosed with autism, but when I first found music, it was like my brain was wired to speak a language that I didn’t know existed. Once I learnt music, everything made sense to me in an interesting way. It took off and I never looked back.

My dad was speaking to a colleague, Valerie, and told her I was doing my Grade 8 exam. He showed her a video of me playing. I often joke it was because I was addicted to it; for me, I did three hours every day. I was obsessed with it. Yeah, it was crazy.

Were you involved in any clubs in your youth in Longford?
Not a huge amount, no. When I was young, there was a Saturday club in the convent in Lanesboro. They did chess classes and dancing. I don’t remember the context. But I remember speaking in front of parents with five of us reading a poem. I was crying with laughter and nerves. In school, I went to Mercy Ballymahon; it was very sport-oriented. Sometimes, when there was a special service, there was a choir for that. I loved that Christmas choir. But there was nothing I did year-round outside of music.

Libby Malone was my music teacher in school. She was fab, she was brilliant. Because I started piano halfway through secondary school before my junior cert, I decided I wanted to do it for my Leaving Cert. In TY, I went to classes. She was so supportive and helpful. I did my piano lessons outside school with Maria McCann!

Would you tell me about writing for the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra?
My original goal was going to be a classical pianist. Then, in my final year of college, I was doing prep for the Dublin International Piano Competition. I damaged my wrist, bad technique. When I was away, the way that world is structured and how the wheels turned didn’t resonate with me. Do competitions, win competitions and people notice you. Music is so subjective. You could do a great performance. It was hard to deal with the rejection.

I did a class in college called Programming for Musicians, how computers make music. Maybe I should do a conversion course in computer science. After a while, I talked myself down; I didn’t see myself that didn’t centre music. Okay, how about I do the best of both worlds?

After I graduated, I did a one-year course in Pulse College; you could sit in professional recordings. Eimear Noone was filming a score for an animated film.

Eimear’s husband forgot to put the harp pedalling in. I said send me the file. They took me as an intern, and prepared the parts for the symphony orchestras. This was over the pandemic.

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If you look at the conductor, my job was to get one of the instruments, extract it and put it in its own booklet. If you’re in a recording studio, for the film, think about the hourly cost like € 3,000-4,000 an hour.

Every musician is on union wage. Space, engineers. It adds up. Even the seven seconds of the violin section like an A sharp or natural. All parts had to be perfect. After I did this, they had a concert coming up for the RTÉ National Symphony, recording in the RDS, Christmas 2021. I remember doing some pieces for the video game Fortnite. We were doing music from it, and had the scores sent over. I was the first to look through them. I flicked through all of them. I looked at them and realised that it’d been written for an electronic situation, a DAW. If played live, as Eimear was going to conduct it, it’d have a solo clarinet in lowest register against a string orchestra.

I had 24 hours to reorchestrate the entire piece. That’s how I got to write for the National Symphony Orchestra. The music is arguably simple, but making sure everything is perfect, you can’t defend yourself. The pressure is incredible. I got to sit and watch Christmas orchestra with my family on the TV and say I wrote that.

I read that you are part of a cabaret called ‘EGG’. May you tell me about it, anything you’ve done recently with them?
In 2021, I got a tip about someone looking for a pianist for a theatre show. I applied. I started working for them. By lunchtime, it was like we wanted you to be the musical director, not rehearsal pianist. Within a few months, I asked about setting up a cabaret show and being a house pianist. I didn’t know what to expect. We set up the show called EGG. It sold out in 24 hours. We did the first show; it was a huge success. Every two-three months, we’ll do an EGG. A Panto EGG, an Easter EGG. Drag queens, comedians, musicians. It’s hilarious because it’s so chaotic in a fun way. We don’t audition, and we tell them to go for it for fifteen minutes.

We see it for the first time with the audience. I play on and off stage. I get to get the best seat in the house, juggling stuff, breathing fire, moving, heartfelt and getting my mind blown every time. We did a bigger one for the Dublin Fringe Festival. We got to do it on a larger scale in the National Stadium, a bar in the back. It reminded me of being in my Ballymahon days; brown, rural walls. It was so perfect to “EGG-ify” it. We won a bunch of awards, and then we took it to the Pale Festival. EGG is the gift that keeps giving. I love doing it.

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Any advice for Longford musicians who want to get themselves out there?
I would say the best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten as a creative and getting work is you have to be 100% sure of what you are using to fuel your creativity and what’s driving you.

I’ve seen it two ways. The ideal way to make work, you’re coming from the mind set is it’s beautiful, I want to offer it to people, to see themselves in it. The other is looking for something from people; approval from them. You want them to think you’re amazing.

If you’re trying to move in that way, you’re burning yourself out. You’re going to fail, completely mess up. If something fails, if people don’t like it, it’s okay.