Kean Kavanagh

Originally published: Town Tattler Vol 5 Issue 5

Portlaoise GAA has always been about more than just sport. It’s a community, a home, a heartbeat for many. And few capture that spirit better than Kean Kavanagh.

A former underage footballer and hurler who wore the white and green with pride, Kean is now forging a path in the Irish and UK music scenes. With a string of well-received singles and an eagerly anticipated new album, The County Star, due out on 6 June, the Portlaoise native is making waves far beyond the county bounds.

We caught up with Kean to talk club memories, songwriting, and how growing up around Fr. Brown Avenue and Rathleague helped shape his journey, both on and off the pitch.

Kean is a singer, songwriter and producer. A founding member of the Soft Boy Records collective, he’s known for blending genres and storytelling in a style that’s distinctly his own. Before stepping onto music stages across Ireland and beyond, Kean spent his youth on the fields of Laois, lining out for Portlaoise in both football and hurling. He won county titles at U14, U16, Minor and U21 level, and remains a proud Town man through and through.

Tell us about the new album. What can people expect from it?

It’s a bit of a story of this character, the County Star, who’s a little bit me and a little bit an exaggeration of me I think. I would have been born in Texas where my parents had emigrated and we moved home to Portlaoise when me and my sister were very young, so there’s a mixture of the reality of those actual stories of my life and growing up in Portlaoise and the fantasy of this far away place that influences the sound of the music.

How does it feel to be releasing new music this summer?

I’m buzzing. I’ve been working really hard the last year and a half in particular on all of this so it’s really satisfying seeing it all come together and I’m getting really excited about starting the next album now!

You did a great version of the Christy Conroy classic The Portlaoise Queen. Do you have many memories of this being sung after club victories?

Yeah, specifically the first time I and probably a lot of people my age would have heard it sung, which was after the Leinster final win in 2004 in Newbridge. The Doc Fitz was brought up after the cup was presented and sang his heart out; ambitious to sing a song with five verses to a pitch full of people, most of whom have never heard it.

After releasing my version of the song, it was great to hear lots more stories from other people about their own personal lore with the song. My Da, who grew up a few houses away from the Doc on the Borris Road, told us a few stories of getting dragged downstairs in the middle of the night after the men had come back from the pub to hear Doc singing it, and Connie Conroy sent me a lovely message about hearing the song and his own memories of his father Christy singing it to him.

All of these types of things are really important to me because it’s a song about people from the town and it continues to connect people. It’s really important that we cherish the stories and songs that we have because what else do we have of people after they’re gone.

You’ve a deep connection to the club. What are your earliest memories of Portlaoise GAA?

Probably running around the hall of the old clubhouse with all our cousins and friends while the adults drank pints in the bar after a game. I loved that clubhouse and I loved being so close to the pitch, it took no time at all to walk up and hop the gate into the grounds so we were up there doing our own training all the time.

Also eating packets of wine gums in the back of Mick Nerney’s car as he was bringing us to a blitz every other weekend in the summer.

Your songs The Whistle and A Cowboy Song aren’t just great tracks, they’ve also got brilliant videos. There’s a strong nod to your roots too, with Portlaoise GAA featuring heavily in both. How important is it for you to reflect where you come from in your music and visuals?

Well, the lyrics of the album are pretty direct about the GAA I suppose, this idea of the character of the “County Star”, and in the song Father Brown’s it’s very literally set in that location, so I always knew that I wanted the videos to be done at home.

We had a fairly specific idea for “A Cowboy Song” that it would feature my band playing on the field in O’Moore Park under the floodlights. I called Sonny Keogh a week before I came home to see if we could get a lend of a bag or two of jerseys; Sonny seen my London number and thought I was a scam caller, but once I got through to him he sorted us out big time with all the gear we could need.

Have to give a massive thank you to everyone who came through to play the part of the players and the supporters in the videos as well. One of the best things about filming at home was the amount of generosity we received from every single person we asked anything of; a lot of the film crew were from Dublin and just couldn’t believe how generous everyone in Portlaoise was, from Sonny to Mick Ryan giving us the run of his pub on a Sunday morning to Laois GAA allowing us the use of O’Moore Park. Everyone wanted to help us which reaffirmed all the beliefs I had had about the community in Portlaoise.

Pa Campion is a great character. Is he based on anyone in particular, or is he a mix of a few familiar faces from around the Town?

There have definitely been a few Elvis lookalikes to grace the Town but there are these Elvis characters all over Ireland, although they’re sadly probably a dying breed! The character tied together the Irish/American connection in the music really beautifully and I think we were able to tell a really good story with Pa; he’s a man who’s dedicated his club to a fault, and has sacrificed his family and quite possibly his life for it.

There’s pure comedy there but there’s also a very real darkness and loneliness too.

You’ve plenty of silverware from your time in the white and green, Féile hurling and football in 2008, U16 football titles 2009 and 2010, Minor in 2011 and 2012, and U21 in 2013. Any standout moments from those days?

The Minor final in 2012 would be the big one I’d say; Mountmellick were our rivals since we were 12 years old and there was a healthy bit of hatred from both sides I think. We both really, really wanted to win that match, it was the most important thing in our lives and I remember being a little bit obsessed with it.

There was something so special about winning the last real underage final you’ll have with the team you grew up playing with, and to win with a goal in the last minute as well from Aaron Rafter was cinema.

That’s probably my last memory of the clubhouse in Father Brown’s as well, us all celebrating together there after the match. The end of an era in many ways.

Your dad (Niall) was club chairman for 7 years, from 1999 to 2005. What was it like growing up in a household so closely linked with the club?

I think that that was a really exciting time in the club’s history and it’s something I’ve been thinking about more recently. Portlaoise and Laois were really on the up and it felt we were up and down to Croke Park all the time; there was a spotlight on the club in a way and a fair bit of media interest all round.

I was a waterboy for the senior team so I’d head out to a lot of the trainings and all the matches with my Da and got to see the inside of the dressing room before the matches; I remember being up in a function room in Dublin with my Da and the team the day before the All-Ireland final in 2005. Everyone had on new Adidas runners that had been gifted to the team and the selectors; there was a bit of glamour about the whole thing, everyone seemed to be operating at a very high level, and looking back I think it was great to see that so young. I think seeing that level of success and approach to preparation higers your horizons a bit and makes you more ambitious whether it’s in sport or whatever else.

Do you keep an eye on how the club is getting on nowadays and if so where would you like to see the club in the future?

I try to get to any matches that I can when I’m home. I loved seeing the Minors win the final last year, I think it was the first time since it was our team back in 2012 so that was a long overdue one.

I’m really excited, as everyone probably is, about the new plans for Rathleague; I think they look amazing and it’s so needed in terms of there being a place that people involved with the club can go and meet and there being a centrepoint in the same way that the old clubhouse was, making it a place that people are excited to be heading out to.

I think that the community effect of that will have a natural effect on the actual success of Portlaoise, here’s hoping anyway.

If you could give a message to young Town players chasing their own dreams, whether in sport, music or anything else, what would it be?

Study the greats and play with confidence.

And finally... any chance of a future gig in Rathleague?

That sounds perfect to me!