Jane O'Brien

Dublin born singer/songwriter Jane O'Brien has been living and performing in Spain and Germany for many years and has just completed her "debut" album "jane o'brien" with her new band, Dörte Schüler on drums (on the album - Martin Stieber), Carsten Körtling on bass and Andreas Günther on keyboards. This album is already available from CD Baby.com, itunes, and many other download stores and will have it's official German release in September 2007 under the Blue Cat Label, Berlin.

Jane O'Brien is a dymanic and passionate performer with a rich elastic alto voice who sings from the heart and does not hide behind show but bares her soul in both her lyrics and in the emotion she brings to every performance.

Her songs are a snapshot album of her experiences and observations. Songs such as "Banshee" or "Sanctuary" contain the cry and longing of her Irish heritage whereas "I'm never coming back" an answer to telephone terror, “Strawberry Soufflé” a steamy elegy to daytime sex, "My time" or "Peacetime" reveal the raw honesty and guts which is typical of Jane O'Brien. Her roots are firmly based in jazz, folk and pop, but she will delve into other styles to suit a song such as the drum and bass inspired "Blooming".

Biography Jane O'Brien's desire to be a performer springs from a moment back in her hometown, Dublin. Sitting in the front row at the legendary Gavin Friday's Cabaret at the Waterfront Club., looking up at Bono, and other members of U2 and The Hot House Flowers jamming she realised she too belonged on stage and hopped up to join them with an impromptu backing vocal. From then on she was hooked.

In 1988 she moved to Spain. Her first professional band was in Barcelona, “Stupendams” an all-women- international a-capella group performed a wide range of music, from pop to madrigals to swing, at venues and festivals all over northern Spain.

In 1990 she moved to Hamburg, Germany. As a solo jazz singer in the legendary Dennis Swing Club in Hamburg she sang with most of the well known jazz musicians in the city. On one evening she was accompanied by three double bass players simultaneously including Percy Heath from the visiting Modern Jazz Quartet.

In 1993 she formed the pop duo “A Distant Touch” with the Hungarian guitarist Ferenc Kiss. Together they wrote a set of funk pop songs one of which was “Whales kiss”, which was written for the Greenpeace anti-whaling campaign.

In 1995 with four German/“Irish“ traditional musicians she founded the band “Boreen”. Until the end of 2001 they wowed audiences big and small all over Germany with a traditional blend of fast tunes, slow airs and songs about lovers who returned too late and husbands who returned too early. In 1997 they produced the CD “Enchanted Ways”.

In 1995 Jane formed the trip-hop project “S.T.A.R.” with Uwe Haas. O’Brien was the lead singer and wrote the lyrics and melodies and in 1996 the CD “Simply Travelling Around Reality” was released under the PIAS/Freibank label with distribution in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux countries by Rough Trade.

Since 2000 she has had her own band and has played at a wide variety of venues all around Germany; clubs, festivals and art‘s centres, and has never failed to grab attention, stop people from sitting still and leave audiences wanting much more.

In the summer of 2006 she toured Ireland for the first time with her band. Show less