John Ambrose Martin

Samhain is the night the veil grows thin, when the dead return home and the fairies travel between their forts. For me, it’s about reconnecting with the ancestors, remembering our loved ones, and preparing for the dark days of winter ahead.

One of the great privileges of my work is being given access to historic places after the doors are locked. I sit quietly in the silence and try to stand in the shoes of the people who lived there. What were their fears, their worries, their hopes? How cold were those nights? For a few quiet hours, it’s the closest thing to time travel I know.

Irish folklore matters because long before the monks put pen to vellum, and for centuries after, ordinary people passed everything down by word of mouth, through song and story. Without it, we’d lose a part of who we are.

Music is a huge part of my life. My hope with my music is to open a door to history, its stories and its characters, in a way people haven’t heard before, and to make them curious enough to go looking for the rest of the story themselves.

Soul-O Xperience started at a crossroads. I was writing a rock song when it hit me: why not write songs about historical characters and stories, and tie them in with the folklore and research I’d been doing for over 20 years? I realised I’d done so much, but it was all scattered. Soul-O Xperience brings it all together in one place, through my own lens, so people can enjoy it, and maybe find something worth passing on.