Damien George Rice was born on 7 December 1973 in Ireland. He is known for his fragile songs performed with minimal instrumentation.
Damien was initially active in the rock band Juniper. The group had modest hits with 'The World Is Dead' and 'Weatherman'. When the band was about to release their debut album in 1999, Rice quit. The label 'Polygon' was, in his view, too commercial.
Italy
Rice sought his salvation in Italy. There he wrote songs and travelled through Europe with his acoustic guitar until he was able to form a full band. The first album, our Sunday Morning Classic, O, became a great success and won the Shortlist Music Prize in 2003.
Second album
The following two years were mainly devoted to writing new songs for his second album 9. The album was released at the end of 2006. With the single '9 Crimes', Damien Rice scored a big hit. 'Dogs', the second single from the album 9, was released in March 2007. The single was released in three parts. Each part contained different live tracks. Two of the bonus tracks were recorded in the 3FM studio.
Top 2000
In the 23rd edition of the Top 2000, Damien appears with one song:
On Spotify, De Platenbar has a Top 2000 inspiration playlist. If you want to give Damien more places, you can recommend him there: click here for our Top 2000 list.
Sunday Morning Classic
On 23 October 2022, Damien was on our Sunday Morning Classic stage with his debut album “O” from 2002. At the A2A festival in 2001 in Amsterdam, the unknown Irish singer-songwriter already captivated a handful of people with beautiful songs...
When Damien Rice released his debut O on 1 February 2002, it remained quiet in the Netherlands, mainly due to his stubbornness to release the album independently. O is a record with disarming magic from the somewhat shy Irishman.
Relaxed, in no way forced, think Nick Drake. Developed, for a debut the record sounds remarkably learned, think Jeff Buckley. Awe-inspiring, for the talent of the man and his regular singing partner Lisa Hannigan. Where the songs feel cold, her voice warms them, and where the songs threaten to become too melancholic, she sobers them up. In the beautifully sung The Blower’s Daughter, she is the fresh breeze, and in Cold Water, she is the one who turns on the hot water tap. In that respect, she deserves the Oscar for best female supporting role.
O is a true singer-songwriter album. That means: lots of acoustic guitars and above all lots of passionate singing. Rightly a Sunday Morning Classic thanks to Wilko Moris from the Facebook page Vinyl Vrienden.
Source: NPO and various websites Photo: Tammy Lo
