Eugene McGuinness (Credit: Hayley Benoit)
Eugene McGuinness will tell you, in no uncertain terms, that he is not coming back. The music career is in the past, the day job stays, the family comes first. Yet here he is, with a new album and two launch shows. A decade on from Domino Records, McGuinness has recorded Eugene McGuinness Versus the Universe with old friends at Liverpool’s Docklands Speed Shop.. a record that feels both like a beginning and a full circle. Of Irish heritage, raised between Derry and Liverpool, he describes himself as a cypress tree.. one that thrives on neglect. His best records, he reckons, came after the deal ended. He’s probably right. Wry and completely uninterested in playing to the gallery, McGuinness talks with Jason Barnard about rejection, ambition and why he is very happy “fannying around doing his own thing.”
You’ve described accepting that your music career was over, what was the moment you realised you wanted to come back, and what took you so long?
I’m not coming back.. I mean, that part of my life- the music career- is in the past. I’m blessed to have a wonderful life now.. a beautiful family and I go to work and try look after everyone and it’s an honour. I do write things still.. it’s who I am.. music, words and stories are what I’m made of and some lovely people have kindly decided to help me share it with you all.. it’s a different thing to what it used to be.. I’m quite literally not giving up the day job.
What did the hole left by not making music actually feel like day to day? Was it a gradual realisation or did something specific trigger it?
For years I’d work part time on building sites, painting and decorating etc alongside doing the music thing and that was all good, but then it got really hard and I just couldn’t get by financially. The last thing I wanted to do was get a full time job, I’d been my own man for so long…a struggling man.. but my own man.. but I did what I had to do.. and the absence of music, and the horror of the mundane was very difficult. I felt trampled underfoot. But I’ve always tried to find meaning in the mundane.. and then there was more mundane to fine more meaning in.. and I did.
How has fatherhood changed the way you approach songwriting?
It doesn’t really but it kind of changes everything else around it..everything is in supercharged panoramic technicolour.. and children teach you a thing or two about the wonder of everything.. so naturally that helps a beautiful thing like songwriting.
The album Eugene McGuinness Versus The Universe is described as picking up where your 2007 debut EP left off. Can you tell me about the connection and differences between the two records?
I’m not sure if I really see a connection to that particular record, but the title is a way of acknowledging that, whilst I will always move forward and develop my craft into the unknown, I also essentially am just one idea that I am living out and dedicated to exploring.. I see a thread through everything.. but my work didn’t kick into gear until after domino dropped me. I’m like a cypress tree. I thrive on neglect.
Now a few years have passed, what are your reflections on Lost Illusions (2020) and Engine (2021) albums?
They are my best records. Lost Illusions is a collection of home recordings but it goes deep into everything that I’m about… it still has a magic glow for me.. it bottled a moment in spring time when it was written and the words are- if I do say so myself- good..
Engine was actually recorded before Lost Illusions and, at it’s heart, is the sound of me and my baby brother Dominic making a racket in a little studio.. it’s my Mark E Smith/Can/Velvet Underground album.. but if they read Joyce and looked at Van Gogh/ Picasso instead of the shit that they were into.
You recorded with old friends and leaned into happy accidents. Can you give me an example of one that made it onto the record?
‘Eastend Requiem’ was an off-the-cuff, one happy accident after another adventure.. my hotel was a two minute walk from the studio and I wrote the song in my head on my way there one morning last summer. To capture things like that at their very inception is everything to me.
‘Icarus’ draws a parallel between your own life and the myth of flying too close to the sun. How close did you get, and what was the fall like?
I mean, the “I had ambitions, they were beyond my reach” is certainly about me as a young man thinking I could do something that the world would never welcome.. but I’ve always kind of acknowledged that, like in ‘Godiva‘ I talk about “in the chaos of my elation, I get ideas above my station”.. so the fall as you put it.. well, the way I see it, the fall never happened because I never took off.. but rejection is a hell of a thing to experience if your the sensitive, insecure, creative type.. which I am.. I’ve had a lot of it.. and I’ll have a lot more but that’s ok.. I adore music.
You’re launching with shows in Liverpool and Derry, both places with deep personal connections. Why those two cities first?
I think you answered your own question, they are two places extremely dear to me… Derry is my entire family and I are from.. it is who I am, and one of the most beautiful places on earth.. Liverpool is where I lived from aged 18 to 25 so they kind of formed me and the thing that I do.. both are magical, spiritual places that are an island unto themselves.. it’ll be an honour to perform there.. lots of the songs were either written in Derry or recorded in Liverpool.. as for more shows.. well let’s see if anyone enjoys these ones.
Finally, what are your plans for the rest of the year?
I don’t make plans, they are very much made for me- I guess I’ll see how/if people respond to these songs but I’m very happy fannying around doing my own thing earning the daily bread. The fact that another record of mine is being released is amazing. I’m savouring the moment.
Further information
Eugene McGuinness will launch Eugene McGuinness Versus the Universe with a special live performance / signing at Rough Trade, Liverpool on 21st March 2026 & Culturlann Ui Chanain, Derry, on 28th March 2026.
For more information visit Mellowtone Records.
