OYLEGATE, the fifth solo album from Paddy Hanna, was released in 2024 on Strange Brew (Roisin Dubh) and featured in many Irish end-of-year ‘Best of Lists’.

The album, marked by a graceful pop sensibility, is a journey through the euphoric highs and crushing lows of parenthood, delivered with his signature blend of melancholic wit and lush, off-kilter charm. Elation and exhaustion. Love and terror. The weight of responsibility and the strange, disorienting beauty of watching life unfold before your eyes.

Determined to sidestep the usual sentimental trappings of writing about having a child, Hanna found an unlikely creative companion in grim Soviet-era cinema. As he wrote, films like Solaris flickered in the background—bleak, meditative landscapes that mirrored the depths of sleep deprivation and the existential wonder of bringing a new life into the world.

This contrast of warmth and detachment, of intimate revelation and surreal detour, courses through OYLEGATE’s DNA.

Despite its moments of cold introspection, OYLEGATE is sonically rich and enveloping—an effect captured in a single request to producer Daniel Fox (Gilla Band): “sweet, sweet caramel.”

Hanna wanted the music to feel like satin lining the listener’s ears, wrapping them in warmth even when the themes tilt towards darkness.

2026 festival appearance inc. Beyond the Pale, Galway Arts Festival, All Together Now, Another Love Story, Electric Picnic