Photo: Shane Horan
“i did the best i could with the resources i was given, which was nothing” – wolf pupy
HELLO.
My name is Mike McGrath-Bryan, I live in Cork, and I’m a music and culture professional. I currently write about the aforementioned on a freelance basis, organise community/industry events in Cork, dabble in new media, and play bass in a sound-art ensemble.
I have loved music my whole life, from the age of six, in fact, when the video for Therapy?’s Nowhere blew my mind at the end of The Den one day (a musical crush that has yet to abate). I made my mind up when I was a teenager that I would somehow do cool things in music and media, such was my wholesale consumption and budding anthropological interest in both. Irish independent music in particular became a consuming passion upon discovering Out on a Limb Records and working from there on research, and attending local live shows ever since.
After a handful of attempts at starting a hardcore band in the Husker Du mould (no pun intended), I got into music journalism while deciding what else I was going to do with my life, and the rest has fallen as it has: a decade this year of event production and promotion; a growing understanding of new and legacy media via a diverse range of experience; proficiency in content management systems such as WordPress; a decent line in online broadcasting and on-demand audio content; dabbling in film and animation production; and even some tentative steps back into creative outlets of my own.
I’m available for hire in any of the fields outlined throughout this website, and always eager to learn new skills and abilities by immersing myself in interesting, challenging long-term projects. Please send an email, via this site’s contact page.
DOWNLOAD: CURRICULUM VITAE
DOWNLOAD: FEATURES PORTFOLIO
INTERVIEW AND PHOTOSHOOT: GOLDENPLEC.COM
EXPERIENCE:
Journalism:
CURRENT:
The Echo (Cork; freelance features contributor)
Nialler9.com (Dublin; Southern Correspondent)
Totally Dublin (Dublin; freelance record reviews)
Good Day News (Cork; freelance features contributor)
LISTEN Magazine (New York; freelance features contributor)
BYLINES:
RTÉ Culture (Dublin); RTÉ Young People’s (Dublin); RedBull.com (Dublin); The Irish Examiner (Cork); Totally Cork (Cork); The Irish Post (London); Hot Press (Dublin); Village (Dublin); Broadsheet.ie (Dublin/Reykjavik); Headstuff (Dublin); One More Robot (Dublin); Alternative Ulster/AU Magazine (Belfast); The Thin Air (Belfast); Molten (Belfast); Insert Title (Cork); We Are Noise (Cork); Irish Metal Archive (Cork); Drop-d.ie (Cork/Dublin/Poznan); Musical Mathematics (Leeds)
QUALIFICATIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:
RTÉ Choice Music Prize – Judging Panel Member, 2019
Cork Institute of Technology – MA Journalism with New Media, 2016/2017
National Library of Ireland – work archived as part of ‘Remembering 1916, Recording 2016’
Irish Blog Awards – 2x Nominee (as editor, drop-d.ie), 2011, 2013
Digital Socket Awards – Presenter, Best Rock and Alternative, 2011
Live Music/Events:
RECENT:
#CorkLovesMusic (promoter/curator, in collaboration with First Music Contact)
First Music Contact Day Clinics – Cork (organiser, in association with Bunker Studio)
Rory Gallagher Music Library (volunteer event organiser/live interviewer)
Undivided for Sexual Violence Centre Cork (artist liaison)
Townlands Carnival Festival (artist liaison)
Mallow Arts Festival (new music programming, artist liaison)
FORMER:
TEDx CorkSalon (curatorial assistant); Cork Midsummer Festival (volunteer social media/event organiser); Quarter Block Party (volunteer); Camden Palace Hotel (volunteer/collaborator); Laya Cork City Spectacular (volunteer); freelance poster/flyer distributor; Luchador Music (promoter/production manager/DJ); Cuttin’ Heads Collective (co-founder/co-promoter); Midweek Mixer (co-promoter/production manager); Drop-d Presents (promoter/production manager); Acheron Promotions (stage runner/production assistant); HXP (promoter/production manager)
Radio/Audio On-Demand:
CURRENT:
Cork’s RedFM (Cork, producer/presenter for Red on Red podcast)
Dublin Digital Radio (Dublin, producer/performer for Correspondent sessions show)
FORMER:
Room101 (Cork); UCC 98.3FM/Cork Campus Radio (Cork)
Education:
CURRENT:
Griffith College Cork (module lecturer, BA Journalism)
Audiovisual Production:
FORMER:
Gobstar Film (Cork)
Music and Sound Art:
CURRENT:
Correspondent (Cork)
FORMER:
MERSK/Mersk Collective (Cork); No Sudden Movements (Cork); Day of Drone (Cork); CIT/CSM Studio Technology Module: Scoring (Cork); Cork City Samba Band (Cork)
Mike McGrath-Bryan 