Noiz Entertainment - Producing Irish Music for Kids and Their Families
We (Liam Thompson and Paul Quin) are both amateur musicians who had a ball mucking around in the folk scene in Ireland for years. When our kids were born our focus naturally shifted to our children and we curtailed our weekends away and musical excursions. Because we have enjoyed music so much, we wanted to try and pass on this love of Irish music to our kids. We wanted to do this our own way so in 2008 we founded Noiz Entertainment Ltd on a mission to produce Irish music for children and their families. Since then we have been involved in the following projects:
Our First Project: The Speks' Debut Album
Our first project was to produce The Speks' debut album of 17 sing-along songs and nursery rhymes set to Irish music called - Sing-Along Songs from Glasses Island - Volume 1.
Songs from the album have been downloaded in 40 countries. One of the songs was featured in an award winning short film from Indonesia. Dana Verhoff from Toddler Brain thought the album was Spek-tacular!
How Many Sleeps 'til Christmas? by The Speks
The Speks' first Christmas single, entitled How Many Sleeps 'til Christmas?, was published in 2009. It's an original song written from the point of view of a 4-year old Irish girl.
We invited the school choir from Gaelscoil Donncha Rua in Shannon to come up to Shay's Studio in Loughrea to record the song with The Speks. The pupils were fantastic. They sang their hearts out. Thanks guys!
Saint Patrick's Day by The Speks
The Speks' wrote a song for Saint Patrick's Day in 2010. It's about the Saint Patrick's Day parades that take place in towns all over Ireland.
It's the first trad/rock song recorded by The Speks and we asked Quentin Cowper to play bass and Blendi Krasniqi to play drums on the recording. Quentin also recorded and edited parts of the song in his Courthouse Studios in Ennistymon, Ireland.
Book/CD Combo: Nursery Rhymes by The Speks
In 2010, we worked with Davillustration who illustrated all the nursery rhymes that feature on The Speks' debut album. These illustrations then formed the basis of a 96-page booked entitled, Nursery Rhymes by The Speks. It is like an A6 sized inlay card for the CD which is attached to the inside front cover of the book. The Speks then embarked on a series of live performances in book shops around Ireland to publicize the book.
Ego Trip by MacDara Ó Raghallaigh
At the start of 2011, MacDara Ó Raghallaigh asked us to help him produce his debut album of live traditional Irish fiddle music. We obliged.
It was recorded live in a small community hall in Newtown, Co. Kildare, Ireland on two cold nights in January. The CD is just MacDara playing fiddle. There are no backing instruments, over dubs, edits or anything like that. You hear everything. It's real and you can read more about MacDara's Ego Trip here.
Our Preferred Suppliers
Every day we work with great people and businesses that help us on our mission to produce Irish music based entertainment for families.
All illustrations for The Speks have been created using water-colours by Davillustration, an artist from Bray, Ireland. He can be reached at David Fortune's Krop profile.
Tim Harrington is a freelance graphic designer based in Limerick, Ireland. He designed The Speks' logo, CD artwork and website. To find out more about him, you can check out Tim Harrington's website.
Janine Dalton and Alan O'Reilly are web developers based in Dublin, Ireland and they built The Speks' website. They can be reached at Tidy Web Development.
Shay Leon, living near Loughrea, Ireland, has worked on all our music projects to date. He has recorded, edited, mixed and mastered numerous tracks for us. Check out Shay's Studio for more details on him.
Quentin Cowper is a talented multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer and video producer based in Ennistymon, Ireland. He has performed with The Speks, recorded & edited tracks and produced videos of The Speks, live in concert. Follow him on Quentin Cowper's Vimeo profile.
Bob Katz mastered The Speks' debut album, Sing-Along Songs from Glasses Island - Volume 1. He is based in Florida, USA and has won Grammy Awards for three of his audio mastering projects. He can be reached at Digital Domain's website.
Aidan Foley lives in Dublin, Ireland and offers excellent audio mastering services. He has mastered How Many Sleeps 'til Christmas? and Saint Patrick's Day by The Speks. Check out the services he has to offer on Masterlabs' website.
Sheena Kelliher is a freelance graphic designer currently based in Dublin, Ireland. She designed the book, Nursery Rhymes by The Speks. For more information, check out Sheena Kelliher Design. The book was printed by Brunswick Press, Ireland.