Juno Falls

Essentially a one-man outfit, Juno Falls are the brainchild of Dublin songwriter Myles O'Reilly. Often described as a folk pop band, O'Reilly's outfit sound not unlike the wave of great 'new-acoustic' bands that emerged towards the turn of the last century - such as Elbow, Turin Brakes, Haven and Travis.However, it is Pop music which O'Reilly has at heart when strumming his guitar. "I've always loved pop songs because they're braver than any other kind of music: you're trying to be universal and appeal to a whole lot of people," he says. "But there's a side of me that's always been attracted to the beauty and the sadness of artists like Elbow or Rufus Wainwright".Forming the group in 2003, O'Reilly soon inked a prestigious publishing deal with Sony within a couple of months of Juno Falls' inception. A year later, debut album 'Starlight Drive' arrived. Produced by former Neil Finn keyboard player Herbie Macken, the album caused a minor ripple in Ireland, bringing O'Reilly to the attention of the now-defunct V2 Records.A major deal with the Richard Branson-owned label was signed and by early 2006, O'Reilly and a disparate group of musicians decamped to Dingle where much of the second Juno Falls record, 'Weightless', was written.With the songs cobbled together, it was then off to Wicklow, London, Dublin and Nashville to record the album prior to its release last year.The album also attracted the attention of Travis frontman Fran Healy, who invited Juno Falls on a month-long tour of the UK and Ireland. "Fran heard 'The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off' on my Myspace page," says O'Reilly "and he liked it so much, he asked us to come on tour with them."Post Travis, Juno Falls toured Ireland extensively over 2007 and more of the same is planned for the year ahead with a European tour and festival shows planned for the summer. Until then, the prolific O'Reilly certainly won't be resting on his laurels. A number of Irish gigs are planned this month, while the frontman will also be treating his fans to one new track a week via his Myspace site.