Walking on Cars gear up to release new music – and support Pieta House fundraiser

"Now more than ever, they need the support."

Walking on Cars hadn't expected to release any new music any time soon. After their upcoming gigs were cancelled due to coronavirus, lead singer Pa Sheehy presumed social distancing would make recording a bit of a headache. In fact, it's been the opposite.

“It’s strange," he tells Her. "It’s different. On one hand it’s odd, and then on the other we have been recoding a lot for the past couple of weeks.

"It’s opening a new avenue for us. We literally haven’t met each other but we’ve done four or five tunes in the last couple of weeks, sending audio back and forth. We’ve never done that before. It’s a new way of writing."

Pa says the band are hoping to release some of their new music ahead of the summer, but before that he'll be playing a few of their classic tracks solo, as part of Pieta House's Concert of Hope. The gig features 12 well known Irish musicians and will be streamed across Pieta's Facebook pages on Saturday (April 25) in a bid to raise much needed funds for the charity. Pa will be joined by the likes of Paddy Casey, Hermitage Green, Ryan Sheridan, The Riptide Movement, Christy Dignam, and many others for a special social distancing concert in aid of Pieta and the essential services that they provide. The charity, like many others, has been suffering with funding issues since the Covid-19 outbreak began. The vast majority of Pieta's finances come directly from fundraisers and events, all of which have had to be cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic. Among them was the charity's annual Darkness Into Light event, a fundraiser that all but ensured Pieta could continue to provide its services to clients across the country. The event has since been replaced with a new 'Sunrise' appeal, where members of the public will get up to watch the sunrise together on the morning that Darkness Into Light was due to take place. And although Pieta remains hopeful that the new appeal will be a success, they still want to do whatever they can to raise as much vital funds as possible. Pa says there was no question about whether Walking on Cars were going to support the cause. "When they knocked on the door, it was kind of a no brainer," he says. "They’re super busy and their funding hasn’t been coming in because of the situation we’re in.

"The service they provide is essential, and probably now more than ever, they need the support."

And he's hopeful that they'll get it too - as people tune in for some tunes tomorrow evening, while lending their support to the charity.

“The lineup is solid," he says. "Saturday nights aren’t as eventful as they used to be, so hopefully we’ll get a good audience.”

Pieta House's Concert of Hope will be live streaming from 5pm on Saturday, April 25.  You can tune in here and donate here, or via the Facebook live stream.