Mark Greaney

Mark Greaney (born 23 June 1980) is an Irish musician. He is best known as the singer and guitarist in the alternative rock band JJ72, which he fronted from 1996 until 2006. He was later the frontman of Concerto for Constantine and describes himself as "the perpetual writer of a solo record". Greaney is the head of education at the British and Irish Modern Music Institute.

Playing career

Beginnings and influences

Greaney played violin as a child, but gave it up at "about 12". After a brief period as a footballer with Everton's Dublin-based youth academy in his mid-teens, he began playing guitar and writing songs. He counts music artists Joy Division, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Manic Street Preachers, Pixies, Depeche Mode, Nick Drake, Thom Yorke, Placebo and authors Wallace Stevens and James Joyce amongst his influences.

JJ72

''JJ72''

Greaney met drummer Fergal Matthews while studying at Belvedere College in Dublin, Ireland, forming a friendship to their mutual love of Joy Division, Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins. With Greaney assuming vocal and guitar duties, the duo formed JJ72 with bassist Garvan Smith. After Smith's departure, fellow student Hilary Woods, who had previously shared the stage with Greaney as part of a string quartet, was added as the band's bassist. Greaney was serious about the band and received support from his mother. Woods later described that the band's songwriting process stemmed from Greaney "coming in with the melody and lyrics and basically the three of us then evolve it into a JJ72 song". After saving their money, the band recorded demos and posted them to the offices of Select, Melody Maker, NME and BBC Radio 1 in the UK, which won them attention. They ignored the Irish music press, with Greaney later stating "we thought there were a lot more people in Britain, so let's try there". The band quickly began playing live (while studying for their Leaving Certs) and self-released their first single, ''Pillows (Oxygen)'' in 1999. JJ72 signed with Lakota Records (a subsidiary of Sony) in the summer of 1999 and released their first single on the label, ''October Swimmer'', in November. The re-released ''Oxygen'' single (released in August 2000) gave the band its first Top 40 hit in the UK. The band's self-titled debut album followed the ''Oxygen'' single on 23 August 2000 and charted at no. 7 in Ireland and no. 16 in the UK, going on to sell in excess off 500,000 copies. The band performed their own headline tours and supported U2, Coldplay, Muse, My Vitriol, Embrace, Manic Street Preachers and The Dandy Warhols, wrapping their touring campaign supporting ''JJ72'' in February 2002.

The band's sudden success came as a shock to Greaney. Looking back in 2010 on the whirlwind time around the release of ''JJ72'', he said:

''I to Sky''

The band began playing new Greaney compositions ''Formulae'', ''City'' and ''Brother Sleep'' live during 2001 and recorded their second album with former Smashing Pumpkins producers Flood and Alan Moulder in early 2002. Greaney used his Jesuit schooling as inspiration for the religious imagery present in the album's lyrics and was determined to make an album which wasn't "hit after hit". The album title ''I to Sky'' came about because Greaney wanted to capture the place which he wanted people to be transported to while listening to the album. In addition to singing and guitar, Greaney performed piano on the album's opening track ''Nameless''. ''I to Sky'' was released on 11 October 2002 to critical acclaim, but with lower sales than ''JJ72''. The band embarked on a UK and European tour, which Greaney later admitted they shouldn't have undertaken, later saying "it was a horrible time because at the start of that tour, when we released the album, someone really close to me died as well". Bassist Hilary Woods departed the band in March 2003, which brought an end to the ''I to Sky'' era.

Unreleased third album

Greaney creatively "almost hit a wall" and "just stopped writing" in the period after the release of ''I to Sky'', at a time when he thought the band should have been moving forward creatively. Canadian bassist Sarah Fox (from Dublin band The Valves) joined JJ72 in May 2003. Despite Greaney's songwriting problems, the band began playing new songs live throughout 2003, including ''Coming Home'', ''Everything'', ''Nothing in This World'', ''Maria'' and ''Rainfalls''. The band pressed on with writing and recording their third album throughout 2003 and 2004, before sending the album off for mastering in the spring of 2005. The album was recorded during a period of uncertainty for the band, as the man at Sony who had championed them in their early days moved to a different job and Lakota Records' funding from Sony was cut after the corporation merged with BMG. JJ72 headed out on a UK and Ireland tour in May 2005 (their first in two and a half years) and the limited edition ''She's Gone'' single followed in June. The band toured the UK and Ireland again in July and played the Download, Wireless and Electric Picnic festivals in the UK and Ireland over the summer. The band released the ''Coming Home'' single in late August (which stumbled to no. 52 in the UK charts) and went on what would be their final UK tour in September 2005, with Greaney often venting his frustrations from the stage. JJ72 played their final gig on 8 December 2005 at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London, as support to Mercury Rev

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