Interview:	MIRACLE OF SOUND
Title:	Persistently upright attitude

Irishman Gavin Dunne has not only become a real phenomenon in the fantasy gamer scene, his viral hits are becoming increasingly popular. His mix of (electronic, alternative and hard) Rock and pop, which is open in style but homogeneous to the ear, also includes striking excursions into Heavy Metal - sometimes skillfully garnished with tribal, dubstep and even jazz elements.

The fact that his themed compositions are not only highly regarded on YouTube worldwide, but also streamed billions of times, keeps the born visionary down to earth - in this thoroughly enjoyable interview, Gav, as many call him for short, proves to be an extraordinarily likeable contemporary.

Now his very first physical release is on the horizon: „Materia (Best Of 2011 – 2024)“ - a collection of songs exquisitely compiled by the master, which is not only dedicated to the mystical worlds of daring Vikings, plundering pirates, salty sailors and Celtic adventures, but also to modern fantasy.

The tracklist is headed by his biggest hit to date, „Valhalla Calling“! As the multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and singer reports, it feels great for him to be able to have his songs „within reach” after all these years.

As an artist, you have collected over 1 b-i-l-l-i-o-n organic streams and achieved numerous viral hits, including the successful song „Valhalla Calling“ - 1 billion, that's 1,000 million ... can anyone even imagine this in real terms?

„It’s a pretty wild number, isn’t it? It’s impossible for me to try to visualize or even conceptualize a number that huge. But it feels good that so many people wanted to listen to the song - I guess it means I did something right with my songwriting!“

With such great success, response and popularity, do you still have any goals - acting in a Hollywood fantasy movie maybe?

„Ha, I actually did some theatre acting (and composing) back in my early 20s, believe it or not! I found acting very difficult, it doesn’t come naturally to me like music & writing do. As for goals, to be honest I am quite happy where I am in my career – I make a good living and have complete creative control & ownership of my work. But I am always happy to expand & grow my audience and I think that my next album, (a dark folk/ Celtic Metal record) will hopefully help to do that. Working with Napalm Records will also hopefully help to break a little more into the mainstream Metal scene. I don’t have any great wish to make official movie or game soundtracks, due to my preference of owning my own work. I do some sponsored work with game companies from time to time, which is great, but I have actually also turned down some offers of making music for big games, due to my insistence on maintaining copyright ownership.“

You have made sounds for several video games – many will wonder if you have personal favorites among such games ... do you? 


„I do! Some of my favorite games would be ‚Disco Elysium‘, ‚Mass Effect‘, ‚A Link To The Past‘, ‚Bloodborne‘, ‚Witcher 3‘, ‚Skyrim‘ etc… in recent years ‚Elden Ring‘ really captured my imagination in a way that has seldom happened before. The mysterious worlds and abstract narratives in Fromsoft games are very inspiring to me.“

At what age did you start playing your first video games and what did that do to you? 


„Like a lot of 80s kids, I started with ‚Super Mario Bros’ on the NES. ‚Zelda: A Link To The Past‘ was the first game that really blew my mind and showed me the potential of what the medium could later turn into.“

„Materia (Best Of 2011 – 2024)” - your first-ever physical release … how does that feel for you, after all these years of making your music? 


„It feels great! I have wanted to do this for a while and now working with Napalm has given me the proper infrastructure and a great team to help me with it. I am really looking forward to actually holding it in my hands, to have a tangible, corporeal representation of the MOS project - hence the album title.“

I read about your impressing musical vita and immense gained global attention … the material shows your very own way of songwriting and musicianship – how would you describe it to fully unknowing ones? 


„Thank you! It is always hard to describe Miracle Of Sound because it is such a varied, eclectic project. I make everything from folk, to symphonic Metal, to disco to cyberpunk… I suppose my own songwriting style is the glue that holds all these genres together and makes it ‘feel’ like MOS. I am also often inspired by other subject matter such as videogame stories. In the last couple of years I have leaned into the metal side of my work a little bit more and I plan to continue doing so!“

Was it rather easy or rather tricky for you to select the songs and what criteria were used to do so? 


„Oh yes… it was painfully difficult to choose 12 songs from the almost 200 in my back catalogue; no matter what I choose, someone will be missing a favorite or two. I tried to pick a mix of the most popular fan-favorite songs, and a couple of my own favorites. Picking the live set has been a similarly agonizing experience, haha!“

Is there and in case yes, what is the o-n-e song with the most meaning for you on „Materia …” and why?

„‚Ode To Fury‘ is probably the most meaningful song on the album for me. It is a song about letting go of anger and trauma and trying to move forward in order to avoid hurting yourself or the people you love.“ 


How can the readers imagine you writing, developing and finalizing one of your songs? 


„My creative methodology is complete chaos, haha. I don’t really have an organized or systematic way of doing things, it’s different every time. It’s also extremely different to the traditional music industry – sometimes I’ll release a song a few days after I finish making it. Sometimes a song takes a week to complete, sometimes it takes years. But you can get a reasonably accurate picture of it all by imagining a nerdy Irish guy, alone in a bedroom music studio, drinking green tea and pulling his hair out in frustration at 3am trying to get a snare drum to sound right! For example when I wrote ‚Valhalla Calling‘, I first composed the chorus in my head (by accident) in the shower, then I quickly wrote the rest of the lyrics in 30 minutes. But actually recording and producing the song took a long time as it is such a big, cinematic production – I would guess it took around 50-60 hours to create.“

Are there things, books, movies etc. that have influenced you as a musician from the beginning and always will? Adventurous fantasy themes for sure ... but what else? 


„I think the media we consume often influences our art on some level, even when writing more personal work. This year I re-discovered my love of reading and I have been devouring all the classics, like ‚Crime & Punishment‘, ‚Moby Dick‘, ‚Anna Karenina‘, ‚Wuthering Heights‘, ‚Lonesome Dove‘ etc… maybe it will inspire some new songs!“

Viking, pirate, sailor, Celt, etc. – what would you choose in the event of o-n-e possible time travel? 


„The Celts for sure. As an Irishman it’s in my blood. My entire next album will be inspired by Celtic & Irish history, atmosphere, geography & mythology. My family all come from Waterford too – which is Ireland’s largest Viking settlement, so there is probably a little bit of that viking DNA in me also - maybe that’s how I was able to write Valhalla Calling and Skal!“

© Markus Eck, 27.10.2024

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