TPOE 296: David Hedderman

The Point of Everything

Berlin-based Dublin artist David Hedderman released his debut album Pulling at the Briars on February 9, 2024, and talks through all of it in this track-by-track interview. From the press release: Written over a 15-year period, Pulling at the Briars captures a transitional period for Hedderman during which he relocated to Berlin, Germany from Dublin, Ireland in the mid-2000s. The initial months and years were shaped by intensive periods creating art whilst cultivating a community of like-minded creatives in Berlin. With regards to the latter, Hedderman engaged in regular music sessions, eventually inviting musicians to his Kreuzberg studio to play together. This ritual not only served as an invigorating social outlet but through playing music, Hedderman was able to process several informative events that occurred throughout his twenties and thirties. Recorded live over five days with Brendan Jenkinson (Aoife Nessa Frances, John Francis Flynn, Villagers) in Sonic Studios, Dublin, Ireland, Pulling At The Briars was produced by Conor O’Brien (Villagers), Hedderman’s close childhood friend and former bandmate in The Immediate. The atmosphere conjured during the recording sessions was amplified by the potent cast of collaborators featuring Peter Broderick, David A. Tapley (Tandem Felix), Corey Blair, and Aidan Gorman, each of whom add rich flourishes to the expansive material. Hedderman explains of the title: “It came from a trip I made to the West coast of Ireland making portraits of people. I was also doing some work outdoors with my friend and we were told we had to pull briars out of some walls in the lashing rain. Afterwards, I remember it being a very heightened memory after that trip of it being very cathartic and symbolic. The act was quite literally doing something in the pursuit of clearing, unclogging. I’ve often seen that as how I’ve treated music in a cathartic way, as a form of therapy. Holding the guitar and singing is my way of getting things out. The album’s title is a lyric in one of the songs and I think it nicely umbrellas the whole album in how it addresses the ways that I try to untangle life.” Buy Pulling at the Briars on vinyl: https://www.groenland.com/en/product/david-hedderman-pulling-at-the-briars-lp/