REVEALED: Highly influential electronic musician's surprising Nenagh connection
Electronic musician 'Aphex Twin' spent some of his earliest days in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary
It has been revealed that the highly influential and widely celebrated experimental electronic musician and composer 'Aphex Twin', aka Richard David James, has a surprisingly close connection to the North Tipperary town of Nenagh.
Aphex Twin is a UK-based musician who has been hailed as one of the most influential and important artists in contemporary electronic music by publications including The New York Times, NME, Clash and The Guardian. His work includes electronic music classics such as Selected Ambient Works Volume II, Richard D. James Album and Syro and his music has been featured across many forms of media including on the soundtrack to films such as Children of Men, Blade, Dead Man's Shoes and Four Lions.
It was confirmed a number of years ago that Aphex Twin was born in the maternity hospital in Limerick to Welsh parents. However, in a recently resurfaced interview by the BBC with James' sister, Welsh Labour politician Julie James, she spoke about exactly what they were doing in the area around the time of his birth.
"My father had really itchy feet and never really settled to one occupation, so about every 18 months, 20 months we would be up and off again but we always came back to Wales in between." she told the BBC.
She mentioned their time in Canada, a stint in the USA, and she says on "one memorable occasion we went to Nenagh in County Tipperary in Ireland".
"It was a fun childhood, you can tell, I'm smiling, I enjoyed myself. But it was also odd. It was definitely odd."
James' father, Derek James, was a coalminer who worked in the Silvermines mines for over a year around the time of the musician's birth in the early 1970s.
It's very possible that the town of Nenagh planted the artistic seed that resulted in electronic music hits such as Avril 14th, Windowlicker and #19.
Adding Aphex Twin to the already beloved associations with Shane MacGowan, Nenagh is fast becoming known as a hotbed for groundbreaking and influential musical heavyweights.