Eugine McGuinness

The Early Learnings Of Eugene McGuinness' is an assured collection of progressive UK pop, led by a magnificently strong and confident voice. Over the phone, Eugene McGuiness is somewhat less self-assured. "I've never done overseas interviews before," he sighs. "I'm not really used to it. I'm a bit low key, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm a bit rubbish."

Rubbish at conversation or not, the response to McGuinness' debut release suggests that even if he doesn't have a future in public speaking, his music career certainly isn't in any danger of faltering. It's received positive reviews from most every outlet to have come in contact with it since its British release in August of last year. Not that he'd know anything about the reviews, mind you.

"I don't read them, really," shrugs McGuinness. "I read one or two, and they were pretty positive, but I try not to read reviews because I'm already my own worst enemy. I don't need to read criticism, because any time I do, I not only agree with them, but I'm probably more harsh than they are. The press seems to have been pretty good, from what I hear, though."

Indeed, one of the more positive elements of the press for 'Early Learnings...' was the way that reviewers tended to see it as the beginning of something big. "This is a first course of distinctly palatable promise," enthused the BBC, "with the best treats hopefully yet to come."

With the EP about to be released locally, McGuinness says he's still more than happy with it as a representation of his work a year on.

"I stand by it. It's weird that it's something that a lot of people saw as a taster. It was my first experience in a studio, so that was very novel and a lot of fun. It's also interesting to think that people are hearing this for the first time, and I'm telling people about another record. I had lots of fun making it, and I'm quite proud of it."

Another record? Absolutely - that first taste of the studio proved addictive for McGuinness, who has already managed to put another collection of songs together. As for whether or not this counts as a first or second album, well that's another question entirely. "I suppose it is technically the second album, which is a weird thought - I've always considered 'Early Learnings...' as an EP of sorts. I guess it's eight songs, which is maybe more than an EP? People said mini-album. I don't know; it's a...thing."

Maxi-EP, perhaps? That's possibly appropriate, considering that 'Early Learnings...' was originally conceived as a four track EP for limited UK release. That all changed, though, possibly because of its press reception at home. "The label decided that they wanted the rest of the world to hear it, but the plan was always for it to be quite a subdued thing for shops in England; it was only ever meant to be a 4 track EP. It started as one idea, and now it's being put everywhere, which is really quite different to the initial plan."

There's no date set for the next release as of yet, but McGuinness notes that it will likely be 12 or 13 of "the best" tracks from 16 that he has recorded, and that are in the final stages of mixing right now. "It was all pretty much done within three weeks, but those three weeks were spread over the time from December to February," he says. "I was gigging a fair bit - still doing shows for 'Early Learnings...'. Now it's in the stages of final mixing, which I'm really excited about."

"It feels like a step forward from 'Early Learning...', because on that I pretty much did all the instrumentation, with a little help from the producer and the percussionist. This one," he continues, with a little more self-assurance in his voice, "I've called in a few other people - drummers, and so on. It's got more of a community feeling to it. I've just been hearing these sounds in my head, and I can't do them by myself. I've called on a few people - my little brother, mates of mine - to make it more...bandy."

"That's not a word," McGuinness laughs self-consciously, "but you know what I mean."

Alistair Wallis

'The Early Learnings Of Eugene McGuinness' is out now through EMI.