We recently connected with Patrick D’Arcy and have shared our conversation below.

Patrick, appreciate you joining us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

Gratefulness. It changes everything. Whether it’s grounded in your faith or in your personality. In my experience it is always the better road in a given situation. I was very fortunate to get a job in animation straight out of high school in Ireland. The company that produced the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series was looking for production staff in Dublin and so I applied and took a test. I passed and worked as a cell painter for a couple of years. This was back in the days when that meant using paint pots and brushes! I loved the process of it and the people I worked with, and the money! Ireland was not a wealthy country in those days and things like money were quite scarce. Looking back now I can see how fortunate I was to be in that situation. I was grateful. I didn’t take it for granted but I just expected life would always be this way, of course, it isn’t. Things happen, companies close down or move to cheaper production locations.

Later when working as a web developer and sound editor for a radio network in Los Angeles the company downsized ruthlessly after being taken over by a huge mega corporation. I was laid off, along with about 70% of my fellow workers. It was devastating but it allowed me to avail of the opportunity to join a band, mostly, full time. I had been playing for many years as a traveling musician at weekends but this was on a slightly different level. I was grateful. I did that for eleven years all the while producing websites to make ends meet and I enjoyed that process too. I often scratch my head wondering why I don’t just do that… it’s a whole heap of a lot easier to sit at home and produce websites than it is to be away from home for weeks on end at a different city, venue, hotel each day… I think I need an employment agent! Yet, I am grateful. 

I am grateful for my students! I teach my instrument online and at Irish music events all over the country. I enjoy watching them progress and consider them friends now, for which I am also grateful.

Patrick, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I feel like I’ve lived two lives… and I’m not done yet! I have had my working day life; first in animation, which led into website design & development. My weekend and evening life was in music. I played in bands first in Flogging Molly then in other bands like The Ric Blair Band, The Ne’er Duwels, Rattle The Knee, The Getty’s and most recently back with Ric and his band, The Celts. I began playing guitar in my teens but after moving to LA was offered the chance to play mandolin with a band I was going to see regularly called The Dave King Band. Dave needed a mandolin player for his new Irish band so I headed down to McCabe’s on Pico and got myself an old Harmony A style and dove right in. That band eventually became Flogging Molly. We played every Monday night at Molly Malone’s on Fairfax in Hollywood, CA. for a few years. We felt like we were beating a dead horse. I think it was Ted Hutt who came up with the name. So funny! Being in an “Irish” style band led me to seek out inspiration from other Irish bands. I’d always been a big music fan so, of course, I’d heard of The Waterboy’s (who were actually Scottish, just don’t say that to anyone from Ireland LOL ), The Dubliner’s, The Clancy’s, Horslips, Thin Lizzy, U2 etc but once I discovered Planxty and The Bothy Band all bets were off! That became my music; most especially the uilleann piping of Liam O’Flynn and Paddy Keenan. I thought I was going to learn more about Irish mandolin, and I did, but I was surprised by the direct connection the uilleann pipes seemed to have to my soul. I had to have more. So, with the help of my parents, a starter set was found in Ireland for me. My mom was able to hand deliver them on a layover/holiday in LA. She was on her way to see my sister in Australia who was about to give birth to my gorgeous niece Nora. So now I was off to the races! I dug deep into the uilleann pipes and the legendary influences both Liam and Paddy claimed; Seamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Johnny Doran, Felix Doran, Tommy Reck were those influences. There were tape recordings floating about, remember this was before there was any real resource online for the pipes. With the help of my dad, I joined Na Píobairí Uilleann (The International Uilleann Pipers Club) and enjoyed tremendously their publication An Píobaire. Luckily for me they released a VHS tape that same year called “The Art of Uilleann Piping vol. 1”. That was my first year studying and it has stood by me. I also managed to find the “Uilleann Pipe Information List”, a very early internet forum for the sharing of information. I became a regular and made some great friends who sent me tapes and graciously answered my questions.

All this coincided in my interest in the internet and web design. As a challenge to myself to learn what I could from the books available on the subject, I decided to build my first website about my new obsession. Of course I had to call it the “Uilleann Pipes Obsession Page” which eventually boiled down to UilleannObsession.com – it became my place to gather every bit of uilleann piping I could find both from print and from radio. There’s a nice swath of stuff gathered between 1995 to 2010 on there. I still update it periodically but it is mostly to list someone’s pipes for sale these days. Everything is out there now, for better or worse.

My time playing music and my fascination with recording technology bled into my time in radio. Eventually half of my day became the production of audio files, soon to become known as podcasts. The company I was working for was on the cusp of that. They produced a lot of talk radio so it was fertile ground for the podcast genre. I enjoyed the process and of course I was grateful, but it was repetitive. Later on the company was keen to have the process automated… I’m not sure that ever happened. The other half of my day was filled producing websites and promotions, both design, content and development, for the shows.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I have had to pivot a lot in my career. Companies would close, or change location, this happened more than once. Bands would give ultimatums I couldn’t agree to in the interest of my family, this also happened more than once. And as we are all too familiar with, lockdowns would occur. In all this I am very grateful to have both sides of my career life. I can do website work and recording sessions from home and go on a music tour and make that work. A regular 9 to 5 is definitely something I miss though at this point.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I enjoy listening to books, all kinds of books, especially when doing something else, eg. driving, cycling, walking, putzing around the house fixing stuff etc. Autobiographies I find useful as, quite often, I see a lot of parallels in my own life to varying degrees, which encourages me to persevere. I’m enjoying Mike Campbell’s book “Heartbreaker” at the moment. I met Mike a couple of times in LA. He loved the pipes and was even going to buy a set at one point. Of course he attained mega success and his talents were perfectly aligned with his situation. He was one of the fortunate ones.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.patdarcy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pat_darcy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pat.darcy.9
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-d-arcy-1990881/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PDarcy
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/patrick-darcy
• Other: https://jammcard.com/pdarcy

Image Credits

Michael Wilson, Isaac White, Kira Ott