Joseph Chester, also known as Joe Chester, is an Irish composer and musician. His albums have won acclaim, including A Murder of Crows, The Easter Vigil (which was named the "Best Irish Album" of 2017), and Jupiter's Wife (the Best Irish album of 2020 according to the Irish Daily Mirror).
In recent years, he has turned his attention to composing contemporary music for classical guitar. His first major commission, LUCIA, was commissioned by Axis Ballymun for the centenary of James Joyce's Ulysses. The piece was inspired by fragments of the life of Lucia Joyce, James Joyce's daughter. According to The Irish Times, it was "deft and well-considered, the work spins and soars. An elegant, discordant gem." The Times called it "a stunning tribute."
He has been a guitarist for many groups, including The Waterboys and for Gemma Hayes. He is also the producer and guitarist of Dublin band A Lazarus Soul.
1990 - 2000 From 1990, he worked as an engineer and producer in Dublin's Elektra and then Sun Studios. Chester recorded many of the emerging bands of the vibrant and celebrated underground indie scene of the time, including Sack, Sunbear, The Plague Monkeys, Turn, Nina Hynes, Doctor Millar, Future Kings Of Spain, Ten Speed Racer, Bobby Pulls A Wilson in addition to many others.
Having played guitars and keyboards on several of these records, he joined Sunbear as keyboardist and guitarist in 1994. The band landed a record deal with Tom Zutaut's (the man who signed Guns N' Roses) The Enclave, a subsidiary of EMI Records. They went into the studio for several months to record their debut album. However, shortly after signing, both EMI and The Enclave were shut down, resulting in the recordings being shelved.
He then formed a band with Nina Hynes called Nina and The Dreamweavers. After a residency in Dublin's Whelan's venue, the band signed with Reverb Records. After several months of recording what would become the first Nina Hynes record, Creation, the band went on to perform two tours in the United States. Many of the recordings from this time remain unreleased.
Around this time, he recorded some of the first demos for Gemma Hayes's first record as well as records by Halite (Graham Hopkin's band), Juniper (featuring Damien Rice and members of Bell X1), Nick Kelly and Doctor Millar.
He signed a publishing deal with UK publisher Daylight Robbery in 1997. He went into Trevor Hutchinson's Marguerite Studios in Dublin for several months to make his first solo record, Winter, under the name The Sound of Bells. Winter was never released, although four tracks - "Worldwept", "Spiritbuilding", "Dorian", and "Are You Paul Varjak?" - were released as 7-inch singles by Daylight Robbery.
Around this time, under the guidance of Trevor Hutchinson, he began recording many Irish traditional artists. This included Lunasa with whom he went on tour to record their shows from which he compiled their first album. He also recorded Breda Smyth, The Barleyshakes, and Gerry O'Beirne amongst others.
Ten Speed Racer While on tour in America, Chester joined Ten Speed Racer. On returning to Ireland, he went into Sun Studios in Dublin to begin recordings for Eskimo Beach Boy, their first album.
In 2000, Ten Speed Racer released Eskimo Beach Boy on Reverb Records in Ireland and on Catapult Records in the USA. The album was recorded and mixed by Chester at Sun Studios in Dublin, who also played guitars, keyboards, and sang backing vocals. The album garnered rave reviews, with Hot Press saying "the playing throughout is both subtle and superb, and the production is also first-class." However, the band parted ways with Reverb Records and signed to UK Indie label Red Flag Records for their follow-up album.
Recordings for that follow-up began again at Sun Studios in Dublin with Chester producing. Several tracks from these sessions remain unreleased. The band decided to quit Dublin and moved en masse to a large farmhouse in rural Wexford where they set up a rehearsal and recording studio. This was where they would live together for the next three years.
After a period of writing, the band decamped to Livingston Studios in London to record the EP Girls & Magazines, with Chester producing. The EP, released in 2002 on Red Flag Records, was characterised by a shift to shared songwriting duties. Three of the five songs were written by the band's singer, Dermot Barrett, and two by Chester. He had written "It Ain't Gonna Last" and the single, "Don't Go Out". The EP had been preceded by a single, "Listen to Bits" which was also written by Chester.
Both singles and the EP garnered significant airplay in the UK and Ireland, with "Don't Go Out" in particular being championed by Tom Dunne on his Pet Sounds show on Today FM. This led to a protracted period of touring and promotion in the UK including sessions on BBC Radio 6 and XFM.
The band returned to Wexford to begin writing their second album. Recording for the album began at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, in late 2002. The band decided to record with no producer, but Darren Alison was drafted in to mix. The resulting album, 10SR, was released on Red Flag Records on 19 November 2003. The artwork for the album and accompanying singles was by celebrated 4AD artist Vaughan Oliver. The album was mastered at Abbey Road Studios by Nick Webb with Allison and Chester in attendance.
Shortly after the release of 10SR, Chester left the band. He continued to live at the farmhouse in Wexford while he began to work on a solo album, which would become A Murder Of Crows.
A Murder Of Crows Beginning in 2003, Chester began writing the songs that would feature on the album A Murder of Crows. Some songs, such as "Charlie for a Girl", were originally intended for the second Ten Speed Racer album but were deemed unsuitable. Another song, "A Drop of Rain", had originally appeared on the unreleased Sound of Bells album Winter six years previously. The rest of the tracks were written in a burst of songwriting and recording at his home studio in Wexford through 2003 and into 2004.
In 2004, looking for feedback, he sent a rough, unmixed version of the album to Tom Dunne. Dunne had previously been a champion of the Chester-penned Ten Speed Racer single, "Don't Go Out". Rather than provide feedback, Dunne immediately played both the title track and "Charlie for a Girl" on his Pet Sounds radio show that night, playing "Charlie for a Girl" twice. He has since described A Murder of Crows as one of the best albums he ever had sent into the show and "one of the top ten albums I turn to when I want to lift my soul."
Moving back to Dublin, Chester set about finishing the album, with Bryan McMahon of Future Kings Of Spain playing drums and Gemma Hayes providing vocals on "A Safe Place to Hide".
Meanwhile, Dunne was continuing to play the unfinished tracks on his show every night. This led to invitations to play showcases in late 2004 at Hard Working Class Heroes in Dublin (a full band show featuring Gemma Hayes) and a televised solo set on RTE's Other Voices.
Chester signed a licensing deal to release the album with BARP, a label set up by Damien Rice's manager, Bernadette Barrett.
A Murder of Crows was released on BARP on 25 February 2005. Reviews were ecstatic, Hot Press described it as "melodic genius, an absolute joy", The Sunday Times as "a perfect pop record", and The Irish Times as "A modern alternative pop gem".
The album has become a cult classic, with many musicians citing it as an inspiration. It has been featured in the books 101 Irish Albums to Hear Before You Die by Tony Clayton-Lea and Buried Treasure Vol 2 by Dan Hegarty. It is often included on lists of the best Irish albums of all time.
In 2017, Bohemia Records released A Murder of Crows (Special Edition) which featured the original album in addition to live tracks and demos as well as liner notes by Tom Dunne, Tony Clayton-Lea and Dan Hegarty.
Unfortunately, despite glowing reviews and nominations in the Choice Music Prize and the Meteor Irish Music Awards, A Murder of Crows did not get an international release. As a result, by 2006, Chester found himself dropped by his manager, label and publisher in quick succession.
The Tiny Pieces Left Behind On 14 April 2008, he released his second solo album, The Tiny Pieces Left Behind on his own label, United Pacific Recordings. Being self-financed, it was recorded at Cauldron Studios in Dublin. It was initially mixed at Black Box Studios by David Odlum. However, the released version features a mix by Chester himself. As more of a full-band record than its predecessor, it featured Binzer Brennan on drums and Ann Scott and Gemma Hayes on additional vocals.
The first single from the album was "Maybe This is Not Love" which was premiered by Tony Fenton on his Today FM show and named Irish Single of 2008 by John Meagher in the Irish Independent.
The reviews were positive, with Totally Dublin saying, "Connected to the thumping indie-pop heart at the centre of this opus are veins of bittersweet twists, electro influenced turns, and gratifying avenues."
Adrienne Murphy, writing in Hot Press, declared it a humdinger, comparing it to John Lennon and Neil Young. "It's that good! There are lots of goodies on The Tiny Pieces Left Behind, but the best for me has to be the beautiful Fluorescent Light, which I listened to compulsively 15 times in a row until I'd learned it by heart. Well done, Mr Chester. The Tiny Pieces Left Behind is a great album."
The difficult circumstances of making the record led Chester to step back from live performances. A one-off album launch show at Whelan's was his last show for several years. The show was all-acoustic and featured Gemma Hayes and Ann Scott. They played most of the new album and a selection from A Murder Of Crows.
Working with Gemma Hayes Simultaneous to the recording of The Tiny Pieces Left Behind, Chester was recording guitars and vocals at Black Box Studios in Dublin for the forthcoming Gemma Hayes album, The Hollow of Morning. Hayes and Chester first worked together in the 1990s, recording demos for her first album and again on "A Safe Place to Hide" from A Murder of Crows. This was a more long-lasting partnership as, after the launch of The Tiny Pieces Left Behind, Chester embarked on an extended period as Gemma's live guitarist. This was first as part of a band including Binzer Brennan and Karl Odlum and then as a duo. Long tours of Ireland, the UK, America and Europe followed, including stints opening for My Bloody Valentine on their reunion tour. Their last show together took place at Dublin's Crawdaddy in April 2010. A recording of their version of Kate Bush's Cloudbusting from this show was featured on Gemma's live album Night and Day.
Although they have not performed together live since, they reunited in 2015 for promotional appearances in Paris and in Dublin, including RTE's The Works, TG4 Imeall, Today FM's Ian Dempsey show, RTL 2 and La Bruit de Graviers.
The Waterboys
In 2010, Mike Scott of The Waterboys recruited Chester into a new extended lineup of the band he was putting together for a ground-breaking run of shows at Dublin's Abbey Theatre called An Appointment With Mr. Yeats. According to the concert programme, "Mike Scott headhunted Chester for Mr. Yeats after hearing and loving his albums."
The show consisted of the poetry of W. B. Yeats set to Scott's music. Beginning with jam sessions at Scott's Dublin home, the pair (subsequently joined by Katie Kim) worked for several months on vocal arrangements before the full band convened at Smock Alley Theatre for full production rehearsals.
The show ran for five sold-out nights at the Abbey Theatre before it went out on a tour of Ireland and the UK. A subsequent studio album was made with recordings that took place in London and Dublin. The shows were incendiary, and critics raved.