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Damien George Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He began his career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, who were signed to
Polygram Records PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...
in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate success in Ireland with two released singles, "The World is Dead" and "Weatherman". After leaving the band in 1998, Rice worked as a farmer in
Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...
and busked throughout Europe before returning to Ireland in 2001 and beginning a solo career. The rest of Juniper went on to perform under the name Bell X1. In 2002, Rice released his debut album, '' O''. It reached No. 8 on the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
, won the
Shortlist Music Prize The Shortlist Music Prize, stylized as (shôrt–lĭst), was an annual music award for the best album released in the United States that had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination. First given as a cash prize in 2001 under ...
, and generated three top 30 singles in the UK. He released his second album, '' 9'', in 2006. After eight years of various collaborations, Rice released his third studio album, '' My Favourite Faded Fantasy'', in 2014. He has contributed music to charitable projects such as Songs for Tibet, the
Enough Project The Enough Project is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that was founded in 2007. Its stated mission is to end genocide and crimes against humanity. The Enough Project conducts research in several conflict areas in Africa inclu ...
, and the Freedom Campaign.


Early life

Rice was born in
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
on 7 December 1973, the son of George and Maureen Rice. He grew up in Celbridge, Co. Kildare where he attended Salesian College. He is the second cousin of Irish singer
Stevie Mann Stephen Patrick Mann (born 20 February 1976 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is an Irish singer-songwriter and Music Producer, who is known for being the lead singer of rock band Nine Lies. He is second cousin to fellow Irish singer songwriter D ...
and English composer David Arnold.


Career


Juniper

Rice formed the rock band Juniper along with
Paul Noonan Paul Anthony Noonan is a songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist from Lucan, County Dublin. He is best known as the frontman of the Irish group Bell X1 and as a solo artist and collaborator on various musical projects. Early years Born i ...
, Dominic Philips,
David Geraghty David Geraghty (born 30 September 1975) is an Irish multi-instrumentalist, composer and songwriter. He is a founding member of Bell X1, and since 2014 has been performing under the moniker Join Me in the Pines. In 1994 he joined the group Ju ...
and Brian Crosby in 1991. The band met whilst they were schoolmates in Celbridge. After touring throughout Ireland, they released their debut EP ''Manna'' in 1995. (Fee for article) Based in
Straffan Straffan (variously ''Teach Srafáin'', ''Strafáin'' or ''An Cluanini'' in Irish) is a village in County Kildare, Ireland, situated on the banks of the River Liffey, 25 km upstream of the Irish capital Dublin. As of the 2016 census, the v ...
, the band continued touring and signed a six album record deal with PolyGram. Their recording projects generated the singles "Weatherman" and "The World is Dead", which received favourable reviews. They also recorded a song named "Tongue", which was never released. After achieving some of his musical goals with Juniper, Rice became frustrated with the artistic compromises required by the record label, and he left the band in 1998. He moved to Italy, where he settled in
Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...
and took up farming for a time, then returned to Ireland before busking around Europe. He returned to Italy a second time and gave a demo recording to his second cousin, English composer David Arnold, who then provided him with a mobile recording studio.


Solo career

In 2001, Rice's song "The Blower's Daughter" made a top-40 chart. Over the next year he continued to record his album with guitarist Mark Kelly, New York drummer
Tom Osander Tom Osander aka Tomo (born John Thomas Osander Jr. on 6 October 1966) is an American percussionist and producer. Osander co-founded seminal New York City based Jam band God Street Wine. He is also associated with Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan, and ...
aka Tomo, Paris pianist Jean Meunier, London producer David Arnold, County Meath vocalist
Lisa Hannigan Lisa Margaret Hannigan (born 12 February 1981) is an Irish musician, singer, composer, and voice actress. She began her musical career as a member of Damien Rice's band. Since beginning her solo career in 2007 she has released three albums: '' S ...
and cellist Vyvienne Long. Rice then embarked on a tour of Ireland with Hannigan, Tomo, Vyvienne, Mark and Dublin bassist Shane Fitzsimons. In 2002, Rice's debut album '' O'' was released in Ireland, the UK and the United States. The album peaked at No. 8 on the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
and remained on the chart for 97 weeks, selling 650,000 copies in the US. The album won the
Shortlist Music Prize The Shortlist Music Prize, stylized as (shôrt–lĭst), was an annual music award for the best album released in the United States that had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination. First given as a cash prize in 2001 under ...
and the songs "Cannonball" and "Volcano" became top 30 hits in the UK. In 2005, Rice participated in the Freedom Campaign, the Burma Campaign UK, and the
U.S. Campaign for Burma {{Democracy movements in Burma The United States Campaign for Burma (USCB) is a U.S.-based membership organization that evolved out of the Free Burma Coalition founded by Maung Zarni. Founders were Jack Healey, who provided fiscal sponsorship to ...
to free Burmese democracy movement leader
Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...
. He campaigned for her release by writing the song "
Unplayed Piano "Unplayed Piano" is a 2005 single by the Irish singer-songwriter duo Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan. It was released in June 2005 and appeared in a total of six charts, spending a total of twenty-five weeks there. It spent twelve weeks in the Iris ...
", which he performed at the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Concert in
Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
. In 2006, Rice released his second album, '' 9'', which was recorded during the two previous years. 2007 was a year of touring with Rice appearing at England's Glastonbury Festival and the Rock Werchter festival in Belgium. In 2008 he contributed the song "Making Noise" for the album '' Songs for Tibet: The Art of Peace'' in support of the
14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...
and
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...
. In 2010, Rice contributed the song "Lonely Soldier" to the
Enough Project The Enough Project is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that was founded in 2007. Its stated mission is to end genocide and crimes against humanity. The Enough Project conducts research in several conflict areas in Africa inclu ...
and played at the Iceland Inspires concert held in Hljómskálagarðurinn near
Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...
centrum. Records released in the UK, Europe and other countries were published by
14th Floor Records 14 (fourteen) is a natural number following 13 and preceding 15. In relation to the word "four" ( 4), 14 is spelled "fourteen". In mathematics * 14 is a composite number. * 14 is a square pyramidal number. * 14 is a stella octangula number ...
via Warner Music. In spring 2011, Rice featured on the debut album by French actress and singer
Melanie Laurent Melanie is a feminine given name derived from the Greek μελανία (melania), "blackness" and that from μέλας (melas), meaning "dark".En t'attendant'' while collaborating on a total of five tracks which feature on the album. In May 2013, Rice told the audience at the South Korea Seoul Jazz Festival 2013 that he was working on a new album. On 4 September 2014, Rice's official Twitter account announced his third album, '' My Favourite Faded Fantasy'', to be released on 31 October. On his official website the date given for the official release was 3 November 2014. The album, featuring the first single "I Don't Want To Change You", was released worldwide on 10 November 2014 to critical acclaim from NPR's Robin Hilton and the London ''
Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...
''. In 2020, Rice covered
Sia Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( ; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she rel ...
's " Chandelier", with his cover appearing on the '' Songs for Australia'' benefit album.


Discography

;Studio albums * '' O'' (2002) * '' 9'' (2006) * '' My Favourite Faded Fantasy'' (2014)


See also

* List of songs performed by Damien Rice


References


External links


Damien Rice
– Official website
Damien Rice
– Official MySpace page {{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Damien 1973 births Living people Irish buskers Irish folk singers Irish pop singers Irish male singer-songwriters Musicians from County Kildare People from Celbridge Singers from Dublin (city) Winners of the Shortlist Music Prize Irish guitarists Irish expatriates in England Irish expatriates in Italy Irish male guitarists Indie folk musicians 21st-century Irish male singers 21st-century guitarists 14th Floor Records artists