Creative adman conceives novel musical experiment

Nick Kelly, a highly-acclaimed freelance advertising copywriter, originally with Irish International BBDO, is embarking on a new musical project as part of his next solo album. Gestation is based on a series of nine live shows, one on the last Wednesday of each of the next nine months.
Kelly’s idea is to workshop a bunch of new songs with different collaborators at each show, record and post up the results on his website for public comment. Seven months into the project, Kelly will go into studio. Two months later, in May next year, he hopes to launch the album.
Gestation kicks off upstairs in Whelans in Dublin’s Wexford Street on September 30th and Kelly will be in full band mode, along with his first guest collaborator, Ann Scott. Kelly’s last solo album, Running Dog, was nominated for album of the year at the Choice Music Prize in 2006.
During his time as a freelance copywriter over the past six years, Kelly, whose late father, John, was a Fine Gael TD and attorney general, worked on AIB Surfer for Rothco, which won a gold shark for director Richie Smyth at this year’s Kinsale festival.