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Rarely Seen Above Ground (formelly R.S.A.G.) aka Jeremy Hickey is a multi-instrumentalist hailing from Kilkenny City.Jeremy records, performs and produces all the material in his home studio. Live he has being experimenting with the idea of a virtual band collaborating with visual artist Paul Mahon (Geppetto) creating silhouettes of himself projected on screen backing his live drums, percussion and vocals. Influences and comparisons have included ESG, Talking Heads & Joy Division (post punk) and Chemical Brothers and Aphex Twin with a new flavour of Dub Step rhythms (electronica). Rarely Seen Above Ground has been making waves since 2008 with a seriously explosive live set and a double album release, ‘Organic Sampler’ the debut which received a 5 star review from the Irish Times as well as gaining a Choice Music Prize nomination in the same year. In 2009 Jeremy worked with leading remixer, programmer and producer Leo Pearson (U2 & Elvis Costello) who produced the follow-up album ‘Be It Right Or Wrong’ which gave him a new and interesting approach to fine tuning a more vocally driven album.
After a trip State side to the major SXSW festival and shows in New York, Jeremy is currently back underground to find a new sound which represents his future ideas of where he wants to go as a musician and as a producer. The first taste of this new style can be heard in his online single ‘This Winding Sheet’. As described by Niall Byrne -State.ie “it harks back to the sound of his first album, yet pushes the envelope into interesting electronic sound additions. Drums propel the song while all manner of interesting bleeps, synths, guitar, bass and eventually vocals, work around it”
Rarely Seen Above Ground has just made his 3rd Electric Picnic appearance to a packed out Crawdaddy tent and has been performing recently at several music festivals including Castlepalooza, Body & Soul, Oxygen and numerous European festivals as drummer for the Parisian electronic outfit Bot’Ox. Major gigs include The Montreaux Jazz Festival -Switzerland, Calvi On The Rocks in Corsica and The Electron Festival in Geneva. Jeremy has also played the length and breadth of France including the Tsugi festival and the renowned L’Olympia theatre, Paris.
A few TV appearances have been thrown in along the way for good measure including The Raw Sessions, Other Voices and The Saturday Night Show. His most enjoyable musical experience to date was supporting The Pixies for 2 sold out shows at The Olympia, Dublin. Rarely Seen Above Ground is rumoured to be “one of the most innovative and astonishing Irish musicians around”. He came thirteenth in a list of “The 50 Best Irish Acts Right Now” published by The Irish Times in April 2009.
Jeremy will be accompanied by bassist Colm O’ Caoimh with a new set & spectacular new visual show supported by Dublin based DJ/Producer/multi instrumentalist ‘Bantum’
Whelanslive.com presents
