JD Kelleher is perhaps best known in his home country for his roles as Willie Pearse in the TV mini-series 1916 The Forgotten Seven and Breandán Mac Gearailt in Irish soap Ros na Rún and for being at the forefront of Ireland’s “Yes Vote” just ahead of the successful Marriage Equality Referendum a couple of years ago; however, recently the renowned actor has recently emerged as a singer/songwriter with a cover of Joy Division‘s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” that landed at Number 1 on the Irish Rock Charts — across all digital formats, no less. Continuing on the buzz he’s received, Kelleher along with his backing band went to AB Studios in El Vendrell, Spain where he recorded “Love Will Tear Us Apart” to record his self-professed “autobiography in three minutes,” the anthemic, new single “Imagery,” a song that reminds me quite a bit of Social Distortion as the single manages to be somewhat scuzzy yet powerful heartfelt and rousingly anthemic. Thematically, Kelleher’s song manages to be about triumphing over adversity and the difficulty of living your life in your own terms, when there’s so much external pressure to do and be things that you’d hate — while saying as the old adage says “To thine own self be true.”
The recently released music video features what appears to be several aspects of Kelleher taking up the various roles in a prototypical rock band — the preening lead vocalist, the nerdy bassist, the cooler-than-cool guitarist, the devilish guitarist and so on.