‘Four Miles Deep’ puts you in the realm of the deepest parts of the ocean, where pressures are immense and sunlight is non-existent. It’s somewhere where the sense of loneliness must be at its most extreme, where the sense of having to get to the surface and the question of whether that is possible are at the forefront of your mind; a place so deep that moving onwards and upwards are the only option. It’s also the title of a long anticipated musical collaboration between Irish artists Mark Caplice and Megan O’Neill.
The haunting piano led song delves into the emotion of grief as journey that can be so very personal but is also so very universal. Maria Callas once said, “When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point”. This new release from these two widely acclaimed artists very much succeeds in not only agreeing to the ear but providing a salve to the soul.
Megan and Mark have worked together before on Megan’s wonderful cover of ‘Time in a Bottle’, which Mark produced, that featured on Netflix series, ‘Firefly Lane’. This song was written during a time when both artists were losing a parent to long term illness and leans very much into the emotions of fragility, sorrow and memory but very much addresses the change in one’s emotional landscape that remains when someone beloved is slipping away.
Megan says of the song:
“This song was born from our personal experiences with grief, but it also recognises how grief connects us all. I don’t think I could have created this with anyone else. Mark and I were on such similar, yet contrasting paths at the time (and continue to be!), so the story we tell here weaves between connection and individuality”.
The song is recorded very much as a live performance and therefore captures the emotion in the voices of both artists as the lyrics so deeply resonate with both of them. In a world where so much is AI and artificial, this song is raw, moving and very real. Speaking of the song, Mark said,
“We wanted to capture the performance live because this song and the journey we shared through grief was so raw and real. You can hear the emotion in our voices and it resonates even louder in the silence. From there it was a matter of emphasising key moments of the song and staying out of the way for others. It was a delicate process but one I believe we’re both really proud of”.
.For those who are not aware of the work of these two artists, Mark is a multi award winning songwriter, artist and producer born in Wicklow, admired for his ability to blend confessional songwriting with textured production. Mark’s song that he wrote for Jamie Lawson called ‘When It Comes To Love’ is still one of my favourite songs. Megan has toured with Glen Hansard, Tom Jones and The Lighthouse Family and is a favourite of ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris; her genre spanning catalog blends Folk, Americana and wonderful songwriting and has seen her appear at both Country2Country and The Long Road Festivals.
‘Four Miles Deep’ was released last Friday, the 3rd of October, and is accompanied by a beautifully shot video and is definitely worth checking out. I hope it acts as a gateway to these wonderful artists.
