The Mighty Stef

Biography

In 2006 Stefan Murphy, a songwriter and performer from Dublin, Ireland released his debut album under the Moniker ‘The Mighty Stef’. The album ‘The Sins Of Sainte Catherine’ showcased a mish-mash of songs that Murphy had written and brought together over the previous 18 months with his constantly shape-shifting band line-up. Following the release of ‘St.Catherine’ Stef met his manager Frank Murray and over the following couple of years the pair worked together in the production of Death Threat...

In 2006 Stefan Murphy, a songwriter and performer from Dublin, Ireland released his debut album under the Moniker ‘The Mighty Stef’. The album ‘The Sins Of Sainte Catherine’ showcased a mish-mash of songs that Murphy had written and brought together over the previous 18 months with his constantly shape-shifting band line-up.

Following the release of ‘St.Catherine’ Stef met his manager Frank Murray and over the following couple of years the pair worked together in the production of Death Threats EP and the second TMS full length ‘100 Midnights’, both were received well by followers and critics.

During this golden period of songwriting and experimentation with different line-ups and sounds Murphy collaborated with Ronnie Drew, Shane MacGowan, Dave King & Bridget Regan of Flogging Molly from the US and Cait O’ Riordain of The Pogues. These collaborations, all orchestrated by Murray [ex-manager of the Pogues ] did a lot to raise Stef’s profile as a performer and further bring his songwriting to the attention of a much wider audience.

Constantly touring and traveling, performing both solo and with his band, The Mighty Stef’s third album ‘TMS and the baptists’ was made in Berlin. This was the third in a series of acclaimed records produced and released on a lo-fi budget with his own label ‘The Firstborn Is Dead Recordings’. The Baptists record was Stef’s most personal songwriting and marked the end [for the time being at least] to his folk arrangement approach to songwriting. It also marked the beginning a new collaboration with Gary Lonergan and Brian Gallagher who went on to form a new songwriting partnership with Murphy and also provide the basis for a full time Mighty Stef Band.

Currently The Mighty Stef consists of Murphy, Gallagher, Lonergan and drummer Brian Farrell. Work is well underway to make a redefining fourth album. The songwriting is getting more and more personal and the sonic landscape is expanding beyond what is usually expected of Stef but the soul and vision that first lit the spark within him to write a song remains intact. The Mighty Stef [an expression that started as a bad joke but never went away] in its current form, is mightier than ever, and getting mightier everyday.

TMS looks forward to meeting you out there on the never ending road. Until then, take care xx Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.