INTERVIEW: Biblecode Sundays’ Enda Mulloy on his solo album, ‘Notions In Midlife Crisis’

“AFTER this interview. I’m going straight to the studio.”
Enda Mulloy is clearly a busy man.
Born in Mulranny and living in London, Enda has been around the block with his music career. Throughout the ’90s, he toured Ireland, the UK and east coast of the US with Biblecode Sundays – to this writer, a more civil and authentic version of the Dropkick Murphys. At one point he even got to rub shoulders and share a stage with former Police frontman Sting, a fellow bass player.
Like the former Police frontman, Enda Mulloy has embarked on a solo career with the release of his debut album, ‘Notions In Midlife Crisis’. He’s quick to laugh off the Sting comparisons though.
“If I’m as successful as [my father] Tom Mulloy now I’ll be happy,” Enda tells The Mayo News. Many in these parts will remember Tom as one of the traditional Irish ballad group The Mulloy Brothers.

Struggles and changes
Sitting in his home in Harrow, Enda has all the look of a man who’s content with life, chuckling regularly during our conversation. It’s ironic that a man so at ease with himself would write his debut solo album about the heartbreaks and general struggles of life.
But it’s not so ironic when you consider that most of it was penned during the Covid-19 pandemic, when nearly everything was a struggle.
“It was hard for everyone. So that became a really strong theme in the album that I was writing. What do people want? Do we get away from the rat race or the current living situation that’s really difficult? There’s a lot of introspection in that as well, but clearly it was the album for me for the time because that’s what people were going through… it was easy to write about what was right in front of me.”
He also got around to learning Portuguese as well as studying for a degree in professional coaching and psychology.
“I’m not someone who can sit down for long periods so when I had to, I had to do something.”
Enda admits that he has, in every sense, matured from his days tearing up and down the east coast of America.
“I can’t do that now because I’ve got two kids. The whole dynamic for me is much-changed. I’m way older than I was back then and it’s tougher, so there has to be a different dynamic,” he says.
The very name, ‘Notions In Midlife Crisis’, suggests a sense of maturity.
A reflective, enjoyable and easy listen, this record tips along to the steady march of Enda’s bass and guitars that jangle rather than snarl, as they might have done in his Biblecode days.
“Biblecodes… all we wrote about were drinking and drowning and the mafia,” he explains, shoe-horning ths after his ds, like any good Mayo man.
“It was popular writing, writing about going out on the beer. I’d say nowadays, the songs I’m writing, there’s always a bit more substance to them. There’s a bit more real life. It’s more stuff that mattered to me a lot more than going out partying, that’s for sure.”

Powerful themes
One such song is the album’s lead single, ‘A Message From Stephen (Carry Me Home)’.
The ‘Stephen’ in the song title is a real homeless man who used to hang around Whelan’s live venue in Uxbridge, a place the Biblecodes played on many occasion.
The last time Stephen’s mother held him was when she carried him home from the hospital before putting him into foster care.
One evening, a woman standing outside Whelan’s asked Stephen what was his deepest desire in life, explains Enda.
“He just said, ‘My mother carried me home from the hospital once, and if I’d one wish it would be that she’d carry me home again’. It was very powerful, so that’s why I wrote that.
“We’re all just trapped in this race of trying to look after our own patch of grass… How often do people stop to think about why people are falling through the cracks? It was a really, really sad thing when I was talking to Stephen about that before I wrote the song.”
There’s also a song there called ‘Trouble’ which features his cousin, Westport singer Gráinne Fahy’s vocals – ‘not because she is my cousin, but because she’s brilliant’.

Mayo gigs
Following the successful album launch in London, Enda is returning back home to Clew Bay today for 18 days – his longest stay in Mayo in his adult life.
Part of that will involve a hometown gig in Doherty’s this Thursday, August 3, alongside local Liverpool-born musician Matt McManamon.
Enda’s also on the billing for a charity gig in Westport’s Clock Tavern on September 8, with all proceeds in aid of the Christina Noble Foundation, which supports vulnerable children in Asia.
While here, he also aims to churn out ‘five or six’ new songs along with his uncle Pat for another project.
And he’s still doing the odd gig with what’s left of the Biblecodes, and he’s flat out ‘depping’ for other artists and playing on their records.
All that, while he’s mentally sifting through ‘rakes of ideas’ for songs.
“I’ve become a far better songwriter. [I’m] just developing my craft a lot better. It’s very noticeable in the recordings. I’m happier with it, for sure.”