Most artists end up picking a lane. Cathal Mc Ginley has two, and they sound nothing alike. The Donegal musician releases hard-hitting phonk, rap and futuristic electronic music as Kathel. Under his real name, he makes indie singer-songwriter music with an acoustic guitar.
Kathel is built for energy. Tracks like “Going Crazy,” “Ares,” “PHONK GLITCH,” “Rat Dance” and “Phonk Power” are meant for the gym, the car or any time you want to switch off and get hyped. The project mixes phonk and rap with meme beats and pulls from drift culture. He also releases new music every week, which is a demanding pace for an independent artist.
A lot of Kathel’s electronic side comes from sci-fi cinema. Mc Ginley points to hip-hop, phonk, electronic music and soundtracks from films like Tron and Blade Runner as major influences, and he tries to bring the atmosphere of those movies into his production. Neon lights, cyberpunk and late-night drives all feed into the project too.
The Cathal Mc Ginley material is much quieter. It takes after singer-songwriters who can make a song stick with nothing but a guitar, and it’s focused on lyrics and on telling stories people can relate to. He likes combining singing with rap, and at local open mics he’ll sometimes drop a verse into the middle of a song. You can watch him play “Going Crazy” at Roddens Open Mic in Buncrana.
He keeps those recordings rough on purpose. Mc Ginley sometimes records acoustic tracks with just an iPhone microphone to capture the room as it actually sounded. That way, someone listening at home hears basically what they’d get if they walked into the pub and caught him live.
“I feel like live music isn’t supposed to be completely perfect,” he says. With so much music today heavily polished, he thinks the little imperfections are what make a song feel human, like you’re sitting across from the person playing it.
That idea runs through both projects. He hopes listeners get something real out of his songs, whether that means getting motivated, having a laugh or feeling less alone for a few minutes. Above all, he wants people to hear that a person made the music, not something manufactured to sound flawless.
Mc Ginley doesn’t think music has to fit neatly into one box. Kathel can be as loud and heavily produced as he wants, while Cathal Mc Ginley can be nothing more than him and a guitar in front of a microphone, plus whatever happens in the room.
Listen to Kathel on Spotify and Apple Music, watch on YouTube, and follow him on Instagram and TikTok.
