About

For more than 30 years, Kevin McNicholas has worked in almost every corner of the music business, from performing to producing, recording to retailing, and broadcasting – both with and without a licence.

At school he had to choose between joining the football team and playing matches in the cold dark wet winter evenings or joining the guitar class and having to sing old folk songs. Fond of his comforts, he opted for the guitar. He got his first guitar for his 12th birthday and had been playing for a little over a year when he started teaching others – his first pupil was the son of a neighbour, a tone-deaf left-hander called Barry, who quit after his third lesson. The pair went on to be life-long friends.

Kevin's earliest adventures in music began when he was invited to produce and direct a series of stage musicals for Davitt College, Castlebar, including Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story, Grease, Southern Boys, and his own creation, War Clouds. He later went on to produce a number of pantomimes.

He began his broadcasting career with two of the best known pirate radio stations in the region before joining Radio West (later Galway Bay FM) as a presenter and producer with special responsibility for training new presenters. His late night music show Eat The Peach featured interviews with Christy Moore, Van Morrison, Mike Scott, Mary Black, Sinead O'Connor and a whole host of other Irish and international singers and songwriters.

Kevin (on left) and Leo McNicholas

He worked as a sound engineer and producer in several Galway City recording studios before setting up his own studio utilising state-of-the-art midi and computer technology, specialising in demos for singer-songwriters and music for film, video and theatre.

Kevin has played with a variety of different bands and groups over the years, the best known and most notorious of which was The Sunday Drivers, described as "an acoustic subversive folk duo". The band played pubs, clubs, functions, parties and weddings all over Ireland before bowing out in 2003 after 9 years on the road and more than 1200 gigs.

In 1999, Kevin was appointed Co-Ordinator of the first ever Access Music Project, a Community Employment Scheme under the auspices of Galway City Partnership and FÁS. The project provided training to 24 people in Galway City who wanted to make a living from music, and contained modules on music theory, vocal skills, music technology, performance, songwriting and instrumental skills.

Kevin established Guitar Made Easy in 2001 and has continued to develop and refine the course for the last seven years. He firmly believes that everybody, regardless of age or experience, deserves a chance to learn to play a musical instrument. He maintains that many people are scared away from music lessons because of the focus on theory, exams and reading music. His aim with Guitar Made Easy is to strip the learning experience down to the bare-bone essentials, so that people can learn to play quickly, and can persue

When he's not playing, teaching, singing, recording, gigging or otherwise occupied with music, he enjoys messing with Apple Mac computers. He is much in demand for his hands-on demonstration of Apple's Garageband software, which turns any Mac laptop into a portable recording studio. He is currently demonstrating Garageband software to pupils and teachers in schools and colleges all over the Western region, and assisting people set up their own portable laptop studio.

His favourite TV show is The Simpsons (favourite episode - Welcome Spinal Tap) and his favourite band is Pink Floyd, or Radiohead, or U2/Jethro Tull/Beatles/Horslips. He doesn't have a favourite guitar player, even though he listens to music on average 12 hours a day. (Click here to see what's currently on Kevin's iPod)