FROM hanging out with renowned hip-hop producer Dr Dre in his LA studio to writing hit songs for artists such as Ryan Mack and Cian Ducrot, Ballineen’s Bill Maybury’s music career is off to a glittering start.
A former member of The Papa Zitas, Bill spent most of last year in LA meeting music producers such as Focus (Beyonce) and Jungleboi and collaborating with artists in some of the city’s famous studios.
Not bad for a 24-year-old who has also been polishing his barista skills at The Container coffee dock at O’Donovan’s Centra in Enniskeane since Christmas. Writing songs has always been a passion of Bill’s ever since he wrote his first song at the age of eight and studying for a pop degree at the Cork School of Music sealed the deal for him.
‘I’m heading off to London for a few weeks to take part in different song writing sessions with lots of different artists so it’s pretty exciting and if things work out I might decide to move other there permanently,’ Bill told The Southern Star.
‘The pop degree was pretty new when I started it and I got to study modules in song writing and arranging which was great. While there I played the keyboard with The Papa Zitas which I loved and we gigged all over the country.’
Keen to pursue his song writing, Bill made the bold move to LA in June 2019 after securing an internship with Crush Music.
‘I learned the tricks of the trade while interning there and it was brilliant as they have such a famous rosters of clients including Sia, Lorde and Green Day. I was the only Irish intern there and I got to learn about other aspects of the music business.’
Not knowing anyone in LA, he made contact with Irish singer Ryan O’Shaughnessy, who secured Bill accommodation in the world renowned Laurel Canyon area and he ended up staying in Carole King’s former home.
‘Within the first month I ended up going to Dr Dre’s studio in his mansion and I got to meet him and watch him working in the studio, which was mind-blowing.’
Bill had an eventful 12 months stateside and returned home to Ballineen last June due to the Covid pandemic.
‘Since then I’ve been writing songs away at home and doing a lot of Zoom sessions with people in LA in the evenings after work. I’ve had six songs out in the past six weeks which is unreal, one of them was written two years ago while my most recent one was written three months ago.’
Bill has written songs for Tim Chadwick (Favourite Song), Cork-born singer Lenii(Straitjacket), Ryan Mack (Perfect on Me) and the big release was Cian Ducrot’s ‘Crocodile’, who is signed to the same label as Billie Eilish, Darkroom / Interscope Records.
‘It’s going well now and it has certainly given my London trip better contacts now and I’ll be having a whole week of sessions with Cian Ducrot again. I would love to sign a publishing deal and do this for the rest of my life.’
And here's the link to Cian Durcot's video 'Crocodiles' written by Bill and Cian.
