I’m Joan. I’m the lead singer of the band but since I’m also the drummer, you’ll usually find me at the back of the stage.  I play drums because, as the youngest of four, there were no other instruments left!  When I was six, Santa Clause brought me my very first Irish drum bodhran.  It was bigger than I was – so is my cello come to think of it. Like my sisters, I went to Trinity College in Dublin where I studied French and German. 

I’m near blind as a bat, too, ever since I lost my eyesight when I had meningitis at 16. Since I’m too vain to wear glasses and contacts get in the way of all my fabulous eye make-up, my sisters are my eyesight.

On my days off, I love to watch the Food network. I adore Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish (red ones only!), and Cheerios but can’t stand onions and garlic.  And I do enjoy a nice glass of red wine.

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I’m Angela, the bass player, but I also play fiddle and am classically trained violin player. I studied violin at Leinster College of Music and marketing at the College of Marketing and Design, both in Dublin.

Unlike some people, I’m not one of those who loves to talk. I’d rather read French novels in French and I’m a maniacal Hooverer – nobody touches my Hoover! As I said, I’m not all that sociable.

I like to have a pint of Stella now and then but my drink of choice is gin.  My sisters laugh and say it’s such an old granny drink.

Some of my favorite foods are baked potatoes and onions. I love the Irish bacon and sausages, but I have a crisis of consciousness because I absolutely adore pigs. Almost as much as I love donkeys which is why I donate to the donkey sanctuary in England.

Yeah, and I’m the only sister with brown eyes!

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It’s me, Gráinne - the second oldest, the band’s guitar player, and the talker. Believe it or not, I was pretty shy and unsociable when I was a kid.  I’m told my favorite toy was a stick which I apparently put to good use. I do remember running around the garden for days after learning Mam was pregnant with Angela, whacking the heads off all her flowers which is possibly why I feel so compelled to garden and am now so devoted to potted plants and landscaping. 

I studied math and music at the Trinity College in Dublin and as a child, I played violin with my sisters in our school’s string quartet.

I love fries and mozzarella cheese which go grandly with a pint of Smithwick’s. Of course my sisters laugh and say that I’ll drink anything.  Which is not entirely untrue…

I love to shop and I do all clothing shopping for the band.

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I’m the oldest sister, Marie Thérèse, and I play keyboard and accordion.  As a child I also played viola and I went to the College of Music in Dublin to study classical piano and teacher education.  You can see why only the drums were left for Joan.

Like Angela, I read French novels in French. And I love to watch people.  I can sit in a coffee shop for hours and will always observe and notice small things that others normally wouldn’t. 

Gráinne and myself are the two drivers for the band.  If we have plenty of time to get wherever we’re going, I’ll drive, otherwise, it’ll be Gráinne at the wheel.

Some more random info about me – I’m left handed; love to drink coffee in the U.S. and tea in Ireland; was born upside down; and my drink of choice is Becks beer.

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Screaming Orphans

The Screaming Orphans are four funny, high-spirited, musically-obsessed sisters with the good fortune to have been raised in the magic of Bundoran in County Donegal Ireland.   

There is a great tradition of music to be found in Irish homes especially in the Gaeltacht or Irish-speaking areas which have produced the likes of Clannad, Enya and Mairead, Micheal and Triona Ni Dhomhnaill. Our home was no exception. From we were young, we’ve been singing and playing traditional Irish music but when we hit our teenage years we knew it was time to start our own rock band.

Our first gigs were at local surf festivals at Bundoran and playing covers of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Indigo Girls, and others.  We were soon writing our own music and traveling to Dublin to play the Baggot Inn, Slattery’s, Whelans, and Mean Fiddler.

Our next break came with an invitation to play at a St.Brigid’s day concert in Kildare along with truly great Irish artists like Christy Moore, Liam O’Maonlai, and Sinead O’Connor.  Sinead asked us to be her back-up singers and open her show so we went on tour across Europe, America and Canada, and appeared on David Letterman and other shows. 

The following year was spent touring with world music star, Babba Maal, singing at his homecoming concert in Dakar Senegal, and contributing vocals to his album “Nomad Soul.” We also recorded with Peter Gabriel and were backing vocalists on the Joni Mitchell track ”Magdalene Laundries” for the Chieftains “Tears of Stone” album.

A year later, we signed with Warner UK (WEA) and recorded our debut album in Normandy France with the legendary Mike Hedges, who has been producer for the likes of Siouxie and the Banshees, U2, Manic Street Preachers, Texas, and Travis.

While we can never forget our roots in traditional Irish music, the Orphans draw on a diverse set of influences ranging from Simon & Garfunkel to REM with a strong focus on melody-driven songs with pop and rocks strains. The diversity of the American music scene led us to relocate to New York City and we regularly tour up and down the East Coast. 

Being surrounded by so many different influences has inspired us to explore new and exciting song writing and performance concepts. We think you’ll love our CD "Circles," now on limited release.  It reflects our Celtic roots but crosses many cultural boundaries, which might explain why we recorded Circles in Nashville, Tennessee.

And if you’re wondering about our name… A friend of Joan’s (Damien Granaghan) came up with it one night at a pub and it meant a lot to us because when we broke out on our own, it meant leaving our Mam who had been our lead singer and our Da who was our manager/road guy/sound engineer and so we became orphans but still surrounded by family and everyone knows that screaming to be heard is what you usually do around close family and dear friends. That and our secondary school used to be an orphanage. There you have it.

And now that you’ve gotten a little glimpse in our unconventional lives, we hope to see you at our live gigs, so for a list of our upcoming shows, check out our Tour Dates page.