Welshy (real name Ross Walsh) has emerged as Ireland’s hottest young producer, independently achieving over 41 million streams and earning recognition from superstar names BTS, Kygo and The Chainsmokers.
Now signed to Insanity Records, Welshy shares his new track ‘Haiti’. It’s the official version of his bootleg track, which went viral and exceeded a million streams.
It takes one spin of ‘Haiti’ to discover why it has captured the imagination of so many people. The topline, courtesy of Haitian vocalist Coralie Hérard, is irresistible: a gleaming mix of beauty, exuberance, and sensual soul. It’s elevated by Welshy’s production, which skillfully highlights house music’s brightest and boldest traits in a pop-orientated package with international appeal.
We caught up with him to discuss how the official release of “Haiti” came about.
T.H.E – Hey Ross! Welcome to T.H.E – Music Essentials. What have you been upto, and how have you kept yourself productive in the COVID-19 situation?
WELSHY – Hey, thanks so much for having me on. Over the last couple of months, I have been keeping super busy in the studio, COVID-19 as we all know has brought its challenges especially for us musicians. I’m trying my best to stay positive throughout the pandemic and I’m using the extra time I now have to perfect my craft. I see this as a great opportunity to widen my music production knowledge and really experiment in the studio.
T.H.E – Love your new release – Haiti! What inspired the track, and the title?
WELSHY – Thank you so much, the initial idea I had when starting this song was I wanted to make a UK house track that was really different. I heard Michael Bruns track Peze Kafe and became enamored with the vocals of Coralie Hearld, I decided to sample the vocals from that track and write my own song around the sample. I was so happy with what I made that I decided to do a little research on the sample and discovered all the rich history and culture this sample carried of the country Haiti. I became encapsulated with the story and Haitian culture after all my research and decided to call the song Haiti.
T.H.E – This is the official release of your bootleg version which also happened to go viral. Is that something which made you release an official version of it, given the success that the bootleg enjoyed?
WELSHY – I knew when I made this record that it was a very special track but I never in a million years could have predicted that this track would connect with so many people the way it did. What really made me strive to release the official version was all the messages and comments from my predominantly Irish/UK fan base saying how much they loved the track and also them trying to find out the lyrics, wondering what language is this, where did I get the vocal, etc. This really showed me that the track was connecting with people and they were equally as enamored as I was when I first heard the vocal.
T.H.E – The lyrics paint a very interesting story. “It’s based on a Haitian folk song in which a young boy is sent to sell coffee at the market. Everything goes downhill for him from there: he gets lost, loses the coffee, and ends up in trouble with the police. Not that the long arm of the law bothers him. He’s far more afraid of returning home to his mother empty-handed.” What is it about this story that you could relate to, and which made you decide on making a track out of it?
WELSHY – I found this to be such a beautiful story and I guess to answer this in short the most relatable thing to me in this story is that at the end where the boy is far more afraid of returning home to his mother empty-handed, I can really relate to this as I always want to make my parents proud everything else in life follows.
T.H.E – What does the rest of 2020 look like for you?
WELSHY – The rest of 2020 for me is looking like a lot more time in the studio looking for that next hit. Hopefully, a few new remixes and I hope to spend a lot of time with my family.
