One in every of Eire’s most fun rising voices, Odhran Murphy bares his soul on ‘Caught within the Center,’ a confessional and cathartic debut EP that captures the ache of the in-between – reckoning with love and heartbreak, concern and freedom, stillness and transformation. Sitting down with Atwood Journal, the folks rock singer/songwriter takes us track-by-track by way of six uncooked, stressed songs filled with appeal, honesty, and unflinching vulnerability.
for followers of Sam Fender, Noah Kahan, The Lumineers
Stream: “Near You” – Odhran Murphy
“See I’m caught within the center, like a riddle I can’t clear up…”
There’s one thing haunting and deeply human in Odhran Murphy’s phrases lyrics – a comfortable unraveling in actual time. Throughout six soul-stirring songs, the Irish singer/songwriter pulls us into the emotional eye of his personal internal storm: A spot between heartbreak and therapeutic, between letting go and holding on. Caught within the Center – each the music, and the EP that bears its title – is the sound of looking for self, craving for readability, and striving for peace. It’s as tender as it’s turbulent, a portrait of vulnerability and resilience in equal measure.
Constructed from fragments of grief, longing, id, and love, Murphy’s debut EP doesn’t attempt to tie issues up neatly. As a substitute, he and his songs meet listeners the place they’re – within the chaos, within the ache, within the rawness of being alive in 2025. It’s a file that stings, soothes, and in the end stays with you. It’s not music about having the solutions; it’s about daring to ask the questions out loud.
Oh these partitions they’re closing in
The air feels paper skinny
No sense of the place to show
Who’ve I grow to be
Only a lonely damaged fragile soul
Who’s combating on his personal
Within the silence it echoes
The voice inside my head
Oh, I’m operating out of time
Oh, I can’t see the sunshine
Oh expensive god
Please forgive me
For the sins I’ve brought on
See I’m caught within the center
Like a riddle, I can’t clear up
Please take management
I can’t deal with this
By myself
See I’m caught within the center
Like a riddle I can’t clear up
– “Caught within the Center,” Odhran Murphy
Hailing from the countryside of County Armagh, Northern Eire, Odhran Murphy has all the time led with coronary heart. The 25-year-old self-taught multi-instrumentalist grew up steeped in stay music, sneaking into pubs to observe his mother and father and grandfather gig on weekends, studying guitar from his mum, and absorbing the lyrical storytelling that defines the Irish people custom.
After 2023’s “Limitless Love” went viral on TikTok, Murphy’s star rose rapidly, culminating in standout performances at The Nice Escape and a sold-out headline present at London’s Camden Meeting. Now signed to 10K Initiatives, he’s carving his personal area within the people rock universe – one rooted in honesty, grit, and hovering singalong choruses.
“This EP holds so many sides of me, from large, energetic bursts of pleasure to songs which might be deeply private,” Murphy shares. “Throughout these six tracks, I discover the various shades of affection: Its dizzying highs, its tender moments, and its inevitable heartbreaks.”
That emotional vary is palpable in each notice and lyric – particularly understanding the songs had been written and recorded between London, Nashville, and the wooded landscapes of Woodstock. Working with producers like David Baron, Adam Argyle, and Evan Cline, Murphy pieced this venture collectively like a puzzle: Uncooked moments crystallized into readability.
“This file got here out of a season the place I used to be processing loads – grief, self-worth, love, id,” he tells Atwood Journal. “Every music grew to become an area for me to make sense of the chaos round and inside me. It began as remedy, actually. Over time, it became a sort of private roadmap – from ache to readability, from being misplaced to beginning to discover myself once more.”
“Initially, the imaginative and prescient was simply to be trustworthy; I wasn’t serious about genres or developments – I simply wanted to inform the reality. As I stored writing, it naturally formed itself right into a physique of labor that felt cohesive and emotionally uncooked. The one factor that stayed fixed was the dedication to not filter something – to let the songs say what they wanted to.”
For Murphy, this EP is his “greatest foot ahead”: A defining assortment that introduces him with no frills or filler. “I believe this EP exhibits that I lead with honesty,” he explains. “I’m a songwriter first; the lyrics are the place I bleed, the place I dig deep. Musically, it lives someplace between acoustic storytelling and emotional depth, however what issues most to me is that the songs really feel like me. In the event you’ve by no means heard of me earlier than, this EP will inform you precisely who I’m.”
That sincerity resonates in each observe, however nowhere does it hit more durable or deeper than on the EP’s namesake.
“Oh these partitions, they’re closing in, the air feels paper skinny. No sense of the place to show; who’ve I grow to be,” Murphy sings on “Caught within the Center,” a heartrending stomp-and-holler confessional that aches with an intimate restlessness and uncertainty.
It’s the anchor, the epiphany, the cry for assist that quietly turns into a prayer. “Please take management, I can’t deal with this alone,” he pleads within the refrain – not for perfection, however for grace. “See I’m caught within the center like a riddle I can’t clear up…” It’s weak, guttural, and deeply shifting: A give up with out disgrace. He’s not simply adrift at sea; he’s misplaced his paddle and doesn’t know which approach to go. It’s an apt metaphor for a lot of the EP’s subject material, a lot of which entails Murphy struggling to right-size himself between two competing locations, ideas, or feelings.
“‘Caught within the Center’ felt just like the emotional middle of the entire venture,” he says. “It’s the sensation that ties all of the songs collectively: The in-between. Between love and heartbreak, between who I used to be and who I’m changing into, between hope and despair. It’s that place the place you’re not damaged, however not healed but both; simply caught within the center, making an attempt to determine all of it out.”
See I’ve been battling demons alone
The lack of family members which have gone earlier than me
Ignore me, whereas I attempt
I attempt to repair the items that I’ve left
Behind, the recollections, no regrets
I’ll repair it, I’ll repair myself once more
I attempt to repair the lives that I’ve left
I’ll combat the demons in my head
I’ll repair it I’ll repair myself once more
The EP opens with “Near You,” a cathartic and charming road-worn reckoning of sacrifice and devotion. There’s a cinematic ache not simply to the music – which calls to thoughts people rock contemporaries like Noah Kahan and The Lumineers – however to Murphy’s themes of dusty home windows, sleepy drives, and desires too large for a small-town life. “You’d keep for me, and that’s why I’ll go away for you” is the sort of lyric that stops you in your tracks: A portrait of affection that lets go, not as a result of it desires to, however as a result of it should.
“Near You” has rapidly grow to be successful amongst the EP’s six tracks, and it’s straightforward to see why: A music about selfless love and “holding on by letting go,” as Murphy describes it, the observe’s catchy choruses and heart-on-sleeve vocals make it as immediately memorable as it’s powerfully shifting.
Whereas “Caught within the Center” is the file’s aforementioned emotional core, “Until I Discovered You” picks up the items with unabating willpower and drive, regardless of the price. A journey music by way of heartbreak and hope, it captures the ache of somebody who nonetheless believes in connection, even after all of the harm. “I’ll comply with your name, so scream it out till I’ve discovered you,” Murphy sings, chasing love prefer it’s the one map that issues.
Then comes “Lover,” a feverish, fiery three-minute unveiling. Written 5 years in the past within the wake of a breakup, it’s a slow-burn meditation on concern, love, and the second you notice it’s okay to stroll away. “I lengthy for freedom, however I’m scared to be alone,” Murphy confesses, his voice resolute, ragged, and roaring.
The tender “Kerosene” marks a turning level as Murphy reclaims his id and burns down expectations. “It’s a firestarter anthem for anybody who’s bored with taking part in small,” he notes – a sentiment echoed within the music’s dramatic lyrics and manufacturing. “I moved some mountains, searched and I discovered him / The person I used to be able to be,” he declares, chasing his future “like a match lit in gasoline.” It’s probably the most empowering music on the EP, and you’ll really feel that liberation in each chord.
The EP concludes in love over again with “Angel of Mine,” an intimate, smile-inducing exhale that Murphy likens to an emotional anchor. “Swear on my life, angel of mine, I’ll by no means let go,” Murphy sings, diving headfirst into love with no security web. “If it don’t work, my god it’s gonna harm,” he confesses, his voice each hovering and straining with emotion – and we imagine him.
Every of those songs is close to and expensive to Murphy’s coronary heart, not simply due to them being part of his “debut,” but in addition because of the ineffable vulnerability of the subject material.
As such, he has no definitive favorites. “Each means one thing totally different to me,” he admits. “‘Kerosene’’ was probably the most empowering to jot down. ‘Caught within the Center’ is probably the most weak. However ‘Angel of Mine’ most likely hits the toughest emotionally. That one all the time will get me excited after I play it stay.”
In the meantime, a number of lyrics from the EP proceed to stay with him. “In ‘Near You,’ the road ‘You’d keep for me, and that’s why I’ll go away for you’ actually sums up the thought of sacrificial love. In ‘Angel of Mine,’ the lyric ‘If it don’t work, my god it’s gonna harm’ feels brutally trustworthy – that pressure between hope and concern. And in ‘Caught within the Center,’ ‘Like a riddle I can’t clear up’ captures how overwhelming psychological well being struggles can really feel.”
I felt the intestine punch of misplaced romance
And in all trustworthy reality I simply bounced proper again
However they had been a rain drop you’re my hurricane
And I can’t even calculate that kinda ache
Swear on my life
Angel of mine
I’ll by no means let go
Really feel your love
Run by way of my blood
and deep down in my bones
Oh if it don’t work
My god it’s gonna harm
– “Angel of Mine,” Odhran Murphy
Murphy candidly describes the EP as uncooked, stressed, and trustworthy – three phrases that maintain true for the highs, the lows, and all of the messy in-betweens of those six songs.
“I hope listeners really feel seen – like no matter they’re going by way of, they’re not alone,” he shares. “If these songs could be a mirror or a consolation to somebody, then it’s all value it.”
Caught within the Center is all that and extra: A mirror, a consolation, a confessional. It’s a debut that doesn’t shout for consideration, however quite earns it authentically. With coronary heart in his lyrics and hearth in his voice, Odhran Murphy is a reputation to recollect and a voice to carry shut.
Expertise the total file by way of our under stream, and peek inside Odhran Murphy’s Caught within the Center EP with Atwood Journal as he takes us track-by-track by way of the music and lyrics of his debut EP!
“For me, scripting this EP helped me reclaim elements of myself I believed I’d misplaced,” he smiles. “Placing it out into the world is frightening, but it surely additionally appears like letting go – like saying, ‘Right here I’m, for higher or worse.’”
And with that, he’s now not caught, however lastly beginning to transfer ahead.
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Stream: ‘Caught within the Center’ – Odhran Murphy
:: Inside Caught within the Center ::
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Near You
A music about selfless love — forsaking what’s acquainted so another person can chase their desires. It’s about holding on by letting go.
Caught within the Center
This one’s the emotional anchor of the file. It speaks to feeling overwhelmed, misplaced, and needing one thing larger to take the load off your shoulders.
Until I Discovered You
A journey music — chasing after somebody who appears like residence. It’s about loss, longing, and the refusal to surrender on connection.
Lover
“Lover” captures the heartbreak of understanding one thing’s over however being afraid to let go. It’s uncooked, quiet ache wrapped in honesty.
Kerosene
“Kerosene” is about reclaiming id and burning down expectations. It’s a firestarter anthem for anybody who’s bored with taking part in small.
Angel of Mine
It is a full-hearted dive into love, understanding the danger and selecting it anyway. It’s intense, weak, and hopeful unexpectedly.
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© Aoife Moloney
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