Gareth Dunlop Returns to the House Where His Songs Were Born with ‘Live From The House Of I Don’t Know’

In a recent feature with Record Collector’s RC Investigates, the Belfast songwriter, Gareth Dunlop, reflects on how a quiet coastal house shaped his latest EP.

Built in the early 1970s and perched on the edge of Strangford Lough in County Down, a modest seaside house has become central to the creative process of Belfast-born singer, songwriter, and producer Gareth Dunlop. In Record Collector’s latest RC Investigates, Dunlop explains how the house first became a place of refuge while making his 2024 album ‘Welcome To The House Of I Don’t Know’. “It served as a kind of sanctuary between sessions, somewhere to decompress,” he tells the magazine. “Somewhere to pass a guitar around, and to let the dust of the day settle. It became a backdrop for slow conversations and long listening sessions, a space where the album quietly began to take root.”

That seed grew into a companion project, ‘Live From The House Of I Don’t Know’, a six-track collection recorded in the house itself. In the Record Collector piece, Dunlop describes the transformation of the living room into a makeshift live studio: wood-panelled ceilings, thick carpets, and wide sea-facing windows giving the songs a new intimacy.

“Before we started, I wasn’t sure if it was actually going to work,” Dunlop admits in the article. “But after the first take on the first song, I think we all had a sense of relief… like a ‘okay, this is going to work out.’ It was like rediscovering the songs in a lot of ways.”

With a stripped-down setup, dynamic microphones, a modest digital console, and drummer Matthew Weir’s hybrid kit topped with a Yamaha DX7, the band leaned into limitations. Without the grand piano of the studio record, arrangements shifted toward guitar, producing new shapes and textures that shifted the weight of the songs in subtle ways.

The result, he tells Record Collector, is a work of connection. “I love the studio album, it’s big, bold and chaotic at times. This live record is probably closer to how I wrote the songs. I hope folks feel the same ‘new connection’ to the songs that I felt when we were recording it.”

The piece also highlights the emotional weight of the sessions. “When I listen back to these tracks now, I hear five friends digging down deep,” says Dunlop. “The space has taken on new meanings. Never say never… but for now I think that week of recording stays where it is.”

‘Live From The House Of I Don’t Know’ is about what happens when music is allowed to breathe differently, in a space that carries its own memory and presence.

About Gareth Dunlop

Gareth Dunlop is a Belfast-born singer, songwriter, and producer whose work has been featured in hit TV shows including Nashville, This Is Us, Lucifer, and Suits. With a voice described as equal parts gravel and grace, he has drawn comparisons to Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and Van Morrison. His latest release, Live From The House Of I Don’t Know, follows the 2022 studio album Welcome To The House Of I Don’t Know.

Patrick Welsh
Rising Notes