Declan O’Rourke has released Echo, the lead single from Oceanic, his eighth studio album, due on 16 October.
The video doubles as a first look at Almost With You, an Australian feature film in which O’Rourke makes his screen acting debut. Written and directed by Adam Morris and set in Albany, Western Australia, the film gets its world premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh on 9 July. O’Rourke plays Brendan Kelly, an Irish musician at the end of a solo Australian tour who finds himself with five unexpected days off, grieving the loss of his brother and musical partner and slowly drawn back in by the town’s community and a shared love of music. The film carries nine of O’Rourke’s original songs, Echo among them.
O’Rourke produced the single with his longtime friend Jim Moginie of Midnight Oil, who plays electric guitars; Nick Seymour of Crowded House is on bass. “The simple message of Echo is that what you send out into the world is what comes back to you,” O’Rourke says. “Jim and I wrote it fairly fast, but it became such a fun kind of beefy rocker as we recorded.”
Oceanic was recorded in Sydney with Moginie co-producing, a return to the country where O’Rourke first committed songs to tape as a teenager and named his 2004 debut Since Kyabram. It follows 2021’s Paul Weller-produced Arrivals. Echo is out now on all streaming platforms, with an Irish tour on sale now.
Tour Dates – 2026
October
8 — Cork, Cork Opera House
9 — Westmeath, Mullingar Arts Centre
10 — Mayo, Westport Town Hall Theatre
17 — Dublin, Vicar Street
November
6 — Tyrone, Craic Theatre and Arts Centre, Coalisland
7 — Killarney, Gleneagle Club
13 — Ennis, Glór
14 — Cavan, Townhall Arts Centre
15 — Navan, Solstice Arts Centre
21 — Derry, Guildhall