Damien Rice

Rice was born to George and Maureen Rice, and raised in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland.
Rice began his music career using the stage name Dodi Ma^{[citation needed]} and formed the rock band Juniper along with Paul Noonan, Dominic Philips, David Geraghty and Brian Crosby in 1991. The band met whilst they were attending Salesian College secondary school in Celbridge, Co. Kildare as students. After touring throughout Ireland the band released their debut EP Manna in 1995.
Based in Straffan, Kildare the band continued touring and signed a six album record deal with Polygram. Their recording projects generated the singles "Weatherman" and "Single of the Fortnight" which received favourable reviews.





After achieving his musical goals with Juniper, Rice became frustrated with the artistic compromises required by the record label, and he left the band in 1998. Rice moved to Tuscany in Italy and took up farming for some time, then returned to Ireland before busking around Europe. After returning to Ireland a second time, Rice gave a demo recording to his second cousin, music producer David Arnold who then gave Rice a mobile studio.

Solo career

Damien Rice at Coachella in 2007In 2001, Rice's song "The Blower's Daughter" made a top 40 chart. Over the next year he continued to record his album with guitarist Mark Kelly, New York drummer Tom Osander aka Tomo, Paris pianist Jean Meunier, London producer David Arnold, County Meath vocalist Lisa Hannigan and cellist Vyvienne Long. Rice then embarked on a tour of Ireland with Hannigan, Tomo, Vyvienne, Mark, and Dublin bassist Shane Fitzsimons.

In 2002, Rice’s debut album O was released in Ireland, the UK and the United States. The album peaked at No. 8 on the UK albums chart and remained on the chart for 97 weeks, selling 650,000 copies in the US. The album won the Shortlist music prize and the songs "Cannonball" and "Volcano" became top 30 hits in the UK.