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Original Character Series Faceclaim: Matthew Noszka Kaden Walsh (Born 27 September 1978) is an Irish Born, singer, song-writer and multi-instrumentalist. Though many known among many of his peers to be one of the most prolific songwriters, Walsh did not start his form of song writing as far as mid to Late 1996, recording with only a Casio Tape Player, and his voice, a lot of the recordings that were made during the time were only followed through as Demos at the time, at the age of 18, Walsh began taking up guitar lessons to further his song writing abilities at the time, wanting anything but the kitchen's utensils as instruments to get a rhythm of the song. Walsh's first believed song that was known to be recorded before he went any further with his musicianship was "Yeats Street Daises" which was the street name of where his house was at the time.

As early as 1997 that Walsh began recording more and more songs, all the while, completing his final year of high school and graduating successfully, with, however, some poor grades, which Walsh had stated 'Absolutely failed History and Further Math, like, scolding teacher look failed as you walk by'. All the while he completed the likes of his music, writing of the songs in 1997 would not start until August of 1997 where Walsh would go on to write 50 songs for his debut album. It was during this time that at a family gathering, that Walsh's Uncle, would introduce him to a known close friend named Michael Davies, an ambitious music producer who wanted to start a record label or hop on one that had the biggest and yet to be biggest stars for the time. Having being introduced to Davies, Walsh stated that upon meeting him 'he was very eager to get everything, right off the bat' and when conversing on the phone, whenever the topic would come up of music, would be very anxious to bring up that he too was trying to be an ambitious musician himself. It would only be as Late of September of 1997 and after many phone calls that it would slip Walsh's mouth that he was writing music, and that Davies at the time, had the start of what was soon to become the basics of Prism Records. With Davies wanting to Walsh to go under his label, the contract was set for an initial $25,000 two album deal with 85% royalties and a 90% live tour income, should he go on tour at any point during the initial two albums. 1998 ⸻ Last Train Home Though Initial Recording for the album would not start as early as September of 1997. Walsh had been writing for the album as early as August of the same year, beginning to record basic elements of what would become most parts of his first initial album. With almost 28 songs already written between August and September, it would only take Walsh a few more months before he had his first configured album that Davies would be happy with in terms of sound. Main initial tracking, recording and productions of the album started as Early as the 17th of September to where Walsh would make the title track. Where later on, the album would be worked through from September of 1997, to as Late as March of 1998. Usually spending a week on a track for the album before either writing more or producing other tracks. However, under Davies direction, the album was slated to have a completion date of April of 1998 so they were able to place the financial losses of what was soon becoming Walsh's first album, into a profit. Though Walsh would only end up getting $25,000 for the album. The album would cost around £1.1 Million pounds in order to finally produce and market upon launch. Walsh would ultimately end up making around 65 songs for the initial album. With the album set to release in a single month, and with Michael Davies as the Executive Producer, Davies made the first initial decision for Walsh to place the album out first before pushing two singles out, this initially, though was told to be a good idea by the marketing crew from Prism records at the time, eventually backfired to having no single behind it in order to hype up the album, and with only two singles chosen from the debut album. Many had stated the album was going to see weak sales upon launch for an album that sounded like a lot of potential from the up and coming Irish Artist. Last Train Home launched on the 13th of April with only 19,608 sales worldwide, reaching #13 in the UK and #8 in Ireland, though it was a good sign initially for Walsh at the time, the album did not last on the charts long thanks to the lack of any form of single before it. In the US, the album launched at #15. Thanks to the Top 20 debut in many countries it allowed the album to settle down before any mass movements from the label which involved thoughts about singles and a possible tour for Walsh, which never materialised. After two months of allowing the public to buy the album, Michael Davies began the executive decision of choosing the singles to be launched from the album. The first of which was released on the 8th of June, 1998. Last Train Home was the first released single with little to no promotion with the hopes that the initial album sales start would get Walsh somewhere high on the charts. This however, would of course not be the case as in many countries, the single from the album, never became more than a Top 75 hit. Reaching number #73 on the Billboard Hot 100, #47 on the Ireland Top 50 charts, and a peak of #62 on the UK Top 75. The single would only last three weeks before it was off the charts. Though both singles did not live up to the result of Michael Davies' expectations, the second single Dear Diary faired worse compared to the first single released. Though loved among fans due to it's ballad-esque rhythm and style, it wasn't enough to place it from charting on any charts, however, managing to sell only around 6-7 thousand copies less than Last Train Home due to lack of radio promotion. It would however, be soon after the launch of the final single from Walsh's debut album, that the recordings for the second album would begin and a goal of doubling what Last Train Home had made in eventual album sales. Last Train Home (1998)* *Bonus Tracks would later be reissued with iTunes Launch. Bonus Tracks are found on the "Last Train Home" single Genre: Rock 9 Lives (3:22) Last Train Home (3:18) Cool Wit It (4:29) Dear Diary (3:57) Put It All In Perspective (5:02) Murder Was The Case (4:47) Rags to Riches (3:38) Too Much Energy (4:50) A Nation on Fire [Bonus Track] (4:18) For What it's Worth [Bonus Track] (3:26) Total Time: 33:23 Bonus Tracks Total Time 41:07 Recorded Album Sales Africa: 9,025 Asia: 25,835 Australasia: 5,219 Europe: 80,150 North America: 65,785 South America: 6,685 Total: 192,705