Waterford singer-songwriter Mark Duggan shares his debut album, Hold That Ghost Down, led by the acoustic folk-rock single Don’t Know Why.
The record follows a run of releases including A Harder Shade of Blue, House on the Hill and Different in the Dark.
Don’t Know Why traces a relationship coming apart, moving from intimate acoustic passages to full-band crescendos while keeping Duggan’s unpolished vocal at its centre.
That progression began with a writing decision: Duggan wanted the track to gather momentum from its opening chords through to its final moments. He returned to those chords until fragments of melody and imagery gave the song its shape. The finished recording lets that gradual movement carry the emotional weight.
Across Hold That Ghost Down, Duggan pairs acoustic instrumentation with electronic textures to explore memory, isolation and the difficulty of moving forward.
The album extends a storytelling approach heard on his debut EP, Long Way Home, a 20-minute piece originally created as his final-year college project.
Don’t Know Why offers a clear entry point into the new record: a song that leaves room for doubt while finding its way towards something louder.