Mick Rochford runs Ireland’s national children’s cancer charity. He also runs Jax Bathroom Suppliers, and he coaches kickboxing on the side. Three separate disciplines, three separate sets of responsibility, all of them built around structure, patience, and showing up for other people when it counts. That’s why his new single “Sticks and Stones” refuses to dress it up. The arrangement stays quiet almost the whole way through, which felt strange on first listen until I realized that’s the entire strategy. The lyrics carry the weight instead of the production.

“I created this track for anyone that has suffered at the hands of a bully at any stage of their lives. Some words are personal experience, some are from people I know and love, and some are from the general public. It was very difficult to write and convey this important message that it’s not acceptable to be bullied by anyone for any reason and to start the conversation.”

Mick Rochford

Those words are pulled from a mix of sources, his own experience, people close to him, the wider public conversation on bullying they read as one steady voice saying something necessary. That bluntness is the song’s strength. But given the subject, that feels like the right trade. “Sticks and Stones” built for whoever needed to hear the quiet part said out loud, and on that measure it lands. Recommended!