Damien Rice (born 7 December 1973) is an Irish singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Rice began his musical career as a member of the 1990s rock group Juniper, which were signed to Polygram Records in 1997. The band enjoyed moderate success with a couple of single releases, but a projected album floundered because of record company politics. After leaving the band he worked as a farmer in Tuscany and busked throughout Europe before returning to Ireland in 2001 and beginning a solo musical career, and the rest of the band went on to become Bell X1. In 2002 his debut album O reached No. 8 on the UK albums chart, won the Shortlist Music Prize and generated three top-30 singles in the UK. Rice released his second album 9 in 2006 and his songs have appeared in numerous films and television episodes. After eight years of various collaborations, Rice released his third studio album My Favourite Faded Fantasy on 31 October 2014. Rice\'s personal activities include musical contributions to charitable projects such as the Songs for Tibet, Freedom Campaign and the Enough Project.\n', '

Rice was born in Dublin to George and Maureen Rice, and raised in Celbridge, Ireland. Rice 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.\n', '

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 "The World Is Dead" which received favourable reviews. They also recorded but never released "Tongue".\n', '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.\n', '

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