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Now in a Minute releases soon, what are the feeli
ngs like in the buildup to making something public you’ve spent such a long time working on? It’s such a bizarre feeling when you spend a long time cultivating something and then a day approaches that you realise is representing the release of it, the letting go. I guess in many ways you’ve already put yourself through the process of trying to birth a song and have it in its best outfit before that, so in a way I suppose I’ve spent quite a while with these songs. I wrote some songs as collaborations with friends, and some are from my own mouth entirely, and I feel that I was really pushing into something else you know, I was going through a whole kind of change as an artist, so I’m interested to hear what people think of them, but just creating the album is enough for me. It was so much of a process, and I’m so glad to have it finished, anything else from there is a bonus. The album covers a wide range of themes, from personal stuff to statements on society and relationships. Could you tell me a bit about some of the narratives you wanted to convey throughout the album? I did want to push out and maybe explore some of the themes that were very prevalent for me at the moment within my everyday life. One song is called Apparitions, which is just dealing with the blues and dealing with different levels of mental health. There was something in owning that from the very second the album opens up. I guess maybe I’ve never spoken out on things like that before, there was no need to, everybody has their own story and I’ve always just navigated my way through my own story. It felt like it was the right time to express some things that were there to be expressed, like my feelings on gentrification and the fact that it needs to be carefully considered for the people who it affects. It’s something we can’t ignore, so I feel it might be the duty of those who care about it enough to talk about it, to use their voices. I felt also a draw in this album to talk about otherworldliness, the things that maybe can’t always be explained. I’ve always been drawn to the mysteries of life and the great questions that we can never answer. In Hail I spoke a lot about sovereignty and about self-exploration. I love this idea that it’s all about you, but it’s not about you at all, and kind of flipping between those two and realising that it’s both. You have to figure it out for yourself and don’t take anything personally, but it’s a great paradox isn’t it? As you said, Apparitions is about solitude, and then say Bright Eyes is about connections. I would view those as opposing themes. Would you say those reflect your own life experience? I have to say it’s never something I actually consciously thought about. I am actually one of those people who tends to be on both ends of that spectrum. I’m quite a social butterfly when the mood is right, but also very satisfied with really simple living. I guess with the great paradoxes that life presents it’s so important to feel connected, but I don’t feel 46 that connection is entirely the answer. It’s important for me at least to spend time on my own, otherwise I’ve nothing to measure it against. If I don’t get each in their own separate doses, I become imbalanced. We don’t know how to celebrate one thing if we don’t have a sense of the other. I mean, how do you know what a good time is if you didn’t have a bad one? I find that you’re consistently met with those kinds of themes as a travelling musician, you see the best and the worst. it really, it just happens. I feel in Ireland we have a lot of these moments where there’s vast and rapid change, and I suppose weathering that is part of being human. You recorded the album between Clare and Cork, how do location and your surroundings influence your music? Yeah, between my own little house in Clare and Monique Studios in Middleton. It was with Christian Best, and he’s fantastic. He’s this kind of fanatic about gear, he absolutely adores sound. He always wants to find a weird way to do everything and has trinkets all over his studio. For example, one time I picked up this really old kalimba and started jangling away on the thing, and he just said, ‘Whatever that is, do it again’ and dragged and dropped it on top of the song, it just worked. He’s constantly putting a twist on music that’s unique to the moment. Christian is happy to make things weird, so we get on just fine. I would say that music is subject to what the people are taking in, the accents of the local people, and the landscape around them. When I wrote some of this stuff it was winter and some of the recordings came together in the summer, so I feel that there was this kind of spritely approach to actually much darker scenes. I couldn’t have planned I noticed you’ve done a lot of gigs in Germany, what’s the story with the big German fan base? I just love Germany. I think they have really beautiful, attentive crowds, and they do gigs very well. They’re very appreciative of anyone that’s doing something passionate, they’ll give you the time to be brought on a journey. They’re very willing listeners. Taking a moment to really see if they believe in what you’re saying or not, and if they do then they’re with you. Great listeners but will also really hype a song up in between, you really get beautiful applauses. Another thing with art I suppose is listening. Listening is an art, and appreciating is a different one. I mean, my first and great love is touring around Ireland, and there’s so many places that I’m looking forward to going back to soon. Is there anything on the immediate horizon post-release, or are you just taking life as it comes? I’m going to Australia in the new year. I’ve been over there four times but the last time I had to take an emergency flight back because of the Covid situation. So, I’m looking forward to finishing this kind of unfinished business in Australia. I also just want to keep pushing the boundaries of what creation is to me while taking things as they come. Life goes so fast, if I’m thinking too much about the future, I’d be afraid what I might miss.