The Goo 1
Interview ETHAN GOLDING Sinead O’Brien Fresh from
her recent appearance on Later with Jools and a shed load of great reviews, we caught up with the Dublin born - London based artist as she’s just about to release her second album ‘Time Bend and Break the Bower’ on Chess Records. I read that your musical career began through a decision to say yes at every chance for a year. Have you kept to this mantra or do you have to be more discerning about what you say yes to now? So it’s more like reinventing the yes movement, at certain intervals. I’ve recently gone back into it. It led me into doing a photoshoot in a water bath at midnight. So yeah, sometimes I better say no, but I like it because it just brings unusual experiences. And there’s always something to be gained. I mean, there’s always a reason, right? Is this still how you write, words first, or has it become more symbiotic and collaborative? It’s very collaborative, but really, it always starts with the word. I have a solitary beginning to the process, stage one is me in my bedroom every morning writing, sometimes in cafes, sometimes on the train or on an aeroplane. I usually work with the stuff that’s the most exciting and jumping out to me, rather than going chronologically. Some of it just becomes what stays as a poem or work I do with somebody else, but yeah, it’s that first, and then I go and meet the boys in the studio and we all work together. I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE ARE DANCING, IT’S THE ULTIMATE COMPLIMENT.. PAGE 8 The music on the album is even more aggressive than on previous releases, with a lot of it sounding more and more like Dance Punk. Is it important to you that people can move to your music as well? Yeah, I do love that. I’ve gotten in the habit of asking people at gigs to come real close. I love when people are dancing, it’s the ultimate compliment. Maybe it’s because of how I interact with music, but it’s not the measure for every song obviously. There are songs that are not danceable either and they shouldn’t be. So it’s not not across the record, but I would say it definitely gets there at times. It’s like a desperate urge to feel alive. One of my favourite things is when an album doesn’t have a title track, and instead gets its name from a lyric. I was wondering if this was a considered decision for you or something that just felt natural? Yeah, it came backwards. I felt like, oh, this thing looks complicated. This title, it’s long, but I think it might be because when you say it out loud, Time Bend and Break the Bower, It’s like being walked through the imagery in real time. And I really liked that. I thought of Girlkind because it was my first piece and it feels like quite a core track on the album. I didn’t want to call it that, but you’re right, there is something more subtle and nuanced about it when something else comes up organically. I didn’t want one word to encompass this whole album, I don’t have a unifying word for it.