FEATURE: Spotlight: Sinead O'Brien — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Zachariah Mahrouche

Sinead O'Brien

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YOU’LL forgive the opening lines…

PHOTO CREDIT: @_SineadOBrien_

of this feature but, for so many reasons, I am smitten and blown away by Sinead O’Brien. Her voice has rawness and a passion that makes the heart skip; she is a poet and big fan of poetry and, as I am a big fan of poetry myself, she ticks a lot of boxes. She is based in London (like me), but the fact she was born in Dublin and used to be based in Limerick is another bonus – I adore Irish artists and how various regional accents play into the music. A Thing You Call Joy was one of my favourite songs from last year, and I think the stunning and epically-talented O’Brien is primed for huge things in 2020. I will be sourcing from a few different sites and interviews because, I feel, hearing from O’Brien herself is important. I shall put aside my dreamy-eyed tones and get focused here! This year is a huge one for O’Brien, as she is working off of the momentum of singles and a lot of press interest. She is one of NME’s ‘ones to watch’ for this year, and is an artist who will have a very busy year indeed! I have been getting pretty nostalgic recently because, let’s face it, music has changed a lot since I was young. Not that this is a bad thing necessarily; it is just harder to bond with artists and feel the same sort of excitement as one did years ago. The music industry is bustling, which means one misses so many great artists. In the case of Sinead O’Brien, there is this distinct admiration and connection that lasts beyond expectation and the moment – someone who will continue to impress and mould into a huge star of the future.

2019 was an astonishing year for women in music and, as we are seeing festival line-ups unfurled, one hopes they are given platforms and opportunities not provided in 2019 – although the line-up for this year’s Coachella is a worrying step back (there are no female headliners). Strong and unique women like O’Brien are definitely opening eyes. She is someone I can imagine headlining in years to come and, although she has a few singles out in the world, festivals will certainly be interested – O’Brien is already confirmed for The Great Escape in Brighton in May, and a lot of fans and industry figures will go and see her perform. Go and see her in Brighton if you can but, before I talk about her tour dates and future, I want to bring in an interview from So Young Magazine last year. O’Brien was asked about her home and start in music:

“Can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

Originally from Limerick in Ireland, I stopped by Paris for a few months after graduating before finally deciding on moving to London with a gang of close friends. It felt like the right place to be based. It still does. The music I make is a very collaborative process with my band Julian Hanson (Guitar) and Oscar Robertson (drums). The words are central. Melody, tone, pace, mood – all of these elements radiate outwards from the lyrics. I started out by writing observational pieces, noting expressions, environment, the slightest changes in atmosphere and behavior of people. I am completely fascinated by these subtleties.

PHOTO CREDIT: Matilda Hill-Jenkins for Loud and Quiet

What’s special about where you’re from? Has it inspired your music?

Limerick (home of The Cranberries & Richard Harris) named after a form of poetry which was used by writers and poets including Joyce, Lewis Carrol and Mark Twain.

Growing up, I went to an all girls catholic school. My art teacher was the last remaining nun who was surprisingly focused on helping me get into art school. It was quite picturesque – six hundred girls in floor length skirts, ties done all the way up, marching up and down six flights of stairs in this big beautiful 19th century building. I looked for points of differences amongst the uniformity. The city has influenced me strongly too – it still does. I went to a lot of gigs during those years. When bands from London or Tokyo which no-one had ever heard of would come – it felt like a time of discovery. Laying the foundation for my own musical taste and ideas. The music you listen to – its such a commitment, it almost cut people up into distinctive groups, dividing and coming together. Flocks of young animals just trying to understand. When I come back to Limerick I pick up just there, where I left off. I keep coming back and understanding and discovering. It’s coming back with purpose, reflecting who I am now against the place I grew up. It’s a very sensitive and almost invisible process but something precious.

What led you to start writing and performing songs?

I moved to Paris in 2012 after graduating from Art school in Dublin. A friend saying goodbye casually suggested that I write an online piece and call it ‘freak watching in the city’! I started to write short pieces during my off time from beneath rainy cafe awnings, inside the Pompidou centre, at my home on canal St Martin and every place between. I love to observe and write my environment and found a kind of humor in it at that time. To me it was almost ridiculous – to be a ‘stranger’ noting down strange things. I found it surreal and really connected with that. It’s quite theatrical to say ‘here I am and this is what I’m seeing’. Like opening a curtain and revealing your world. Impact and drama. I alway find a sense of drama in the everyday. It’s interesting and gritty.

The pieces began to take on the shape of poems and I began working on them to give more symmetry and form. It’s not like you know why or what you’re doing, just a piece or work which needs working on. It wasn’t until I had several notebooks full that I felt a reason to perform.

In terms of musical output, it has been a busy past year or so for Sinead O’Brien. She put out the E.P., A List of Normal Sins (great title!), in 2018 and some singles last year.

I might get the discography a bit muddled, but I wanted to revert back to mention of A Thing You Call Joy. Maybe it is O’Brien’s delivery and wordplay; maybe it is the strength of her voice, but something hits you the first time you listen. It is not a conventional song with the verse-chorus-verse or any such thing. Instead, A Thing You Call Joy is like a poem set to music. It is free and emotional; it is full of character and visual stimuli in addition to being completely intoxicating. I have been spinning the song lately, trying to get to the heart of Sinead O’Brien and how her words come together. I get the vision of a young woman with her notepad nearby; jotting down a line and then pacing the room or looking out into the street before another line forms. One feels something very physical from songs like A Thing You Call Joy. In this feature from CLASH, we learn more about the song:

“The rising voice has a real potency to her work, linking with Chess Club Records for an incoming 10 inch vinyl release.

Set to support Pond and Whenyoung respectively on their upcoming UK shows, Sinead will also play London's Roundhouse Rising on October 26th.

Ahead of all this, Sinead O'Brien shows she is ready to move ahead with the fluid creativity of new release 'A Thing You Call Joy'

Written alongside her live band while retaining a singular identity, there's a poetic flourish to Sinead's word play.

She offers...

“The track works out its themes by way of moving us continuously through lyrics, rhythm and narrative.”

The opening line, ‘Grip the water flowing and it falls, faster from the palms’ comes from my mother. Imagery of water gives momentum driving the narrative forward while exploring different physical landscapes: “Into the cave I keep going”, “in the hallways of the mind, in the corridors of midnight”.

I recall A Thing You Call Joy getting some airplay but, considering the strength of the song, not as much as it warranted! It (the song) was a sign that we were seeing a very promising artist lay down her mark. If O’Brien was inspired to get into music because of artists such as Nick Cave and Mark E. Smith (The Fall), what we hear on songs like A Thing You Call Joy is very much her own voice and soul – maybe with a touch of her heroes and heroines showing up in the tapestry. I will move on in a second but, just before, I want to stay on A Thing You Call Joy and some words Rough Trade wrote:

“Irish poet and performer Sinead O’Brien releases her new single A Thing You Call Joy on Chess Club Records. Originally from Limerick, O’Brien’s work captures the everyday and the inbetween in a way that transcends any genre label. Writing from her own observations, O’Brien’s influences can be found in the realism of Mark E. Smith of The Fall and the works of literary icons such Frank O’Hara, W.B. Yeats, Joan Didion, Albert Camus. “I am inspired by an honest face on the train, a rhythm, a melody, a feeling, or it can hit me as nothing at all - a vacuum, limbo! Every detail matters,” she explains.

A Thing You Call Joy follows O’Brien’s first music of 2019 Taking On Time - the landmark 30th single release on Dan Carey's Speedy Wunderground label. A mesmerising call-to-arms, Taking On Time is equal parts Mark E and Patti Smith - set against a taut, frenetic bed recalling post-punk underdogs Life Without Buildings and The Slits but with the classic krautrock groove typical of Carey’s production”.

PHOTO CREDIT: DIY

I am not sure even O’Brien herself can believe how fast time has gone and the accolades she is receiving! The inclusion in NME is just the tip of an iceberg. Limbo is another song that made 2019 truly arresting and exciting. I am not sure whether an E.P. is planned this year or whether O’Brien, with an E.P. and a few singles under her belt, will put them together and add some further songs for an album. It would be good to think an album is in the pipeline because, as we look around to see which artists will define the scene this year, one has to put Sinead O’Brien’s name near the top of anyone’s list. Although O’Brien has a definite sound and core, each of her songs has their own skin and story. Another cracking song from 2019 is Limbo. A dizzying and stunning track, it is another gem I hope ends up on an E.P. or album this year. The Line of Best Fit made it their Song of the Day in October:

“Following this summer's Speedy Wunderground-released stunner “Taking On Time”, the second part to Sinead O’Brien's double release details a strong-willed struggle of fighting through a period of static boredom. “Limbo” sees the now London-based artist determined to escape feeling listless (“It's the wish of the weak to stay still / it's the will of the brave to go higher”), and struggle to push through drudgery of routine.

Limerick-born Sinead O’Brien has released the headstrong “Limbo”, the second side of her AA release on Chess Club Records, complementing last month's “A Thing You Call Joy”.

Following this summer's Speedy Wunderground-released stunner “Taking On Time”, the second part to Sinead O’Brien's double release details a strong-willed struggle of fighting through a period of static boredom. “Limbo” sees the now London-based artist determined to escape feeling listless (“It's the wish of the weak to stay still / it's the will of the brave to go higher”), and struggle to push through drudgery of routine.

“Written while living in a shared mansion in Hampstead, the scenery of my everyday routine became the backdrop to this 'Limbo' state. Stuck in static,” explains O'Brien. “Words catch onto branches, flowers illuminate the hill walk home, and the rubbish. On the street - so close to the flowers.”

“'Limbo' is not a resolute piece of work, is it a clue, an idea I have began to chase down and open up. I saw the passing of days unmarked, and moments unnoticed, the in between was brimming to the surface so that I could no longer ignore it!

“There is a need to get on top of my experiences and to reclaim them in my own words and to get above everyday. I am forced to relive and revisit memory to get somewhere outside of the static. I revisit the same landscapes over and over making a ritual of the routine. The 'Limbo' state is a place where subtle signs, gestures and motions begin to gain importance. Between two two pillars lies limbo.

PHOTO CREDIT: Matilda Hill-Jenkins for Loud and Quiet

“The underlying motivation or idea in 'Limbo' is the hook which follows itself to the end of the piece,” O'Brien says of the line “Do days like this hurt the head / Or do days like this help?”. She asks: “How do you make progress and turn the wheel to get out of a static place? There is a heavy presence in the piece of obstacles which create a lot of tension and the lyrics charge directly through, desperate for some light.”

O'Brien thoughtfully wrote and recorded parts of the wording to convey the track's restlessness and anxiety through heavy, breathy sounds. “Performing this piece is almost dizzying,” she explains, “it’s frenzied because I packed all of these heavy ‘h’ sounds so close together in the lyrics. But I like that - to hear breathing, gasping and any struggle involved in the delivery. I wanted to get all of that down on the recording”.

I am going to end the feature soon, but I wanted to quote from a couple more interviews because, whilst the music can reveal so much, I think it is important to hear from the artists themselves. I listen to songs like Limbo and Taking on Time, and I wonder how they started life; I wonder about the author and what she was thinking when she wrote them. I think Sinead O’Brien’s best moments are still ahead, but it is clear she has come a long way. This Patti Smith-cum-Nick Cave-style artist who is as accessible as she is unique, many people will want to know about her and how she has arrived at the point she is now.

In this interview with Loud and Quiet last year, we learn more about O’Brien’s progress and background:

“A couple of years ago Sinead O’Brien found herself comfortable. She was briefly settled – living in a “cosy” flat in Hoxton, east London – and the feeling didn’t sit well. So she made a commitment: a pledge to disrupt her life and surroundings. “I had a year, it was called The Year Of The Yes Girls,” she explains. Encouraging a club of friends to do the same, she spent 12 months “saying yes”. It wasn’t some haphazard scheme to chase thrills; rather, it was about actively inviting opportunity and seeing what stimulation could come out of that. “It was putting myself into situations with absolutely no second guessing. I can very easily do things when I say I’m going to do it. I’ll just commit to it and make it happen afterwards.” The resulting period “took some twists,” she admits.

Some of those experiences were fleeting – spontaneously going dancing on a night out – others more lasting. Like moving home. Or, perhaps most pivotally, when she said yes to an invitation to appear at New Gums, a night of spoken word performances, collaboration and music at south London venue the Brixton Windmill. At that point the writer didn’t even have a band, music or a plan, but still she accepted. “I think it’s a healthy exercise to challenge yourself,” she recalls, “saying yes to almost everything… well, what’s not possible then?”

PHOTO CREDIT: DIY

O’Brien was born in Dublin before the family moved west to Limerick where she lived until she returned to the Irish capital to study in her late teens. Her love of words and music began to develop at an early age, though they wouldn’t marry until much later. Sinead tells the story of how, when she was five or six, she would return from school with her ‘spelling book’ bulging with advanced new entries. Her parents grew suspicious and checked with the next-door neighbour (a primary teacher). “My dad was like, ‘she’s giving herself extra homework so that she can be better!” I was pretty keen on homework in general. I had a school bag before I had a school.”

“Music wasn’t far behind either. “I was sitting in the car with my mum, I was six, and I completely remember. I just had this notion – I want to learn piano.” Initially, lessons were at a chaotic School for Music before she swapped those for the more formal private tutorials administered by a stern old-fashioned antiques dealer. “She took care of my hands,” remembers O’Brien. “Sometimes she would even take my nail varnish off. It was etiquette – you come like this to the class. I absolutely loved it.” She kept taking lessons until she was 18. “I’ve always done best under very tough teaching,” she says.

By her late teens the allure the big(ger) city – “my New York or something” – was growing. She had enlisted at college in Limerick, but after one year transferred onto a course in Fashion Design in Dublin – an intensive group with four teachers and twelve students. The rigorous mentoring style suited her, and towards the end of her studies O’Brien was selected to work at Dior in Paris for five months.

The Sinead O’Brien live show is developing, too. When on stage she conducts the pace and intensity of the performance alongside bandmates Julian Hanson and Oscar Robertson. This past summer they played at a number of festivals including All Points East and Electric Picnic, and will support Pond and British Sea Power during the autumn. Each show, she says, should never be the same.

“I’m interested in it being different each time. I want it to do with what kind of day you had and what the place is like. I’m not interested in repeating or getting into a frenzied state of it being identical each time. You want to feel like that was the only time that was like that”

I have borrowed a lot of other people’s words but, as I only know about O’Brien’s music and very little about her as a human and songwriter, I think it is important to source and add some media biography. I am going to source from another interview before I bring this feature to a close, as I am really interested in Sinead O’Brien’s connection to poetry and her love of words. I would usually not write as many words as I have for an artist in a Spotlight feature, but O’Brien is someone who really strikes a chord with me. I know where my love of poetry and music came from – English lessons at school -, so I was hunting around for an interview that revealed the same from O’Brien.

PHOTO CREDIT: @hotpress

In this feature from Hot Press, O’Brien talks about how poetry spoke to her at a young age:

“I always had an interest in English, but I had some pretty tough teachers,” she explains. “The way poetry was taught in school didn’t interest me at that point. It was all about learning the poems off by heart. The fact that we were supposed to be analysing the poet’s intention kind of disgusted me, too. To me, it was up to everyone to find their own interpretation.

“When it comes to the word ‘poetry’, people get so uptight,” she laughs. “I’m quite loose with the word – I’m definitely not calling myself an academic. But I don’t think anyone should be afraid to use their words, because there’s no better way to express yourself.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Jenn Five for NME

Despite this early discouragement, there was no burying Sinead’s creative streak.

“Me and my best friend Aoife would go around Limerick, exploring and making up these different narratives,” she recalls. “We’d written some funny things about the convent school that we went to – inventing fiction about the priests and nuns. That was the earliest writing I can think of. It was in college that I started writing more, initially in an academic way.”

Her studies in NCAD led to a career in womenswear design, and an opportunity to travel the world. While living in Paris and London, she began exploring poetry.

“I would read out bits of my writing when we were having parties,” she says. “Then a friend was putting on a night in Brixton, and she asked me perform at it. I was going through this phase called ‘Yes Girls’ – a movement I invented where I had to say yes to everything. So I said yes, and obviously the thought was terrifying, but when I was doing it, I wasn’t nervous. After the first one I was hooked. Performing something that’s been private is a nice feeling in itself, but I also found a reason for why I was doing it – the connection I was making with people became a really big thing for me.”

“I’m on this border between spoken word and singing, and people seem to be confused and intrigued by that,” she muses. “Me too! But this is the only way I know how to do it. This is starting point, but it’s definitely not the end point. With me, it’s all about development”.

If you do not know about Sinead O’Brien now then, well…you really should! I have included her social media links so, if you can, give her a follow and check out her music on Spotify. I know she has gigs coming up, and I will do my best to catch her! I hope she has had a rest over Christmas and got chance to head back to Ireland. Now in London, Sinead O’Brien will be looking ahead and plotting her moves for this year. I have heard feedback from O’Brien’s gigs and she is a captivating and memorable live performer. There are a lot of great artists being tipped for success this year but, in my opinion, there are few better…