Ireland’s premier lo-fi bluesman released his début album- Senor, My Friend- in early 2003 to rapturous applause. Or, if not to rapturous applause, then, at the very least, contented thumbs-up. In the wake of the release of his second record- The Herring and the Brine - he speaks exclusively to the Anablogue.

A:What place is there in the current (Irish and International) music scene for finger-pickin’ blues?

MDR:Fingerpicking blues these days has a lot to do with technical proficiency rather than originality or songwriting which probably explains why it has become a minority sport and stuck in the past. Blues is sometimes approached with excessive reverence, which makes people suppress their own personality when they play it, which is not what the great blues players did. I would consider myself as having a pop - rather than blues - sensibility but I like the independence you get with fingerpicking where you can play bass and melody lines together.

A:Your first album was a self-produced, funded, written and recorded affair. Would you care to repeat the process again?

MDR:For the new album I got the help of an excellent recording engineer, Peter Sisk, but otherwise it was quite similar to the approach for the first album in that I paid for it myself and made the decisions. It always sounds disingenuous to say that I’d never be interested in a record deal when I have never been offered one, but I don’t think I could work with that level of interference from strangers. Most people who sign deals get into debt and get dumped so I don’t think I’m missing out on much.

A:Whence come the subjects for your songs?

MDR:I just try to keep interested in things: books, music, films,and of course, the people in my life. Ideas tend to come to me sporadically, and then I work on them for months at a time. I don’t really force things and am used to having maybe six months or longer where I don’t write anything. It’s quite a haphazard, laissez-faire system, but it has worked for about 15 years so I’ll stick with it.

A:Do lyrics always have to rhyme?

MDR:Not necessarily, but peoples ears tend to like the closure you get when a line rhymes. The main thing is that you don’t see the rhyme coming a mile off - for example ’sorrow/tomorrow’ or ‘waiting/anticipating’.

A:Which artists (musical, literary or actual artists) have influenced you?

MDR:In the early days, The Smiths, Bill Bragg, The Jam and The Housemartins. After that, Mississippi John Hurt, the Rev Gary Davis and in recent times, Rufus Wainwright has been a big favourite. I like a lot of choral music like Poulenc, Faure and Lassus.

In terms of lyrics, there isn’t anyone in particular, but there are lots of writers who keep me interested in language and storytelling. I am a huge Thomas Hardy fan and enjoy reading Akutagawa, Jorge Luis Borges, Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo. Bacially anything in the Penguin Classics section of bookshops.

A:Your voice sounds like a masculine Irish Nico, was it always so?

MDR:I think so. Do you mean I’m husky and go out of tune sometimes? Probably a fair summary.

A:The internet yields very few videos for your songs, care to ameliorate this? If not, explain why.

MDR: I did a video for Every Now and Then She Gets a Moment. An American student did it with the support of Hot Press. It came out as lesbian soft porn so I didn’t really push it too hard. If you search my name and the Tisch School of Arts in New York you’ll find it.

A:Whose career, (if anyone’s) would you like to emulate?

MDR:To be honest I’m pretty happy with the balance I have at the moment. I have a busy and interesting life and a reasonable number of people are interested in my music. I enjoy my day job, which gives me plenty of food for thought, as well as real food. Anton Chekov had a nice life. He was a doctor on his home town and wrote cracking stories and plays in his spare time. Not bad. Famous people are usually unhappy and bored/boring. Fame is for people who don’t get enough love in their lives.

A:Has your muted style, and ego-free demeanour aided or inhibited your career to date? (Obviously an entirely ego-free demeanour would result in a total loss of sense of self,so that’s not what I mean, but you know what I’m getting at.)

MDR:I’m not a pushy arriviste, which you need to be if you want to make it in ’showbusiness’. I’m no saint though and it would be nice if Whelan’s returned my calls.

A:The first time I heard your music was on pirate radio: do you feel that the demise of traditional radio and the rise of online radio (in which one can dispense with DJ’s and the like) has helped or pushed back the efforts of new artists?

MDR:As an independent musician, radio has never been a big thing for me - anyway, hardly anyone I know still listens to the radio. The internet has been a great help though as people can listen to your music in a hands-off way, for free and in their own time. Radio tended to concentrate popularity in a small number of large bands; now things are more fragmented and it’s no longer possible to say with any confidence what the popular taste is. I reckon nobodies like me can then take advantage of the confusion.

A:Sugababes or Girls Aloud? Please explain preference and, if possible, back it up by referencing a song by preferred artist.

MDR:Sugababes, or whoever is in Sugababes this week. They used to have the guy from OMD writing their songs and they have tried to mimic the production style of US pop records on things like ‘Push the Button’, so they’re aaalllrriiigghhht by me. Girls Aloud are just another pop act.

Ailbhe Malone is 21 years old. She continually gets Malcolm McClaren and Steve McClaren mixed up.
Email this author | All posts by Ailbhe Malone

Similar Posts