"I'm a bit late to Kanye West."
Little did I know from the Limerick-born singer-songwriter and spoken word poet Sinead O’Brien that her recent source of musical inspiration would come from that of the virtuoso producer and rapper. Held under the quarantined conditions of our respective homes, O’Brien just finished another day’s work in women’s fashion design yet seemed more than talkative over the ensuing hour-long phone call in discussing 808s and Heartbreak, male-dominated festival lineups, as well as her recent music career. While there may seem to be little crossover between Kanye West’s renowned brash persona and the up-and-coming ‘sprechgesang’ artistry of O’Brien, we ultimately saw eye-to-eye on the masterful crafting of his auto-tuned vocals amongst his seminal 2008 LP, 808s and Heartbreak. In essence, this is what O’Brien naturally crafts in her own work - spouting enticing spoken word passages amongst the (more recent) sumptuous production of Speedy Wunderground's Dan Carey and his unique krautrock touch.
From an early age of reading through her grandfather’s endless drafts of re-publishing Frank McCourt’s 1996 memoir ‘Angela’s Ashes’, O’Brien has long been engrossed in the world of poetry and the written form. Determinedly evolving her artistic senses within her writing process, O’Brien asserted to me that "the best changes always come about when you shock yourself". Rather inevitably, the studious mind of O'Brien became a recurring factor for the majority of our conversation, incessantly processing an illustrious list of musical influences and producing music through an ever-evolving working environment under quarantine.
“It has to be balanced at the bottom of the pyramid.”
Another aspect which clearly needs to evolve, O’Brien pointedly stated, is the male-heavy festival lineups ubiquitous in our current state of affairs, “if it’s true that there aren’t enough females creating music...wouldn’t you say that bookers haven’t been booking those acts on the smaller stages for the last few years?”. Calling out such bookers guilty of enlisting male-fronted acts for the majority of their (predominantly ‘indie’) lineups, the conclusion seemed instinctively obvious to O'Brien: “it has to be balanced at the bottom of the pyramid” in order to reap the effects at the top. Within the same breath, however, O’Brien exclaimed “thank fuck we’re here, it feels like a really good time”. Particularly when I threw about such monumental Irish acts recently coming to the fold - namely Fontaines D.C, The Murder Capital, and Girl Band. Having recently witnessed the former band at Brixton Academy, only three words seemed to capture that moment in time for her: “it felt right.” One thing is for certain here - O’Brien’s inclusion amongst this coveted list of promising names currently flag-bearing their country’s enthralling art-rock and post-punk scenes.
O’Brien also seemed to be revelling in our current quarantined environment which has allowed her the time and space to perfect her collaborative songwriting process, coming to the realisation “it’s the first time in years I’ve not been tired.” With some rescheduled live shows on the horizon of October as well as her recently released single ‘Roman Ruins’ and upcoming debut EP, O’Brien noted “the flow [of songwriting] is really strong, that’s keeping me positive.” And with this stroke of infectious positivity concluded our buoyant hour-long conversation, yet the pertinent question is still lingering on my mind - should we expect some inclusion of Kanye West’s auto-tuned vocals within her future work? I guess only time will tell.
Sinead O’Brien’s latest single ‘Roman Ruins’, is out now and can be found here.
Tickets for her rescheduled UK shows are on sale now and can be found here.
This interview was courtesy of Gigwise, whose website can be found here.
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