The Breakdown Rambler Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: You can see a surprising amount when the sun goes down. As they release their long-awaited debut album, Andrew Hamilton chats to Ennistymon man Fiachra O’Doherty - one fifth of Breakdown Rambler.

APOCALYPSE Now took more than a year and a half to shoot. In those 18 ill-fated jungle months, both cast and crew were tortured endlessly by tropical storms, as Martin Sheen suffered a heart-attack and Marlon Brando discovered two extra personalities and about four extra stone. All told, it was a fairly difficult production. More than five years in gestation, Witness by Moonlight is the debut album from folk-rocksters Breakdown Rambler. Five years is a long time to do anything, but a half-decade pouring over the finer details of an hour of music is an eternity. And like Apocalypse Now, the completion of this album has freed Breakdown Rambler to re- open their collective eyes, and look again on a world reborn. “Yeah, it’s an amazing feeling to finally have it. The night we launched the album, I think everyone just breathed a sigh of relief. We had just collected the CD the morning before the show so it was touch and go for a while. But we got it and we ended up selling maybe 100 copies that night. It was amazing to actually have it there in your hand, physically, and to be able to launch it on the same day,” says Fiachra.

CPIArchive2009B · The Breakdown Rambler Podcast

The Drugzilla Podcast (2009)

On their way to winning Clare People Interactive’s Clare Artists of the Year for 2008, Lisdoonvarna hardcore two-piece Drugzilla received votes from every corner of the globe. Andrew Hamilton chats to frontman The Human Jigsaw about the release of their debut album and their triumphant return home.

It’s one thing making music in your bedroom - tip-toeing your way through samples and sound-bites, piecing together your own private opus. But it’s something altogether different to take that sound on the road. After years building a large underground following around the world, Lisdoonvarna experimental hardcore outfit Drugzilla have decided to put their heads on the block. Leaving the comfortable haunts of myspace and iTunes behind (at least for a while) they are finally ready to show themselves to the world. Now, after successful gigs in the UK, Cork and Dublin, Drugzilla are ready for the real test - a night in front of their home crowd. “We played our first real gig in Dublin, which was back at the start of last year, and then we were offered a few bigger gigs over in the UK. One was a festival called I Hate Trance with some of the best extreme artists in Europe. We just went all out for that - we dressed up in stupid masks and made sure that people wouldn’t forget us any time soon,” says The Human Jigsaw.

CPIArchive2009B · The Drugzilla Podcast (2009)

The Alan Cooke Podcast

CPI 2009: If home is where the heart is, then what of the heart which is set to wander? Andrew Hamilton chats to Clare-based filmmaker and actor Alan Cooke about his multi-Emmy-nominated film, Home.

When Irish actor Alan Cooke sets down in JFK next month, he will, in many ways, be returning home. Though no relatives will be there to greet him and few creamy pints will await his arrival in the local social houses, his return to this adopted city will have no less meaning. New York City, a place where dreams are made and crushed. A city with a heartbeat and soul, a place where - if you’re willing - existence can reveal itself as a thing of no surface but all feeling. Alan’s journey in New York began more than seven years ago, when a holiday turned into a break and a break turned into a five-year-long voyage of discovery. “I had no intention of going to New York for a long period of time, I really just went over there for a break. I was working as an actor over here and I just wanted to take a break for a couple of weeks but I ended up staying for over five years,” he says. 

CPI Archive 2009 · The Alan Cooke Podcast

The Mumford and Sons Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: Folk music is officially back, and this time it’s folk with an English accent. Andrew Hamilton chats to Marcus Mumford from London four-piece Mumford and Son - leaders of this new folk revival.

The night a 17-year-girl from Hampshire can breeze onto the set of Jools Holland and leave everyone open-mouthed, you know it’s time to take notice. So when Laura Marling did exactly that, while singing folk songs that her grandparents might have thought a little old-fashioned, it was a clear sign of something very big just over the horizon. Playing drums for Marling that night was Marcus Mumford. Scarcely out of his teens himself, Mumford would soon find his own place in the British folk revival. Borrowing heavily from the sounds of the American south, Mumford and Sons have created a new take on folk music from this part of the world. “Because there are four of us, we all have lots of influences, there isn’t just one thing. Like Ted, the bass player really loves blues. I really like lot of everything from old soul stuff to gospel music, bluegrass and country. I guess the sound came from a combination of four guys who really loved their music and loved their instruments and wanted to explore the sounds. We all had a shared love for country music and folk singer-songwriters. It really is a big old melting pot,” said Marcus.

CPI Archive 2009 · The Mumford and Sons Podcast

The Dead Cat Bounce Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: The Dead Cat Bounce Podcast. From Will Ferrell to the Edinburgh Fringe, Dead Cat Bounce have been making impressions all over the comedy world. Andrew Hamilton chats to Ennistymon comedian Mick Cullinan about his role within Ireland’s hottest new comedy troupe.

You don’t need a sense of humour to survive a winter in north Clare, but it definitely helps. As you struggle through six months of constant near-darkness and that perpetual damp feeling that invades your clothing and lays siege to your immune system, a good joke, well told, can go a long, long way. Yet, when Mick Cullinan was forming his personality on the streets of Ennistymon, his sense of humour was very much in the back seat. A student of musicals and drama, his potential for comedy lay dormant. “No, I definitely wasn’t the messer when I went to school. There was a class full of messers where I went to school, so I definitely wasn’t the biggest messer in the group. I got into comedy through drama really. I did a few musicals and things like that at home before coming up to Dublin. I did a drama degree in Trinity and while I was there I met a few mates and we decided to set something up together,” says Mick. 

CPI Archive 2009 · The Dead Cat Bounce Podcast

The Donncha Ó Dúlaing Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: From Steinbeck and Gene Kelly to Éamon de Valera and Edna O’Brien, Donncha Ó Dúlaing has reached behind the public faces and shown the greats to the world. Ahead of his appearance at this week’s Ennis Book Club Festival, Andrew Hamilton chats to the Peter Pan of Irish broadcasting.

If age was measured in energy and enthusiasm, Donncha Ó Dúlaing would be a raspy teenager, full to bursting with the wonders of the world. Whether turning his mind to the great and the good or the man on the street, Donncha’s days have been constantly infused with the energy of those he interviews. His broadcasting story began almost 50 years ago when, through a mixture of persistence and boyish cheek, he became the first interviewer to reach the human side of Éamon de Valera. “I had heard back in 1965 that he was coming on a private visit to Bruree in Limerick. Being a young fella at the time, I said to myself, wouldn’t it be nice to be down there to meet him with a little tape machine. So I turned up and waited there for eight hours for him. He came in and was introduced to me and I told him that I wanted to do a series on his childhood,” said Donncha. 

CPI Archive 2009 · The Donncha Ó Dúlaing Podcast

The Cuckoo Savante Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: Whether grotesque-cabaret or lounge-punk, Cuckoo Savante are a band of many monikers. Andrew Hamilton talks to pianist Morgan Cook about crafting a new sound for music in the west.

NOW this really is a motley crew. A classically trained pianist with a jazz drummer, a funk bassist convert- ing to the electric double-bass and a Spanish singer with the voice of an angel. Stir in a frontman modelling himself on the iconic troubadours like Elvis or Sinatra and I think you’ll agree, it’s not exactly an easy image to conjure. Galway’s latest musical offering Cuckoo Savante are nothing but hard to define. Yet like a musical United Nations, they revel in their differences, celebrate their contrasts and gain strength form their contradictions. It’s always been the way. Since the band’s first breath - when pianist Morgan Cooke and singer Jamie Nanci came together to write - to their current stratosphere of sounds and influences, the band has always been united by their differences. “To be honest a lot of the songs which are still most popular date back from that time. The first night that myself and Jamie sat down we just got a lot of beer, pulled an all nighter and wrote about four songs," said Morgan.

CPI Archive 2009 · The Cuckoo Savante Podcast

The Lilac Blues Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: Kilrush siblings Laura and Emmet O’Gara will represent the west when the live final of the All Ireland Talent Show comes to RTÉ next month. Andrew Hamilton chats to Lilac Blues singer Laura about cutting her musical teeth in west Clare and their steely commitment to playing their own music. 

THE dreaded Leaving Cert was all that entertained Laura O’Gara’s mind when she and her family upped sticks and left Kilrush in 1999. A keen musician, she and her brother Emmet had learned to sing and play in the classrooms and halls of west Clare. Little did they realise that when they left Clare, they would - for a time at least - leave the music behind them too. “There used to be a lot of music organised in a room over the post office in Kilrush. People used to come with their drum kits and guitars and just start playing together and teaching each other how to play. That’s where I first started playing guitar and where Emmet first started playing drums,” she said.  

CPI Archive 2009 · The Lilac Blues Podcast

The Eddi Reader Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: Andrew Hamilton chats to Scottish singer Eddi Reader about her love affair with Robert Burns and no longer feeling like the ugly duckling of pop.

January 2003. From the outside, all looked well. A successful career, spanning more than two decades of music, complete with an endless supply of awards and accolades to adorn the busy mantelpiece. What more could anyone ask for? Yet despite all this, Eddi Reader was unhappy. A Scot lost in London, she saw herself as the ugly duckling of the British pop scene. So with no hope in the present, she cast her mind back more than 200 years to the words that would set her free. To the poems of old Rabbie, the great Bard of Ayrshire. “I already knew a lot of those Robert Burns poems and songs from when I used to sing in folk clubs when I was young. There was nowhere really for me to sing back then. Before the folk clubs, I would just sing in from of my mom and dad. I’d sing along to Elvis records or Beatles records," she said. 

CPI Archive 2009 · The Eddi Reader Podcast

The Skazz Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: The Skazz the limit: As the Jamaican rhythms continue to rise in Doonbeg, Andrew Hamilton chats to Skazz saxophone player Philippa Siegrist about bringing the Ska back out west.

THEY always said that Clare was the last county before the Americas. While that may always have seemed like a ridiculous notion, a quick survey of the musicians practicing in the county just now would seem to tell a different story. Let’s do a quick head count, shall we? The number of Raggae and Ska bands currently playing throughout the island of Ireland amounts to just two. So with Lahinch band Serious Mischief flying the flag for Raggae and Doonbeg outfit Skazz beginning to dip their feet in the world of Ska - it would seem that, when it comes to the music of the Caribbean, the people of Clare have it all sown up. Of course when it comes to Ska the important first question to ask is what brand of Ska. For Skazz, the chosen medicine is not the English 2 Tone Ska the late 1970s or the third wave movement of the 1980s. In keeping with their jazz roots, Skazz have chosen the original Jamaican scene Ska of the 1960’s - when Caribbean mento and calypso first met American jazz and rhythm and blues. "We used to have the Doonbeg Swing and Jazz band which was going along quite well. But one of the band members at the time had played in a Ska band in Holland so he suggested one day at practice that we try something different. So we gave it a go and it was great. It was something new to all of us but it was really fun, so eventually we decided to go along with that,” said Philippa. 

CPI Archive 2009 · The Skazz Podcast

The CMC Podcast

CPI Archive 2009: Following their taste of the big time supporting The Stunning on New Years Eve, Andrew Hamilton chats to Ciaran Hannah from Ennis band The CMC.

THE reputation of a covers band one can be a hard one to shake. If you’re good, you have an audience - a loyal list of supporters willing to follow you from pub to pub. Your crowd. But hand in hand with this support comes their expectations. It’s an un- spoken contract, you entertain them and they come to your shows. So what happens then when you decide to play original music? Unless you watch your crowd, and treat them very carefully, you risk betraying this trust - defaulting on this unspoken contract. This, as Ennis band The CMC have found out, can be hard work. “We started out playing covers and worked at expanding our set list every day really. We built up a huge set list but it is only really recently that we started writing a lot of our own stuff. I guess we have gotten known around Ennis and Limerick as a good covers band but we feel that it’s time to establish ourselves more as an original band,” said Ciaran. 

CPI Archive 2009 · The CMC Podcast

The CPI Music Award 2008 Podcast

After weeks of public nominations, private deliberations and controversial omissions and inclusions, Andrew Hamilton can now announce the winners of the first annual Clare People Interactive, Irish Music Awards.

AS 2008 received its final curtain call, there are few who could deny that the year gone by has been anything less than a classic year for Irish music. With new bands emerging left, right and centre and vibrant scenes re-emerging in places like Limerick (not to mention the arrival of towns like Waterford, Headford and even Lahinch on the Irish music map), the year has been one to savour. Prompted by this renaissance in Irish music, Clare People Interactive (The Clare People newspaper’s militant pod-casting and entertainments wing) began its search for the best of the best of Irish music in early December. And thus, the first annual Clare People Interactive Irish Music Awards were born. The public were asked to nominate acts in eight categories and these nominations were deliberated over by the arts journalists of The Clare People newspaper. After much fighting, back-stabbing and finally grit-teethed consensus, the winners were finally arrived at. So, without further ado, here is the results of the Clare People Interactive’s first annual Irish Music Awards.

cpiarchive2008e · CPI Irish Music Awards 2008

The Dire Straits Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: After 15 years without picking up a guitar, John Illsley is back. Andrew Hamilton chats to the legendary Dire Straits bassist about taking chances, a possible reunion, and his newfound interest in Celtic rock.

IT’S not exactly rock and roll, but somehow, it all made sense. Fifteen long years had passed since Mark Knopfler quietly dissolved Dire Straits in favour of a solo career, but still there was some business left unfinished. As Knopfler continued on his musical odyssey, his base player - his right hand man - had turned his back on music. A successful hotelier and painter, John Illsley went a decade and a half without playing a single meaningful gig. But that all changed in March of 2005. Then, in a pub in Leicestershire, Illsley happened upon Greg Pearle and Irish Celtic rock group called Cunla. Compelled by their music, his musical heart began once more to beat, and by the night’s end he had taken to the stage to jam through a few songs with the band. And that, as they say, was that.  “I have to say that the first time that I got up and played with them was a bit shambolic. Nobody was really quite sure what we were going to play so we jammed a few things and had a bit of fun. It was only really the second time that I played with Greg and boys that I started to really concentrate on the music,” he said.  

cpiarchive2008e · The Dire Straits Podcast

The Mick Flannery Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: The Reluctant Fundamentalist: Whether as stonemason or songwriter, Mick Flannery is the real deal. The Blarney songsmith speaks candidly to Andrew Hamilton, and shares his doubts about whether the music business is the life for him.

DRIPPING with talent, Blarney singer-songwriter Mick Flannery has released one of the Irish albums of the year. Yet despite the tranché of hype and early airplay, Flannery is less than convinced in his own musical career. It would seem that the last person to notice the potential in Mick Flannery, is Mick Flannery. “Sometimes I question whether being a singer songwriter is what I want to do, especially when I’m around buddies of mine who aren’t in the business. When I’m working on a building site or something like that - I’m one person there and when I’m on stage I’m another person. I think that I’ll have to give up one person or the other. I’m still working, but not the whole time. I haven’t been on a building site for more than a week now and I probably won’t work until the end of the month because I have a load of gigs coming up. But I’ve been working most of the time before that. It’s a Zen thing, it’s a little bit of normality," he said. 

cpiarchive2008e · The Mick Flannery Podcast

The Fred Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: After 10 years knocking on the door, Cork’s finest, Fred, are finally ready to join the party. Andrew Hamilton chats to front man Joe O’Leary about creating an album of pots and pans and always keeping the happy side out.

IF FRED were a newspaper they wouldn’t sell a copy. In journalism, bad news sells - while good will consistently fail to shift a single unit. This piece of vital information must have been completely overlooked when Cork band Fred were plotting out their route to success. I guess nobody told them that you can’t get a break in this world with a collection of shining-happy pop tunes. But is that true? The last ten years of prosperity have been notable, musically at least, for a succession of very successful, but undeniably whiny, singer-songwriters. Now that the Celtic Tiger has caught a bad case of feline distemper and probably, let’s face it, a urinary tract infection, is the time just right for some good old fashion cheer-up music? Could this be a time to Fred? “Personally, if it was up to me, we would be a much grumpier band. Ah no, I’m only messing. But it’s much easier to write a depressing song than an upbeat song. That’s what I think anyway," said Joe.

cpiarchive2008e · Fred2021

The Speks Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: In his most animated interview ever, children’s musician Quince talks to Andrew Hamilton about the launch of The Speks and the challenges of being a virtual band who want to play live.

AS the temperate plummeted on the mainland this week, somewhere on Clare’s west coast the sun continued to shine on Glasses Island. There, in a kitchen overlooking the island’s undisturbed countryside, Quince sat down for a quick tune with The Speks. Joined by Naymon, Tommo, Pete, Ed and Rafferty it wasn’t long before the group got into their stride. Passers-by might have been struck by the music, but then everyone on Glasses Island’s knows The Speks, Ireland’s first ever virtual band. Now, having conquered their own place, the time has come for The Speks to come ashore and introduce themselves to the country. “Glasses Island is located out in the middle of the ocean - we are very far off the coast of Clare. We are fairly isolated on the island to be honest with you. We still have very green fields out here and we hardly have any cars or tractors. Instead we just treasure the night life. We are very social and we like nothing better than playing music and singing songs in each others houses and we especially like singing songs for children,” said Quince. 

cpiarchive2008e · The Speks Podcast

The Jim McKee Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: As an artist or a fighter, Jim McKee has always punched well above his weight. Andrew Hamilton talks to the Clare based Tyrone man about his debut solo album, his chats with Willie Nelson and how music overcame his own sectarian divide.

IN 1972, the streets of Northern Ireland became like an open wound. Chaos rained and communities were obliterated as sectarian violence erupted across the six counties. By Christmas of that year, almost 500 people died, making in the bloodiest year of the Troubles. Yet, even in this challenging space, creativity was allowed to flourish. Brought up in a mixed housing estate in Cookstown in Tyrone, the Troubles would shape much of Jim McKee’s future. It would launch his boxing career, provide him with the inspiration to become an internationally recognised painter, and through the Protestant marching bands, awaken his lust for music. “I started boxing first because of the Troubles, I was getting beaten up a lot by the Protestant boys going to school - so I started the boxing to protect myself really. When I started first I was the worst boxer in the club, but in the end I finished up the best boxer in the club and won two All Ireland titles. I was 14 when I won my first Tyrone and Ulster titles and after that I won the two All Irelands. I was offered the chance to turn professional when I was 18 but I turned it down because I thought I was too young. I regret that a bit, when I turned 20 I had started going out with women and playing music and the discipline had gone from the boxing," said Jim.

CPIArchive2008d · The Jim McKee Podcast

Unseen Sounds: The Fia Rua Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: GALWAY, the graveyard of ambi- tion - but also, sometimes (just sometimes), the spark for creativ- ity. So it was for Kildare drummer Eoghan who visited Kinvara for a holiday ten years ago and decided not to go home. The drums were quickly sidelined, and for the first time in his musical life he took to the centre stage and began to sing and write music. Words by Andrew Hamilton.

When I was about 15 I got a drum kit after I did my Junior Cert. I was in a lot of bands covering Nirvana songs and things like that and I started writing lyrics for the bands. But I didn’t get to sing or use my voice until I was 20 or 21. That year I moved to Galway for a summer and started messing with guitars and that was it. I wrote my first song then. It was funny, there was always guitars lying about and I always had a deep interest in music, but I never really realised that I could sing until I was 20 or so.

CPIArchive2008d · Unseen Sounds: The Fia Rua Podcast

The Cathy Davey Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: Changing lanes Shy, modest and unassuming - Cathy Davey is the most unlikely of superstars. She chats to Andrew Hamilton about conquering her crowd fears, speaking from the heart and finding a brand new approach to making music.

IT’S NEVER been easy for Cathy Davey. As one of music’s most shy performers she has had to force herself every step of the way - and success, when it came, came only after a fight. Though critically praised, her 2004 debut Something Ilk, never really managed to make the cash registers ring. There were many, even in those early days, who thought that we might have heard the last of Cathy Davey. But those people were wrong, and after Tales of Silversleeve became the Irish album of 2007, there were few who could begrudge it. Mission accomplished, hard work rewarded. So, after waiting five long years to catch the public eye, why then would she choose to suddenly change lanes and take a different tack? The answer, quite simply, is that that’s what artists do. Once one challenge is overcome, the buzz is gone and the time is ripe for something new. Over the next two month Cathy Davey will be playing a number of Bare Bones gigs in tiny venues all over the country. The idea is to challenge herself in stages, to give herself no place to hide, to crank the emotional resonance up a notch or two. And so far at least, it’s working. “There is a lot of material that doesn’t really suit the bigger gigs where people expect a more raucous sort of night, so I’m very much trying to get into the performance side of gigging. I spent so many years not enjoying being on stage and now I’m starting to enjoy it and see what it is to sing these songs and especially in the small venues," she said. 

CPIArchive2008d · The Cathy Davey Podcast

The Andy Irvine Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: From Planxty to Sweeney’s Men, Andy Irvine has done it all. He chats to Andrew Hamilton about Australia, the Paul Brady reunion and his anger with conservative audiences.

CELTIC Connections, well, you can say that again. A small festival, almost lost in the cold hibernation of the Scottish winter, but a breeding ground for memories. There, on a stormy Wednesday evening this January, a tempest of music not heard in a generation was once again to find its voice. It’s incredible to think that Paul Brady and Andy Irvine had gone 30 years without playing a tune together in a meaningful way. But all that changed this year in Glasgow, prompting the re-release of their eponymous 1976 album. “Paul and myself had actually been discussing how we might go about playing together again and this just fit the bill. We rehearsed quite a lot, because there was an awful lot to get done. In the end we played our entire repertoire which is more than two hours of music. So relearning all of that was not a simple task. It was tough, but it was a great success. This was a real fan’s gig - a concert with microscopes on - so we knew that we had to get it exactly right,” he said. 

 

CPIArchive2008d · The Andy Irvine Podcast

The Sean Tyrrell Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: Courting controversy: From a frozen night in Carron back in ‘82 to the great stages of Ireland, Europe and America, Sean Tyrrell’s musical adaptation of The Midnight Court has endured for a generation. As he prepares to hit the road once again, Andrew Hamilton chats to one of north Clare’s favourite adopted sons.

PAIN burned in his chest. The gasps, which only a moment earlier had seemed almost deafening, now slowly turned to silence as the audience held tight to one collective breath. Their disbelief could no longer be suspended. Yet there it stood, the offending missile - thrown over at least 16 rows of cushioned seat - lying motionless (yet somehow deeply alive) on the dark boards of the old Druid Theatre. You have to be angry to react in a theatre, but for a woman to remove a high-heel and launch it at a principle character of the hit show of that year’s Galway Arts Festival, well, the compulsion must have been almost unbearable. Yet in that moment, as he waited for the wind to return to his stinging lungs, Sean Tyrrell knew he had found something special. You see, for theatre to work it must inform as well as entertain. The best theatre however, must do all of this and more. It must excite an audience, shake them from their collective lethargy and impel them to action. Brian Merriman’s Cúirt an Mhean Oíche had been doing exactly that for decades uncounted, and when Tyrrell’s musical version became one of the shows of 1992, that tradition was sure to live on. “We had wanted to segregate the audience - to put the men on one side and the women on the other - so that it would develop into a bit of a confrontation. Somehow our director Maelíosa Stafford managed to pull it off and from there we were set,” remembers Sean.

CPIArchive2008d · The Sean Tyrrell Podcast

The David Acheson Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: Ever wonder about the math that underpins music? Me neither. Well, it's a good things that Professor David Acheson of Jesus College in Oxford is there to do that wondering for us. He spoke with Andrew Hamilton.

HAVE you ever wondered how opera singers can shatter a glass using only the power of voice? Of why some rooms (often bathrooms) are the perfect place for singing? The amazing truth behind this is that every object in the world, humans included, has a special frequency all to its own. Something as inanimate as a chair or even a block of concrete has a very specific musical note at which it cannot help but vibrate and dance. This, is the math of music. The world, when looked upon through these scientific eyes, can resemble an enormous piano, with endless notes that sound for every object, animal or even person. “My view of the world and mathematics is a very personal one really, it’s what I think mathematics is really all about and why it is so exciting. Mathematics, in my view, has a magic all of it’s own. For ex- ample a few years ago I discovered a new theorem; it’s an anti-gravity theory which is very very similar to the famous Indian rope trick. So for me mathematics is very exciting and all about surprises,” said Professor Acheson. 

CPIArchive2008d · The David Acheson Podcast

Mary Coughlan Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: The healing game. Down but nowhere near out, Mary Coughlan has used the public as a psychologist and her music as an open therapy session. She speaks candidly to Andrew Hamilton about working through her marriage break-up and using the shards of that experience to create her most exciting album in years.

A LIFE lived in public is a fragile existence. While all the world has moments of weakness, few have their dirty laundry aired in the pages of the tabloid media for the amusement and entertainment of friends and strangers. Yet so it was for Mary Coughlan on the spring of 2005. The break-up of a 13 year relationship with husband, Frank Bonadio, and his subsequent relationship with Sinead O’Connor had somehow transformed her hardship into media fodder. And as “text-gate” began to take on a life all of its own, Coughlan had reached a breaking point. Confused and alone she knew one thing, she had to get away. She left Ireland quickly, but not to run way. She left to write and to work the heartbreak out of her soul. “Oh Jesus ya, I had to get the whole thing out of my system. It was just after my Ma died and I had left my ex-husband and all of that. I went down to New Zealand and off to Australia. I had a curious affection for New Zealand and I did so well there that they ended up inviting me back to be artist is resident,” she said.

 

CPIArchive2008d · The Mary Coughlan Podcast