CPI Archive 2008: People’s poet or pulp philosopher, Jinx Lennon is an artist who pulls no punches. Andrew Hamilton chats to the Louth musician about turning to radio and why he hates Billy Bragg.
IT’S the question of the hour; who (or what) is the Free State Nova? Answer that, and you go a long way to understanding Jinx Lennon. Standing square behind leviathan dark glasses, deliberately emblazoned with Tippex pop-mantras, he both hides and seeks. Student and teacher, he stalks the world through windows of broken glass and impenetrably clouded pools. Then, from rooms with no furniture, he yelps and screams his visions. Simplicity of feeling for intensity of emotion. Time’s running out, we’ll need an answer now, tick follows tock follows tick. He’s someone you know, someone you’ve seen but don’t always recognise, someone (deep down) you need. It’s a social thermometer, a challenger of rules, a stater of the obvious. Alter-ego or no, the Free State Nova is Jinx Lennon and Jinx Lennon is the Free State Nova. Later this month, Jinx Lennon brings his brand of pulp philosophy to the radio waves. Alongside long- time collaborator Pauline Flynn, legendary radio producer Eithne Hand and Mikel Murfi, the words and sentiment of the Free State Nova have been transformed into an RTÉ Radio 1 drama. “I found that a bit disturbing at first, to be honest, changing the songs into a play. I had never come across that before so it was some- thing new and strange. We were totally involved in the adaptation and myself and Paula play some of the roles in the play, as well as sing- ing some of the songs," he said.
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