Padraig Pearse called Ireland’s Cuil Aodha “the capital of Gaeldom – where every rock conceals a poet’s grave.” Iarla O Lionaird was born there.
Iarla is widely known as vocalist for The Gloaming, the contemporary Irish/American music supergroup who released their eponymous debut LP on Real World Records in 2014 to widespread critical acclaim. A serial collaborator who has worked with Peter Gabriel, Donnacha Dennehy & The Crash Ensemble and composer Jon Hopkins, the twice Grammy-nominated artist is on tour with Cormac McCarthy and Matthew Berrill.
They arrive in Liverpool for a much-anticipated gig at The Tung Auditorium this month, so Alan O’Hare had a chat with Iarla who has carved a long and unique career in music both internationally and in Ireland…
If the audience are more familiar with your recording of ‘Aisling Gheal’ what can you tell them about the journey you’ve been on since?
Well I would be both delighted and shocked if my audience still remembered that recording, given how long ago I made it. It was a very unusual recording if you consider that the song was a traditional Irish vision song or Aisling as they are known but the manner in which it was recorded was unique because I sang into an open top grand piano with the sustain pedal depressed-the overall effect was like a shimmering reverb that echoed harmonically across the strings of the piano as I proceeded to sing. I’ve often thought of it as perhaps my first foray into ambient music and certainly the first Irish traditional ambient track.
We love to read the phrase “Grammy-nominated” – tell us how those nominations moved the dial for your career…
I’ve never really been able to tell with any certainty what a Grammy nomination can do for one’s career. Many artists place great store on such things and for a period of time when I was with the Afro Celt Sound System all of the folks at the various record companies were focused on that sort of affirmation if you will. These days I think most of the artists that I listen to of a more contemporary vintage have never been nominated and most likely will not be and so I’m not sure what relevance it has for most musicians other than the fact that it perhaps shows that at some point one’s music was well-known and generally respected.
From Carnegie Hall to Sydney Opera House, you’ve performed in some iconic spaces. How does a room affect your performance?
The space in which one performs can have a tremendous bearing on how the music is played and experienced. Fortunately I have played some amazing halls but also I like to mix it up with concerts in smaller arts venues and even the occasional club, as each one of these spaces afford a unique experience and offers the musician a very different kind of feedback and engagement with the audience. I love having a varied experience when it comes to performing in front of people and attempting to communicate with them and engage and respond to their to what they’re feeling.
‘Brooklyn’ with Saoirse Ronan was met with audience and critical acclaim, tell us how your role came about…
When this amazing opportunity came about I was touring with The Gloaming and was teeing up to do a week of performances in Dublin’s National Concert Hall. Out of the blue I got a call from the director of the film, John Crowley a fellow Corkman and he put it to me that there was a role in the movie that he hoped I would undertake which as you will know if you saw the film, plays out in a Parish Hall in Brooklyn at Christmas time where poor immigrant labourers are being fed their Christmas dinner at which my the character sings a song. Initially I didn’t really warm to the idea as I don’t really see myself as being comfortable in that sort of work but John prevailed upon me and suggested also that the author of the book, Colm Tóibín was very keen that I play the role. I’ve known Colm for some years and that kind of swung it for me and I must say that the experience on set in Canada, in Montréal was
fantastic. To see Jim Broadbent, Saoirse Ronan, Julie Walters and indeed all of the other actors, technicians, cinematographers and the director et cetera at work was humbling and all in all a beautiful experience for myself and for my wife Eimear who was with me.
How does performing with Cormac McCarthy and Matthew Berrill colour the show we’ll be seeing in Liverpool?
I would say I have been extremely fortunate to encounter Cormac and Matthew. In some ways it has transformed the kind of music I’m able to perform, although I still like to perform a mixture of traditional Gaelic folk songs and new compositions as I always have. Nevertheless the clothing in which the songs are now wrapped, the atmosphere in which they are delivered and experienced is really special I think and that is in large measure
due to the extraordinary musicianship of Cormac on the grand piano and Mathew on clarinet and bass clarinet. They just create these beautiful sound worlds for me and for the songs to inhabit – a dreamy, powerful and yet delicate area. And what pleases me most of all is that the music is pretty much genre blind insofar as it embraces folk, traditional, ambient, contemporary classical and jazz elements with a degree of freedom that I haven’t experienced before. It’s very inspiring to be able to breathe new life into songs and it makes you experience them differently. It lifts them up into a new place and increases their depth and their impact. It’s very difficult to describe music and so I should stop but I really feel that the audience will experience Irish music in a way they haven’t before, with this trio.
Lots of people recognise your name from Vocal Chords, the radio show. Has that influenced other creative aspects of your work?
I think the greatest thing about doing the radio series and podcast series Vocal Chords was that it allowed me to explore in considerable depth in other people’s work. Artists that I’ve had long admired and to more fully appreciate the processes and the experience that they have as artists in making music. Although there’s a lot of commonality, I do think music can mean something very different from person-to-person and the experience of making music can differ significantly between artists. And so to be able to explore in conversation and in
listening the inspirational pathways, the experiences that artists have as makers of music, I found it very enriching and it was certainly very thought-provoking and I hope, and though this is difficult to measure, I hope that it had a positive influence on my own work.
Tell us about the times you’ve had in Liverpool…
I’ve been to Liverpool a number of times and it’s probably a cliché to say this but I’ve always felt quite at home in that part of England. Perhaps there’s an obvious reason for this, everybody knows the migrant Irish footprint in that region but I think it’s more than that, I think it’s just the character of the people- their particular way of being – their availability to conversation and to humour and of course the arts in general for which rightly known. That’s how I’ve always encountered the people of that city and I must say I’m very much looking forward to performing there at the Tung Auditorium and to walking about and meeting people and experiencing the city.
Review © 2024 Alan O’Hare, Liverpool Acoustic
Iarla Ó Lionáird with Cormac McCarthy and Matthew Berrill
The Tung Auditorium, Liverpool Thursday 10 October 2024 , 8pm
thetungauditorium.com
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