Carolyn Lederach 8/14/20 Carolyn Lederach 8/14/20

INTERVIEW: Jermaine Fowler (of The Humanity Archives Podcast)

Jermaine Fowler

The Photo Ladies Interview

Louisville, KY native, historian, educator, scholar, speaker and writer Jermaine Fowler is the son of educators and has a lifelong love of history. As the founder and host of The Humanity Archive podcast, he hopes to shed some light on historical figures and events in an engaging and thought-provoking way, using the art of storytelling to weave the stories of the past into lessons for society today. With so many people in our society not knowing the real history of our country, Fowler aims to educate people on the things that school textbooks and curriculums have not included over the years. He seeks to move past the white-washed, sanitized and sugar-coated version of American history that many people learned in school to share the real and uglier aspects of our history. He shares the dismissed, untold and forgotten stories that pertain to women and black, minority and indigenous people throughout history. Aside from focusing on people and events that aren't often discussed or well-known, Fowler also discusses well-known topics from a different perspective. His goal is to use the wisdom of our shared past as a tool to help us all think critically about the present. Using tools such as videos, articles, study guides and his podcast, Fowler hopes to educate, entertain and inspire. You can follow Jermaine Fowler and connect with The Humanity Archive podcast via the links below.

You grew up believing the version of the American Dream of going to college, which was tied to having a career and money and upward mobility. This led you to get a degree in business instead of pursuing a degree in history and sociology. What was it that finally led you to follow your passion for history and educating?

For me, it just seemed like the opportunities, with the internet and the online explosion of social media platforms where other people were presenting themselves in that way, made me think "Wow, here's an opportunity that I can kind-of lean into". I started to just put my thoughts and my studies out there to see how it takes. It was just the whole internet really and the platforms you can use to broadcast yourself.

It's definitely easier to get information out into the world now!

Absolutely! There are low barriers for entry. It doesn't cost a lot of money to start. You can really just have a cellphone and some thoughts and put them out there. That can work out for better or for worse sometimes. Sometimes with the people who are putting thoughts out there, it's like "Maybe you should calm down a little bit" (laughs). You get some people who may otherwise not have had the accessibility to a platform, whether it be for exercise or history or whatever anybody is doing. A chef making food at home or whatever.

With your podcast, you tell the stories of the more marginalized people/groups and those who are lesser known or stories that have been told but from a different perspective. What led you to want to approach your podcast in that way and tell those stories and approach it from a storytelling arc in general? The way you present each episode really draws people in with the storytelling and engaging nature, rather than just presenting facts and statistics.

I think that's something that's kind-of come naturally to me. I think whenever I started this that I knew for a fact that I wanted to be kind of anti-history in the way of that boring, drab, monotone way of teaching. I kept asking myself how I could tell these stories in the most compelling way possible. I've tried to take a bit of a journalistic approach to the study of history. I'm trying to get the interesting facts, but also underlying that with an entertaining aspect and really trying to do what a historian does in the way of presenting facts and analysis on history, as well. I try to package it in an entertaining and storytelling kind of way.

How do you come up with the topics, people and/or events you want to discuss for each episode? Do you know ahead of time or do you just see what pops out at you when you are doing your research and find people/events that you want to dig deeper into?

I try to be methodical about it because there is so much information out there that you can get lost down a rabbit hole of research and I love to research. I pursue things that are intellectual in general. I have stacks upon stacks of books. Some of my favorite places are libraries and bookstores. With all of that, I do kind of have to reel myself in, so to speak and say "Ok. I need to focus on certain topics". I do try to make it topical but am always trying to uplift the humanity of people whose voices might not be heard. I try to foster senses of empathy and sympathy with an audience for people whose stories aren't heard as much, whether that's black people, women, minorities, or immigrants. Also, if I tell the story about a person who is more known, I try to hit it from a different angle and either awaken people or enlighten people in some way.

You have said that teaching the past can help to change the future and that history is an important lesson for every up and coming generation. What do you see as the most important historical lessons that can be applied to today's world?

When you look at history, the biggest thing for me is to see that no one culture and no one people have a monopoly on anything...on culture, on science, on math, on wisdom. I think that is a big eye opener. If people study a broad history, they will see all of humanity no matter where they look, whether it's South America, Africa, North America, Australia...everyone has something to contribute in some way. I think that is the true meaning of diversity. The diversity of thought and of study is to look at the different cultures of people and see what they've had had to offer. I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned. There are so many. I think ultimately it is to just see the things that are happening now that have happened before and that themes are recurring. To see how other people have had to, whether it be different atrocities that have happened, to see how they made it through or how they held onto hope through different trials in their lives. I just dig into those stories to see how we are similar to people in the past and how we can learn from them.

What inspired your love for history and education? Did you have a teacher or other figure in your life growing up who really instilled that love for you?

It would definitely have to be my parents. Both of them are educators in the public school system, so I think that seeing them finding joy in teaching and sparking the brains of the youth definitely also sparked something in me. It was like "Wow. I can have a love for knowledge and for sharing that knowledge and do what they're doing but maybe just do it in a different way." I think that's definitely the seed that was planted and is finally growing all of these years later.

You are working on a project called Project 365 that is working to integrate black, women's and indigenous history into school curriculums year round, rather than just having a month devoted to each. What can you tell me about the project and what led you to want to start it?

I think that I never really liked how I would see like Women's, Black and Indigenous History months. To me, that just kind of boxes it into a one month period. I think that the goal should ultimately be to integrate it, right? To have an equality in the telling of the stories in history. For me, until we see that...it does mean something to have these months but that's not the end goal. The founder and creator of Black History Month, Carter G. Woodson, he also had the same idea, to do this for a little while but with the ultimate goal to have it all integrated throughout the year and to see that equality in the storytelling. All these years later it still hasn't happened.

You don't really get the real history, just the edited version.

Yeah-the sugar-coated and sanitized and watered-down version. I think until those real stories are told, there's definitely a need for something like Project 365 in order to push to get those stories in there.

There definitely seems to be a great awakening of sorts. Everyone is really educating themselves on the true history of this country. What do you see school curriculums looking like going forward? Do you have hope that they will reflect a broader, more factual history?

There's always hope, right? I think there are definitely individuals within the school systems who are hoping for that and pushing for that. I have talked to curriculum writers from school districts who want to do this but on the other side, I think you have to look at the school system as a whole because there are always good people within systems that don't really operate in a way that's going to be beneficial. I think we definitely have to look at the institution itself and why this history isn't being taught and why there isn't more equality. One thing that was disturbing to me when I was talking to someone within the public school system was that they are working on different histories but it's going to like an elective in college. So that again segregates and keeps it to the side. If it's a choice, are people really going to choose to take those classes or are they going to look at them differently? So I think that's really not the goal, unfortunately.

That's disappointing!

It really is. It's not what I was hoping for. So there is definitely still work to do.

You have talked about how the quote from Socrates "The only thing that I know is that I know nothing" is your favorite quote and that you seek to challenge your own assumptions and beliefs and are always striving to learn. What do you think have been the hardest assumptions and beliefs that you have had to overcome?

Yeah. I see that a lot of times everybody thinks they know everything right now. There's like a cult of smartness. I think that by knowing nothing, so to speak, it kind of keeps me with an intellectual humility where you're always seeking new knowledge and never saying you're there, so to speak. You always have work to do. As far as my own assumptions, I mean just growing up in America I've had to deal with internalized racism, which is big in the black community as far as people looking at themselves and feeling the effects that it has personally and psychologically. I think everything from patriarchy to homophobia. I mean, I've struggled with all of those things, whether it be the images or the prevailing ideas within the communities you grow up in. I think that civil war within anybody is worth fighting. I think that first we have to acknowledge it, right? A lot of people are in closet about these assumptions they have and pretend that they don't have them.

Change can't happen until people acknowledge there's something that needs to change.

Yeah. So until we actually come out and expose that, whether it be within ourselves or within society, we can't deal with it. That's why I try to be honest, not only with my social criticisms, because I can talk about things that happen in society, but I think that first you always have to be honest with yourself. That's why I'm so comfortable talking about some of the things that I battle with every day.

What can you tell me about your love of collaboration? You have done Instagram collaborations with Marcie Alvis-Walker (@blackcoffeewithwhitefriends) and @uncolonial_history, to name a couple. What do you find to be the personal benefits of collaboration and do you have anything else in the works?

Yeah, I have several collaborations in the works. I just really try to tap into people who are doing similar things a lot of times. It's not like I'm on there trying to find much contention or anything. I talk to other people who have a love of history and of knowledge and are intellectually minded. I have one coming up with an anti-racism educator and one coming up with a transgender man and I'm going to be talking to a biologist about the history of biological racism. I really just try to tap into as many thinkers as I can as a way to share ideas and knowledge and grow. That's part of growing those collaborations. For me, it's really just for personal growth. A lot of things come out when I have these conversations and different perspectives and I think that's one of the great benefits of collaborations.

What can you tell me about the 'BE THE NEXT ONE' series you did? Is that something you plan to continue?

That really speaks back to the collaboration process. I do have a spirit of collaboration. If I see somebody doing something that is interesting to me or intriguing, I try to tap into that. There was a fantastic artist from Italy and I saw him on social media and he sent me something that he was working on in an email. I was like "Wow. What if we came together and kind of did your art with some poetic prose about historical figures?". We started to build a bit of momentum with the project and then boom, the coronavirus hit and it hit first in Italy, right where he is in Milan. That kind of derailed the project. We still talk and plan to get back off the ground once everything calms down. We'd planned to do maybe 10 historical figures and only got like 2 done before the virus hit and it just dropped off with the virus. It's definitely bittersweet. I'm glad for what we did do, but also hopeful and look forward to continuing.

Sticking with that collaborative series, it explores black history on an international level. What can you tell me about the importance to you of showcasing an international perspective of black history?

I don't want history to be something that's boxed in. I think we have to have a broader perspective and know that the black experience didn't just start at this one point, right? I think when we do that, we tend to pigeonhole it. I always try to go back further into history and dig deeper, and it does take more digging to find those stories. I just did something on the Mali Empire in West Africa. You really have to do some digging to find stuff. I had to dig into some dark recesses of libraries because the information just isn't as available. I think we have to be careful where our starting points are because that can definitely narrow our view whenever we start it too soon. It's the same with other types of histories, as well.

Something you have brought up in the second season of the podcast that I found intriguing is the comparison of oral versus written history. A lot of black and indigenous cultures have historically relied heavily on the oral tradition. What can you tell me about the value you feel there is in the oral histories of different cultures?

Absolutely. I think when we look at that, we first have to look at it as being subjugated and pushed back and pushed down. I think the oral tradition, from the Western perspective, isn't respected. There are some scholars who are trying to uplift it and are fighting for it like "Hey. We need to look at these as the real records". I mean, who's to say? A lot of written history actually was written 100 years later, after the fact as well. There's really no logic behind not including that as part of the record. I definitely think that's something that drives me too with the podcast and the storytelling. There's just something with that live, energetic storytelling that you just can't get from reading a book. And I love reading books so I'm not trying detract anybody from reading books at all! There's definitely an energy and a connection with the speaker and the audience, kind of like a synergy. Anthropologists say that with all cultures, what all of us have in common, no matter where you are from on earth, is storytelling. That's kind of like the currency of life. That's always been interesting to me, to tap into those stories. It's basically like a goldmine of untapped resource because we have all of these oral traditions and oral stories and it's very awesome to be able to bring them to the forefront.

You have also talked about emphasizing black history, beyond just what exists in this country. Why do you feel that black history before America hasn't been more broadly researched and discussed?

I think that ties directly into colonization and subjugation and slavery. Anytime that you have one society or civilization that subjugates another, one of the first things they do is burn the books and erase the history. I always say if people don't have a history, they don't have an identity, so it's harder to get to know them. Then you kind of have those aspects of dehumanization to where you have that thought of the "other" and of "I don't know them and I don't know their story so they're nobody". By erasing people's histories and stories you kind of make them nobody. I think at some point in history, that definitely was the protocol, whether it was inadvertently or purposely done. I think we are still seeing those shadows and those effects lingering today, as far as those stories not being told. That's another thing that drives me, to get to tell those stories.

Something I found interesting that you mention in Season 2 of the podcast, was the question of what might have happened if the Europeans had gone to Africa when the Mali Empire was at it's height and was strong, rather than during it's downfall and whether or not colonization would have happened.

Yeah, I thought that was an interesting thought for sure. There are always these interesting points in history with the "what ifs". What if it had been tweaked a bit one way or another? What if things had gone a little bit this way or that way? I've always been interested in those thoughts. You can go down some rabbit holes with that! I've had to pull myself back for sure (laughs)!

You have also emphasized the concepts of historical thinking and moral energy. Could you talk a bit about why those concepts are so important to you in the study of history, as well as current events?

Yeah. I think for me, I mean, what is history a lot of times? You're exploring relationships between the powerful and the powerless. A lot of it is that, so I think to not have an analysis of that is to do a disservice to the story. I think that's why people see a lot of fakeness in the history as it's taught, because it's not exploring those relationships. It's the "great man theory", right? Like, this great president or this great figure and there's this deification and fetishization of people instead of looking at them in their raw, true humanity and their flaws and triumphs and tragedies and all of that wrapped in together.

Where do you think we go from here? How do you feel we can use history to guide us forward from where we are now? A lot of the issues we are facing now are issues this country has been facing for many years now.

Yeah. I think to me it's just as basic as having a tragic sense of history. Not the sugar-coated, sanitized, watered-down version, but one where we tell the real stories, whether it be stories about slavery or suffrage or individuals who fought for things that are greater and grander than themselves like justice and equality. Those are the stories I try to highlight, because then people can see examples to follow. I think a lot of times we see examples and they may not be the best examples to follow, so we need to highlight people who might be better examples to push democracy and equality and ideas of justice forward. I think that's definitely a way we can use history to push society forward to be more equitable and diverse, which is better for everybody.

We've had important black leaders throughout history, such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr and Frederick Douglass. Who do you feel are some current leaders that you feel are really making a difference?

We still have a lot. We just lost John Lewis, but we have philosophers like Cornell West and Angela Davis is still with us. There are figures like that who I still look to that are still with us today. I think that sometimes I see a bit of a vacuum with the young leadership. We have a lot of movements and collectively young people are coming together but I don't really see the emergence of the leadership of the past. Maybe I'm blind! You might be able to tell me some people I'm not seeing. I'm sure they're there! I think things definitely look a little different now. It's more communal I think now, as far as movements, as opposed to there being one Martin Luther King like figure, or a savior-like figure. What I see now is more groups. The power is more in the group rather than a specific leader. I think we'll see how that plays out but ultimately think it can be a good thing.

What gives you hope? Everything going on right now can be very overwhelming. As a historian and seeing the struggles that people have endured throughout history, what gives you hope right now for the future?

I think just the youth. Looking in the eyes of the youth. We have precious youth out here and they have to come into whatever we leave behind and are trying to spearhead something they can follow behind to make the world better for them. It's like the saying "Leave the earth better than you found it". That's the thought process that I have with that. That gives me hope, just trying to leave the earth better than I found it when I got here for the next generation and for my kids and for all of the youth in the world.

What's next for you? You've talked a bit about some collaborations that are in the works, but what else do you have coming up?

Really just pushing forward with Season 2 of the podcast and just focusing in on that. And really trying to build awareness and grow the audience of The Humanity Archive. I think I've really just scratched the surface so far. I've only been doing this really, heavily, since January and it's grown tremendously since then. I really just want to get it out in front of more people and amplify it and just continue to grow it.

What do you have coming up on Season 2? Anything you can talk about or specific themes?

It is a lot of times thematic, which is what I'm going for. It's the 100th year of women's suffrage, so I'm going to tell some of those stories. I also want to tell some stories about war, but not in the more fandom kind of way. There are some people who are more anti-war, so from that perspective that you maybe don't hear as much. So I definitely have a few themes coming up. I also have something else I'm doing with suffrage with UofL. I'm going to be speaking with them on virtual panel. It would have been in person, but with everything going on it will be on a virtual panel. I definitely have some things in the works and am looking forward to continuing to grow The Humanity Archive.

Carolyn Lederach 7/23/20 Carolyn Lederach 7/23/20

INTERVIEW: Doug Locke

Shot by Jeremy Jackson-2.JPG — Doug Locke

The Photo Ladies Interview

Love. It's a universal theme that encompasses the latest track entitled "Why?" from LA musician, actor and activist Doug Locke. Taken from his latest release Why? (Lunar II) EP, the angelic voices of a gospel choir sing the word love throughout the song as a way to offer a beacon of hope as a contrast against the ugly times we are living in. He says, “When I heard the news of the George Floyd murder on the heels of the murders of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, and the Christian Cooper incident in Central Park, I knew I had to release the song. It is my response to the feelings that have been rising in me ever since my heart broke in 2012 with the murder of Trayvon Martin". The Pulse Nightclub tragedy in Orlando was also a pivotal moment in his life, himself a member of the LGBTQ community, and he pays homage to the victims of the shooting in the song, as well. “I remember how my heart broke as I watched Anderson Cooper read the names of all of the victims of the shooting,” he recalls. “When I think about the moments throughout my life that changed me at my core, that was one of them. I had no idea there was so much evil in the world. I was absolutely gutted and afraid. When writing this song, I wanted to include a reference to honor the victims as they will never be forgotten. I also wanted to draw that parallel that violence against any group is a crime against humanity.” Locke's parents were involved in the fight for social justice and civil rights growing up, with his father, Gene Locke, a prominent civil rights activist in the 60s, having been one of the fist black students admitted to the University of Houston following desegregation in 1963. Locke was born and raised in Houston and was surrounded by this fight growing up, growing up to be an activist himself, not just for racial equality but for LGBTQ rights. As a member of both the black and LGBTQ communities, he sees the intersectionality of the movements for him and how racism and homophobia reside in the respective movements. Having been severely bullied as a child, Locke found his way to spirituality and self-love and embraces that part of himself by getting out into nature, as well as practicing a deep meditation and reflection with each full moon, with each one bringing out different aspects of his personality. It's these personality traits that are reflected in his 'Lunar Series' of 4 EPs. He released the first EP Black Travolta (Lunar I) in May and the second EP Why? (Lunar II) last month, with two more EPs on the horizon that will ultimately lead to a full length album entitled Full Moon. Aside from his music career, Locke is also an actor, having started out in theater, eventually moving into film and television, having played Jimi Hendrix in the short film 'A Technicolor Dream' and acted in several tv shows. As an activist who is passionate about fighting for the struggles faced by the black and LGBTQ community, Locke has found himself protesting in the streets with the BLM Movement and using his music as a way to address the issues affecting these communities. Although he grew up with a clear understanding that we live in an imperfect world, his parents also taught him that we as a people have the power to fix it. With a responsibility to leave this planet better than we found it, Locke uses his art as a way to start conversations. You can connect with Doug Locke via the following links:

You recently released your latest EP Why? (Lunar II), which followed your previous EPBlack Travolta (Lunar I). You are doing a Lunar series of EPs that each revolve around different phases of the moon and have talked about how the full moon brings about different parts of your personality. What led you to want to do the Lunar series of EPs.

For me, in recent years, I have been observing the full moon. Call me an Aries spiritual hippie child, but for me, what I have found is I tend to do what I call a gratitude meditation with every full moon. For me it helps me stay accountable and I know that at least once a month, I'll do a deep gratitude meditation and will set intentions for the next month. It's something that's sort of been a figure in my life and I've also seen how the full moon can bring out different sides to my personality. I kind of felt that creatively that was a great visual representation of what the music for this next project is. Initially, at the top of the year, I was in the studio working on music and the plan was to put out a full length album titled Full Moon, which is still what I'm working towards, using this lunar energy. Then I realized, when COVID-19 first hit, all of my plans for this traditional roll out that I had, of doing music videos and all of that, kind of went out the window because we have no idea what the other side of this looks like. This was an opportunity to be creative, so I talked to my producer and was like "What if we release the music in bits as mini EPs?", so the Lunar concept was born. Lunar I is the first phase of the moon and has "Black Travolta" and "Temptation", and it's very poppy and has a dance element to it and is super light. Then we moved to Why? (Lunar II), which has a completely different vibe. Lunar III, which will be coming out, is called Beautiful Love and will be exploring love from all aspects. I like the idea of tying this visual motif into the work.

Do you feel like you have always been a spiritual person? What led you down a spiritual path of doing deep meditations and reflections with each full moon?

It's definitely something that has grown in me over the years. I grew up in Houston, TX in the church. It wasn't really the right fit for me. I guess it was around my teenage years, as I was going to college, I started to just explore other forms of spirituality because I really liked being in my body, so a yoga practice was very important to me. I also really enjoy spending time outside. From there, I very much believe in the rule of three. There are so many great books that have come to me because they've maybe been referred to me three times. If I hear the title of a book three times, I'm like "Ok! I need to read this!". 'The Alchemist' was one of those books. Kahlil Gibran's 'The Prophet' was another one. It's been this beautiful journey and I have had amazing people who have come into my life, but I have felt more connected through it. It's led into self-care and self-discovery and I feel really empowered through it.

Going back to the theme of love, in your track "Why?" from the new EP you have a gospel choir that keeps singing the word love throughout the song as a beacon of hope to contrast the darkness. With all of the ugliness going on right now, where and how do you find hope and what led you to want to spread the message of love?

It really ties back to a lot of the self work that I've been doing, because my heart is broken by the current state of the world. In many ways, I feel like my heart has been breaking since 2012 and the Trayvon Martin case. That was the first one in my lifetime where I was old enough to really be aware of how sinister racism, unconscious bias, hate and all of that is. I'll be honest-I've gone through a plethora of emotions and have definitely been enraged by what's going on. With the song "Why?", I actually started writing it about a year ago and that's the heartbreaking thing, that I had gone into the studio that day with the intention of doing a dance song. I love my pop music. I had just received news of another attack and my heart was broken and I broke down in tears with my producer. The question that kept coming up was why? Why is this still happening? We started writing the song and it was very cathartic to get my emotions first on paper and then recorded. For me, I still wanted...while I wanted to speak truth to power and really come from the heart, my way of dealing and coping is that I have to believe in the power of love. I have to believe that through conversation, understanding and really starting to see each other and the humanity in each other, that's the only way through this. I felt that sonically, I really wanted to represent that. It's a pretty loaded hook, the hook that says "Why do you hate me so much?". It is honestly how I felt, but I felt that by having the counterbalance of love in there with these beautiful voices singing it would sort of be that other side of it that shows the direction I hope we can lean into through conversation, education and continued discussion.

At the end of the lyric video for "Why?", you pay homage to the victims of the Pulse Nightclub tragedy. As a member of the LGBTQ community, you have talked about how that was a moment on your life that changed you to your core. As an activist for that community, in what ways do you feel that event was such a pivotal moment and changed things for you? Do you feel that it changed the way you approached your activism?

I think in many ways it did. It was a call to action. My dad was a civil rights activist, so I grew up having conversations about the injustices of the world and how we can stand up for each other and use our voice. That's something I've tried to do in my music for many years, but I think that after the shooting at Pulse Nightclub and after the cycle that was Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and the Christian Cooper incident, I do feel like it has spiked me up even more in terms of just really being unapologetic in using my voice. I feel like one of the by-products of our society, as it's set up with the status quo, and these are sweeping broad statements, with the way the structure is set up, they try to silence us. They try to silence people of color and women and queer people. One of the things I feel is one of the most sinister ways you can take away someone's power is by silencing them. We often do that through language. Calling someone "angry", calling a woman "emotional", calling someone "crazy". If you call someone "angry", or "the angry black man" or "the angry black woman"...just because someone is passionate...once you throw these labels out there, it makes it easier for people to dismiss what they're saying. I hate it when someone's like "She's so emotional". How dare you dismiss someone. I've been emboldened to speak up even more and just to take it back to Pulse Nightclub, the reason why I really wanted to include that was that I also wanted to draw the parallel. As a member of both the LGBTQ community and of the black community, something that has been heartbreaking is that I have seen a lot of homophobia in the black community and I have seen a lot of racism in LGBTQ community. I wanted to draw the parallel that oppression is oppression and wanted to let these two journeys and struggles exist in the same song.

A term that I have read a lot about in recent months is that of 'intersectionality'. What has your experience been like, and what have you seen as well, as a black man in America who is also a part of the LGBTQ community? Do you feel that it is important for people to view, not only this movement but history in general, through an intersectional lens and realize there are so many different connections between different movements?

Absolutely!! I think that is something that, and maybe it's a byproduct of the age of the internet and of great documentaries and more people having access to a microphone, we are now learning that there were queer leaders in the black community in the civil rights movement who, because of other pressures, perhaps of Christianity or of other things that were centralized because the black church was big part of that movement as well, got pushed aside and erased. On the flip side, a lot of people until recently forgot that Stonewall, which is cited as the start of the queer rights movement, was started by Marsha P Johnson and Silvia Rivera, who were both queer, trans and gender non-conforming women of color. I think it used to be that we were so divided. It was like "oh well this is this and this sits in this corner". Also, if you go back to the Black Panther Movement, it was led by women and their voices have often times been erased from history. I think that one of the beautiful things that we are now doing is this sort of turning back the pages of the history books and really looking at it and seeing how it's been recorded and honoring and recognizing every voice that was a part of that movement. I think that is the only way we are going to move forward because I think it also really affects people's self image, if you look at how they've been represented in history and in media. When their contributions have been erased, you are robbing people of their history and something to inspire and help them see themselves reflected in the fabric of this world.

Touching back on your father, he was a civil rights leader and was one of the first black students admitted to the University of Houston after it was desegregated in 1963. In what ways did having parents committed to social change and justice shape your life and make you who you are today and what progress does your father feel has been made since the 1960s? Do you have conversations about it?

Yeah. I think one of the things that has been instilled in us, from the time we were young, was the power of voice and the power of action. I think that one of the great illusions is that as individuals we don't have power. I think that is one of the reasons that some of the power structures that have been in place for a long time have gone unchecked, because people feel disempowered. Just to give an example, one of my sister's names is actually Attica. My dad named her after the uprising at the Attica prisons because he wanted to instill in her the fact that sometimes it's important to break the rules when human rights are at stake. The prisoners were treated so inhumanely. That was something that's sort of been in the fabric of our family for a long time and has inspired me to really use my voice and my art. We've spoken a lot throughout this next wave of protests and this new movement that we are going through, and one of the things I thought was interesting was that my brother and I had gone to some of the protests and we called our dad afterwards. We were talking to him and he was saying how proud of us he was for standing up for what we believed in and he remembers when he was protesting 50 years ago. The next day, he woke up and he was like, and my dad never swears, but he was like "I am fucking angry!", because what he realized was "Why the hell are my two sons, 50 years later, protesting the same thing that I was protesting 50 years ago?" and that really sat with me. I was like wow! But, the takeaway and glimmer of hope is that, in talking about it, the thing that we've all realized and that my dad was saying as someone who has been committed to this movement, is that there have of course been allies for a long time, but never before has he seen so many non-black voices stepping up and really speaking out against racism and doing the anti-racism work. Again, as I said, there have been allies all along, but never has it been so many people saying "Enough is enough!". That is, I think, a big beacon of hope.

Along those lines, you have said that you feel that the world is finally listening to what black and brown people have been saying for decades. What do you feel is the main catalyst for people really listening now? I've heard a lot of people talking about technology playing a role, because things can be videoed and filmed now and have seen the phrase "Racism isn't new. It's just being filmed". What role do you feel that has played?

I think that plays a huge role in it. I think that with something like Twitter, everyone has a microphone. It used to be that the way we would consume information, nine times out of ten, had been filtered and a narrative had already been assigned to it by the time we received it through the news or through the paper, so it was not very subjective. And also just what voices get to be amplified and also what can run. One of the things that I was really disgusted by in this recent waves of protests was the insane amounts of gross police brutality. Of course, it's something we've been aware of for a long time, but with something like Instagram and Twitter, users can post their videos, even stuff that maybe the news can't run because of conflict of interest or whatever the reason is. I think that now there is enough evidence that it becomes irrefutable. I think that, again, one of the trends that we're now seeing disrupted his that it used to be that someone essentially had to be the perfect victim in order to be worthy of life. It used to be that if someone was killed by the police, there was always that "Well, I'm just playing the devil's advocate", "What did they do?" or "They had a criminal record". I don't give a damn if they had a criminal record. Did they deserve to die? I think that now we are having this shift where people are really starting to recognize the humanity. People don't have to be the perfect martyr to be worthy of life.

As you are currently living in LA, what has the atmosphere been like there with the protests and the Black Lives Matter Movement?

One of the things that struck me the most was that the protests I have gone to have not had a police presence. The first week, I was not on the ground. I had actually driven up to Malibu to have a little time in nature just to re-center because, I'll be honest, my mental health was not well. I was on the verge. I remember calling my family and just saying "I'm not ok". I was so overwhelmed and needed to re-connect before I could step in and take action. But one of the things that was interesting for me was the amount of love I saw on the streets. Now of course, I have seen the footage of violence, but I thought it was interesting that, at the protests I went to, there wasn't a police presence and there was no violence or property destruction. There were beautiful people of all backgrounds standing in solidarity saying "We're not going to take this" and for me that was affirming. I felt like this is the LA I live in and the America I want to live in. That was actually really important to see because, again, the first week I was really just seeing it through news clips and things online, and I saw some peaceful protests online, as well. But the stories that were getting more traction were the ones with violence and brutality. For me, what I saw was a lot of love and that was actually exactly what I needed.

You have said that there is nothing more courageous than living a life of authenticity and that you hope to inspire others to live their truth through your music. Would you say you have always lived your life authentically and what has your journey been like to do so?

It's been a journey. I grew up in Houston, TX in the 90's and 2000's, and Texas is a red state. It's quite conservative, even though I grew up in a home that had quite progressive views and was loving and open. But that wasn't the status quo and that wasn't the norm. I was severely bullied when I was in the 4th grade and I definitely shrank myself when I was younger, almost out of a sense of self-preservation at the time because I was young and scared and was trying to fight my way through. It was extremely painful and I still wear those scars to this day. It's been a journey because I think that self-love and self-acceptance is a journey. It doesn't happen overnight but it is something that's invaluable and has completely changed my outlook and has changed my experience on this planet. It's the one thing that I guess I want to encourage for everybody and to help foster that and help create community and conversations surrounding that. I look back at the scared little boy that I was and I look where my life could have gone had I not begun the journey of self-discovery and self-love. That's really how I found true happiness. For me, with my music, when I talk about authenticity, I guess it's one of the beautiful things about being an independent artist. At the end of the day I am the final voice. In terms of lyrical content and the themes in my visuals and my videos, I really try to lead with my heart. That's I guess the main message I want to weave into all of my work, because life is short. Life is short and life is hard and we shouldn't make it harder on ourselves by not loving and knowing ourselves. And I don't blame anyone for that because, again, I feel that the way our society is set up, through advertising and media with "Drink this tea and it will make you better" or "Use this product", we're made to feel bad about ourselves so they can sell things to us. When you start to love yourself, you realize you don't need all of that. It can seem radical but also super simple and I just encourage people to start that journey.

You are also an actor and have played Jimi Hendrix in the short film 'A Technicolor Dream' and have done several tv shows as well. When did your love for acting and film begin? I read that you started out in theater, so how would you compare acting in theater with tv and film?

Yeah, they are very different worlds! I was first inspired to go into tv and film by my older sister Tembi. My parents have a 12 year difference and my dad was married twice, so my sisters are a little older than I am. I grew up seeing my sister working in tv, which such an inspiration because not many people in my immediate sphere in Houston, TX were working in the arts, let alone working in tv. It planted that seed of being possible. One of the things I really applaud my parents for is that my dad is a lawyer, so I'm sure they wanted some little lawyers but we all wanted to be artists. When we told them that we wanted to be an actor, a writer, a musician, they never made us feel stupid or silly about it. They just told us we'd have to work our asses off and work hard and commit to it. That fostered it. I started acting in high school and for me, it's all come full circle. I did theater first and then ventured into tv and film and then later I really started to build my music. A big part of my music is the visual component. I'm a storyteller, so I love doing music videos and my training in theater and the live events where there are no retakes, where if you mess up you have to keep going, has served me so well in my stage performance. That's really what drew me to music was loving performing. Of course I love the writing and recording process, but I really come alive on a stage.

LA is considered the epicenter of the entertainment industry, so what are some of the effects you have witnessed of the pandemic on the industry and what do you see as the state of film and tv and music once things go back to "normal"?

You know, I have to be honest and say it's a really big question mark. I have a really great agent, Melanie Jane, who is also a dear friend of mine. She's been helping me. Everything has moved online for the time being. It's a lot of auditions through Zoom. I think a lot of artists and creatives are realizing how empowered we can be, in the sense of one of the first things I did when the COVID restrictions were starting was that I went on Amazon and bought a bunch of gear. I didn't spend too much money but got some lighting and microphones and have been creating a lot of content from home. A lot of performance videos and live-streaming concerts. I think that artists are learning to adapt and be more resourceful. In terms of industry, realistically with the way the numbers are, we're starting to actually roll back things in LA right now. I don't really see anyone being on set until 2021 at the earliest. With that said, something I've been doing is that I've had the pleasure of working with LiveXLive as a host for their music news show. I've found other talents and elements that I have that are still in the industry, but with hosting I have found platforms where I can do that from home. It's a sticky thing. The other bit I'll throw in there is amidst this all, where the industry is shut down and no one is really working, the Screen Actors Guild, of which I am a part of, has just tried to negotiate more rights. However, it's a really bad deal and I encourage all of my fellow actors to vote NO because we deserve better than what's being put out. It's horrible slashes that's going to take money out of our pockets essentially. I really hope the SAG does better, because they're there to help us.

What's next for you? What do you have coming up?

For me, right now, it's creating content from home. I just shot a little performance video for my song "Temptation" around my home. It is a lot of writing sessions virtually with my producer. Should we get to the place where it's safe for me to go over, because he has a home studio, if it's safe for me to go over, I would love to continue recording because it would be just the two of us, but safety first. Also, I've been reading a lot of good books. I have to be honest, reading a lot of good books and watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer (laughs).

Carolyn Lederach 6/24/20 Carolyn Lederach 6/24/20

INTERVIEW: VAR

Icelandic melodic indie-rock quartet VAR have recently released their new album The Never Ending Year via Spartan Records, full of dreamy soundscapes and soaring instrumentals. Although the band's first album, 2017's Vetur, was sung mostly in Icelandic, the new album is the quartets first all English album. It was not a conscious decision by the band to make an English album, but flow of the songs dictated the language for which the songs would be sung. Influenced by the creativity, inclusiveness and collaborative and vibrant nature of the Icelandic music scene, the band has developed their own unique sound that encapsulates beautiful compositions with powerful vocals. What began as a solo project for Júlíus Óttar Björgvinsson (vocals/guitar/piano) in 2013 soon developed into a collaboration with his wife Myrra Rós (synths, vocals) and his brother Egill Björgvinsson (bass) joining the band along with friends Arnór Jónasson (guitar) and Andri Freyr Þorgeirsson (drums). VAR wrote and recorded their Vetur EP with this line up and performed for several years, building a fiercely loyal fanbase. With time and competing responsibilities, Myrra Rós was pulled in a different direction and drummer Sigurður Ingi Einarsson replaced Andri Freyr to solidify the band's current and more concentrated lineup. The current lineup has become a catalyst for the reimagining of VAR’s sound into something more refined, louder and faster. You can follow VAR and stay up-to date on all upcoming music and news, as well as stream and purchase their music, via the following links:

You released your new album The Never-Ending Year in April. It has been described as a challenging listen that requires patience and space as it builds and settles. Was it always your goal to make an album that was intricate in its sounds that people would have to really dig into? What inspired the louder and faster sound?

We did not set out with a specific goal for the album. We work on things until we are satisfied with them and then you might say our goal is achieved. If some people feel they need to ‘dig into’ the album and listen more than once I think that’s great because personally I think those are some of the best albums, the ones you have to sink your head into. The louder and faster sound of the album is something we link to moving our practice space back to the garage at my father's house, the good old garage band feel.

You worked for the first time with a dedicated producer, your friend Eiour, whom you have said had a specific sound you wanted to try out. What was the sound? You have also said that you recorded the song "Moments" before deciding to make the full record. What do you feel made the collaboration work, which led to you continue on with a full record?

We did not know Eiður very well personally before we started recording. We knew him mainly from the bands he had been playing in. He had been producing and mixing the music for his own bands and we were all big fans of them. He has a very specific sound with a kind of a 90’s vibe to it which we found very intriguing and felt would fit very well with ‘Moments’. Eiður made ‘Moments’ sound exactly like we wanted it to, and during the recordings we had a very good working relationship and a great friendship so we felt it was a logical next step to work together on an album.

You wrote and recorded the album over the course of a year. What were some of the high points of the process for you and what were some of the low points?

What might be called a low point is that the process took a lot longer than we planned at first and some things happened very slowly. But in the end we are very happy with the album and we gained a good friend and co-worker that we will definitely be working with again in the future.

You have talked about the influence for you of the power and sounds of the ocean. What can you tell me about your love for the ocean and how it influenced the sounds of the album? Were you also influenced by any other aspects of your country, such as landscape or other natural aspects? It is such a beautiful country!

We are now practicing at my father's pipe organ workshop which is located in an old fish freezing plant by the shoreline in the small town of Stokkseyri. I live there myself and take my dog for daily walks along the beach and the ocean can draw very strong emotions from you, the great power that you can hear from it and at the same time have a strong feeling of calmness. When the other boys come over for a practice they drive a very scenic and beautiful route and I am sure that has an influence on their creativity. It might sound like cliché but the closeness to this beautiful and powerful nature is bound to have some influence on you.

You have said that "Run" is a song that you weren't sure would fit on the record due to having a different vibe, but that your producer vetoed the decision. What did he love about the song and how did he convince you that it belonged on the album?

He immediately liked the power and rawness of he song and wanted to work on it further. He took it more as a challenge to make the song sound right and fit in with the whole.

What can you tell me about releasing your first fully English album? You have said that it really wasn't a conscious decision. Why do you feel that the songs flowed better in English?

We never decide whether a song shall be in English or Icelandic. We usually write the songs first and when it is time to find a melody to sing that’s when it comes clear whether it will be in Icelandic or English. The two languages have a different rhythm to them. All the songs on The Never-Ending Year happened to have a better feel to them in English. That does not mean we have stopped writing in Icelandic, but it is just a question of what we feel fits best for each song.

I know you have mentioned not being influenced necessarily by any particular band, but you have talked about what is described as the "Icelandic Sound" coming from musicians in Iceland working together and collaborating with each other often. Do you feel that the collaborative spirit of the musical community in Iceland has pushed your creativity?

It definitely has an impact and some influence to have the opportunity to work in different projects with people that you respect and have listened to through the years.

How have you guys been adjusting to life in isolation/quarantine due to COVID-19? You've said that whereas you normally come up with songs at practice by playing together, now it's more one-on-one. What has that been like? Do you see any positive changes in music coming out of the self-isolation when this is all over?

It has been strange not to have been able to play together. Arnór for example had to go to quarantine for two weeks and he used that time to record some new ideas that we have been listening to each on his own, and it is going to be exciting to work through those ideas very soon. The creativity is flowing and we have a lot of new ideas that we look forward to becoming full songs, and maybe even an album.

What can you tell me about the videos you plan to record soon? How have the shutdowns and self-isolation affected your process, if at all? Did you have ideas for the videos before the shutdowns that you now have to modify?

We originally intended to record the videos at the time that the album was released but had to postpone because of the situation. The process will be the same, only released a bit later than first intended.

You have talked about how musically diverse Iceland is, with hip hop, metal and hardcore becoming popular. Do you see yourselves forging into new sonic territory going forward and experimenting with different sounds?
We don’t intentionally try to follow any specific sound or genre, we just do what we feel like and we have not planned what the next album is going to sound like. I think all musicians keep experimenting with new territories and different sounds and that is something that we will keep on doing as we think it is important not to stagnate.

What's next for you?

To continue with this never-ending year. We hope to be able to follow up on our album by touring and playing shows when that will be possible again and continue to work our way through the Covid-demos.

Carolyn Lederach 6/16/20 Carolyn Lederach 6/16/20

INTERVIEW: Ocean Alley

OA LD Promo 3 - Credit_ The Sauce.jpg — Ocean Alley

The Photo Ladies Interview

Australian alternative psychedelic surf-rock band Ocean Alley makes music that has been described as "cruisey psych, rock and reggae fusion". They have independently released two EPs, Yellow Mellow (2013) and In Purple (2015), as well as two albums, Lost Tropics (2016) and Chiaroscuro (2018). The band's breakthrough came with the release of Chiaroscuro, which thrust the band into the national spotlight, selling 25,000 tickets and selling out 15 shows that year in Australia alone. 2019 saw them sell out 30 shows around the world and perform at major festivals such as Reading & Leeds (UK), Splendour In The Grass (AUS), Sziget (HU) and Bottlerock (US), with the band amassing 250 million streams to date. The band will be independently releasing their new album, Lonely Diamond, on June 19th, produced by longtime collaborator Callum Howell at Grove Studios with distribution via UNIFIED Music Group. Encapsulating nostalgia for the music of past eras, the album is a sonic mix of 70s guitar rock, country, western, old school funk and synth-heavy new wave that draws comparisons to Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac and Dire Straits. Guitarist Mitch Galbraith explains, “It’s pushing forward into the unknown… taking a journey to a different place or a different time that seems familiar or that you’ve been before and all the emotions and feels that come with that.” Although steeped in sounds familiar to the band, the album has more intricate arrangements, a production pushed to new limits and an introduction of new instruments. The band recently released their latest single from the album, "Hot Chicken", about grappling with spiraling out of control and encapsulating the seduction and suffering that comes from wrestling with the devil on one’s shoulder. With plans to write more and hopefully work on more videos, the band has plenty to keep them busy through the rest of the year. You can follow Ocean Alley and stay up to date with all upcoming music and news, as well as stream and purchase their music, via the following links.

You will be releasing your third album Lonely Diamond on June 9th! You guys have a progression in sound with each album you have done, so what can you tell me about the process of making and recording this album and what were the sonic goals you were trying to achieve? How do you go about striking a balance between progressing your sound and maintaining the styles and techniques you are known for?

We started with ideas that each of us bought to the table and we spent a lot of time jamming them out, so pretty much the same as the last couple of records. We did have more time this time around to demo and rework a lot of the tracks though, and this helped us give the record some cohesion and direction. The intro and outro tracks were written in the studio during the final weeks of recording. With them, we hoped to give the album some context and explore some more western sounds, just for something new and different. As for the process, it was much the same when it came to recording but we have obviously learnt plenty from the last couple of albums, so it was more efficient but as always, lots of fun.

Aside from music and promoting the new album, what have you guys been doing to stay busy during quarantine?

Yeh obviously heaps of music stuff. It’s the perfect quarantine activity really. But apart from that lots of surfing, swimming and fishing. Lots of outdoor activities away from the crowds, just trying to stay healthy and happy. Luckily we are close to the beach so we don’t have to travel far, but we are stingin’ to get back on the road again.

What has it been like to prepare for an album release during quarantine when you can't do the things you might normally do for a release, such as tour?

It’s been hard to connect with those songs like we normally do following a release, but it’s something we know will happen once we can share them live with a crowd. It was important for us to make sure our fans can still connect with us during this time without any shows, so that’s why we chose to release the record and give people some new music to enjoy. It has given us more time to focus on making sure our live shows when they do start again can be top notch and we can give the crowd an epic night.

I saw you will be selling some limited edition runs of different colors of vinyl for the album release. What inspired that decision?

We love the idea of having something visual to compliment our music. We all collect records too, so it is awesome to have our own version of that for those that want to collect. A lot of people do love to collect vinyl records, so these special releases are just for them and something we hope they like looking at just as much as they like listening to.

What was the idea behind the album artwork? Did you create the design?

Our longtime friend and artist Kane Lehanneur has created the Album artwork. We worked together with him to design something that helped give the record some context. The symbolism of the artwork might help to explain this group of songs as a multi-faceted window shedding light onto one subject from many angles. We wanted to include themes of the circular and the repeatable, whilst also having a feeling of exploration into the unknown. It’s the push and pull of these visual ideas that compliments the journey within the music.

What can you tell me about the nonprofit organization One Eighty Inc, who fills a gap in Australia's current suicide prevention strategy, that you are trying to raise awareness for? Why do you feel that peer to peer models of community support for young people is so important? What effect are the shutdowns and quarantine having on the mental health of the youth in Australia and with May being Mental Health Awareness Month, do you feel that awareness is being made about suicide, suicide prevention and mental health in general?

One Eighty was started by some young people from our community on Sydney’s Northern Beaches to offer support in various ways to community members suffering mental health issues, but also in a response to the growing numbers of youth suicide in our area. They facilitate open up groups and raise awareness for their cause because it’s an issue that’s at the forefront for a lot of us, and many people are affected by this issue in many different ways. We have used our profile to help build support for this wonderful organization because they are on the ground actively offering tangible ways for people to be mentally healthy. It’s important for communities to address this on a local level first and provide outreach and support for those doing it tough. There is no blanket approach, with each individual person having differing needs, so at the very least if people can look out for each other more at a local community level, that is a great start.

What can you tell me about your new single ‘Hot Chicken’ and the idea behind the video? I love the fun, funky and psychedelic vibe of the video!

It’s a song about temptation and distraction. The upbeat feel works well with the snake imagery in the video and we had a lot of fun recording it. Mikey Askew created the video with Kane and the rest of the team at The Sauce. We pretty much loved the first idea they came up with. Its an obvious rendition of the lyrical metaphors and a continuation to the styles of the video clips for Infinity and Stained Glass. The video, like the song is unapologetic and raw.

I read that you guys have started to make your videos more vague for your fans to challenge them to find their own meaning. Why is it important for you to have your listeners find their own meaning with your songs?

It’s just about having something entertaining to watch. You don’t want to spell it out for anyone but it has to suit the music. We wanted our music videos to move away from more of documentary to something with some metaphor and a story.

You recently released 'The Archives', a 49 minute tour film that shows behind-the-scene moments during your 2019 tours through North America, Europe and the UK. I imagine you had lots of fun moments on tour! What can you tell me about the idea behind the film and what inspired you to want to make and release it? How has the response been?

The response has been really great which is nice to see. We have our wonderful videographer and TM Tyler Bell along with us on the road to document it all. It’s nice to show people life off the stage when we are on a long tour and all the other stuff we get to do and see. Hopefully it gives some insight into who we are and what we do when we aren’t performing.

What's next for the band? With your next tour postponed until 2021, what do you have planned for the rest of the year?

More writing with all this spare time will be nice and just gearing up for touring again. We will be doing some rehearsals and working with our production team to build our new live show which is exiting. Hopefully work on some new video content too possible for other tracks on the record.

Carolyn Lederach 5/27/20 Carolyn Lederach 5/27/20

INTERVIEW: Quinn DeVeaux

Q Couch Large copy 2.jpg — Quinn DeVeaux

The Photo Ladies Interview

Nashville-based artist Quinn DeVeaux spent his early years with his grandmother, a former jazz singer, in Gary, IN cultivating a love of music that would help him go on to discover his signature sound. Combining gospel, blues, soul and R&B, DeVeaux has created a sound that he has been dubbed "blue beat soul", that encompasses sounds of the past with his own modern touches. As a teen, he headed west with his guitar, landing in San Francisco where he became a founding member of local group Blue Roots. Following his time in Blue Roots, DeVeaux went on to form Quinn DeVeaux & The Blue Beat Review, releasing several acclaimed albums and performing raucous live shows that showed his fans a boisterous good time. Now performing simply as Quinn DeVeaux, he recently released his new album Book Of Soul via QDV Records, an album that harkens back to the era of the iconic Sun Studios in Memphis. DeVeaux wrote and produced the entire album himself and recorded the album in Nashville, TN at The Bomb Shelter, with the versatile sounds focusing on showcasing his deep love for storytelling. With sounds reminiscent to artists such as Nathaniel Rateliff, Leon Bridges, Anderson Paak, Al Green and Bill Withers, DeVeaux blends the sounds from all of his influences and elevates them through his timeless sounds. “I love this record and feel that I am at the beginning of a new era in my creative life,” says DeVeaux. “I want as many people to hear this record as possible and looking back I'm not sure I ever felt that way. This record has more of my soul in it than anything I've done.” You can follow Quinn DeVeaux and stay up-to-date with all upcoming music and news, as well as stream and purchase his music, via the following links:

You spent your early childhood in Gary, IN living with your grandmother, who was a former jazz singer. What kind of influence did she have on you as an artist and your love of music in general?

I think she instilled my love of music in me. She would always have me and my sister singing in the back seat of the car, on the way to church or the store or wherever. She would help us with our harmonies. We would be singing, like, commercials or some song that we heard on the radio. She was a great singer, in and out of the church. She got me piano lessons, which of course I didn't keep doing, because it was piano or Nintendo and at that age Nintendo sounds a lot more fun [laughs]. Of course now I wish I had kept doing it, but she got me those first piano lessons. She really instilled in me a joy and a love of music.

You were brought up with two religious faiths- Jehovah's Witness and Baptist. How did that shape your views on the world and on your faith growing up? There are some pretty distinct differences between the two religions!

Yeah, you know it was interesting. It was very existential for me growing up because I was really...I mean, I think that religion is supposed to do a lot of things perhaps, but certainly one of them is to make sure you know what is going to happen to you when you die, or at least give you some faith. The two faiths are pretty diametrically opposed (laughs)! In the Baptist church, it's more traditional where you die and you either go to heaven or hell. But with Jehovah's Witness, it's a bit different. If you die, and you are not a Jehovah's Witness, you're just dead. You're just dirt. You're just nothing. If you die and you are a Jehovah's Witness, you come back with Jesus and you get to stay on earth and live forever with Jesus. So going from believing that there's a chance you'll go to heaven or some sort of afterlife to the prospect of just being nothing really still scares me to this day (laughs)! It doesn't scare me as much as it used to. I've definitely done a lot of work around death and myself, just reading books and what not. There's a great book...aw man, I wish I could remember the title. It just talks about a bunch of near death experiences people have had. By in-large, people describe the sort of...you know there is the light. People talk about this beautiful light that happens and this tremendous sense of peace and comfort and feeling like everything they've ever worried about is just gone. It sounds quite lovely. Of course, there's a lot of dopamine and chemicals that our bodies put out when we're dying and all of these things can somewhat be explained by science. At the same time, that whole line between science and the chemicals in our bodies and what we're actually feeling and everything....so anyways, this is all just my general journey with religion (laughs). But yeah, they are very much opposed which was hard for me growing up. One does more research as an adult and hopefully comes to some kind of peace with everything.

You grew up going to church and gospel music was a big influence for you. What can you tell me about developing your sound, that combines those gospel influences with soul and R&B, as well?

All of the great music that I love is all of these things coming together. I definitely have a gospel base and then was turned onto the blues and Muddy Waters and then was turned onto soul and Sam Cook and Ray Charles. Everything that you love, you want to bring it together. That's basically what I've been trying to do. I definitely accomplished the beginning of that with Book Of Soul. It really came out largely how I wanted it to and I am hoping to combine all of these things. I also love country music and folk music, that's more story based...more than soul. The next step for me now is to try to incorporate that into the gospel and soul and R&B.

You have said that you feel that you are the beginning of a new era in your creative life and the songs on this album have more soul than anything else you have done in the past. What inspired this new era of creativity for you and what can you tell me about the process of making the album and why it is so special for you?

It's special I think because I was feeling very stagnant and needed something to just jump me out of the feeling I was in, that I was never going to create anything new or interesting. I think we all get stagnant sometimes, like "Aw man, I've been doing the same thing. Is this still what I want to do?". The answer came back to me that it just wasn't. I moved to Nashville, which at the time felt crazy. As much as I love country music, I was not necessarily wanting to move to the country music capital. But man, when I got there it wasn't at all what I thought it would be. The musicians there are so open and welcoming and they play everything. I mean, sure, they are known for country music, but man these guys can play anything. That's been my experience. And even more than that, the songwriting is such a central part of living there. So moving to Nashville, it was a few things converging. Moving to Nashville and really wanting to say something with my music that I hadn't said before and didn't know was possible. So writing all of the songs on Book Of Soul really was like "Oh, ok" and then the way that the album turned out and the sounds that we got just really opened my eyes. I was like "Man, ok. Let's do this. Let's go in this direction".

How has your songwriting evolved over the years? Would you say your inspirations when writing lyrics have changed?

Oh absolutely! I actually do keep a tally of my favorite artists lyrically and my top 5 now includes Bill Withers and John Prine. Even those two, who are probably my number 1's, or right up there, man...if I could just bring the kind of storytelling and honest delivery of John Prine and equally honest delivery of Bill Withers, with the soul and the vibe and the groove that doesn't let go. That's really the goal, because for me I find that with a lot of soul music, you can write about love and a lot of things, but there's a bit of a limit so far that I'm kind of trying to break through. I'm not even exactly sure what's on the other side, but I really want to be able to talk about just my life. I really want to talk about things that are, I don't know if I'd say complicated, but things you don't normally hear about in a soul song.

You have said that sometimes you have to reinvent yourself in order to move forward. Do you feel that is kind of the process you are going through right now?

Absolutely, yeah. Book Of Soul is kind of the beginning of that and I'm still going through it right now. I actually have most of the next record written already, but I'm really trying to move in a particular direction. I think that before Book Of Soul, I was just writing. I would write something and would put out albums of my favorite songs that I had written, whereas now I am actually trying to move in an artistic direction. That's the best way I can say it.

Your music pays homage to the blues, R&B and soul that came before but has your own modern twist. How have you gone about combining the sounds of the past but putting your own spin on it?

Yeah, I think that happens pretty naturally. I listen to a lot of music. I do sometimes have to force myself to listen to more modern music (laughs). There's just so many great records...Bill Withers, Al Green...just so many great records. There's also some great modern stuff, so I put it all in the pot and try to listen to as much as I can. I'm an avid lyrics reader, as well. And then, I, you know, live life and hear stories from friends about their lives and try to make it into something that captures a moment. For me, that's what a song should be. You should capture a moment or a feeling or a story. That's what I'm trying to do.

As a teenager, you moved to San Francisco with just your guitar and became a founding member of the group Blue Roots. What can you tell me about your early years of playing music and how that shaped you into the musician you are today?

Even before I moved to the west coast, or before I moved to the bay area, I went to Evergreen State College up north and I was in a cover band. This is one night I will always remember. I was in a cover band and we played a show and it was just when all of the Freshman had arrived. It was the beginning of the school year. It was great night. I played with a band, but then afterwards I played my songs solo. That just blew my mind because everyone just sat down and they were quiet and they were just listening to my songs. I felt the impact of the words and like people understood the story I was trying to tell. I was like "Oh, ok. This is what I love!". I didn't care if it was with electric guitars or acoustic guitars, a big band or small band, I just wanted to write words that people could feel and understand and put a story across. That's what I love, when I can watch a performer and they really take me somewhere. I leave myself and I'm in their world for a while. That was definitely an important moment for me, when I realized that if I did it right, that I could do that. That I could take people somewhere.

With this album, you completely wrote and produced it. Is that something you had done with previous albums or was this the first time you had done everything yourself?

This was the first time. I gotta say, I worked really closely with Andrija at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville. The tones that you hear on Book Of Soul...he's just a master at it. I'm really proud of what we did. But yeah, it was the first time I had produced something and it gave me the freedom that I wanted and I took some chances. Thankfully I really liked the record and it worked out.

What has it been like for you to promote an album during the shutdowns and quarantine. How has it altered the plans you had for the album, such as touring?

Totally. My booker is just going crazy! Every time they extend things in California or elsewhere, he's like "Ok. I got us booked for July 1st." He takes us right up to the date and then the next day we're on the road (laughs). So yeah, we'll see what happens. But yeah, it's definitely been a challenge. I send the link out. I send the Book Of Souls Spotify out, or Pandora or whatever because I want people to hear it. Nothing can replace watching a band or a performer live. I certainly hope to get back on the road. Promoting the record has definitely been tough, but I also think that once we do get going, I think that people who like the record will still like the record 3, 4 or 5 months from now. Once I can get it out there, that will be great.

Do you feel that artists and people will come out of this pandemic with more of an appreciation for the arts? That's definitely what a lot of people turn to, music and different forms of art, during these times. What do you think the state of the industry/music will be once this is all over?

I think that people will flock to shows. I think that, for many reasons, that watching music is a great place to have an experience with your friends and get together and lose yourself in show. I think that people will definitely flock to shows after this is over. It's interesting because people are...I'm in California...but people are already going to bars and stuff. There's definitely different levels of the re-openings. I think once bigger tours...we had a three week tour planned and another two and a half week tour planned, and that was just at the beginning of the summer...so I think that once some of these bigger tours get going, I think the excitement of music very well could emerge. It's like meeting an old lover and being like "Aw man, I forgot how this felt!" (laughs)! I think that people will have that experience. And me too. I look forward to, as much as I miss playing live, I think once I actually start doing it again, it's like you realize what you've been missing in a new way.

You have talked about what a big influence Bill Withers has had on you and your music and recently took part in an online "Lean On Me' Tribute. What was that like for you, to pay tribute to an artist that had such an influence on you?

Man, he's one of those guys where every time I dig back into his catalog...because you know I'll go away for a while and then come back...the deeper I go, the better it gets. It was amazing to be a part of that project and see so many people from around the world who his music has touched and wanted to also pay tribute to him and be a part of it. It makes you feel connected. That's what I'm talking about man! If you can tell a good story and get that feeling across to people, then you bring them together. It doesn't matter where you are from or what you look like. That's really what it's about. That's what people like Bill Withers do. If you sit down and listen to "Lean On Me", it's like, everyone believes that.

What's next for you? What do you have coming up?

Well, I have my solo project Flamingo Dores, which is kind of just me and a guitar. I have a new record of that. I also have a new Quinn DeVeaux solo record. They are pretty much ready to go. In a way, I'm holding the train at the station because obviously I can't go and record right now, so I'm trying to wait. Everything is like 90% done right now. I wanna hit the studio, so that's kind of what's next. Once everything opens up, I'm going to get on the road with the band and promote Book Of Soul and then I'm going to get in the studio with the Nashville band and record the next Quinn DeVeaux record and the next Flamingo Dores record.

Carolyn Lederach 5/20/20 Carolyn Lederach 5/20/20

INTERVIEW: Annie O'Malley

Photo+by%3A+Arielle+Vey — Annie O'Malley

The Photo Ladies Interview

19 year old singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Annie O'Malley is unlike most teenagers. When she was a senior in high school, she sent a demo to rock band Chicago's manager that led to her opening for the band at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati with 3 days notice. To kickstart a music career in front of 20,000 people was an experience most musicians rarely experience. She then joined Chicago for 16 dates on that tour, which taught her a lot about touring and performing live. Having had a lifelong love of music, O'Malley has always had a love of performing and started songwriting at a young age, a skill that has evolved over the years. With influences that range from Taylor Swift, alt-J, U2 and Flume, she derives her inspiration from many different sounds to create her indie-pop tracks. Growing up in Chicago, her parents always encouraged an open dialogue in their house and were adamant that everyone talk about their feelings, which has led to an open, honest and raw approach to her lyrics when songwriting. She believes in having a transparency to her lyrics, with a desire to make music for those going through similar changes and growth as her. Annie first garnered attention last year with her independently released single "Chase Me Down," which has organically collected over 200,000 streams on Spotify and caught the attention of producer of Johnny K (Plain White T's). She has since released several tracks such as "Planet Golden", "Island", "You're The Drug", "Golden Doves", and most recently "Mrs Nice", songs that aim to reflect her own life events and some that have a message of empowerment, each showcasing her journey towards being a more confident artist. O'Malley released her debut EP Golden on April 29th, produced by Johnny K, which addresses topics such as love, self-empowerment, loneliness, and heartache. With her goal to be a positive influence for her generation, she is well on her way to achieving that goal! You can follow Annie O'Malley and stay up-to-date on all upcoming music and artist news, as well as stream and purchase her music, via the following links.

You released your new EP Golden today! What can you tell me about the process of writing and recording the EP and the message you hope people take away from it? What has it been like to release an EP during a shutdown, when you might normally be preparing to tour?

This EP has songs on it that I have written in the last 6 years. They have been some of the staple songs of me starting this career and were the first couple songs I saw people had responded well to! The most important thing for me is that people know that every melody and every word came from my head and my heart and was seen through my eyes. These are my experiences that I have learned and written about and I hope people can get a glimpse into my mind.

You have said that you have a new mindset for 2020 and that this is the year for big things. In what ways have the COVID-19 shutdowns affected your goals for this year?

When I said that I have a new mindset for 2020, the biggest things are being okay to make mistakes, understanding my feelings and dealing with the ones I really don't want to, making sure I have a good balance in my life and staying healthy and not pushing so hard for me to do everything. To learn and pay attention to the things that make me happy and incorporate more of that into my life. To understand that I do not know where I will end up or the end results or to stress about what I cannot control, and to learn to not avoid obstacles and to face things head on. These are things I have always struggled with like most 19 years do and so I have been very verbal about dealing with it all:) I had a lot of fun planned that COVID had to put on pause but I really believe everything happens for a reason. Sitting and waiting for this all to pass has made me realize how much more I want to go out and get what I want and to not take for granted being able to plan what my next week or month will look like.

You’ve mentioned that one of the hardest parts of being a musician is dealing with the music industry being a roller coaster! What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced in the industry and what lessons have you learned over the years?

I would say some of the big challenges would be taking advice but not letting it make things unnatural, trying to focus on your path and don’t look at others and think you are doing things wrong. To know that everything you encounter makes you stronger and better, people will not like you or your music and won’t have a reason why and you have to have peace with it, and learning to enjoy the journey and not think so much about the outcome.

When you first started out, you have said that you did what your idols did and sang their songs and copied them. What has your journey been like, as you’ve grown and evolved over the years, in creating your own sound and vision as an artist? What has it been like to develop and gain the confidence to be yourself?

I definitely looked up to many people, I wouldn’t say I copied them, but I studied how they were and took bits and pieces. I always watch live performances of people for hours and see how they interact with the crowd and how they perform. So that has been a big part in where I am today. My journey has been long and detailed and really cool. I have tons of things pop up that didn’t work and some things that have, I really honestly have no complaints. I will be where i am meant to be in my own time. Confidence is a hard thing to find sometimes but I was born with a very big personality, I always wanted the attention, I always wanted to perform, I always wanted people to watch what I did and that really paid off because I was never afraid. As you get older it’s much harder to live so fearlessly because for a very long time I put what others thought of me before anything else but I’m getting a lot better with that.

A lot of artists in the industry often find it hard to be the kind of artist they want to be. Have you felt those pressures as an artist, to pursue a musical path that didn’t feel right to you?

I have totally felt those pressures because people around you will tell you that you are doing the wrong thing and you will have a million opinions if you ask enough people. But that’s something I had to learn by experience. You don't want to be difficult but you want to be heard so it’s very important to do what feels right to you. Whenever I post something that is very raw verses more practiced or finetuned people know and they react very differently.

You had the opportunity to kickstart your music career by opening for the band Chicago and playing in front of 20,000 people, ultimately joining them on tour! What did you learn from that experience about touring and performing an artist?

I learned a lot, they were so incredibly welcoming and kind to me even though I was so young and new. They actually watched parts of my performance and gave me tips and even compliments. I saw what it was like for them to perform for 2 and a half hours a night and do meet and greets and I wanted nothing less. It was just more proof that it was exactly what I wanted, and it was what I needed in my life.

You have talked about how your music is documenting this transitional time in your life. What has that been like for you? Do you feel that you have learned things about yourself through your music?

When you find a song you love, and you listen to it on repeat you get to imagine that song as the soundtrack to your life. And sometimes there are songs that are so moving and so special to you that you get like 2 seconds of relief, just 2 seconds of "I could do anything" or "I’m gonna be okay" or "I’m not alone" and that’s an incredible feeling. I get to live my life and write my own soundtrack and then people get to hear it. Regardless of what the numbers are or how many people like it, if I have reached one person like that, then I did exactly what I wanted to. When I sleep, I think of lyrics, when I get hurt, when I laugh, when I read, when I watch, all the time, I imagine things in a song and it’s so fun I love it so so much.

Why do you feel that time spent outdoors fuels your creativity more than anything else?

Being outdoors lets you listen to yourself and in our crazy world sometimes it’s good to just listen for a second.

You are also very hands on with your music videos, designing the storyboards and recording them yourself more recently on your camera. Having mentioned how conscious you are about the way visuals can impact an auditory experience, what do you hope your videos say about your songs?

I want my videos to portray the vision I have when writing the song, but I also want them to feel like I had a very big part in them, because it makes it more of a conversation between me and the listener rather than me and a hundred other people and the listener. With that said, I have also worked with some amazing people and I couldn't do it all alone.

People turn to the arts in times of uncertainty and anxiety, which we are certainly facing now. How has making music helped you during this time?

I strongly believe in doing what makes you happy and what keeps you calm, and music does do that for me, so I have been playing and writing a lot. It’s a hard time and it’s important to look at the facts and not get caught up in a lot of the false reporting because it will drive you mad.

What kinds of things do you like to do when you aren’t playing music? Do you have any fun hobbies outside of music?

Really anything artistic is good for me, I like listening to people talk through problems and helping them coming up with solutions and keeping on track with them about their life, and I love to journal. I journal all the time, I love to be with people who make me laugh, to run on the treadmill while singing my songs. Things like that.

You just released your new single "Mrs Nice"! What can you tell me about the song? Are you planning to do a music video for the song?

“Mrs. Nice” is a song I wrote about what would happen if I did the wrong thing for a second. If I didn't do exactly what I was supposed to and I made mistakes. Would that be the worst thing in the world? This has been something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently because I am at an age where I am expected to be mature, but I don't wanna grow up too fast because I won't learn enough from my failures. I am hoping to do a music video, I have lots of ideas!

What’s next for you?

What’s next is just keep living my life and paying attention to all the detail and putting it into my music :)

Carolyn Lederach 5/15/20 Carolyn Lederach 5/15/20

INTERVIEW: Janet Devlin

Photo by Emma Jane Lewis.jpg — Janet Devlin

The Photo Ladies Interview

25-year old Northern Irish songstress Janet Devlin has persevered through a tumultuous period of her life, facing her inner demons and addictions, to re-emerge a more mature and confident artist. Inspired early in life by bands such as Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers, she taught herself to play instruments by ear and started writing her own songs. She joined YouTube in 2006, at the age of 12, to get her music out into the world, quickly gaining a devoted fanbase. Devlin was only 16 years old when she auditioned for UK X Factor, quickly becoming a fan favorite and making it to 6th place before her exit. Having been bullied as a child, she had already been fighting an ongoing battle with depression, weight issues and body dysmorphia, alcoholism, cutting and drug addiction also emerging as inner struggles. Releasing her debut album Running With Scissors in 2014, Devlin will be releasing her new album Confessional on June 5th, along with her autobiography entitled 'My Confessional' that will dive into to the meaning behind the lyrics of each song. Five years in the making, the album and book lay bare Devlin's demons and fight to overcome them. Since 2019, Devlin has released 3 singles, ""Honest Men", "Saint Of The Sinners" and "Confessional", each of which became fan favorites and gave her the confidence to tell her story to the world. In telling her story, she has also told the story of countless others who can relate to the struggles she has endured and survived, with countless fans sharing their own stories with her and offering her their love and support.

“Writing the songs for Confessional at the same time as my autobiography has been one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done,” Devlin reveals. “There have been many times when I felt I would never be able to finish either of them. So, now that they’re both finished and no longer just ideas that reside in my broken mind, I stare back in wonder. Even I can’t believe what I’ve endured. Whatever compelled me to write the story of the last ten years of my life was also the same power that gave me the confidence to start believing I deserved this second chance. Through everything, I can genuinely say I owe my life to music. And now it’s time to set it free.”

— Janet Devlin

Produced by Jonathan Quarmby and written in collaboration with Lauren Aquilina, Fiona Bevan and Paul Statham, all hand-picked by Devlin, Confessional was recorded over two years at RAK Studios in London and Westland Studios in Dublin as a way to involve her friends and bandmates and to ensure the Irish roots that are central to her identity were present on the album. With plans to take the album and book on tour as soon as possible, Devlin, who is a staunch advocate for mental health, is eager to hopefully empower her fans who are also be struggling with her story of hope and survival. "That’s what this whole idea of ‘confession’ has been about," says Devlin. "To show people that no matter how dark your life can get, there is always a light to aim for.” You can follow Janet Devlin and stay up-to-date on all upcoming music and artist news, as well as stream and purchase her music, via the following links. You can pre-order the new album HERE. You can watch her discuss the book and album HERE.

You've been writing songs and poems since you were 7. What drew you to songwriting and poetry at such a young age and were there certain poets and songwriters that were especially inspiring for you?

I got lucky I think. I went to a school that promoted creativity from a young age. I don't know. I just remember school projects, where they'd make you sit down and write a poem. It always felt like it was kind-of part of the curriculum and I just really loved it and had a really good, fun time with it from a really young age. I don't really remember reading much poetry until I reached my teenage years and then I just couldn't get enough of it. I didn't care who wrote it. I would even go on Tumblr and just sit and read other people's poems and little thought spiels. I've always been amazed at how language can evoke feelings. I think I must have been around 16 when I discovered spoken word poetry, and the beauty of no rules and no laws and the aim of the game being to just speak your feelings in a way that just evokes feelings in other people. That got me so excited. I always just knew that poetry would be lyrics at the end of the day. I'd be like "That's good to have". I have...well I don't have them with me now because I rush moved...but I have loads of these leather bound journals that I keep my poems and things in. If I ever get stuck in a session, they are so handy if I'm like "Oh, what do I want to write about?". Or if something that somebody is playing reminds me of a certain memory, I'm like "I know which book that's in!" and I'll go find it. So yeah, it's always just been a part of my life. Maybe it's an Irish thing, where you're just encouraged to just always write.

I know storytelling is a big part of Irish culture!

Absolutely! I remember being in a pub as a kid and having an old man reciting a poem once and was like "WOW"! But the fact was that everybody in the pub stopped and listened and I thought "Oh, this is cool".

You have said that Chris Stapleton is a big influence for you with regards to his attitude towards life, music and the balance in between. How have you gone about trying to find that balance for yourself between your music and personal life?

I still have a very blurry line! I won't lie. I feel like I look up to him because it's like that man can be successful, on top of his game and an incredible artist and have millions of fans, but he doesn't really give anything away about himself. I always just like to look up to him in the hope that...I don't know. I feel like we are on very different paths. I personally don't feel like I...I don't mind oversharing! It's kind-of just me as a person. People in my personal life know that I overshare. I remember at the start of dating a guy, him just being like "You really don't mind about telling everybody about everything do you?" and I was like "No! I really don't!" (laughs)! It's always like, especially if I'm dating someone, "I'm just giving you all of the disclaimers up front about what goes on up here in my head so that you can't in six months say I'm a crazy woman and why didn't I tell you? I told you from the start!" (laughs)! I honestly don't mind. I believe in emotional honesty and all that kind of stuff. The most fun conversations, and even in writing sessions and things, are ones I have with people when they let their guard down and actually talk about what's really going on and what really happened in their life and all of that kind of stuff. That always really inspires me to write, because my life is my inspiration and things like that, so I like to keep a good emotional dialogue. But when it comes to Chris Stapleton, I love how we're very different. Like, I love the lyrical simplicity and the way that he writes and the way he carries himself, because we are so different. It reminds me that you can be your own person in this industry and still do well!

You were on The X Factor at 16 and have said that the only downside to your appearance on the show was that you were so young and that in later years people looked at you and asked "What happened to Janet?". Have you found it difficult to grow and change as a person and an artist in the industry over the years and evolving past how people saw you on the show?

I literally just went on a massive rant the other day on Instagram. I'd hit my final straw with dudes. It's always a dude! It's always a dude, middle aged or above who is very annoyed that I'm not 16 years old anymore, which I find questionable. I'm not going to lie. So I just had a massive rant the other day about it, because I have invested 1) a lot of money and 2) a lot of time into learning how to love me and be wholeheartedly myself and be comfortable and confident. And I couldn't be happier for it. But for some reason, that scares people but that's not my problem. That's not my cross to bear. That's some internal reflection that that person has to do and that's none of my business. But they don't know that it's noe of my business and they tell me constantly "You're not 16" and I'm just done with it. I don't even engage in any of it anymore. The nice thing about investing all of this time and money into learning how to love myself is that it allows me then to be more confident in my job, in my work, and allows me to take more risks. Like, I don't know how baby Janet would have felt about a Celtic infused pop album. She would have been like "Oh, but what if nobody likes it?", and now I'm like "I don't care if anybody likes it!" (laughs)! I wanted to make it so I did. So the two things go very hand in hand. I'm so happy, in the sense that all of the changes I have made seem to be well welcomed by the people I want to be engaged in this project. I don't want close-minded people who want women to remain girls. I'm loving this new wave of followers I've been getting lately of young girls who are like...I've gotten so many message lately from young girls who are like "Thank you so much for sharing your growth of you as a person because it's really inspiring". I've been getting loads of messages from young girls who are like what I was like and that warms my heart. That's what I want! I want that, not people who are upset that I've changed. It's like "Of course I have! I paid money to, thank you! Appreciate it! Thanks for noticing" (laughs)!

It's probably nice to know that so many people look up to you and that you can help them with their struggles because a lot of people can identify with the things you've gone through, like "Oh, I can relate to this person"!

Which is so bizarre! When I was going through half of the things I went through, I was feeling so isolated and so alone and petrified of admitting even half of the things I had going on. To see so many young girls and young women owning what's going on with them and just stepping up into it and being willing to change and evolve and not be so mean to themselves, it inspires me more than I think it inspires them to be honest.

Your new album Confessional will be released on June 5th and combines the Celtic sounds of your roots with more alt-pop sounds. You have said that you feel you really found your sound with this album, so what has that process been like for you, to grow and evolve your sound as an artist?

When I started this album, it was like 5-6 years ago. My first album was folk-pop and I loved it and it was everything I needed it to be at the time. I released other stuff at that time, and everything was that timeless sound where all the instruments were real instruments and that kind of thing. When it came to this album, I was writing a book with it and realized with the book that a lot of it took place back home in Ireland when I was a kid. I remember working with Jonathan Quarmby one day and the first session didn't work out but I got good vibes, so we tried to work again together the next time and we smashed it. One of the songs we wrote is like one of my favorite songs on the record. I feel for me that he was a big key in unlocking my sound, because whenever he spoke to me, it was very clear that my home and my story plays a massive part in this record and in the stories behind it. He just kind of went away and sneakily Irished it up and I heard the demo and LOST MY STUFF! I freaked out! I was like "This is a bop! Oh my god! I've been sleeping on my roots all my life! This is insane!". I sat down and thought about it and don't think I've ever met anybody who doesn't like Irish music, because it's fun. Some of those sounds, they are weird, but they evoke a lot of joy in me and seem to evoke a lot of joy in others. It all just came together beautifully in my head and then we got to do a week in a studio in Ireland called Westland Studios and it was amazing having so many local players playing on the record. I think for the first time in my career, I really felt like I really knew what I was doing. I used to be in a ceilidh band as a kid, so Irish music is the language of music I grew up with. Some people speak classical music, some people speak jazz, and I just came into the room and was like "No, no, no you gotta do it like that, yeah that's it, cool!", whereas whenever it's with contemporary music or regular pop music I'm like "Hmmmm...no comprende! Sorry! I don't get it!" (laughs)! It was so nice and so empowering to be able to stand in the room and think "This is it. I know what I'm doing".

While your new album does have some contemporary sounds, you have said that as an independent artist, you don't have the luxury of making contemporary pop music. I thought that was an interesting perspective! Could you elaborate on that?

Yeah! The fact is, this album took almost six years to make, so if I was to make an album of the sounds of six years ago, it wouldn't be very cool right now-at all (laughs)! So the fact that I can't make contemporary pop is a blessing and a curse. It means that you have to work harder to find this identity that's not of the time. Don't get me wrong-I love contemporary pop music. I still bop around my room to it! It's just that thing where I don't have the budget to put things out as quickly as like Ariana Grande or Selena Gomez. They're able to just kind of go into the studio, write a few songs and take a month to record and put a record out a few months later, and that's sick! But that's not my story. It takes me a long time. That's why I was kind-of happy with record, because it did mean I had to dig a wee bit deeper to find that balance of like what's still like pop but like timeless pop where I could bring in these old Irish instruments and kind of tie everything together.

I know a large aspect of the new album was the photography you did to accompany the songs. What can you tell me about the idea behind the imagery in the photographs and what your goal was with the photography?

I basically realized that the whole thing is a big concept record anyway, with the concept of the album and the book. I just got to the point where I was like "Well, it is going to take forever and ever to release this album so I may as well do another thing too!" (laughs)! I loved working with the photographer on the front cover. I loved it so much! I can't remember where the idea just came from, but it just kind of happened and I just knew that I wanted a photo to go along with every single song. Every song is a concept and the book unlocks it, but I loved the idea of having a middle ground between those two worlds where I could play again on metaphors and symbolism and it was really fun. It was hard at times to be like "This is the thing that it's actually about, but I want to create an image to represent that" or to give somebody something to work out. I loved this whole idea of people unlocking this jigsaw puzzle of an album. It was just amazing! Emma-Jane Lewis took the photos, and very importantly Lou, Lovehairbylou, did my hair, which sounds ridiculous because those two people are my dream team! We know my hair is important! It's like my brand! If I don't have my big ginger hair it like "Who is this?". We just had so much fun and it was the most...I watched the behind-the-scenes video for the front cover of the album and that was over two years ago. I watched it because I was putting it out live and couldn't get over how insecure I was. The front cover is me like semi-naked but absolutely covered by my hair, showing off exactly what you'd see in a bikini...actually more covered than in a bikini...but getting that shot obviously meant that I had to, for the first time ever, strip down to having hair only covering my top half. I was petrified and incredibly insecure, but through the process of working those two women, those incredibly lovely humans that I miss a lot, they really built me up into somebody who is now so confident in front of a camera. I don't mind any situation, any circumstance, any pose or anything like that now. That was just such a fun thing to do and I'm just so glad that I did it!

Along with you album, you will also be releasing your autobiography 'My Confessional', which goes in depth with the meanings behind the lyrics for each song. You have mentioned that even you can't believe what you have endured, so what do you feel that you have learned about yourself in the process of writing the book? Do you feel that you emerged with a new perspective on things and on yourself?

It was the biggest task of soul-searching ever! I think I sent my editor over 150,000 words of just sheer inward thinking. There were a lot of moments where I just sat at my computer and was like "Am I actually typing this?", because the minute it's on that page, it is real! That is a real thing that really happened the minute I type it out. There were a few times where I was like "Is this too far?" and then I'd get an email from my editor being like "Are you sure you want to put that in the book?" (laughs)! But that's how I know it was honest, when someone is asking if I'm sure I want to include it. I learned a lot. I think there are a few summary sentences that would sum it up, but it's kind of more like "Everything works out in the end" is a big one (laughs). I think another thing I realized was that a lot of the times I'm the only thing standing in the way of me. Not all of the time. There's a few stories involving other people in the book, but most of the time it's me. I'm my own worst enemy. But ultimately, it all works out in the end, and I had to reiterate that in the first chapter because even now, reading it back in this series where I sit down and read snippets from the book, I'm like "Oh my god! This was my life". It's so funny because obviously loads of things got cut and it's even worse than what's in the book (laughs)! It's crazy! But I feel so much better for it. But I won't feel wholeheartedly content until the book is out of my hands and the first person finishes it. That's when I'm free from all of the things that used to weigh me down.

I'm guessing it wasn't that glamorous!

No (laughs)! It was not! I didn't mean to make it sound so fiery, because there were days when I was crying in the studio, over the fact that I was talking about things that I hadn't really fully dealt with yet. There's a song called "Speak" on the album that I hadn't at all really dealt with and that was maybe a month or two after I had stopped taking my medication and was balling my eyes out. So, it wasn't glamorous at all. It was hard work and took a lot of self-babysitting to not do stupid stuff, because I like to self-destruct basically. A lot. It took all of the power in me to stay in the AA fellowship and talking to people with similar issues to mine and making sure that I was looking after myself and not falling back into silly old bad habits. But I was willing...and this is the difference...I was willing to put the work in to staying well. I don't think I would have come off the medication if I was like "Ok, well I'll just jump straight back into suicidal thoughts". Because that's why I had to go on the medication. I was tired. I was so tired of thinking about killing myself and planning it out. I was like "We don't have the mental energy for this so let's protect ourself in a nice little weird cocoon bubble emotionally for a little bit". And it did work. I absolutely DO NOT recommend taking yourself off of Prozac without your doctor's recommendation. I made it harder on myself by just going cold turkey. Never do that kids! Don't do it!

I read that you moved home last year for a month to decompress and did a variety of self-care techniques and therapy. You have talked about being much better at self-care these days, so what does self care look like for you?

So it's kind of hard now because the world is shut down, but I actually went back to Ireland for 6 months. The other time, yeah...I took a month off. During the last 6 months in Ireland, my self-care was trying to fulfill this list of things that I never got to do because I did TV at 16 and moved to England. It was silly but it was everything I wanted so I saved up a lot and got a car and started doing driving lessons. I really wanted that freedom to learn how to drive. Unfortunately, I never passed my test because my test was scheduled three days after the shutdown, so I'll come back to that! But I still have my car. I got a doggie as well and I love him to pieces. That was a big self care thing, although my mom has stolen him now and I'm never getting his back so you win some, you lose some (laughs)! I know that I have an incredibly addictive brain, which is very apparent in the book. I jumped headfirst into taking up Crossfit, of all things!

I have a lot of friends who do Crossfit and love it!

Yeah. It's mental! It's for crazy people, absolutely! I got so much out of it. I didn't intentionally join Crossfit, but when I went home I wanted to join a gym but all of the gyms I was looking at were like "How to lose body fat" and "How to be skinny" and things like that. I was like "I used to have anorexia and I can't do that", because I'm really good at it. I didn't want to get involved in that. I've got the badge for losing body fat. I ended up seeing that there was a Crossfit gym and I went on their website and wasn't sure if it was for me. It seemed very Type A and I'm lazy. But I went there and their ethos was so different. All they want to do do is just make you run faster and lift heavier and ll of those kinds of things. That's what I wanted and Crossfit was a big thing for me because for a lot of years I was like "I want me a big strong man to look after me and protect me" and then I went to Crossfit and was like "Hold on a sec! I can be the big strong man I've always wanted" and I found it very empowering, especially in shutting down those particular men who want me to be 16 forever. When people see me gaining muscle, the amount of DMs I got from guys being like "Ewwww...your traps are so big that they're gross" or "Women shouldn't have abs". I was like "Go away. My thighs are bigger than your dreams dude!" (laughs)! I loved it! I'm sad now because I've lost basically most of my progress, but that's not what it is for me, the aesthetic of it. It's the fact that I was meeting personal goals and it makes you feel like a kid again when you do something and people are like "You did it!". It was a really lovely community element, and as someone who is very socially inept, it really brought me out of my shell, as well. Also, I'd never been a good sister or a good auntie or a good daughter because I moved out so young. I never really got the chance to just be with my family before for an extended period of time. I moved out at 15 to live with my grandmother to take my studies more seriously and also to starve myself...2 reasons. But I loved just being with my family and seeing them and it was amazing and everything that I needed and can highly recommend to other artists. Especially the ones who get in this weird job very young, because you do lose that whether you are aware of it or not. There's something so nice about having Sunday dinner with your family.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and I know you are a mental health advocate. Do you have any specific things you are doing this month to help advocate for mental health?

Yes! So this is why I have started reading bits from the book. I know there a few chapters in this book that when I read a snippet of it, I can't just ignore that I dropped a massive bombshell on people. I anticipate getting a lot of questions on certain chapter readings, so I'm going to have to sit down and probably film a few more videos like the "I'm an alcoholic" video, because a lot of these things need explaining. It's going to be a hard month for me, because people already think I'm mentally screwed and I'm just dropping more ammo into their hatred gun. But the joke's on them because I'm better now. So that for me is what I'm doing . I'm really going to be putting myself out there on the frontline and talking about things that are hard to talk about, but if I've learned anything from my video about my alcoholism, it's that there are so many people going through it. So, so many people going through it. It makes me feel better to do it because I've put it out and then I see people who are like "Me too" or "I did this thing" and we realize that we are not alone . It's crazy! I'm so glad for the leaps and bounds we've made over the years, because when I think back to what I was going through a few years ago, or even longer, from the age of 12, which comes up in the book, the dialogue we have now over issues warms my heart. It genuinely does, because I didn't have that dialogue to talk about it when I was a kid going through some of the stuff I was going through. I feel like we are more open now. We're not as open as we could be, but better than we were. We are getting there. I see some young kids complaining about the state of the mental health things and all and I'm like "It will get better. I swear to god"! If we just keep pushing forward and being honest and loving each other then we'll get there.

What does it feel like to re-emerge onto the musical landscape as a changed and more confident artist and how do you feel the industry has changed for you over the years from what it was when you started out? It's definitely a quick changing industry!

It definitely is and I'm a slow moving gal! I've just kind of had to make my own rules. When I started, nobody was doing crowdfunding, so I had to break that boundry. That was a fun one because it worked! Since then, doing online shows. I've been doing online shows for 6 years, which is now cool because people want to see online shows because they are stuck at home. For me, it's always changing. It's always evolving. But I don't know. I welcome it. I definitely do. For me, my journey is never...I don't wanna say never, but I very much doubt that a major record label is going to come over here tomorrow and be like "Hey! Wanna be signed?". For me, I just have to just stay on my own path. Because of the internet and the digital age we're living in, that's a possibility. My kind of career wouldn't have been possible like 20 years ago. I feel like I'm living in a new era of the music industry. But by no means am I putting down the old ways or the ways of what were and in some cases still is. Some people get discovered and get signed and are given loads of money and became an overnight success, and congratulations. That's insane because that's like the smallest minority of people. I'm still fascinated and I love those stories, but that's not my story. My initial story of trying to make people think I was cool enough and not just someone off of TV and then trying to stay relevant for 10 years. It's almost 10 years of me doing this now and I'm just baffled everyday that I'm able to do it. But that's honestly just truly the beauty of people on the internet.

What has it been like to plan an album release during quarantine? Most artists would normally be planning to tour and all of the other things that go along with an album release!

Ummm...worst timing, because this is only my second album (laughs)! My first album was delayed and things went wrong, but then it came out and was fine. I was like "This time I've got it guys! Yes!" and the world was like "Uh, no!". But it's been cool in the sense that you just kind of make things work. I'm trying to film a music video very soon, with trying to practice social distancing and not really having a crew and filming things on a very small level. I think the hardest part is plugging, because it's like "Hey guys! I know the world's burning and everything's kind of horrible right now, but would you like to buy my book and my album?". It just feels very...you feel like a salesman who's turned up to a funeral and you're trying to sell people something on the way out, you know? It feels very inappropriate. But luckily most people understand. Some people don't see my line of work, my job or whatever, they don't see it as a real job so they don't respect it. They think "Why are you trying to sell something in the middle of a crisis?" and I'm like "Because this is my job. If I don't get paid, I don't eat!". Sometimes I am flattered by people thinking I am more successful then I am, but then they're like "Why do you even have to plug your book?" and it's like "Because I'm one gal, my guy.". There's not like a 1,000 person team here plugging this for me. I actually have to do it. But yeah, that's the hardest part, just trying to keep the tone right. Luckily the internet has been so supportive. I've gotten more followers on my Patreon because of it, and that's insane, right? That's counterintuitive to what you think would happen, and I can't thank them enough because these are really scary times to be in.

I think a lot of people are being really supportive of the arts right now, because in times like these you realize how important it is. Everyone turns to music or painting or photography or whatever, so it's important to support those things so that they are still around when all of this is over.

That's honestly true and it's amazing that people see that. It's such a small percentage of people that get cross at you for plugging. Everyone else is like "Yeah!". It's like "Thank you so much! I really appreciate the fact that you are still cheering me on in the midst of all this". Otherwise, if people were really being like "Stop", it would be so hard. It's 6 years of my life that I've put into something. It would suck a lot if people weren't allowing me to scream about it.

What's next for you?

For me, let me see....I definitely want to start working on my next album. I'm looking to do something maybe bluegrassy or country, just because I know that for me is the easiest genre to write in. I grew up on country music. I just feel like booking a studio for like a month with a bunch of dudes that I love working with and sitting down and just channeling that Chris Stapleton. Keeping it simple and just writing some stuff that just makes my soul happy and just playing around with the sound I've always wanted to use. Also get in shape again! That would be sick (laughs)!

Carolyn Lederach 4/22/20 Carolyn Lederach 4/22/20

INTERVIEW: Outsider

Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Seán Ó Corcoráin, who performs under the name Outsider, writes lyrics that reflect Eastern mysticism and Western philosophy, wrapped up in an upbeat and vibrant new wave sound. That is the backbone of his recently released debut album Karma Of Youth (via Ok! Good Records). Having used music as a way to cope with mental health issues in his teen years, he aims to pay that back with his music in the hopes that it will help others with their struggles. Inspired by The Cure, Bauhaus, The Smiths, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Depeche Mode and The Talking Heads (to name a few). The record is described as a metaphysical roadmap for a lost soul and documents the Spiritual Awakening, or Kundalini Awakening, that he experienced last year.

“ I thought I knew what my songs were about for a long time, but it is only recently that they all make complete sense and thus create a metaphysical roadmap. I was misdiagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), but it turned out this was not the case. In fact, it was just a rebranding of a psycho spiritual experience that modern psychology is still too Freudian to understand and only Karl Jung truly explored.”

— Seán Ó Corcoráin

Although the meaning behind his lyrics may not connect with everyone, his music has universal appeal with its fun and danceable nature. Ó Corcoráin had been in bands previously, but always in a backing capacity. After the ending of a long-term relationship and band, he found the confidence to put himself out there and started his solo project Outsider, transitioning for the first time into the role of a lead vocalist and sole instrumentalist. In January of 2017, he released his debut track "Late Night Radio", which went on to be featured in the Netflix Original Series 'Shadowhunters'. He signed with Warner Music UK's W Songs and released his breakthrough EP "Míol Mór Mara". The EP has received over 2 million streams and the title track was chosen to be featured in the football simulation electronic video game FIFA 18. It was the first time the Irish language had been used in mainstream gaming and garnered a lot of positive attention and fans for Outsider. A love for the Irish language led him to take the middle ground with his lyrics, infusing his songs with a mixture of English and the Irish language. With Karma Of Youth, he has debuted a strong follow up with widespread and mainstream appeal. You can follow Outsider and stay up-to-date with all upcoming news and music, as well as stream and purchase his music, via the following links.

You've said that in the past you only wanted to be a bass player and a backing vocalist, but you've since learned various instruments and have become a one man show. What led you to want to start your solo project Outsider and what was it like to transition into the role of a lead vocalist?

That's a long story, actually, so I'll try to tell you the short version. When I was 17, all I wanted to do was be in a band. I heard The Stone Roses and Joy Division and I loved the bass in those bands so I picked up the bass. That's all I wanted to do initially. I had joined a band of older guys and I wanted to sing, but they destroyed my confidence and they pretty much told me I couldn't sing so to not even try. That stayed with me until I was about 28, so a long time. During those years, I learned the guitar and started to explore other instruments. I started songwriting around the age of 25 or 26, but I wouldn't sing my own songs. I would sing them when writing them, but then I would get a lead singer to sing them because my confidence was just shattered. Eventually that lead singer quit the band I was in and I plucked up the courage to just try and sing my first song which was "Late Night Radio". The song ended up getting on really well. I think it's at 300,000 hits on Spotify now and got on a soundtrack, as well. But that was it for me. I was really, really nervous actually singing that song in the studio for the first time. It was a huge journey for me to get to the point where I would be Outsider performing on my own. The reason I perform on my own is because every band I've ever worked with, the other members seemed to want to be in a band but not do the work and not work as hard. The guitarist wouldn't write the guitar lines, so I learned the guitar and would write them for him. And the keyboard player wouldn't write anything for the songs, so I'd write it. That kind-of burned me out, but in the end the band broke up and I thought I had lost everything. But in the end I realized I had gained everything because I could do it all on my own now. So all of that hard work and slog paid off because it was developing the skills and the confidence in me. So I've had a long road to get where I am now.

You have also talked about how music has helped you to deal with your struggles with mental health and that finding bands you could connect with helped you to share that feeling of isolation. How have you gone about trying to pay that back in your own music?

That's a great question. I think that it's incredibly important to write music that is as raw and real as you can possibly do, without being a miserablist. You know with your more shadow-based emotions, your darker emotions. I try to make it uplifting too and balance it. For me, when I was younger...mental health is kind-of a new thing. When I was younger, there was no talk of that and that was the worst for me, when I was a teenager. What saved me was music and listening to bands. You know, there's bands on the radio and it's usually just vacant bubblegum pop, which I like too, but it didn't make me feel like anyone out there understood me. And then I heard bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain. They're a really good example. Or even Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen has some really, really deep stuff. Hearing that, the art form then turns into a life-saving kind of experience. And that's how powerful music is for me. I will never kind-of stand back on that. I don't think it can be overblown how powerful and how important music with real depth and honesty is. I tried to, with my first EP, express that it felt like my life was falling apart so many times. I'm in a great place now, but I tried to put that in the first EP and the response was...a lot of people contacted me. I made a promise, because i was so isolated and at one stage and alone, that if anyone ever talks to me, I will make 100% sure that I get back to them. That's something I have stuck to. It could be Instagram or whatever form of social media. Even in my YouTube comments, people have shared their stories with me. One guy told me how his engagement had broken off and he was just holding on. Another guy, a French guy, got in touch with me and told me this heartbreaking story about how his childhood sweetheart had left him and broke his heart and he was really depressed and his skin was covered in a rash and he just felt a connection with my music. That's just one or two stories. Obviously there's more. A fan wrote me a letter and at the time she was Lauren and I was the first person she told that she would be Matthew from now on. That was just mind-blowing for me. I've had lots of those experiences. It happens and came to fruition, all of this stuff that was going on in my mind when I was writing the EP. I didn't even have a manager or a band. I didn't really have anything. I say that in my mind, that if anyone contacts me, I will be the one to send the last message. It came to fruition for some reason. I'd like to expand that as much as I can going forward. That will be a huge thing for me, making a listener as important as the artist or the creator. I don't know how to develop it at the moment, but it's something that's incredibly important to me. I don't know how you can do it, I suppose, if your audience grows on a huge scale, but I'm pretty sure where there's a will there's a way with this kind-of stuff. That's what I'd love to see. I'd love to feel like the love that's pushed towards the artist at a live show reflected back at the audience as much as possible. I know that sounds idealistic, but that's something I really dream about. It's not about the ego projection for me anymore. That's just dead to me. There's something just bigger in all of this that I'm experiencing.

You started songwriting around the age of 25 and I read that with your EP, your songwriting style was more subconscious and you just wrote whatever came out. With a new album being released soon, have you found that your songwriting process for the album was the same or has it changed?

It's the same process, yeah. I keep that process as much as possible. I love that process and it works for me. It also means that I don't understand my songs until maybe months after I write them. I don't really know what I'm doing, but it always works out so much better. It might be a few months later and I'll realize "Jesus! Oh my god! This is what it means. This is what this song is actually about. This is what I was trying to express". The subconscious is so vast. There's something that processes a long time before your core brain or the analytical mind. I've used that process in this and I will forever. I've found that when I started doing that is when people started to connect with me on an intense level. One guy actually was in Dublin and had flown over from England and went out of his way to meet me at a hotel. He told me his whole life story about how his dad used to be a quite violent man and beat up his mom and we just sat and had coffee and talked for a long time together. I couldn't believe it, but he was just saying how my music connected to something in him, with that suffering and those memories and just had an amazing effect on him. When I get a reaction like that, maybe it's not music for the masses just now, but connections like that are really important to me. I hope it's not always about this suffering. I hope it's not always that dark. I hope I can balance it out with more light. I think I'm going in that direction. I think there is a positive message of overcoming in my music. That's just as important and I don't wanna talk about all doom and gloom. Even with this COVID-19 right now, we're going to experience things that damn near break us and that's when you go to art and that's the cure. It doesn't have to be music, but for me it was music. That's why I do the subconscious writing. It knows so much more than I ever could. That's where creativity comes from. What are we accessing, you know? What were the great poets accessing? It's supposed to be the language of the gods or expressing something of a higher love or a higher nature, something that we only momentarily access in our lives. This stuff gets me. I love it. But yeah, that's why I write that way and am so grateful that I discovered that way of writing. It ends up being...it's not too far out there. It's not like Frank Zappa or anything. I'm not like a psychonaut taking psychedelics and exploring the depths of the subconscious. I just let it breathe as much as possible and try to let my feelings flow into a song. I've noticed, as well, that sometimes having positive core and positive energy to your music and a positive message of overcoming is going to be important right now. I have a feeling about that, you know? I think that's really important with music, as well, that that's included. Sometimes it can be seen as uncool to be kind-of positive. I don't know where that came from, but I have felt that in the past decade, that that's not as edgy. I think you have to have both the dark and the light.

What can you tell me about your new album Karma of Youth? What has it been like to release an album during lockdown, since normally a band would be planning to tour, which isn't happening right now? What has that whole process been like?

It's hard to say. You have to roll with it. I've never found anything I've done to be straightforward when it comes to music, so I don't know. I just roll with it. I'm really thankful that it's not worse and I still get to release my album. Ok, maybe everything is in disarray and I don't get to do a tour, but I don't really know what to say about it. It's just going to flow the way it flows. Whatever happens, happens. I'm not going to complain about it. It's just strange. It's odd. It's hard to know how to confront it or what to say. I hope people who hear it will connect with it and it can serve in some way during this time. I think it could be a great album to listen to, especially at this time, because it's a hell of an adverse situation. You're gonna have to face yourself. A lot of people are going to have to face things they haven't faced in a long time. You're going to spend a lot of time alone. This is a time when you can be driven towards the arts. As far as not being able to do the normal things surrounding an album release, I'm not a fan of the normal things anyways! I think I was talking to my publicist about this. You can probably tell by now that I'm quite spiritual, but it's all in the flow for me. That's what it is. I just go back to that. It's just in the flow and you can get really anxious or worried or down about these things, but that doesn't happen to me anymore. I'm just accepting that whatever happens, happens. I could see it being a positive thing for my style of music, to enter the kind-of collective consciousness to serve people in that way. It has that feeling of overcoming in a really dark time. I think it balances the dark and the light quite well and I think it has that feeling of overcoming suffering or of acknowledging and facing suffering. So yeah, that's how I'm feeling about it right now. It's all in the flow.

You have said that you weren't always spiritual and never really wanted to be but it just kind-of arrived at your door. You experienced a bit of a spiritual awakening last year, so what can you tell me about your journey into spirituality and why it's important for you to let the spirit, mind and body connect and how it all ties into your music?

We could talk for another hour on this! That's a great question. I suppose I was just a normal guy or whatever. I wasn't spiritual at all last year. To say not at all, I still had practices that were spiritual. A lot of Eastern practices now have been rebranded in Western terminology to make them more, you know, palatable or acceptable or easy to digest for Westerners. They'll be reframed in scientific terminology, like mindfulness or visualization, and it will turn out that it stemmed from Hinduism or Taoism or something ancient from the East. That's what I'm starting to see a pattern of. I was training in Muy Thai, so I had spiritual practices but didn't see them as spiritual practices. This whole thing really blew up for me when I experienced a spiritual awakening in July of last year. Most people say not to tell anyone about this, but I don't care anymore. If you're familiar with Kundalini or Kundalini yoga. It's not the same thing but they call it a Kundalini Awakening in Hinduism and Spirit of The Valley in Taoism...there's a number of different names for it. Basically it's like blockages to your chi energy. I didn't know what chi energy was. Or blockages to your chakras. Electromagnetic energy runs to your spine. It sounds out there. I wouldn't have believed it if you were telling me this, if it hadn't happened to me, but it happened to me and it's real. Anyone who knows me knows I would have been pretty straight laced and, I don't know, erred on the side of conservative science maybe. Well, conservative with science maybe, but I wasn't conservative otherwise. I was definitely a little conservative about spirituality until this happened. That was my experience, and it was so overwhelming and influenced my life. I looked back at my songs and even when "Miol Mor Mara" came out, on my first EP, my friend who made the video was like "I just love all of the Hindu references in it" and I was like "What are you talking about with Hindu references? I don't know anything about Hinduism". There was a spiritual energy to my music before I had any interest or awakening, so it was going in that direction. Even the song "Saviour" I think was a premonition of this awakening that was coming. A lot of Kundalini yoga practitioners would know what I'm talking about. Or Hindu. This is bread and butter for Hindus. I have a friend who is a journalist in Dehli and when I told her about this, she didn't bat an eyelid. She was like "Ok. You should do this, this and this" and it was so normal. If you tell someone in Ireland or the West, they'll tell you that you need to go see a doctor or a therapist. I have years of therapy done and am as happy as I've ever been in my life. Unbelievably happy. It's hard to explain, but that's the bones of it. There's lots about it online and as with any subject, there's loads of lies and misinformation about it online. It's like, if you're into it, cool and if you think it's a load of rubbish, cool. It doesn't really matter. I feel like being honest about it. I don't feel like living my life anymore where I'm keeping some secret. I'm an artist. Salvador Dali was as weird as it gets. David Bowie was out there. I look at them and feel it only takes a matter of time before people just accept you're a weirdo. Well, not a weirdo but that you're out there. I don't mean to label anybody. People are just going to have to accept that about me and hopefully they see it as a good thing. I'm not selling anything, you know, apart from my music. I'm not selling any...I'm kind-of into the anti-guru. I don't like gurus. I'm not trying to convince anyone of any one faith. I like Hinduism and Taoism. I like them all and any spirituality. I love science. I love atheism. I love listening to atheists. I'm not attached to anything and I'm not trying to attach anything to anyone else. This is just all happening to me and I'm experiencing it, and if it serves others and my music, great. I feel like it's raising my consciousness and making me happier. If I can do that through my art, which great artists have done forever and I see it in art everywhere, then great. That's the direction I want to go. I'm still working. I still have a day job as most musicians now have, who aren't mainstream. It's just a tough time at the moment. This isn't something I talk about at random, but it is important to my art and to my music and I think it's important to humanity. And it doesn't have to be called anything. You can frame it any way you want. I don't have to talk about any particular religion or spirituality. I just want to express myself and say how I feel. You definitely have to pay homage to...if you have a spiritual awakening in the West, and you tell people about it, if it's in India they're like "Awesome. I'm really proud of you", and if it's in the East, they're like "Jesus. That's great". But in the West, they tell you that you need to take medication and that happens a lot. They just don't understand it. Western psychology is absolutely fantastic, though, in processing trauma for people. It's wonderful. I'm a huge fan of Western psychology. I think Eastern mysticism or spirituality and Western psychology needs to be reconciled as much as possible. Everyone needs to open up to that a little bit. That's something I'd like to bring to the table if possible. That sounds incredibly ambitious but that's the power of art, isn't it?

You have a deep love of the Irish language which developed when your grandfather spoke it around you as a child. You have said that there are those who are staunch about speaking the language and those who have no interest. Why do you feel you connected so strongly to the language and ultimately get your degree to teach the language? Why is the Irish language so special to you?

You're bringing back so much for me. This is such a deep question. My grandfather would speak Irish when I was a kid. He wasn't a fluent Irish speaker. He would just speak some phrases so that kind of, I feel, ignited a sentimentality about the language for me. In my day job I'm a teacher. You have to teach it here in Ireland, so that kind-of went hand in hand, as well. I developed just a love for it because it is a beautiful language. It's so old and ancient and mystical. I especially loved with "Miol Mor Mara", that means 'giant beast of the sea', literally. It means whales in English, but that's not what it means in Irish. The language is really ancient and almost like reading Tolkien or something. It has beautiful poetry to it. Basically, after colonization by the English, although we now have 20,000 people speaking the language, we weren't allowed to speak our language. That was punishable. I'm pretty sure the famine...it wasn't a famine, it was a genocide...but we won't get into the politics of it. The Irish people were crushed. Their identity was crushed, but we rebelled and got most of our country back. The language was nearly crushed, so I feel like there are people who are really staunch and want to speak Irish all of the time. And then there are people who...it's a really difficult language to speak, so they are scared to try. I'm going to sound like Buddha now, but I like the middle way. I like the idea of the middle way. I love Pixies and the way they'd have some Spanish phrases in their songs. That's what I wanted to do, and you'll find Irish words peppered in my songs. Sometimes they won't be and sometimes they will be. It just depends. I have a really good song that I'm really looking forward to. I'm just finishing it up in the studio. It has a lot of Irish references. It actually references Che Gueverra and the Irish Rebellion and taking back of the free state. The song for some reason is about all of that. It runs deep in our blood. That's what I grew up with. We're only free really 100 years from colonization. I think this generation has kind-of forgotten it, but for me it wasn't forgotten at all. When I was growing up, the troubles in Northern Ireland were still happening. There were still bombs going off and people still killing each other. There was still a war between Catholics and Protestants. It was never about religion. It was about land and power and basically why the hell are you stealing our country, you know? I don't really want to get into the politics of it all because, I don't know. It's not the way forward. Love is the way forward, as cheesy as it sounds. Even my manager, who's from London, born and bred, he didn't know what the language was in my songs. He loved my music and was like "What's this language? I love it". He thought it was maybe Latin. He didn't know the Irish had a language and he's from London. That said a lot to me. English people aren't taught in school about their history of colonization. My manager Rich is one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life and I love him. He's great. It's like, how do we move forward from all of this? I'm going down a road I don't want to go down now, but it is something where I would hate to see Irish completely lost. The best way to reclaim it is through middle ground and true art. Definitely true art. We have traditional Irish music and an Irish speaking tv channel here and stuff, but it's not working. Whatever they're doing, it's not working. They need to, as Buddha would say, find the middle way here. That's what I'm trying to do with that. I'm just going to do whatever I want. I spent my life kind-of caring too much what people think. You know, you kind-of try to fit in. I just don't fit in, so I may as well accept it. I just don't care anymore. I'm going to do whatever the hell I want. The subconscious writing, it all connects. I work from how I feel and I don't care if it makes sense or not. I don't care if it suits an agenda or not. I don't care. I've never been happier since I've started to work that way and that's a message that I'd love to spread. I really hope that energy is in my music.

You also had a teacher in secondary school who you said encouraged you to develop an understanding of lyrics and poetry and you've talked about your love of lyrics. What do you love about the process of writing lyrics for your songs and what role does poetry play in your songwriting?

You're gonna make me emotional! Yeah, there was a teacher. With "Brotherhood", I think I talked about that briefly, about masculinity and this idea that, and even see it with some females, that crying is a weakness or something. For me, it's the exact same as laughter. It's the same release. For me, there's no difference anymore. You laugh, you cry-whatever. Yeah, when I was growing up I didn't feel like I was getting much encouragement or praise for anything, anywhere, that I would do. I definitely didn't believe I was good at anything. There was one teacher, Jim Minogue was his name...I don't know what I did. I think he got us to write a poem. He was kind-of a free spirit and was really out there. We liked him and you weren't supposed to like teachers. I didn't like a lot of teachers. I was in a Christian Brothers school and I didn't like it at all, actually. When I was 13, one of my friends who was 15 got stabbed in that school. There was just a bad vibe in that school. That was my memory of it anyway. Anyways, he encouraged me and just kept saying I was a poet and could write great lyrics. He just kept encouraging me to do it. He told me I should write poetry, that I could do it, that I was really poetic. Actually, it was my understanding when he would go through John Keats or Shakespere or something like that, I was just lit up. I'd never felt like that before. I was on fire. It was amazing! John Keats...I haven't read him in years. He hit me so hard. It was fucking unbelievable! It was like music had just helped me to survive or something. Ireland can be a hyper-macho society. Like Conor McGregor would be typical of an Irish kind-of guy...generally. Not all guys, but typical of where I grew up. Poetry, etc wouldn't exactly have been looked upon as a cool pastime anyways, but I stuck with it and he lit that fire in me. Just that encouragement was important, because I could have encountered it but not have had anybody encourage it and it would have just fell by the wayside. I wouldn't have believed it had any worth. I would have been ashamed of it or something, you know? He really had a good, positive energy from it. It's absolutely huge to have that. I don't think he even realized the effect he's had on my life. I remember I was listening to "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin when I was 14 and I decided to write my own lyrics to the song. I used the melody from "Black Dog" and wrote the lyrics. I remember showing my brother and he was like "No way! You didn't write that!" and was like "Yes I wrote that man!" and he was like "That's the best fucking thing I've ever read! I didn't know you could do that". When you're 14, writing lyrics can blow someone's mind. I continued to do that and then started to write songs, but then after a long time I realized the melody should come first. If you are using a lot of poetic lyrics and consonants, it chokes your melody, unless you're going to use a lot of baritone. Now I kind of hum it and add the lyrics later. Yeah, they're always important to me, but I've become less flowery over time and more raw. I do have an affinity for trying to have a poetic turn of phrase or colorful words or language, but if it's simple and gets the message across, that works for me too. Is it enjoyable? Over time it's become a labor of love. I've learned not to be so hard on myself with lyrics. Sometimes I can really judge my own lyrics harshly. So, I do enjoy it when I feel like I've done something good, but the process can be difficult because I won't allow a lyric if it doesn't feel right to me. That can end up taking months and then they'll haunt me. There are lyrics in songs that I feel like I just put in. Like one or two. It's very minute. That would haunt me if I feel like something isn't 100%. It's something I've worked hard to let go on. The thing you love can become that thing that overwhelms you, whereas if you are just playful and let go, you'll create the best energy. I feel like you'll create the most emotionally charged and honest music. You know, I just admire some lyricists so much. Like Echo and The Bunnymen and Ian McCulloch's lyrics. I love Frank Black's lyrics. I think he was so far ahead of his time. I think he is so spiritually tuned in and doesn't know it. The stuff he was writing about back then is so important now, like climate change, like "Monkey Gone To Heaven", which has beautiful lyrics. He used numerology and was way out there with spiritual concepts. The more I read about him, the more I just admire him. I saw in a documentary that he has some mental health issues. I often wonder if he had a spiritual practice if he could be a much happier person. That song "Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons" from Trompe le Monde...the lyrics in that are as good as anybody out there. I don't care what anyone says. The concept that he has this dream and thinks he's a bird and flies over the Olympus Mons, the volcano on Mars. I don't know if you are familiar with the song, but you should listen to it. The whole concept is so melancholic and so beautiful and so astral, as well. I could talk about it forever. There's just some things that Frank Black does. He's so underrated if you really look into his lyrics. I find him astounding. I know there's Leonard Cohen and there are lyricists like Nick Cave that everyone considers the serious guys that write the real poetry. I don't always think that's true, by the way. I think there are some lyricists that go under the radar and Frank Black is definitely one of them. I think, and it took me a while to understand how much Kurt Cobain's lyrics went under the radar...I think he used to slate them himself. I'd leave it until the last minuet, you know? He probably got these subconscious flows of lyrics. When I look at them now, I can find so much meaning in them. And they seem sometimes almost a little bit throw away, but if you give them a chance, and there's some songs where if you just give them a moment and look a little bit deeper into them, there's just something so powerful about them. I think that really poetic and technical lyrics can be a little bit...at first glance you can think they are so beautiful. There's other lyricists where if you give them a little bit of time, they can potentially be much more powerful.

You have said that upon reflecting on 2019, that it's only this year that you are discovering your true self. You have also said that artists can choose certain paths, that they can idolize success as a figure of accolades or use it as a way to find their purpose. What do you feel has set you on the path to finding your purpose and what do you feel that you have learned about your true self?

That's a hell of a question! That's something you can get easily embroiled in and I've seen it everywhere in the music "industry", where you start out loving art and all of a sudden it becomes this business and ladder of success and you're counting up your achievements by your number of followers you get and all of a sudden that becomes more important than the art along the way. You may have had this purpose at the very beginning. If I really was to be honest with myself right now, this purpose I've found is definitely aligned with my awakening. It's like you're finding yourself again and that feeling of the reason you fell in love with music or a certain song or art. That feeling that just made you feel not just stimulated, but you are feeling something on a huge energy level. You are feeling something spiritual. You don't have to call it that. It doesn't matter what you call it. Take spirituality out of the equation if you'd like. But everybody knows you're feeling something that you just can't describe and it's probably changing your life. In lots of instances, it's definitely saving people's lives. For me, that's the top of the mountain. That's the ladder, to create something that affects someone like that. When I say finding myself, I suppose I spent...relating back to the story where I was told I couldn't sing, I found it very hard to find my identity because I didn't feel...I didn't grow up in an environment where you're praised or comfortable with being yourself. Maybe that's why it's a huge thing for me now. I don't care what anyone thinks and am just going to do whatever I want. I didn't feel like I was allowed to be myself. You would be heavily criticized for being in any way different. It makes it very hard to step into your own identity. It took me a long time to do that. So yeah, I didn't grow up in an environment where I could freely express myself. I just didn't. I wouldn't say I'm envious, but I can see it in other artists. Maybe it's a class thing. I grew up working class. Maybe you grow up middle class or upper class. You'd be in a more educated and understanding environment. Definitely a more secure environment. Maybe I'm wrong. I could be corrected. There would be more of a chance of you growing up and supporting your artistic endeavors. Working class environment is typically more about the bottom line. You have other concerns and priorities. You can't prioritize art. I've found that making guitar music is a very middle class endeavor. It really can be you know. For me, with my first EP, I put all of my money into that. If that didn't go well for me or there wasn't any return, that was it for me. I couldn't afford to do that again. That was it for me. I didn't have a wealthy family to fall back on. It's taken me a long time to become who I am. So yeah, I am only stepping into it this year. I'm 36 now. Sometimes I feel like...Kurt Cobain was dead at 27 and I hadn't even sung yet! But that's it. I just have to accept myself. This is who I am. Once you can accept that, then you can move forward and hopefully create something great. It's been a long road for me. It's been a really long road for me. Music is an ego projection. I did get embroiled in that like everyone else, where you want to be the most successful. I mean, of course I want to be successful. I'm not saying that I don't, but there's an ego trap in it. There's a trap in becoming attached to this person that you think you are. You also, I see it a lot where you become this star. It's an incredibly bullshit word, because everyone in that room where you are playing that music is just as important as you, in my mind. I can't really figure it out yet, but I will figure out how to level the playing field a bit. I just feel there's an energy. You can tell the artists who are worshipping their audience in return. You can always feel that, you know? They're the best gigs I've ever been to. The energy in the room is great. You know when an artist is just so thankful for every person in that room. Everybody can feel that energy and it just charges up the whole room. I've seen The National do that and I saw Joe Strummer do that before he died. I've seen The Pixies do that actually. You can feel that energy and that's something that's important to me. I don't have these huge answers yet, but I don't think I need them. You just need the intention to do things differently. That's what I see in my future. We'll see where it all goes.

What's next for you? You'll be releasing your album soon, but what are your plans going forward?

We're in lockdown! There's a lockdown coming up! They say gigs aren't going to back until 2021. I mean, they aren't going to let schools back until September it looks like. I can't imagine 80,000 people in a stadium being a good idea. So yeah, I'm going to write and hopefully get back into the studio soon, but for the foreseeable future, I'm on a 2 kilometer lockdown, so I don't really know. I think everybody is in that zone of uncertainty right now. It's just business as usual for me and whatever comes up comes up. I'll take every day as it comes. I haven't a clue what's going to go on, but I do know that I'm going to continue to write songs and write music. Hopefully the lockdown doesn't affect things too adversely. If it does, it does and that's the way it's going to go. I have nothing to plug, apart from my album, which I'm happy to be able to do! There was a suggestion on holding off on the release. I suggested that, wondering if we should hold off, but the label said they didn't see why we should, and I love that attitude. I feel like my music is really soundtrack-y and I think there may be some soundtracks coming up, so that's something. We'll see what happens with gigs. A tour of America would be awesome.