Niamh Regan - Come As You Are track by track
The Galway artist talks through all 10 - or 11 - songs on the record, making a song with Soak, touring with CMAT, and lots more
Galway artist Niamh Regan released her second album Come As You Are via Faction Records on May 31. I talked to her around that time for TPOE 313, which you can listen to here and below via the player. You can read the interview, edited for length and clarity, below. It was a general chat about the last couple of years since Regan released her little-album-that-could Hemet in 2020 (I talked to her about that on TPOE 179) before we go through Come As You Are track by track, touching on loads of other things along the way. Regan is in the midst of a little tour around Ireland with a full band. She was in Cork’s Cyprus Avenue last night, November 14. Tonight, Friday, November 15, she’s at Liberty Hall in Dublin and on Saturday, November 16, Niamh Regan plays Galway’s Róisín Dubh.
So we talked about four years ago, before Hemet, your debut album, came out. Does that feel like a world away now that you're just on the cusp of releasing your second album now in at the end of May 2024? Does that feel so long ago?
It really does. I don't know where the time went, actually, but it does feel like a long time ago. Yeah.
How do you feel looking back on that record?
Hemet did so much for me, the first record, that I didn't expect it to do. It opened so many doors, met so many people, played a lot of stages I didn't expect to play. Yeah, very grateful for the debut album to have done what it did. But it also paralysed me for about three years trying to write and trying to find confidence to follow it up, because I didn't really expect anyone to respond to my first album. So now I don't know, I just put a lot of pressure on myself for this one, the second one. I think that's typical enough, isn't it? I guess when I wrote the first album, I wasn't writing for anyone else but myself. And now I suddenly started thinking about 'oh, what about people who might come to the gigs? Will they like this?' And then that put me through a spiral. So I'm really glad I took four years to get through that and write what I actually wanted to write in the end.
Oh, so did you find it hard to start writing new songs after this album came out? Had you stopped writing maybe when it was released?
I'd slowed down. I never stopped writing. But I was writing a lot of crap, stuff that I just did not like. And I just lost myself a bit. As I was saying, I was writing hoping to impress others, rather than just writing for myself. And you could hear that in the songs - I felt you could. They felt try-hardy in ways. So I took two years, basically, to just keep writing through it. And then something clicked once I started relaxing a little bit, getting back into enjoying it.
Did you realise while you're writing them that they weren't for you? What was it that made you think, 'No, this just isn't working for the second album?'
I feel like they were just not coming from a genuine place. I was writing just to write and just to put out stuff. I looked around and I was like, 'Oh my god, everyone is flying it. And they've just put out, you know, their fourth album, and they barely took a breath.' And I just thought if you wanted to be a professional musician, this is what you have to do. And you have to work on that pace. And then there was always that fear of like, oh, you're a tiny little flash in the pan because you were out during the pandemic and people were just being nice to you. You're like, 'Oh, God, I better build from this or I might be forgotten.' And then I just realised that I was blowing it all out of proportion, in general. And just had to sit back and enjoy writing some songs.
I guess you do hear a lot of musicians say that, you know, 'this music is for myself and if anybody else likes it, that's a bonus'. Is that something that you maybe learned through the course of this record that you have to be honest, and you have to like the record and if anybody else likes it, then great?
Absolutely. Like, I had like four notebooks of songs of what I wanted it to be and essentially going into the second record, I wanted it to be full of - and I hate this word. I really hesitate to use it - but like bangers or like a good, fun album that was a full-band, positive experience, maybe like a glow-up experience. Except that just did not happen and the life and the four years that I experienced while doing it, that just did not happen. So this album was kind of weird. And it's weird because I felt weird a lot of the time going through it. Like you said, I like these songs and if anyone else felt weird, they might relate to this, but I don't know if it's gonna be a mainstream banger hit haven. But that's OK.
Before we talk through the album, I wanted to ask about some of the standout moments for you from the past four years. You could probably pick out a whole host of them, but just some that jump to mind, for me: You got to tour with CMAT recently enough. I'm guessing that that was a load of fun.
Yes, that's absolutely number one highlight. I still haven't found the correct words to do it justice because I would watch CMAT every night of the week if I could and never get bored. Genius at work and just yet one of my favorite songwriters.
She's full of praise for you too. She just seems to be like a good supporter; once she likes someone's music, she champions it too. It must be so nice to be around someone like that.
Yeah. And I think as well, she's just overall a good champion of Irish music. She just sees the good and she can find the good - like, all great musicians, they can find the good in everyone. I think if you're a great musician, you don't pick others apart... they're just quicker to see the positives. Then I think when you're struggling, sometimes you can be dismissive about other artists, be it jealousy or whatever it is. Really good professionals, I think, you'll never find them saying a bad word about somebody who's up and coming.
You did Sounds from a Safe Harbour in Cork in September 2023, hanging around Cork City playing with a load of musicians too. Did you find that a fruitful time?
Absolutely. Just lots of fun. It was daunting initially being in a room with Eoin French from Talos and Olafur Arnolds and trying to write a song within a week with them. And then just seeing all the music throughout the week, it was just such a densely packed week of music that you couldn't come away not feeling refreshed and inspired. Shoutout to Mary Hickson (organiser).
Did you have Come As You Are already in the bag at that stage? Or did that week contribute at all to your songwriting or a song by you that you were working on?
No, it was all in the bag by then. But it definitely gave me perspective by just talking to - there were so many different musicians at different levels there and just being around that is inspiring, it's just nice. They're just normal people doing music. I was like, 'Yeah, there's lots of really good angles to the music industry.'
You mentioned his name there, Olafur Arnolds. He played piano with you in Ballydehob, I think it was the opening night of your solo tour around Ireland in Levis's in February. That must have been a nice moment for you? What an interesting thing to happen.
What an interesting thing to happen. Yeah, it was very impromptu. I don't know Olafur that well, just the week spent together in the room writing (at Sounds from a Safe Harbour), but I think he's very spontaneous and enjoys seeing where moments go, which I'm all down for. But I'm not quite at the level of him. So I think I was very nervous. But it's good fun. It's good to push yourself and be out of your comfort zone. That song that we did is on the album, it's the outro. I had never really played it live before other than at Sounds from Safe Harbour. So I hadn't even put it in the list for the tour. So it's interesting to slot it in with him. It was a good experience.
Is there anything that jumps to mind that I'm missing out on? Anything that stands out to you over the past four years that 'Actually Eoghan, this was the best moment that's happened to me'?
No, there's just been loads of lovely moments I'm really grateful for but I guess one that led to this album was supporting Soak and meeting Tommy McLaughlin, the producer of this record, on that tour. That was a pivotal moment, just finding a new producer. That came from supporting Soak around the UK and their shows in Ireland. It was my first tour actually, in the UK. That's a few years ago now, maybe three years ago.
Come As You Are track by track
11. ‘Record’
Well, I did want to ask first about the hidden song that's on at the end of Come As You Are. It's called 'Record' and it does feature the vocals of Soak. The lyrics seem quite tongue in cheek, am I right in saying that? "Sorry, I'm never around." "Are you still at the music?" "Are you teaching again?" I'm guessing that these are all questions that you've had to deal with over the past couple of years as well.
I feel like a lot of the songs are a bit of poking fun at myself. I was taking myself so seriously for about two and a half years after the first record came out and then realising, 'Oh, for God's sake.' So there's a lot of making fun of myself on this record - except the last song 'Mortgage', which I wrote with my partner and that's quite a heavy one. I was like, it's a weird one to end on that. 'Record', that I wrote with Bridie (Monds Watson aka Soak), is in the same vein, but a little bit more lighthearted, but it's still that kind of commitment to music and commitment to your partner and the dancing around that. It's so ridiculous, it's a hidden trackbecause the production, everything is all just like, throw everything at it and have fun. It was a good release moment, recording it and just seeing where it would go. So it was a lot of fun. I wanted to end on a positive note-ish.
Yeah, that's what I was going to ask, why is the song hidden? Because you didn't want to end on a down note.
Pretty much.
Was it a fun one to do in the studio? Was it throwaway in a way?
Yeah, it definitely was. I had a melody that I really liked, but hadn't any words for it. Tommy had to pick up kids or something. Bridie had just come up to visit and we were in the studio for about an hour just messing, doing nothing. I was tinkling away on the piano with the melody and we said we might as well throw in a few words at it. It happened very quickly. And when Tommy came back, we were like, 'Oh, we've another song.' He's like, 'Oh, no!' So it all came together fairly quickly. It's definitely a secret track for a reason. But I liked having it on it all the same, it feels like a moment.
1. ‘Madonna’
The first track on the album, and the first single that you released from the album, is called Madonna. Was this the first track that you recorded for it as well?
This was a song that wasn't going to be in it at all, because it didn't really fit in,it wasn't cohesive to the rest that I had picked. But then I realised this is not a cohesive record at all so Imight as well put the ones I really enjoy into it. 'Madonna' was a throwaway one that I wrote all the lyrics first and then put a melody afterwards and showed it to Tommy and he was like, 'Oh, we should do this.' So I did one take - you hear people say this, but I did, I literally just played the demo, we kept it, the guitar and vocals live. And then we put some creepy drones and piano to make it even more tension filled and weird and angry.
Why then is this one the first single?
I liked it because it started with question. It felt outside. It felt very new for me as a writer, as a songwriter, from my first record. It was not about me. It felt like a piece. And I felt like it demonstrates a different approach to writing. So I wanted to just put my foot out in a different way, that way, lyrically, and then it feels very familiar as my first record, because it's just soft guitar and drones and effects. It felt like a safe and a bold move at the same time, if that makes sense.
You say that it doesn't feel like a cohesive record. What were the ideas that you had going into the studio or lyrically that you had in mind that you wanted to explore?
I wanted to sound more positive, more poppy, big band, glitter, shimmer, I wanted to be a different person. I think actually in one of the tracks, I [don’t] acknowledge that but I was feeling boxed in by myself. And in a song that I released called 'Nice', it's poking fun at that. I felt like I was too nice to do that or I was a dowdy country girl that sings some folk songs and got lucky and stay in your lane - and again, this is all me telling myself that... I wanted to be something new and shiny. But as I said, that didn't happen and that's OK... But I did go into Tommy wanting louder, full band (sound), and the songs that I brought in were really empty actually. And I didn't want to tell anything personal at all. I wanted to be really guarded and I think that came from opening up in interviews and stuff where I had no experience whatsoever doing before talking about things that were just things I wasn't even able to talk about with family or friends and yet I was talking about them with strangers on the internet, which was quite an experience. So I was like, I definitely don't want to do that again. So I wanted to go in guarded.
'Madonna Whore Complex' is a Freudian term. Is that something you're interested in, psychology, exploring that side of things?
Not really. I think I just came across it and looked it up cos I was like, 'Is that a thing?' after I read (about it), and just fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. I definitely didn't go too deep. It was a reaction after watching news, actually, just news on the TV, right, cos I usually just get it from my phone. There was such a categorisation of women, and violence against women, and it really depended on, yeah, I think that's as simple as it is. I remembered, 'Oh, the Madonna whore complex,' which, you know, is way beyond me; like, I don't know Freud's take on anything, but that idea of two ways of looking, two separate concrete ways of almost good and bad. I think that sometimes happens for degrees of how much sympathy we should express nationally to tragedies. So I think that was just what motivated it.
2. ‘Belly’
I guess this is the full-band sound that you're talking about that we're getting on this record. Tell me about recording the album. It sounds like Tommy was just a really good musical foil for you.
Absolutely. 'Belly' is a jenky full-band sound. For me, it's like two different worlds where it's a little bit of me dipping my feet into indiepop, but also finding country, the middle eight is a little bit of a left turn within it. For example, Tommy is such a great musical springboard because he introduced me to Dry Cleaning, and I listened so much to Dry Cleaning. 'Gary Ashby' was the song that actually inspired how I delivered the chorus of "here you go, here you go". Sometimes I do talk in my songs, but I never inflicted a sense of attitude. I had a lot of fun doing that. I think we all went through a burst of Wet Leg and Dry Cleaning. I just wanted to be a little mad. That's what we were listening to a lot while fighting this one out. And also a lot of Charlie Crocket, who I love. So I wanted a bit of country in it too.
Could the album have gone almost two ways? You could have just done a solo album, nice, quiet songs - I dunno if you'd call that your comfort lane - but you wanted to go the big band route?
Yeah absolutely. And I don't think I actually achieved that in every area. And I think Tommy was the one who sent me down and said, 'Don't lose yourself in it.' That's why there's tracks where it's really, really pared back and really quiet and then elements of full band, but a lot of it, it falls away and comes back up and it's not this like, four to the floor, here's the band, here's the vibe. Sometimes when I put on the album, I was like, I don't think people are going to cook their dinner to this and enjoy it. And that's OK. It mightn't be commercially OK, but I think it's OK. And that's where I was at. I'm sure it'll find somebody who might be feeling a bit disjointed, too.
Was it different compared to the recording of Hemet? I'm guessing a lot of debut artists have the album ready to go when they go into the studio. Did you have Come As You Are pretty much done when you went into the studio?
I had most of the melodies together and fragments, but nope, I was an absolute mess. I had loads and loads of work done but nothing together. So there was a week where it was just me and Tommy keeping things together and being like, 'What are we doing?' This was a totally different experience. The first one is, I just don't want to waste any money or time, I just gotta, oh god, just get it done and recorded as quickly as possible. This one wasa different experience.
3. ‘Music’
The press release says this is the moment where Niamh started to feel the album come together.
Yeah, I started having fun with this one. The writing felt really easy. It happened really quickly. For this one I was writing stories as well as lyrics, and I had a note of like, 'Johnny left the band' - and I've never been in a band with a Johnny or anything like that. So this is fiction 50%, poking fun at myself 50%, and fusing it together and making it a country song, cos honestly, I got to a point where a lot of these songs that didn't make the album broke my heart. I was like, 'I can't write a song to save my life anymore and I've been so belooloo thinking I could do this music thing.' So this song was a turning point when it came, when the melody came out, I was like, 'Oh, no, no, there's something [there], I'm gonna keep going with this to give me a bit of hope.' I really enjoy singing this one. So that's always a good sign.
Did you experience writer's block in the past couple of years?
Oh, no, I definitely didn't. I was just writing badly. Like, I wish I had writer's block. I wish I maybe just stayed silent. But no, I just wrote really bad songs for a while. But I had the common sense not to go anywhere with them. I knew myself, in my gut, that they weren't right. So that's why I didn't have the album two years after the first one. Four years seems like a long time but it's not a long time, I suppose.
You have the line 'music doesn't do it for you', which you sing in 'Music'. I feel like it's a meta song almost. But tell me about that line. Where does that line come from?
I think the whole thing when I was like 'Johnny left the band' in my notes was this image of a jaded musician who's going to find something, gonna leave music, felt it wasn't serving them, and gonna be a better new person, spiritually, whatever.You find a lot of people like that, who just got bet up almost from the music industry of trying and just not working and can get a bit better and weird and feel lost. And I think I was beginning to worry that was happening to me where I was like, I know I'm not that long into it but I definitely was feeling like maybe this isn't for me, and it's not doing it for me anymore. And there's no shame in that. And genuinely music doesn't do it for me all the time, you know,
Musically or as a listener? Or both?
No, definitely not both. There'll always be something out there that'll scratch the itch in the ears, but no, just doing it and trying to hustle with it.
4. ‘Long Haul’
So 'Long Haul' is a love song but with verses that are documenting the very rough patches that go into sometimes a rocky relationship. So it became 50/50. But yeah, it's a romantic song. I think. Overall. When I sing it, it feels romantic, it's like recommitting after bumps and weights in a relationship and gearing up for the long haul. Might as well see it through to the end as long as. you know.
Did you find yourself revisiting the ideas of the lyrics on the first album at all? Like delving back and maybe rethinking them at all?
I didn't on purpose, but I probably did subconsciously. I'm sure I did. That one, I felt like I was just in a rough place and it came out naturally and it's just trying to find a bit of hope again. But I listened to a lot of Khruangbin, that Leon Bridges song that they did, and the bass really struck me and I was trying to get a different groove with 'Long Haul', like delaying the guitars and stuff like that. So production wise I had a lot of fun. And when I play this one, it's one where I really like the chords on.
5. ‘Nice’
You mentioned 'Nice' earlier in the chat - a funny song but also one that I'm guessing you're particularly proud of as well, maybe like getting it off your chest sort of a thing?
Yeah, it is a funny song. Anyone that knows me laughed at it when we were doing the production... It was just a bit of fun. It felt really nice (laughs) all the same, getting to just experiment that way and have fun and that's again down to Tommy being like, No, why not follow your nose on this if you want to put a club beat behind this',
Can you pinpoint where it begins? Like, a comment that someone makes about you being too nice.
I don't even think it's just me. I think it's the line of work that I'm in, you know, folk music girl with acoustic guitar from Galway. Isn't she lovely? Maybe I am, I don't know, but I sometimes feel like I get boxed in. I'm sure people who are emo or are playing grunge, I'm sure they get boxed straight into 'Well, this is what they are'. There's specific adjectives for them. And that's lovely and that's nice. And also I do play harmless enough music, it's just whinging about my personal life. So, if people like the melody or find my voice lovely, that's absolutely great, I'm here for it, and I'd much prefer to be too nice than not nice.
But is that something that you notice when you're, I don't know, if you're reading posts about you or what people are actually saying online? Do you find that it is gendered?
Maybe. Yeah, maybe. I think 'nice' is definitely something that comes to women more than men, but I don't know, I don't know the facts or figures of that and I wouldn't want to be delving too deep into or thinking too much about it that way. But I think it was a comment on being too nice and getting in your own way, in the sense of like, I'd be afraid to ask for things or speak up even in soundcheck, silly things; you know, I'm an adult woman, for the love of god, why can't I just say it, and yet I was finding myself trying to be too nice, didn't want to leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth or seem too demanding. Because Jesus, I do and I felt very lucky just to be there for a lot of situations. So I didn't want to, you know, raise any hassle. I think there was an element of that too, which was not serving me because you want to sound good so why not ask for what you need or demand a little bit more time?
Are you better at that now, do you think, you're not afraid to ask for things?
I'm getting there! Getting there...
You mentioned the bass earlier. 'Nice' was a track where the bass really stood out for me. Was it again, that Khruangbin sound that you were looking for?
Yeah, well, that's what I was listening to a lot. And it just felt like it needed it. It's a very stripped back track actually, there's not everything on - it feels like there's lots of bits on it but there's not when you really look down at the stems of what's going on. When Tommy played the bassline, it just brought it all together and the whole mood of it felt good. Yeah, it's my one of my favourite musical parts on the album. Thanks to Tommy. Thanks, Tommy!
6. ‘Take it Easy’
We're into the second half of the album now with 'Take it Easy'. Just you on a piano, I think anyway. Is that how a lot of your songs start, with just you and the piano, just noodling away?
Yeah, it is between the guitar and the piano. I'm a chancer on the piano but I like that. I like that it's not polished. It often brings a nicer, happy accidents and all that to your writing because you don't know what you're doing sometimes. I find the guitar a little bit more boxed in by it, chord wise.... So I like to start off on the piano, kind of rogue and then bring it to the guitar to finish it. This song is a phrase that I feel is quite rural Ireland, like colloquial , 'take it easy on the road'. I feel like anytime I walked near a car even got into one, my father would say it. I took that phrase and just built a whole little world song around it. And I like this song. I like it a lot. This was a song that I wasn't sure would fit right into the album - again, because I was so aware of I want this to be cohesive, then I threw that out the window and said, 'No, I like it. I like how it feels. I'll just stick it in and see what happens.'
Did you have a lot of other songs that you could have fitted onto this record? Or was it a tight 10 or 11 tracks if we're including the hidden song?
It was probably a tight 14 for me, and then there was a little bit of back and forth and cutting. But there was like 50 odd songs that could have, should have, would have? Who knows? I think sometimes having more than 11 can be too much. So that's why I said 10 with a secret track. Even though it's probably not that secret.
What happens to those other ideas, those other, what, 40 songs or ideas?
Just 'what if?' They just hang out on my phone and big long Google Docs and it's always good to dip back in and find things. You'll never have writer's block when you have loads of bits hanging around that could breathe more life into them or poke around.
Are you backing them up? Or are they all on your phone? Or dare I ask what happens if...
Oooh, let's not ask that question (laughs). It's on a good laptop.
7. 'Blame'
I think this might be the loudest song you've ever made. It just grows and grows towards the end. Am I right in thinking that? Did it feel like that in the studio as well, like, 'Go louder!'?
Yeah, I'm really glad you noticed that actually cos it's the one song that does keep getting bigger, which is everything against my instinct. So I had to push myself. I have Tommy and James, who played drums, to thank for that because they were like, 'No, keep going.' Because I don't normally shout, it's where I would give space in a song. This song is the seed of a theme for the rest of the album, for the last few songs, thematically what I was dealing with. This is kind of the triggering one. Yeah, it felt really fun to do in the studio. I felt almost like a different artist when doing this one and allowing instrumentals that aren't very clear, but actually muddy and foggy feeling and like, dare I say, a vibe more so than directly, like a destination is coming so I really enjoyed that.
The press release does say Wilco are a big influence and I'm guessing that we hear it maybe here most of all?
Yeah, here and definitely in 'Music', Schmilco and,I always get it wrong, but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - or is it the other way around - are two great albums. I was listening to them a lot - even the most recent one, Cruel Country and Cousin, I was loving. And that full band [sound] was for 'Music'. And then this one, definitely maybe more 'Blue Skies', this one where it gets weird.
It's funny the way that you were talking about the album earlier, saying that it isn't cohesive. But now you're saying that this song ties the end together, so it all culminates? Is that how you see it? Is that what you wanted as well?
It wasn't what I set out [to do], it wasn't intentional. But once I had all the songs recorded and started placing things in position, this is what felt right. The tail end of the record is all dealing with - they're definitely more personal, less fictional.
You just can't get away from writing about the personal.
Well, like it's not all (personal) but obviously, there's just little elements. But yeah.
8. 'Waves'
You sing 'I've been nervous my whole life. Be careful what you wish for.' That seems like you're thinking about maybe the music industry and this whole new attention, I suppose, that you're getting.
Yeah, ‘come as you are’ summed up - sorry, 'Waves' is the name of the song but 'come as you are' is the most repeated line in the song, which is the title of the album. But it would sum up the past four years I had and just trying to, instead of wallowing, just show a bit of self-compassion and getting on with it and self-love. My starting point was zero with music success so it just happened quickly. It's not that I'm an established artist, I literally just went from not doing an open mic every now and then to like getting gigs. And that's a huge leap for me. Where it was like, Oh, I'm actually doing this full time, am I crazy? (laughs) And that is the crux of the whole thing.
Do you want to answer that question? Are you crazy doing it full time?
We'll see after this album.
How are you on stage? Are you still nervous before you go on? Or is there like a newfound confidence?
I'd definitely say there's a newfound confidence. I feel most confident when I'm singing, when I get going. That's the only time I feel very, not sure of myself, but I know where I'm going with it, if that makes sense.
I saw you at the Unitarian Church earlier this year in Dublin, very good stage banter. Is that something that you work on? Does that just come out naturally?
That comes out naturally. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But I do guarantee that I'm just bringing whatever I'm feeling on the day to it. And so far that's worked for me. Everyone says the same things in between songs. But not having it sketched out, I tried to do that before and I got so nervous that it was like, way worse. It's much easier just to talk how you're talking, how you're feeling.
9. 'Paint a Picture'
I don't know have you been playing this one live but how have you found doing the songs over the past couple of months live and figuring them out?
Yeah, solo, I was figuring them out. It's been interesting. I'm looking forward to doing a few shows over the summer. And then the tour in November with the full band, I'm gonna have them as polished as possible in the sense of like, how the record is presented. But this song is interesting. I actually got a lot of smiles with the lyrics, which I didn't expect in points, I just thought this was going to be a roll your eyes, just get through it song. It's a wall as such, and then you really need that tail end of the outro to take away the cheesiness from it or the 'Ooh, kitschiness' of it. I think the production is very important. I like this song. It's a little too long, maybe for its own good. But overall, I enjoy it.
Personal songs like this, and you're playing them live, a lot of artists say eventually, they stop thinking about it (what the song is about). Is that how you found it as well, even the couple of times that you've played these tracks live?
Yes, I think with repetition and time, you probably don't feel them quite as how they first come out. Definitely from my first record, I feel that. There were emotional songs on my first record that I found difficult to perform sometimes, because that came from lack of experience as well, being thrown more easily in and having to sing an emotional song was actually something I had to learn, which I have learned. But that's taken about four years of performance, so now I know how to put on just the right amount of what to share when you're feeling emotional, instead of being pulled under the wave of being like, 'Uh oh, I might be crying. They didn't pay to see that.'
10. ‘Mortgage’
An interesting title for a song, Dare I ask what it's about? You said that you co-wrote this with your husband.
I did, yeah, wrote this with Wesley. This is about picking a very selfish career, not being around a lot, and not being exactly a clear lucrative path. And feeling a lot of pressure, essentially, as a woman, dare I say it, to crack this music mullarkey thing really quickly, before I run out of time. So I feel under pressure that way. And I think writing this song was cool, because it was like getting to bash out a few of our feelings in that. And then also just, the bloody housing crisis looming over everyone and the pressure that's putting on relationships, and looking at people being like, 'Jesus, they're all getting it together.' Like, everything flooding in and, you know, having a family now is almost like a flex. There was a lot of those feelings in this album. And I think mortgage and kids is a funny way to end it, because it's just being really honest. Of like, yeah, this has been weird. You don't really see that many musicians at the stage I'm at having children and then staying in the business. I'm over it now. But it was good to write this song
So that's the album. We've talked through all 10 songs plus the hidden track as well. How do you feel about it? Does it feel different now? Because you weren't expecting the success that came with Hemet, the attention that you got. And I'm guessing maybe there was a pressure on you for this album, maybe felt a little bit of pressure, but how does it feel now? Are you proud of the album?
I'm proud of the album. But I don't know what to expect. This sounds really silly but I don't even know how to dream or what to go for. As in I don't know what's too big or - . So again, it's hard not to set expectations because I've put a lot of money and time into this. But I'm also terrified to set expectations because we all hate to fail. To be honest with you Eoghan, I'm really nervous about it. But I'm really proud of the work. And I think if it does well, that's cool. That's very cool. And if it doesn't at least I know I wrote from a very good place, an honest place, that I can feel like in 20 years I'll look back and be like, 'Oh I'm proud of that, I'd glad I did that that way.'