Gemma turns it down for a special intimate gig in City

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Written by Alan Jacques

Tuesday, 25 November 2008

IRISH songstress Gemma Hayes will dazzle a Limerick audience with her intimate and understated sound during a special acoustic performance at Dolan’s Warehouse this Sunday, November 30.
2008 has been a great year for Gemma having released her third album ‘The Hollow of Morning’ in January to rave reviews. The charming Tipperary lass has recently been making a huge splash in the US by supporting My Bloody Valentine and playing at New York’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival.
And having literally just returned to the old sod, after a successful American tour supporting Joe Jackson, Gemma was jetlagged but clearly happy to be back home when I spoke to her this week. The 30-year-old chanteuse resides in Los Angeles these days, a far cry from the sleepy village of Ballyporeen, she grew up in, surely?
“L.A. is a temporary home, it’s where my kettle is. It was boiling when I left there yesterday, I mean roasting hot, and I just got back to Ireland last night and I’m looking out at the rain now and its just beautiful. I know it’s a cliché but there really is nowhere like home. I’ve lived in L.A. on and off for the last three years and its full of very ambitious people, it’s not a place to put down roots,” says Gemma.
“Ireland and L.A. are so different, there is no comparing them, it would be like comparing a car and a lampshade. L.A. is just like what you see in the movies really,” she laughs.
Since parting company with EMI Records following the lacklustre reception to her sophomore album, ‘The Roads Don’t Love You’, Gemma bravely opted to independently release her latest album ‘The Hollow of Morning’, co-produced by Dave Odlum and featuring appearances by My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, Bell X1’s Paul Noonan and Joe Chester.
“It is definitely very liberating to be putting out my own records, but I had to educate myself about the music industry first. Putting out the album myself gave me lots of freedom but I had to fill my head with knowledge about aspects of the business side that I never had to worry about before. I had to think about boring stuff like distribution, but once you know it it’s great; it’s very fulfilling,” she confesses.
Gemma’s 2002 debut album ‘Night On My Side’ won her huge critical acclaim and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, but having not been prepared for the spotlight and needing time to regroup and get her bearings, Gemma decided to take some time off. During this period of ups and downs in her career the critically-acclaimed singer also found to her dismay that the songs had tried up.
“The whole thing with writers block was very scary because nothing would come, and the whole experience felt like it was going on forever. I couldn’t write anything for about two years, but thankfully I have no such problems now. I wish I could sit down to write a song like some people but it doesn’t happen for me like that; they just come to me when I’m jamming on the guitar. It starts with a melody, you try and create a mood and the lyrics are always last, they are the real headache,” Gemma proclaims.
“I’ve just recorded a five-track EP, which I am dying to get out as soon as possible. It’s very different from what’s on the album, it’s real mellow acoustic singer/songwriter stuff. Hopefully it will be out early in the New Year, there’s a real sparkle to the songs and I’m excited about releasing it.
I’m also really keen to start work on the next record. I had thought about doing a whole album just on piano but now I really want to do something really up-tempo. I’ve been really lucky to have worked with people like Kevin Shields and Dave Fridmann on previous records, but I’ll probably be working with my dear old friend Dave Odlum on the next album because we know each other’s moods so well at this stage having worked together so often in the past.”
Following her recent success in the US, Gemma is now back in Ireland for a host of acoustic gigs around the country before her full-band headline show at Dublin’s Tripod on December 6.
“I’m really looking forward to the Irish tour. I’m breaking it up this time and doing it more sporadically. Some of the shows will be full-blown with the band and then I’ll be out doing acoustic shows, which I’m really excited about. It will be my first time doing an acoustic show in Limerick, I think, so that will be great. Limerick is always a special place for me to play as I went to school in Kilfinane. All my old Limerick friends come along to the show and we catch up and have a real girlies night afterwards,” she reveals.
Gemma Hayes plays Dolan’s Warehouse on Sunday November 30. Doors open at 8pm and tickets cost €20.

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