Fionn Regan on Touring, The Shadow of an Empire and The Dylan Tag
Featuring: Fionn Regan
Written by: Alex De Petro
Published: Mar 4th '10
Ireland's answer to Neil Young, Dublin's Fionn Regan is a dark and mysterious indie-folker who speaks in metaphor and simile. A singer-songwriter in the old-school style, Regan took a 'pen and paper' (and old typewriter) approach to writing the gritty and mature songs on his second full-length album, released early February. Here, Fionn talks with Alex De Petro about touring at home and abroad, his second album The Shadow of an Empire and being labelled this generation's Bob Dylan by none other than American country/folk superstar Lucinda Williams,
It’s called The Shadow of an Empire. The shadow is about different things, it’s positive and a negative. For people with fair complexion the shadow is like a mother or something you can tuck underneath, but there’s also another shadow that is cast by man-made things, like war, I think the record plays on both those kind of shadows. The positive and the negative. It’s not a beautiful box with no contents, I can say that about it, it’s a record that’s more like a sack with a sapphire in it, an old chair that in the upholstery you find a ring, or you put your hand down the side of a couch and find a tenner. I think it’s a record that will reveal itself totally only after a few listens, you have to listen to it from start to finish, and it’s definitely an album not just a collection of a few songs. If you hear one or two songs you might get off on the wrong horse. It might take a bit of time, but then again, not that much time. Not an extortionate amount of time.
Did you find there was more pressure recording your second album than there was recording your first?
No the first album was, well I won’t say pressure, you know the pressure is within the artist, he’s trying to go somewhere and push himself to go somewhere. I think the pressure for me, the artist, is trying to find a way to find the bridge from when you finish a record to when the record goes out into the world. Especially in the times that we live in and the way the wheels spin, it seems like every time you make a record you have to get a record deal, there isn’t that long term support for artists like there used to be. They take it on a case by case basis, and the pressure comes at that point to be honest, when you’re trying to find a way to get your record out. I find that when you’re going along on a shoestring you can use all your restrictions to your advantage, it’s like if you have no buttons for a shirt and you have to use safety pins. It’s that sort of world that you’re living in. To me it’s like, I think about things, and it’s about playing with my furrow, and getting good at playing, and realizing that it’s a tool you have to get good at. It’s a lot of acres, it takes time and it’s not like a firework that goes up and it’s beautiful and it flashes and then it’s a carcass on the ground. It’s something else, it’s more like a rainbow, or the northern lights.
What’s your favourite track on the album?
Well all the songs I enjoy playing for different reasons. I like the song ‘Violent Demeanour’ a lot. It sort of came about when I was touring and the reflections of touring came back into that song. I remember seeing a character on a roundabout holding a plastic bag, a desolate, lonely sort of character and I remember thinking ‘imagine if you were desolate and on a roundabout and friendless and the bag was full of birthday cards’, you know, the contrast between the birthday cards but being completely left out. That song was written about being Shanghaied in the docklands, I was reading about how they had a little trap door and if you were friendless and wandering around the place they would Shanghai you. It became a really visual thing in my head, and when we play it live there seems to be a real ‘hair-on-end’ moment. Also, the song ‘Lord Help My Poor Soul’, I was reading Edgar Allen Poe and how his last words were supposedly “Lord Help My Poor Soul” and he was standing on a pavement in Baltimore with somebody else’s clothes on. The last song, ‘The Shadow of an Empire’, we’ve started playing that live and the thing about that song is that every time we play it or record it, it’s been filmed recently, and every time we play it rains, the sky gets dark outside and there’s no drizzle, it’s like a biblical rainstorm. It’s been six times now, it gives you this kind of chill about the song. I like the drama of rain so it’s not something that puts me off, it excites me.
What’s your process for writing lyrics?
Well for this record I used a typewriter and Moleskine with a pencil. Sometimes a song will come out of 10 pages of notes, and you just condense it down. I enjoy the challenge of trying of trying to see it go off down to three or four minutes or something. I also write a lot of things that never make it into a song, I don’t know what to call that yet, I just put them in a drawer in my desk. It really just comes down to writing and getting on that row of writing and making sure that you’re turning the lightbulb on in your own head and it’s resonating in your own spirit. Once that’s happening you’re away, that’s the nucleus of everything.
What’s your best memory of touring?
I enjoy playing Glastonbury festival, I’ve been there a few times and I really enjoy that. Being there, camping, floating around in the mud and getting to play to so many people. Also touring with Lucinda Williams, she took me on tour in America and introduced me every night as the ‘Bob Dylan of this generation’, she’s such a big artist over there and she took me under her wing. We played some nights where Steve Earle was there, that was such an exciting time. There’s also this festival called the Electric Picnic in Ireland, there’s 7000 people singing every single word of ‘Hey Rabbit’, that was a pretty memorable moment and it felt like something had changed at that point, for the better. It’s hard to tick a selection box of the highlights, questions like that are like the spirit of the staircase, as soon as you leave the party you think of what to say, but it’s always too late. But I like touring anywhere, the stage is the stage, people are people, it doesn’t really matter where you are, you’re always just touring the world. I haven’t made it to Japan yet, but I hope to make it to Japan sometime soon.
You have a few shows lined up, you’re touring the next few months, will you be coming over to Australia?
Yes! The plan has been hatched, so to speak, I don’t know exactly when the shows will be, but the plan is underway and it’s definitely on the cards. It’s definitely something to look forward to, we had a great time there last time and the audiences are something to really look forward to.
