Damien Dempsey Interview
The Dublin singer-songwriter talks staying up to the early hours with Springsteen, his new album Soulsun, and his advice for young Irish musicians
Damien Dempsey has been at the forefront of Irish music for twenty years. The Donaghmede man first came to national prominence in 1997 with his Top 20 charting single ‘Dublin Town,’ a rap-esque, socially conscious ballad describing the daily grind of Dublin’s disenchanted.
During the early years of the twenty-first century Dempsey established his voice as one that, album after album, would pick away at, and question the nature and values of Celtic Tiger Ireland.
More recently however, his music has retreated from songs of protest and social dissatisfaction to themes of a more universal and spiritual nature, as on the recently released, Soulsun.
A wide ranging record, Soulsun encompasses examples of rock, trad, folk ballad and even reggae. But a constant throughout is Dempsey’s rich imagery and natural ability as a storyteller. Though he made his name focusing on the plight of ordinary human existence, you get the feeling that at heart Dempsey is an optimist, and Soulsun comes across as a feel-good, almost cleansing record.
In two decades in Irish music Damien Dempsey has grown from a novelty protest singer to a sort of national uncle. A popular voice in the national conversation, he is unafraid to offer his cut-throat comments on modern day Ireland or lend his support to issues he feels strongly about, such as last year’s Home Sweet Home initiative, a campaign designed to re-house Dublin’s homeless in the city’s unoccupied buildings.
We recently had the chance to speak with Damien ahead of his upcoming gigs in Limerick and Dublin later this month, where we discussed his influences, his career to date and some of the inspiration behind Soulsun.
You’re known for your unique singing style, using your own accent and voice in your songs. Was that an approach you picked up from another artist, or did you always have the confidence to sing in your own way?
The Dubliners, Christy Moore, The Fureys, they were all doing it when I
was a kid. When it came to my time, it was dying out. The ballad boom
was disappearing, it wasn’t cool anymore. But I couldn’t not do it.
What band or artist was the first you heard that made you want to pick up the guitar and write and sing songs?
All of the above and Phil Lynott, Sinead O’Connor and Bob Marley.
Would you say there’s a particular theme to Soulsun?
Maybe getting back to the free spirituality based in nature that our
ancestors thrived on in harmony with the planet for tens of thousands
of years. Before man made religion and industrialisation and
colonialism started to mess things up.
The opening track, ‘Soulsun,’ establishes a bleak mood but as the song progresses there’s a determination that things will get better. Where did you come across the term ‘Soulsun’ and what does it mean to you?
I came up with the term ‘Soulsun’ in one of my writing trances and it
could allude to a reawakening of humanity. Like the fact that through
banning aerosols we’ve hugely reduced the hole in the ozone layer, the
layer that protects life on earth. The media gave this huge victory so
little coverage that I realise now that the owners of the media don’t
want to give us good news. I believe there’s a great future ahead if
we can unroot the one percent, the luciferians that control this world.
The song ‘Sam Jenkins’ follows a young British soldier in Ireland during the famine. As he realises the point of his presence there, he rebels against it, and suffers the consequences. It’s a fascinating story song in the vein of Bob Dylan. Where do you start out with a song like that?
You take an old ballad, I used the phrasing of ‘The Kings Shilling’
for my song ‘Chris and Stevie’. Take an issue you’re passionate about,
put your own lyrics to the old ballad, then change the melody and
chords, and be willing to put in the work until its right.
The album was produced by your long-time producer John Reynolds. What does that collaboration bring to your recording process?
He’s my filter, he’ll tell me if it moves him or not and tell me that
one part works and another doesn’t, so I’ll work on a new part. It’s hard for me to hear sometimes when I think the song is deadly, but
he’s mostly dead on. When I listen back a year later I totally agree.
And he’ll give me grooves to write to, and is a brother.
In an interview with the Irish Times in 2014 you said that ‘community is what it’s all about.’ You still live in the area you grew up in. Where do you think that sense of community comes from in you?
The only reason the Irish and other oppressed people around the world
survived the centuries of imperialism was community. Looking after
each other, sharing whatever little we had. And slagging the bollix out
of each other, and singing our songs together.
Bruce Springsteen is as big a name as you get in rock and pop music. You supported him in Kikenny in 2013. What was that experience like and had you been a fan previously?
I’m a big fan of his early imagery on songs like ‘Racing in the Street’,
‘Born to Run’, ‘Meeting across the River’ etcetera. He paints a picture with the words, it’s like watching a movie, and I’ve tried to do the same in songs like ‘Spraypaint Backalley’, ‘Factories’ and ‘Canadian Geese,’ from my
experience of working class life. And he sat up until 7:00 a.m. in a hotel
bar in Kilkenny with us having a singsong. He’s the real deal, no
bullshit, and half Irish to boot, cursed with terrible depression, but
uses music to combat it.
‘Party On’ is one of the most anticipated songs during your live shows. The crowd bellow out the chorus together, as if it’s a war-cry for their night out. But looking at the lyrics, the song actually seems to reject that idea of the party life?
The song is a warning that to let party life be your be all and end
all can be detrimental. There’s a nice balance you can find if you love
to party. Time away from partying when you can still the mind and eat
well and recharge the batteries can be a great inner party.
Lastly, what one piece of advice would you give to young men and woman, walking around Dublin today with their guitar on their back, on how to make a sustainable career in the music industry?
Build up a great live reputation. Word of mouth is the key for the
majority of great music going on around the world right now. The best
music these days flies under the radar. But it helps people who listen
to it to be better people.
Damien Dempsey plays Dolans Warehouse, Limerick on July 20th and the Iveagh Gardens, Dublin on July 21st.
Soulsun is out now on Clear Records.
