Interview: Emigrant.ie
Posted on 20. Oct, 2002 by admin in Damien News.
It’s rare in these days of over-produced pop and manufactured bands that word of mouth had launched a career, but Damien Rice is one of the talented musicians who slog it out throughout the country building up a fan base – and it’s paying off.
Rice was previously the lead singer of a band called Juniper. He recently embarked on an Irish national tour to launch his solo debut album, entitled O. His debut album, O, entered the top ten in the first week of its February release.
His music incorporates many instruments, from a boozy clarinet in “Cheers darlin’” through to an ensemble of strings in “Amie” – the latter was produced by highly acclaimed film score composer David Arnold, who worked with Bjork on her song “Play Dead.”
Susan Phelan of the Irish Emigrant’s print edition in Boston and New York caught up with the singer as he made his way to the Dublin’s RTE studios to speak with David Fanning.
IE: Was the leap into the solo post-Juniper void difficult to face?
Damien: After Juniper, I was busking around Europe on my own, which was scary at first. But I got to see a different side of life. I learned to live for today, forget about your plans or your career, which usually restrict you or make you afraid. You have to learn to let go. Now I’m working on holding on to just letting go…if that makes sense.
IE: The title ‘o’ is unusual. What inspired it?
Damien: It just popped into my head. One of the songs has the line “read me the story of o” – it’s from a French porn novel. I thought it was a great line.
IE: How do you write your music?
Damien: I find it really difficult to explain what happens when I write. It’s a bit like crying. That moment you are saying all sorts of things. You don’t know what you are saying, but they just come out. Blah blah blah blah – babbling – not really saying it, not really conscious of it. Pouring out emotion and not being conscious of it. It is really quick so it all comes out. Like an accidental surge of energy then the guitar falls into the hand.
You’re not paying attention, then you look back and go “wow, that’s nice”. I like that.
IE: How did you find yourself working with the likes of David Arnold?
Damien: I sent him a demo and he expressed interest in some of the things I was working on.
IE: But did you ever stop and think, “I am in David Arnold’s sitting room; I can’t believe it”?
Damien: No. I never think of things like that. To me everybody is just human. The moment I’d think of it like that I would just lose it. Then I’d start falling into the industry and fall out of the music, you know. When it comes down to it, it doesn’t really matter. The people that inspired it are normal people living normal lives.
IE: What was your reaction to seeing the CD in the store for the first time? Did it wow you?
Damien: No. Things that wow me are – like, when I take off in a plane. That is more wow to me than seeing your CD in the shop. I’m not doing it for a sense of stature or achievement. It was more surprise to me that it went in so high. [O hit number seven on the first week of release.]
IE: Come on, surely you allowed yourself a smug smile now and then?
Damien: No. I was so used to battling and pushing before. Kind of like”can we even get some copies into the stores?” Then just selling them at the gigs. Things spread out from that. The album came out and all these people were looking to buy it. Part of me doesn’t want to take it in. If I started to look at what I could achieve then I think it would lose the essence of what I do and how I do it.
IE: I have to ask the age-old question: What are your musical influences?
Damien: I don’t listen to music.
IE: That’s rather puzzling. What was the last CD you bought?
Damien [pondering]: Hmmmm. . . The last CD I bought was The Frames last year. Only reason I bought it was to support them because I know them. Before that, it was about four years since I bought a CD. Now I get given a lot of music. I don’t get much time to listen to it. I just don’t find myself listening to music very much. I do when I go to other people’s houses. They put it on and I love that, but I don’t really listen at home or anything.
IE: Have you thought about the US market and touring there?
Damien: I haven’t really thought about the US market. I have thought about the country. I really want to go over and play. I think we are planning to go soon.
