Fionn Regan: The MusicSnobbery.com Interview

If your ever talk to Fionn Regan, you'll find yourself trying to wrap your head around his odd comparisons. As you'll read below, you'll hear him compare his show to either a fireplace chat or a wildfire where you need to call the fire department or attending the Mercury Prize ceremony as feeling like a zoo keeper at a wedding. I think he meant being out of place. It goes with his debut album The End of History being on the Lost Highway country label.

Regan was wandering around his native Ireland and the UK in his early years, during which he gathered the stories and sights that would eventually find itself on his Mercury Prize nominated album. Filled with various tapestries with Fionn's easy, effortless voice providing the narration, the album puts Regan on the fasttrack of respected singer-songwriters on the scene.

I talked to Fionn while he was in New York opening for Lucinda Williams, so I would like welcome him to this space.

I know your father is a musician as well. Did he push you into being a singer-songwriter rather than a rock guitarist?
Not at all. The space he exists in has to more with composing 15-minute instrumental pieces. He was more of a session musician, backing more traditional Irish musicians. As you know, it's hard enough to keep a roof over your head and a loaf of bread on your table, and to do that as a musician or a poet is 20 times as hard. When it came to my parents, they had seen both sides of it. They didn't force me in any direction.

You grew up in a fairly remote town in Ireland. Was your early years more like a Roddy Doyle novel or Angela's Ashes?
Wow, that's a good question [pauses]. I'm thinking it's more like the novel The Peculiar Memories of Thomas Penman. It's by the guy who wrote the movie Withnail & I [Bruce Robinson]. It's based on a coastal town, so it's more like that.

Looking at your bio, you traveled around in your late teens and early twenties. Where did you go and what did you do?
I had contacts around the country, so I could join the dock workers and come back at a reasonable time. I had this parlor sized guitar that I could take with me and play songs. I would end up doing some work for a while, then I would receive a carrier pigeon from the homestead asking to come home.

You ever try your hand at busking in the tube stations?
No, I haven't. What I would actually do is play outside the venue or in the car park at the end of the night, which is kind of like busking I guess.

Well, today is a good day. Let's go down to the subway and see what you can do.
Yeah, I'd probably make enough to pay for lunch.

It's a good way to meet girls.
Yeah, if you think so.

Since you traveled around for many years, the songs of The End of History were probably around for a while.
Indeed. I guess I started recording it a few years ago. In a way, just trying to find a home to make it took a while. Making a record was fun, but staying in one place was difficult. I needed a home with land around it -- a place where people wouldn't yell at me for hanging my clothes on a line. There was a time I was living on a couch with a curtain around it. To me, I think the process of playing the record in front of 10 people, then to a hundred, then a few hundred and then a few thousand recently, it's been pretty amazing.

Was "Be Good, or Be Gone" written for anybody in particular?
It's more of a slide show of thoughts and memories. Sometimes the slides change, so I feel differently about it. It's hard to get it down to a name, address and time of when I wrote it.

The video for the song is pretty amazing, it's a good representation of you. It's simple, straight-forward images of you among various backdrops. I'm sure you must admit that it's actually a pretty funny clip at times.
Absolutely, I roar hysterically every time I see it. I suppose there's a dark humor to it and not meant to be taken seriously. The video is kind of a slide show. It's a tip of the hat to that idea.

How long did it take you to make it?
Nineteen hours.

You should have gone to a football match and put yourself right in the middle of the pitch.
[Laughs] To be honest, that video was made for so little money. It came off beautifully because the directors (Simon Atkinson and Adam Townley) were passionate about the song.

The album is mostly you on guitar, but sometimes you drop in other instruments or voices. I'm thinking of "Put a Penny in a Slot." Did you want to mix up the structure of some songs just so it's just not all you?
After a while, songs find each other. It's like a seating arrangement at a Christmas dinner. You gotta plan if your uncle will sit next your cousin and if they will get along. Songs are like that. You arrange them and hope you made the right decisions. The songs will tell you what they need. The bravest sort of recording is bare-chested, where you're not pulling rabbits out of hats. For me, when I would add different elements and people started to like, I just wanted to take them out [laugh].

I'm sure when you finished you didn't think you'd have an album that would give you recognition and nominations.
True. I was just happy to made an album in such an unconventional way. I didn't have to it hit piggy banks with hammers or search alcoves for loose change.

I know the Mercury Prize is a big deal. What was the day like for you?
I felt like a zoo keeper at a wedding. It took me while to get use to the fact that I was on the mainland, because I'd been touring for a while.

You didn't get drunk with Amy Winehouse and Natasha Khan?
I actually entered through a rope ladder and left through a trap door. It's how I deal with those types of situations. It was a good time. I got to sit under chandeliers.

When I saw you at Joe's Pub, the show was very quiet and serious, then between songs you would tell these random, funny stories. Do you try to pep up your shows or do you just say whatever is on your mind?
Sometimes, it like sitting around the fireplace and you feel like telling story. Other times, it's like a wildfire and you have to call the fire chief to put out the fire. When it feels like the fireplace is cozy, it feels okay to tell a good story to everyone.

 

 

Comments

[Jimmy Lee]

Fionn is such an insightful guy. I could listen to that record every day. I just read an interview with in the new Ragged at www.raggedmag.com where he gives his viewpoint on issues concerning singer songwriters. A good read for any musician.