irish songwriters news

Pursuing happiness IN canada with GRAINNE

Let’s start with the basics – tell me how long you are living in Canada?

All my life, I was born here, I'm first generation Canadian.

Tell me about your Irish roots?

Both of my parents were born and raised in Ireland. My Mom (Elsie Cregan R.I.P.) was from Co. Tipperary and my Dad (James Ryan R.I.P.) was from Co. Clare. All of my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. are all Irish. I spent a lot of time there when I was growing up, my parents would take my siblings and I there for our holidays. I went back to there just last summer, it was my first time back in a very long time. I was quite surprised with how much it has changed, but it's still as beautiful as ever. As with all of my previous visits, I spent most of my time in Killaloe where my Dad grew up, but did manage to squeeze in a trip to Kerry and then to Kilkenny to see my Mom's side of the family. I've always felt right at home in Ireland and often feel a little home sick for it.

How do you describe your music?

Some people say it's hard to "pigeon hole" my music, but it does seem to fit comfortably into the Folk/Rock and Alt-Country/Americana genres. I think this is mainly because of the instrumentation that I use in my recordings. I write all my songs on an acoustic guitar and sometimes piano, focusing primarily on the lyrics, then I play around with the melody, tempo etc. So really, if you were to strip away all the instruments my music is really acoustic/singer-songwriter at the core.

What inspires you/drives you to compose?

I've always had a thing for writing songs, even when I was very young. Several years ago I came across a piece of paper with a song on it that I had written when I must have only been about 5 years old, I had to laugh, it was written in crayon and most of the words were spelled wrong. But to answer your question, I write about things that effect not only me, but the world around me, both negatively and positively. I'm an environmentally and socially conscious person and often feel compelled to put some of my feelings about these issues into a song, not that I'm expecting to change the world with one or two songs, but it sure makes me feel better and I often find that there are a lot of people who come up to me and tell me that they can relate, which in my opinion, is the one of most rewarding things for a songwriter. I mustn't forget to mention that I was born into a very musical family (spanning back generations), all my siblings write songs/music and many of my cousins too, my Dad's brother was a fairly successful Irish singer many many years ago as well, so I guess it's just in my blood.

What acts influence you:

I'm influenced by a lot of different artists, bands and genres of music. I'm also heavily influenced by many of my friends (many of whom are unknown artists). Some of the more well known artists that influence me are: Lucinda Williams, The Beatles, Patty Griffin, AC/DC, Jack White, Johnny Cash, Beethoven, Mozart, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, Aimee Mann and John Prine.

Do you think your music is influenced in anyway by your Irishness?

Absolutely! I think my "Irishness" comes through in my music without me even thinking about it. A lot of people have told me that they can hear a Celtic element to my voice and songs. Also, as you know, growing up in an Irish family, music is part of the culture.

Canada is a vast country – where are you based.

I live in Southern Ontario, currently based in the city of Peterborough, which is a fairly small city situated about an hour and a half north east of Toronto. It's a university town, so the music and arts scene here is quite alive and vibrant. I grew up on a small farm in (what once was) a small agricultural community, called Stouffville, about an hour north of Toronto.

How are things in Canada for artists in general. In Ireland , we have this notion that artists get great support, especially with radio play. What is the reality? ? Have you benefited from the Canadian content airplay quota system?

Canada is, as you know, a very large country with a very spread out population for the most part, so radio play is pretty much essential for a Canadian artist. Receiving airplay on mainstream stations can be quite difficult as they are required to play only 35% Canadian content each week. This makes it pretty tough for independent artists who are up against signed artists fighting for airspace on these types of stations. However, our college radio stations along with CBC Radio are a different kettle of fish, if they like your music, they are usually very supportive. I was quite fortunate with my last CD, All The Money, which made it to the charts on some of the college stations and received a bit of airplay on CBC as well. I didn't make a ton of money in royalties or anything like that, but I had several friends who live on the other side of the country tell me that they heard me on the radio, which is fantastic. One of my favourite and most supportive radio stations here in my part of the world is Whistle Radio (www.whistleradio.com), it's the local station in Stouffville where I grew up and they're wonderful, they play my music all the time.

Have you been assisted by FACTOR ?

No, not yet. Again, it's a tough one when there's so much competition and only a certain amount of funds. I've applied for recording funding in the past, but didn't have much luck, that's not to say that I won't try again

This is your second album. You worked with Moe Berg – how did this come about and what did he bring to the recording?

I met Moe through a mutual friend who was giving me advice on managing my music career. She told Moe about me so he went online, listened to some songs from my last album and really liked them. I also did some research, checked out some of the artists that Moe has produced in the past and thought we'd make a pretty good team (not to mention the fact that I was honoured to meet a Canadian musical icon, I grew up listening to Moe and The Pursuit Of Happiness on the radio . We had a lunch meeting in Toronto to discuss ideas and shortly after we started pre-production and then recording sessions. I really admire Moe and his excellent ear for music, he truly is 100% professional and a pleasure to work with, he's a really great guy. He definitely brought a lot to the recording, he added his quality touch helping to make my songs a little more listener/radio friendly with a few arrangement adjustments and brought the songs to a whole new level, not only in his work as a producer, but also as one of the musicians backing me (he played bass and electric guitar and few other odds and sods of instruments . He would offer suggestions, but still gave me all the freedom in the world to choose when it came to musicians, engineers, studios etc. Luckily, Moe and I saw eye to eye on most of this stuff, so really, it was a walk in the park as far as these things were concerned. He introduced me to some excellent studios, engineers and musicians and brought my music to a whole new level, he actually gave my songs the lift that I was looking for and took them in the very direction that I wanted them to go in. One of the things I love the most about working with Moe and the finished result, is that in some of the songs, you can ever so slightly hear the influence of The Pursuit Of Happiness shining through. I would most certainly work with him again in the future.

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