'I Feel I Have a Story to Tell': Inside Róisín O's pop-heartbreak masterpiece

For all the joy, wonder and pleasure love can bring, it often culminates in the kind of crushing heartache we spend years trying to get over, with little success. That’s where music comes into the equation. When done right, there’s nothing as reassuring, comforting and uplifting as a collection of lovelorn pop songs that speak to all those shattered parts of a broken heart.

Anyone who was disappointed with Adele’s downbeat last album will simply adore Róisín O’s ‘Courageous’. Full of nuanced and achingly familiar tales about the aftermath of devastating break up, its vibrant, varied and visceral pop anthems, and stunningly rendered ballads, deliver the sort of cathartic release ‘30’ lacked.

Not that we should be surprised. The daughter of folk icon Mary Black, and sister of The Coronas’ frontman Danny O’Reilly, music is in Róisín’s genes. Already a star in her native Ireland thanks to well received debut ‘The Secret Life Of Blue’ in 2012, not to mention recent work with John Broe as part of the band Thanks Brother, ‘Courageous’ is the album that should turn her into a global name.

Yet, it hasn’t been an easy road for a singer and songwriter who’s often had to battle against her own self doubt and lack of confidence. Hence the almost unprecedented gap, at least for a young artist, between her debut and a follow up that finally began gestating during lockdown once Thanks Brother had come to a natural end.

On the back of sage advice from her manager, and the online success of her cover of Selena Gomez’s Lose You To Love Me, she realised there was still a big demand for Róisín O and began crafting an album that’s already been a major success on the Irish charts. Prior to the record’s worldwide release, we caught up with Róisín to discuss its relatable themes, growing into her songwriting shoes and what it was like when she came face to face with ‘the fucking eejit’ that inspired its finest numbers.

It sounds like you willingly disappeared into the world of Thanks Brother to avoid the pressure of following up your debut. Why were you so apprehensive about that?  

After my first album I was very self conscious, as a person and artist. It’s taken me this long, and working with Thanks Brother and Jon, to give me a confidence I didn’t have on that album, which was sort of off the cuff. I don’t think I knew the grandiosity of making a record, putting out a body of work and what it meant for my career. After I did realise it I was like ‘The next one has to be amazing.  It has to be x, y and z’ and I put that pressure on myself. After those years of doing Thanks Brother, and building up my confidence within my art, I was finally like ‘Maybe it’s time to do this and do it properly.’

How swiftly was ‘Courageous’ written once you decided to take that leap back into the world of Róisín O?

Lockdown was instrumental in giving me time. Writing is something I struggle with, more than being in the studio or performing live, which comes more naturally. But when I had nothing else to do, no promo, no gigs, it was like songwriting was all that was left and it poured out of me in a couple of months locked away down in Dingle in Ireland. Once I wrote those songs it was like ‘OK, people need to hear them.’

Is songwriting something you have to force yourself to do, almost like doing your homework?  

Totally. I had a bit of a songwriting block growing up because it didn’t come naturally. Singing came extremely naturally but with songwriting I felt I always needed someone else’s help to do it.  It took writing these songs in lockdown to think ‘Actually, I am a good songwriter. I can do this and feel I have a story to tell that people connect with.’ Which, for me, is the most important thing in songwriting. I took the long road but feel I’ve gotten there with this album. It’s very personal. The songs tell a story of the last couple of years of my life. Singing is my passion when it comes to music, but there’s something so special about putting your emotion and story down into a song.

And when it comes to telling that story, you certainly haven’t held back.

My first album, I was very concerned about holding my cards close to my chest in terms of themes and the truth behind the songs. With this album I’ve gone completely the other way, where I’m basically telling you, in layman’s terms, exactly what happened in this one conversation with my ex. In that way it’s a different journey and the subject matter of the songs is very obvious right from the beginning. I’m really wearing my heart on my sleeve. It’s something I didn’t do on my first album. I was very metaphorical. 

How did it feel to get all those experiences and emotions out? 

It was very therapeutic. When I was writing I wasn’t thinking about putting them out there. I was writing them for myself, for my own head, and to get through difficult moments in my life. When I released the first single, Heart + Bones, I couldn’t believe the reaction. It’s the most honest song I’ve ever written and about realising you’re completely still in love with someone from your past. 

People have contacted me saying they heard that song and it made them get through the loss of a loved one. Another woman got in touch and said it helped her get over a miscarriage. Hearing those stories from fans who connected to this on such a real level is something I don’t think I had with my first album and something I’ve almost got hooked to. After Heart + Bones I was still writing for the album and wanted to make the songs relatable and for people to be able to put their own stories in, even if they didn’t match mine. Those are the songs I love.

There’s also been a significant stylistic shift too.

This album is definitely more pop-oriented and the last album was a bit more folk. That was just a natural progression. I love pop music and think maybe on my first album I was, not too snobby, but a bit worried about being too pop because I wanted to be taken seriously. Whereas this album, I wrote it for myself and was trying not to worry about other people’s opinions. When that happened naturally it ended up being a pop album with lots of ballads and upbeat pop songs. It wasn’t a conscious choice, that’s what came out when the songs were written in a very honest way.

Stolen alludes to being asked by an ex, who is the subject of Heart + Bones, what that song is about. How did he feel when he found out?

It was funny. Heart + Bones had done quite well on the radio and charts over here. I was walking my dog and bumped into the guy who I’d written it about. We hadn’t talked in a very long time and were chatting away and he was like ‘So what’s the story about that song Heart + Bones?’  I was like ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Well…who’s it about?’ And I was like ‘It’s obviously about you, you fucking eejit!’  

Stolen is the conversation that ensued ‘You ask me what I write about, how have you not worked it out? It’s hard enough to take, we didn’t give it all away, it was stolen.’ It was that feeling that years had gone by and, when a relationship ends, you have all these reasons why you end it and then sometimes, years later, you look back and all you can remember are the good feelings and those reasons are harder to recollect.

What can you tell me about Better This Way, with regards to the atmospheric brooding sound of the track and your defiant vocal? 

It has a different vibe and more of the crossover folk elements of the first album, but in quite a dark way. I wrote it after the end of a relationship and having the other person telling you ‘I don’t care what you say, that we won’t be better this way.’ You’ve made this decision and you’re gonna regret it is basically the theme and, when I wrote the song, I was feeling ‘Maybe they’re gonna be right?’  That’s the start of the story, in a way, and Heart + Bones came a few years later from that same relationship. I wrote it when I was in quite a dark place, but it’s a song I’m really proud of. 

In contrast, Better Now provides such a loving and powerful release. It must be great to perform live?

It’s so good live because it’s quiet for so long and then has this big fuck off Florence + the Machine like chorus. The key is so high for me. I wrote it with Lar Kaye who is a great musician from All Tvvins. When I got into the studio he had the backing track written and I just wrote the top line over it. So the whole time I was like ‘We’re gonna have to take this down a semitone’ and he said ‘No way.’ It’s the highest chorus I’ve ever sang in my life but I’m glad he pushed me to do it because it really gives that epic feeling of ‘She sounds like she’s better now.’ 

It’s interesting how, sequence-wise, Still Gold follows that track and partially drags you back after you’ve heard one of those inevitable third person tales about your ex. It highlights the reality that healing isn’t a linear journey.

One hundred per cent, totally. When I wrote Still Gold I felt I was nearly over the person but still loved and cared about them. I could see that they were going through a tough time in their life and other people were talking behind their back. But I knew that person was still gold even though I hadn’t seen them in so long. You can still have those feelings and not be head over heels in love with someone but, in the end, the album shows I obviously was still head over heels.

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