“It’s amazing to be back in Ireland, I don’t know about saints, but it’s definitely the land of scholars, and writers, and just to be around that kind of energy again is amazing.”
Having spent 15 years in Australia, singer-songwriter Roesy permanently returned to Ireland. He is excited at the prospect of once again getting stuck in to the music scene here.
The Offaly man will be performing in Stiúideo Cuan, Spiddal, this Friday, June 12, as part of Féiste Ceoil an Spidéil.
Lyrically-driven, and influenced by a wide variety of genres including folk and acoustic, the musician from Birr describes how he finds that there is a special appreciation for songwriting in Ireland.
“We’re just storytellers. We just love interaction, we just love yapping and talking and interacting with one another, and I think it’s a continuation of that with the stage,” he says.
“Our calibre of musicians and standard of songwriters is off the charts. Our appreciation for music, our encouragement of other people that are in any way in the arts, I find among peers and the general public is just phenomenal.”
He says it was a challenge to make a living as a musician Down Under. “In Australia my music didn’t go down really. I couldn’t get it off the ground in any real sense to keep the lights on,” the musician says. “I did so many different things in Australia, I drove taxis, I was a graphic designer in the dairy industry, I worked in disability and age care. You name it, everything from washing dishes to delivering pizzas, I gave everything a good go.”
“I played cover gigs to keep my voice fit, but regarding my own music, it’s really seen as a hobby out there,” he says.
“Here, people say: ‘Play one of your own ones, play your favourite song…’ You hear a pin drop. You’re connecting with the audience, the audience is connecting with the artists. There’s nowhere like it in the world. In Ireland, they’re just different.”
It’s clear that the music scene in Ireland is a space of great value and meaning for Roesy as a singer, particularly one with folk influences.
So, what’s it like being a more contemporary singer-songwriter, where a premium is put on original material, when also influenced by the Irish music scene?
“It’s funny, because I was doing the traditional stuff, and actually made a traditional album called The Day Before The Fair, and it’s all ‘Red is the Rose’, ‘Cliffs of Dooneen’, ‘Boys of Barr na Sráide,’ even “Danny Boy’,” Roesy says.
“I loved them on it because I had them at a point where I was like I felt like they were my own. And there’s something aboutIrish folk songs; they’re so powerful.
“I was there in Australia, raising my daughter. But when you’re singing a song like ‘The Cliffs of Dooneen’, and you’re so far away from home – the amount of songs that have been written about that pining and that longing – you can still interpret them in that situation.”
Indeed, Roesy found that by immersing himself in the older traditional songs, this actually helped him with his own song-writing.
“I very much started to interpret song, and I’ve always done that. If I start to cover a song, it’s got to be something I resonate with lyrically, I do make it my own,” he says.
“When I came back to writing songs, I think it was a good thing in so many ways, because I came back to the craft, and I really felt I spent more time on honing the scale of the language and the phrasing. I’m really happy with where I’m at, writing-wise.
“I do see it as a craft. It’s like a game of chess you play with yourself. The structure and composition of songs, and all of that. I love it.”
Despite his love for the Irish music scene, Roesy recognises that things are still challenging for artists here.
“I know people are struggling, absolutely. I mean, I’ve always struggled making a living out of my music career, most definitely. I’m a visual artist as well, so I paint, I do wood burning, I do all these things alongside music,” he says.
“There’s so many great venues that work so hard, they’re akin to how the artists are trying to stay above water, but they just have such a belief in keeping the tradition of going out to see a songwriter, and having an intimate experience.
“I think hopefully people are putting two and two together and going: if you don’t come out and support live music, it disappears.”
Tickets available on Eventbrite.
