Eileen Gogan Talks To Musos' Guide

Eileen Gogan has been a mainstay on the Irish music scene for two decades now and she's finally released her first solo album. She first came to our attention with the John Peel-approved The Would Be's, replacing original singer Julie McDonnell.

When things went south for that band she was approached by Stephen Ryan to join his band The Revenants, another band that looked destined for world domination but never quite got there. When Ryan relaunched his career with The Drays he took Gogan with him. She remains an integral part of their sound.

The launch party for her debut album The Spirit of Oberlin was graced by many luminaries of the songwriting world. These are her friends and her peers and they've been waiting to hear what she could do for a long time. She's assembled a bespoke band around her, many of whom have been there and done it. Her keyboard player is Niall Mc Cormack of the Jubilee Allstars and they play their hit 'Please Don't Give Up on Me' with Gogan taking the lead vocal. Her voice is rich and smooth, it's like having warm cream poured into your soul.

Like many others when we heard that Gogan was releasing her first solo record, the main question we wanted to ask was 'Why now?' In this refreshingly candid interview, she told us exactly why.

Tell us about the name of the album, The Spirit of Oberlin?

I got it from George Eliot who wrote one of my favourite books of all time, Middlemarch. The main character, Dorothea, wanted to help the poor and be nice. She was 'overtaken by the spirit of Oberlin'. That's how I got the name. It's just a lovely sentence.

He was a social activist?

He encouraged education and people to educate themselves. He set up a commune in the 17th century. He was a pastor, I think Presbyterian.

Have you put out the album yourself?

I did. The Arts Council won't even back me. I have applied to them three times. I had to send a snotty email back to them this week saying "Why? Why not me?". I've heard other people who have got these residencies and they're shit. So why not me? I haven't heard back from them since and I probably won't again so I just did everything myself with money from the day job.

Bassist Eamonn Davis enters the room.

Eamonn is the reason I am here. Years ago he was the one who told me to audition for The Would Be's and I got it. It's all down to Eamonn. Eamonn played The Peel Sessions when he was in a band called Hey Paulette.

You were in The Would Be's, The Revenants, are you still singing with The Drays?

Yes, I'm very lucky to have Stephen Ryan believing in me as a singer. He said before in interviews that he thinks I'm a true singer. I think he's one of the best songwriters ever in the world. I'm delighted that he took me along. Another lucky thing. I met him in Keogh's pub and he liked my singing and asked me to sing for him. I'm very lucky to be singing with him.

Amazing to hear the Jubilee Allstars song tonight.

Niall plays in the band. Jubilee Allstars were brilliant. They had those two great songs and we played one of them tonight. Niall is great. I love being around him. He's an award winning illustrator as well. He illustrates books and he did the graphic design for the album. Orla, his other half, has a PhD in photography. He has great taste in music. He loves the New Orleans stuff, Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, that I love as well. There's not a huge audience for that music so we talk about that a lot.

And The Would Be's?

Would Be's are amazing. I was the second singer in and things went a bit pear-shaped. They had made a few bad decisions. Now they are back together with the original singer Julie. I went to see them in Whelan's the year before last. They rock. Great songwriters. 

Between them and Stephen Ryan, I found it hard to write my own stuff because the bar was so high. Geoff Travis from Rough Trade, who signed The Smiths, said it was the biggest travesty ever that Stephen didn't make it and be a huge successful songwriter. 

And The Would Be's were going to be huge. One of the best bands to come out of Ireland. So working with those people stopped me from doing my own stuff for a long time because I had a high standard to meet. But now that I have the approval of both...

The first thing on my list to ask was 'why now?'

That's it. That's exactly why now. It took a long time to get the confidence to do it. I had a lot of stuff to deal with in my personal life for a good few years and unfortunately I had started recording the album and my mother took sick. She had cancer and she passed away. Then I went back and restarted and everything was going great. In November when we were supposed to launch the album my father had a stroke so I cancelled the launch date and today is launch day, but without my dad, he's still in hospital a lot. Previous to that I just had a lot of family issues to work out. So why now? Why not now?

You're in the right place now?

That's it. I've had a lot of years of practicing my craft, practicing singing, knowing exactly the sound I want to get. I've been thwarted by giants all my life. Now I wear high heels and I'm as giant as the rest of them.

You look very comfortable on stage. Is that the first time for you to be the focus of the band?

Since The Would Be's, yeah. The Drays is all about Stephen, as it should be. It's very nice just getting up and singing a few songs so tonight is the first time that it is about me. They're all my songs. I've gotten the band together. I'm blessed with the people I know. I don't believe in god, but I believe in people and I'm very thankful every day for the people in my life.

The songs on the album, are these old songs going back over the years?

Yeah, from a while back. I've been seriously writing myself since about 2005 but it's taken a long time. I used to work part-time when the rents were cheap in Dublin and I could afford to. I would put in five hours every day to learn the craft. Since the celtic tiger and that, I had to get a full time job, took the pay cut. I was working on sound in film but I had to go full-time and be a grown up. But I found that once I had financial stability it actually made me more creative. It gives you more freedom too. They say that you only write good songs when you're hungry, it's bullshit. You write and you are creative when you feel that you have some backing. Kazuo Ishiguro said he wrote his first book when it didn't matter. He was making a living anyway. He had a restaurant going. So that's another 'why now?', because I'm financially freer and more creative.

What in your mind would make this album a success?

To be honest I put the album out and I was amazed by the good reviews it got. Tony Clayton-Lea was very good to me. He knew me from The Would Be's and he gave it a four star review. I was delighted. John Meagher from the Independent gave it a great review. Hot Press gave it a fantastic review. Lauren Murphy too. I didn't even have a PR agent so this just all happened from me emailing people.

It got great reviews and  tonight all the people I knew in my life are here. It's brilliant. I was thinking, it's the first album, play it down. But with the feedback it's been getting, what I would like is a track to be featured on a Mojo cover CD or something like that. It would fit on something like that.

The reviews have been great and people are really positive about it. Its only since the reaction, which is quite shallow of me, that I've been thinking that I should push it more. I've a second album ready to go, enough songs for a second album. But people are liking the first one. There are enough people of a certain age who like a certain tempo of music, people like me!