I had the pleasure to talk to Irish sweetheart and songstress Lou McMahon amidst her latest single release 'Pockets of Change' and an upcoming video. Lou talks us through her multifaceted array of talents that doubtlessly contribute to her music making, as well as sharing her writing process, career up's and down's, and what's to be expected in the future!
For me, the track comes out at a solid
4/5 ****
Sophie Darling (Soph):
Something that becomes immediately apparent when researching Lou McMahon, is that you're completely multifaceted. We're talking: voiceovers, session musician, radio production, journalism, cultural reporter - what does all that entails, and what indeed is a "cultural reporter"?
Lou McMahon (Lou):
So I do cultural reports for a company called 'Sounds Doable', and the reports I do air on national classical music stations, during their prime / drive time of 6-10pm everyday, and my segments called ‘Lou McMahon's Culture Drive’, it has a huge listenership actually, and what it entails is traveling around the country researching artists' events, even a new perfume - it could be anything really.however mostly I cover music-related things: a lot of album releases, a lot of traditional Irish music that's happening around the country.
A big one I did recently was Roisin Murphy who we can call a super star in the disco scene, you know the track "sing it back, bring it back" - so I did an interview with her not so long ago. So that's probably my biggest claim to fame in regards to the 'Culture Files’. However because it was in the middle of all this Covid stuff, I couldn't meet her in person, so it was over zoom and she recorded her end on her side, and I on mine - sitting in our individual apartments and chatting about her new album ‘Roisin Machine.’
Soph:
Do you find that doing these interviews up and down the country, with the cultural reporting (which by the way, sounds like an awesome job), do you find that this influences your personal music as you're making it, or are they quite separate.?
Lou:
I would say they're quite separate - the only thing that's similar is the networking side of it.
I meet artists, I meet people working in the music industry - a lot of people through it all, so in that regard, it definitely is connected. Also in terms of the technical aspect of it: as in the skills required for recording and editing - that is certainly also tied in.
Soph:
Given Covid and lockdown, have you found yourself using skills to make music in a different way, that perhaps you would have without covid in a lockdown?
Lou:
Every day I'm sitting at the computer.
Due to Covid, I started a part-time course doing music production for video games: it's to do with composing, making sound design, and doing interactive storytelling.
So included in this course is a lot of different software - some I went in knowing how to use, because of using them for my own music: such as, Logic Pro. Logic Pro is my preferred music-making platform to use for my music demos - but for this course, I need Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Unity, F Mod, and for the audio reports I use further software. So every day I'm sitting at a different digital audio editing workstation in my small little converted bedroom studio/office.
Soph:
I love hearing about all the strong and wonderful ways musicians have made music in lockdown, it's inspiring. I believe it's helped musicians take back some of the control in music-making, and has allowed them to do a lot of new things. Such as yourself choose to level up in composing and film scores. Do you think you will enjoy making music for films and games?
Lou:
That has always been a dream of mine for the longest time. you know I went into my music career as a songwriter, I was writing songs when I was a baby, and that's just a part of who I am.
Soph:
Let's expand on that, can you tell us about when you first started to make music, and what inspired you particularly?
Lou:
Yeah I grew up in a house where everyone could sing - everyone, and my brother also played musical instruments. I also grew up in a small community town called "Six Mile Bridge" in County Claire, and there were a lot of resources here for us musically there were community games, variety groups, there were talks of the towns, and youth clubs - so it was constant. Every year I was in about two or three shows within the community: dancing competitions, Irish style singing - I was constantly in attendance as a child.
We were lucky growing up that our community made that available to us - there were people in the community that volunteered to do all this, they gave their time to us, and that really was the making of me. The musical skills were already there, but I really got the opportunity to develop them here, where I'm from, and I'm very lucky - all these amazing people gave their time to me.
Soph:
So you've always been mega musical then.?
Lou:
Oh yes, that's always the way.
Soph:
At what age did you start to actually compose lyrics and melodies and put whole songs together.?
Lou:
I must have been about 5.
You know the way kids do that anyway, they sing along, they make things up. My parents were avid ‘Queen’ fans, Freddie Mercury and all that. At the time when I was growing up, everything was recorded analog to tape… there was no CDs even.
My parents had brought me a Fisher Price tape recorder for Christmas, actually, it was Santa Clause. So I got one of these and I found my parents' Queens greatest hits’ tape, and somehow I managed to figure out that I needed to break the seal to record over the tape - so I recorded over their Queen greatest hits with my own writing and singing over the top, I was about 5 /6 when I did that.
SOPH:
How did they react? Or are you too young to remember, but old enough to record an album?
Lou:
They found it funny, the way they tell the story is that my father's friend who was living just over the road had asked if he could borrow the tape because he wanted to copy it. He came back a few hours later and said there's literally no Queen at all, only your daughter's singing throughout.
Soph:
How funny! Since then, the music you had made can be described in a few different styles: predominantly folk but also elements of jazz, trad, and pop. How do you best describe your musical influences?
Lou:
My influences are vast: I always listened to so much music and I think the folk thing definitely comes from listening to both Dylan and Joni Mitchel and all these folk artists - very vintage folk from the 60/70's, I listened to them an awful lot growing up.
I also listening to Leonard Cohen. then when I got a bit older I got a bit antsy. I started listening to PJ Harvey sort of punk, rock that kinda stuff, Nick Cave.
I worked with a member of The Pogues: obviously, that's a huge influence on my music, his name is Terry Woods.
So I was writing the melody and I was writing the lyrics, and I was singing the songs. and then when I started to work with Terry, he brought this style to my music which I already had there, but he helped to bring it out. So I would say there's a lot of influence there too coming from him and that Pogues sort of Irish punk elements that's there.
Soph:
How did it come about, and what did it mean to you to make music with Terry Woods of the Pogues? Which obviously, regardless of how much you're into music or even Irish music. most people know how (who?) this man is.
LOU:
I was trying everything I could to make it as a songwriter when I was a teenager, say 17-25, and I entered so many competitions and things and I was just putting myself out there a lot.
My then-boyfriend had been in a TV series called 'You're a Star' - like an X-Factor
of Ireland.I was touring as his backing singer, and as part of that, I was playing support to him in a kind of a small underground venue in Dublin.
Terry happened to be at the gig, and he just liked what I was doing and offered to help me to develop as an artist. That was the first meeting.
I was young
Terry is very dapper, he wears fancy clothes, regardless, by face I didn't know who he was, he had a sort of a trilby hat on, a long coat that came down to his knees and he looked very handsome and refined. He stopped and he shook my hand and (she) said something like "you have a great voice" or something and he just walked off. Someone turned to me and said, "that's Terry Woods from The Pogues", so I was really chuffed with myself at that point.
We ended up working on an album together, me as a backing vocalist. After he helped me develop my EP. and we're friends now, you know he's a lovely person and I've learned a lot from him.
Soph:
Sounds like he was a good patron figure.
Lou:
Yeah he is that sort of person - he likes to help which is nice.
Soph:
I've noticed that across the board, the lyrics are important in your compositions: you use them to relay these stories and ideas and fantasy-esque stories. Do you find that the lyrics lead the composition when you're making songs, or is the other way round..
Lou:
It could come, either way, lately I'm very led by music and melodies, which seems to come first lately, but it could go either way.
You know lyrics are important to me, they also are the scary aspect of writing for me - because I feel more so than the music as an expression(s): that the lyrics tell some kind of story. and that's where you're really leaving yourself open I think. So lyrics are important to me, but they also scare me a little.
Soph:
Of course, they're the vulnerable aspect.
Lou:
Definitely, the vulnerability is in the lyrics, but I do like to keep them poetic and as vague as possible. I like to leave them open for other people's interpretations. I don't like to directly tell someone what the story is, I'd rather create a mood and an atmosphere and bring people into a world where they can exist and can find their own story. That's what I like to do with lyrics.
Soph:
With the single your releasing at the moment 'Pockets of Change', you wrote that the lyrics in this are about a person losing the will to live, but finding it again in a love affair. Is that inspired by your real-life events, or is it a fabrication of a fiction world for us?
Lou:
It's fiction.
I'd like to say it's a big romantic point in my life, but I haven't experienced that kind of love. So it's definitely fiction.
I do write short stories and things, so fiction is a big part of what I do.
Soph:
So it's almost like your songs are like another form of telling stories for you.?
Lou:
Yes, they are absolutely. A long time ago, I watched "What's Love Got to do with It", about Tina Turner and how abused she was in her relationship.. and I felt really inspired to write lyrics and a song about that. but it wasn't directly about that.and you would never know it was about that but regardless that's where the inspiration came from: that's how I write.
But I do look at people, and I do look at the world around me, and I do turn that into stories whilst it not being directly about anything.
Soph:
Let's talk about the single: so you decided to remaster and remix Pockets of Change, which you also did with Wide Eyed Lady from your EP in 2008: what's behind that decision to revive these tracks?
Lou:
Well, those tracks were written and they were selected from a very large pool of songs, that I had written around that time, and they were the songs that were selected because they complimented each other in terms of mood and things like that. Terry helped me select and develop them for demos.
I mean this was 20 years ago, so it was about demos and pitching to labels and things.
So they were never released properly, they were just these very loosely done recordings that were supposed to have been taken to another level. They didn't make it to another level unfortunately, they were never properly released. So I just thought they needed to be given the air, the time. Now is the perfect time because I'm in the process of writing and developing and I don't want to throw away my new material again.
So I'm being really careful, and these are songs that exist, but no one knows they exist, so they deserve a little bit of time. That's why.
Soph:
I really feel that this is a good time to be doing something like this because everyone's doing a bit of retrospect, because we're not that able to be moving forward, with new material, for example, no one can tour.
But that being said, what are your plans for now and coming up?
Lou:
I'm developing my studio skill and some equipment skills as well so that I can really make my recordings professional from home, without having to go into a studio.
So I'm working on that, I'm working on developing my skills as a composer, and I'm working on putting my portfolio together for that.. to see if I can get some opportunities to score a visual film.
I’m doing a lot.
I'm also putting all the pieces of the jigsaw together so that next year - I have a finished musical piece, and when I have the finished pieces - I want to take them to the world stage.
I want to travel a bit, and take it out to America,
I've been wanting to go over to LA for the longest time, but I want to go out there equipped with all the necessary tools, equipped as a skilled composer and a songwriter, and all the albums and things behind me - but yeah I think that's my vision.
Soph:
That's a big vision and I think you'll pull it off.
Lou
I think hard work is the way forward, and I'm working away.