WHEN SAINT Sister play the Róisín Dubh as part of the Galway International Arts Festival, they will perform the recent single ‘Causing Trouble’, a song which says much about them and their music.
'Causing Trouble', the follow-up to the 2016 single 'Tin Man', finds the Irish electro-folk duo of Morgan Macintyre and Gemma Doherty pulling from a wide range of influences, such as Moby and Massive Attack, Van Morrison's 'And it Stoned Me' from his classic 1970 album Moondance, and combining that with vocal harmonies, harp textures, and gentle electronic beats.
“The song is about transitioning, from Belfast to Dublin," says Macintyre, "from an old love to a new, and the gaps that can be found between you and another person or place when people transition at different paces and in different directions."
"There are a lot of references to Belfast," continues Macintyre. "The references to Van Morrison's 'And it Stoned Me' came about after hearing a cover of the song. We were playing the Ulster Hall, Belfast, and Conor O'Brien [Villagers] sang the song. His performance opened up the lyrics for me and strangely helped me access Van Morrison in a way I'd been softly rebelling against for a while - having been spoon fed him from a young age.
"I suddenly wanted to gobble up Van again and embrace the music and stories and poetry from Belfast that I used to spend a lot of time with. I had shrugged a lot of that off over the last few years as I tried to make my home in Dublin. In doing so maybe I ignored - or forgot - a lot of the raw elements and influences I used to draw from."
Formed in November 2014, Saint Sister draw on early Celtic harp traditions, 1960s folk, soulful vocal harmonies, and electronic pop to create what they call ‘atmosfolk'. They have performed at Glastonbury, Longitude, Other Voices, and Electric Picnic.
Saint Sister play the Róisín Dubh on Saturday July 29 at 8.30pm as part of the Galway International Arts Festival. Support is from Jealous Of The Birds. For tickets see www.giaf.ie and www.roisindubh.net #GIAF17
