THE HILL - a landform which extends above the surrounding terrain; a summit to be reached; a place on which a person is prepared to die for an ideal; an obstacle to be overcome; a goal.
Whether as a form in nature, upon which one seeks to tread, or a metaphor for a situation one finds oneself in - ‘an uphill struggle’, ‘the peak of their powers’ - hills are apt and serve many metaphors.
For Paddy Hanna, The Hill is the title of his new album, released tomorrow, Friday October 16, via the Galway based record label, Strange Brew. It is also a musical/lyrical statement on where he has come from; a testament that will allow him to leave certain things behind; and a means of stepping into the future.
“The past is a screwed up thing,” Paddy tells me during our Tuesday morning interview. “We never really leave it behind, we take it with us, and that’s what this album was.”
Ranging from punk-folk to chanson, quirky pop to spoken word, raw country to vocal pieces which sound like scores to films that do not exist, The Hill does not yield its charms on first listen, but instead nrewards the listener who is prepared to commit, and repeated hearings reveals its many riches.
Facing the past
Guilt, and the weight it bears upon a person - be it remorse, self-loathing, or shame - is a major theme of the album, and Paddy has always been open about his own mental health struggles.
“It’s Catholic guilt and the guilt of complacency,” Paddy tells me. “It’s that thing of, growing up as I did in the nineties, of being suspicious of anyone who wasn’t Catholic, of judging anyone who was different, but I never really processed it.
“Originally the album title was longer, and had someone's name in it. He was a person I was aware of growing up, and was seen as a bogey man figure locally. He was someone with mental health issues, but back then they would just be dismissed as a weirdo or a creep.
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“I wanted to write about that. I wanted to say that people like him were different, but that that is fine. People close to him though got wind of it, and there were threats,” Paddy adds with a laugh. “So I removed it. The fact that the people closest to him would rather he not be spoken about, than positively remembered in a song, tore my heart in half.”
“I had it in my head I would make a catchy record, but I wasn’t in the right place emotionally. There was still a lot of stuff in my head I needed to clear'
Yet Paddy always knew he would one day make an album where he directly confronted his demons, and the spark for it lay in the reception for his 2018 album, Frankly, I Mutate. While it was deservedly showered with critical acclaim, its failure to be included on the shortlist for the Choice Music Awards came as a disappointment. Also, as he told The Irish Times recently, he was “not able to look at myself in the mirror anymore...I started noticing that my eyes were getting less bright.”
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“I went into 2019 in a bad place,” Paddy says to me. “I had a sense of failure, but it’s part of the creative process. Creatives are hyper-sensitive, unless their Oasis, but perhaps in their private moments they too go off into a room and cry behind closed doors?
“I had it in my head that I would go and make a catchy record and have a hit, but I wasn’t in the right place emotionally. There was still a lot of stuff in my head I needed to clear out before I made an album full of hit singles. I had to deal with the past. It was always coming, but now, in my time of wretchedness was the time to tackle it.”
‘Salty and sweet’
Through musically diverse, The Hill is a cohesive statement, grounded as it is through the use of acoustic guitar, and a strong sense of atmosphere, the latter undoubtedly coming from Paddy’s love of film scores.
“I was a massive film creep before I was a music creep,” he says, “and soundtracks were the music I listened to. You don’t realise you’re learning a lot about music through film.”
'The album used to be my possession, but now I think, am I throwing it to the wolves?'
The opener, ‘Last Of Their Kind’ and the title-track, both feature wordless vocals in a dramatic, impressive choral style, and Paddy cites Ennio Morricone’s music for The Exorcist II and Riz Ortolani’s soundtrack for Cannibal Holocaust as inspirations. "Cannibal Holocaust is one of the most gruesome movies ever, but the music is lovely, it’s a contrast I enjoy. That mix of salty and sweet was something that informed The Hill.”
‘Sinatra’, one of the key songs on the album captures this deliberate contradiction, fusing French styled Chanson with a paint stripping guitar solo. “It’s my Italian murder ballad,” says Paddy. “I played it on a chord organ that was made in 1960 in Italy, and has probably seen some grim stuff. I think it might have been trying to communicate that to me.”
'By the next album I’ll be in a biker jacket'
As alluded to earlier, Paddy admits he is sensitive to criticism. Another ‘Hill’ to ascend, and a piece of the past to let go of, is the album itself and public reaction to it.
“When you yield the power, it becomes other people’s concerns,” he says. “The album used to be my possession, but now, Go! You’re free! I do think, am I throwing it to the wolves? I need to let it go though, take it on the chin, get tougher! Maybe by the next album I’ll be in a biker jacket and be tough and cool! Oh to be a Gallagher brother in times like this!”
'I owe it to my mother and to Gugai to give that hits filled album a shot'
So with his past laid to rest on The Hill, will that singles packed album finally be the next step for Paddy?
“I feel as though I have dealt with the issues on this album, hopefully,” he says, “and given myself a clean slate to move onto pastures new and sing about lilacs and carnations. My mother is always asking if I can sing about happier things, and saying to me, ‘You’re always going on in interviews about growing up in Catholic Ireland, but you had a lovely upbringing’ But mother you raised me to be a free-thinker, so you reap what you sow! That said, I owe it to her and to Gugai to give that hits filled album a shot. We’ll see. We’ll see.”
To listen to Paddy’s music go to https://paddyhanna.bandcamp.com.
