POLITICS IS a word Fionn Regan admits he “can’t relate to” but his first album was named after a provocative book by a right-wing American political commentator, while his new album contains references to colonial and industrial exploitation.
Fionn Regan has just released his new album The Shadow Of An Empire and on Friday March 12 at 8pm he plays the Róisín Dubh.
The Shadow Of An Empire
The Wicklowman’s debut, The End Of History shared its title with the famous 1992 book by US political theorist and economist Francis Fukuyama. The Shadow Of An Empire is also a title which can be viewed politically, but the album and it’s title track, as with all Fionn’s songs, are more personal than political.
“Politics...I can’t relate to that word,” Fionn tells me during our Tuesday afternoon interview. “‘The Shadow Of An Empire’ was the song I wrote first and to me it felt like music for the rolling of credits at the end of a film. I see the shadow as a positive and negative thing. I see the shadow as the shadow cast by the wing of a mother bird and you can get under it and feel protected. Someone could construct a wall which obscures your view and that casts a shadow over other people.”
However Fionn’s hectic touring schedule of the last three years has made him more aware of what is happening globally and has left an impression on his writing. “I write about what I see and because of the touring I did travel about more than I ever have before and your eyes are opened up to the world,” he says.
An example of this is ...Empire’s ‘Genocide Matinee’ with its dramatic line: “Is that Christopher Columbus in the projection rooms, assigning coupons and handing out tokens?...Throw you to the truncheon of authority that treats you with no dignity?”
The lyric can be seen as a comment on colonialism, exploitation, police brutality, and political repression, but Fionn is open to whatever interpretations listeners wish to place on his work.
“I have this idea of a cinema when I’m writing,” he says. “It’s like in my head there are these little films and some have a nightmarish quality and something you might write can flow from that and work.
“That slide show comes with the song but people have their own ideas on what it’s about and can find a meaning that works for them. If the writer comes along and says ‘It’s about a motorbike’ listeners can’t now think of the song in any other way because that’s sewn into their minds. It becomes too rigid.”
No matter what interpretation you put on the song, there is no doubt that Fionn’s lyrics, a surrealistic collage of imagination, literary allusion, and metaphor, are his calling card. Some of the best are found in the album’s stand-out track ‘Violent Demeanour’. A startling, powerful piece, Fionn gave Galway audiences a taste of it when he played the Róisín Dubh in December 2008. He is justifiably proud of it.
“Even with that song, playing it recently, the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up - and my hair stands up pretty high already!” laughs Fionn. “What I remember of writing it was that I was in Barcelona and I saw this character on a roundabout or some kind of gyrator and I started to think about somebody holding a bag of birthday cards, and the whole thing came from that.”
While The End Of History was largely solo-acoustic which doffed the cap to Paul Simon and Christy Moore, The Shadow Of An Empire is a full band affair which reveals a strong Bringing It All Back Home-era Bob Dylan influence. However another inspiration for Fionn came from a very different source - the painter Francis Bacon.
“Quite simply when I stand in front of his paintings I feel an impact to the senses,” he says. “He is a fascinating character. Bacon, his art, the way he looked are interesting to me. If you watch the South Bank interview you can see he could really hold himself very well.”
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While Fionn enjoyed writing and recording The Shadow Of An Empire, its birth was not without difficulty, and the last three years have been an arduous experience for the man.
The End Of History was released in 2006 and revealed Fionn to be a promisingly original talent and the album went on to earn both Mercury and Choice music prize nominations.
“That’s when things started happening,” says Fionn. “I toured The End Of History when I got the Mercury nomination and that was really the start of the record when you talk about visibility. Then I signed to Lost Highway in the US, from then on I just hit the road and kept touring and touring.”
However touring the US was a relentless and gruelling experience. “I think there comes a point in touring when it’s good to stop,” he says, “but you will have people say to you ‘Just go a little further’. It’s like a mirage, you never quite reach the place, you’re always just out of reach.”
For a time it also looked like Fionn would be enduring ‘difficult second album’ syndrome, especially as there were arguments with Lost Highway about what shape the follow-up to The End Of History should take.
“At the end of 2008 I had a recording session with Ethan John,” says Fionn. “We made a record which didn’t jump through the hoops Lost Highway wanted it to and so I grabbed the wheel of that ship and steered her through the waters and produced the record myself.
“It was either that or wait around again, so 2009 was a hard year in that sense. Writing and making a record is great fun but the other part is difficult, especially for artists who are going against the grain in someone’s book.”
Nonetheless Fionn takes a philosophical view of the last three years and feels worthwhile experiences have been gained and lessons learned.
“There was also so much touring that that’s what I think about when I look back on the last three years, but a spotlight was shone on my work and it feels like it’s snowballing and gathering momentum and interest,” he says. “From here on in I want to record faster and not tour as much as I have been doing. I love touring and I want to keep touring but not to the same point as I was for the past two years.”
The Shadow Of An Empire finally saw the light of day earlier this month when it was released on Universal Ireland. The album was recorded in a small, disused, factory space in Bray, and as both writer and producer Fionn had a clear vision for how The Shadow Of An Empire should be.
“I was conscious of making a record that was an album not just a collection songs, and I think it works in that sense,” he says. “There are a few overdubs, it’s just done in the room, using live vocals. It takes a bit of courage to do that and I wanted it to be in a different arena to other records. I want it to be raw and lean and sound like what it sounds like when me and the band play it in a room, not something with lots of autotune.”
At his upcoming Róisín Dubh show Fionn will be accompanied by his band. At previous shows in the Dominick Street venue, the stage was set up to resemble an antiques shop, in which a group of musicians just happened to be playing. Will there be any such display on March 12?
“You might have just sparked a plan there,” says Fionn. “I enjoyed that stuff immensely. Some times when there is more equipment it might be hard to swing that but when it’s in Ireland I can throw in a few things from the house and swing by the furniture shop on the way to the gig.”
Tickets are available from the Róisín Dubh and Zhivago.
