Standing on a Grecian style balcony looking over Cobh harbour, Cathy Davey reckons she’s pretty happy with how the year has turned out. After all she is an Irish Choice Music Prize nominated and Meteor Award winning singer/songwriter who is still gigging on the back of her critically acclaimed second album Tales of Silversleeve, which was released in October of 2007. “I’m going around Cork at the moment. It’s an amazing place, I’m happy this month,” she explains.
Cathy is currently in the middle of a tour of Ireland, one which she says involves a lot of exploring while playing in beautiful and interesting venues off the beaten track.
“Caroline, my tour manager, has put together a really beautiful tour of interesting and tiny places off the beaten track. People give you their spare room, and cook you food. It’s real life and all very connected. It’s more healthy I think,” says Cathy. As she relays stories of playing in tapas bars and converted churches, it’s clear that Cathy lives for this. Her current tour consists of a mixture of sets from her Bare Bones tour and sets from her “normal” tour. Cathy says of her Bare Bones tour, that it is, “a chance to play intimate venues without being too noisy for sensitive ears. Rearranged songs to better suit candlelight. Three of us playing, as many instruments as we can fit in our suitcases, and the chance for me to babble nonsense if I so choose. The bigger venues tend to echo unpleasantly, and I do so hate the sound of my own voice, don't we all. That's the Bare Bones Tour. It's nice. And slightly special.” The Bare Bones set also incorporates songs from Songs That Scare Children a concert organised by Cathy earlier this year, which includes songs from Llyod Cole, Gilbert and Sullivan, and The Night of the Hunter, to name a few. “They come in really handy - they are really magical,” says Cathy.
She has also reworked a lot of her old songs for the tour, namely songs from her debut album Something Ilk, which was release in 2004. Cathy admits that her debut onto the Irish music scene could have gone better. “I’ve reworked some of the songs from my debut album. They’re OK. I think it was all too soon to write a debut album, to come up woth something. But I had to do it so I could do the next one. We all have a past.”
But looking to the future Cathy has already begun work on her third album. Cathy shipped herself off to France to begin the writing and recording process. “I’ve most of the third album written,” explains Cathy, “I wrote most of it in France. I brought some simple recording equipment with me, a tin whistle, drums, and stuff like that.”
Cathy will begin writing for her third album again in the new year. “On days off I get the head down. I have the bulk of the album done and I’m really happy with it.”
And what can we expect from her next album? “My next album? I guess it’s a cliche of what people say their next album will be. It’s pretty dark, with a kind of funeral music feel to it.”
As Cathy Davey becomes more popular, surely it is inevitable that her venues will increase in size, especially after her next album is increased. “As for bigger venues, we’ll see how good the third album is.” It seems Cathy is happy with the way things are. Small, intimate, curious venues. Having a hands on approach, and with her best friend as her tour manager there is no fear that she will get immersed in the music industry, of which she says, “I’m not enjoying the music industry, it’s a waste of space...”
