“I’ll hear a rhyming structure and it’ll get stuck in my head and I’ll try to find a way to put that in a song. I listened to the soundtrack of the musical Hamilton repeatedly, a while ago.”
Roisin McDonald is yet to enter her twenties, but the Derry born multi-instrumentalist has honed a career that many musicians double her age aspire to. Performing as Roe, she has played to crowds at Glastonbury, completed a debut UK tour and had over thirteen thousand streams of her single ‘Wasted.Patient.Thinking’ on the day of its release.
As she prepares for a busy summer of gigging, Roe talks about her influences, the importance of arts funding and working on her highly anticipated debut album.
You describe your music as ‘grumpy electro pop.’ This seems like a contradiction, though, because your songs are extremely uptempo.
A couple of years ago, when I released my first single Fake Ur Death, a blog reviewed it and they used that term in relation to my music. I thought it was kind of funny and it just stuck. A while after that, I revisited my music and noticed that my lyrics are super, super dark which doesn’t quite fit with the upbeat melodies. It’s only when people really pay attention to certain elements of my songs that they notice the dark aspect to my music. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s grumpy, though. In a way, that description has worked because people remember it and talk about it.
You were selected for the newly devised Northern Ireland scheme as part of Help Musicians UK. With this you’re receiving ongoing funding for your career. How has that helped you accelerate the pace of Roe’s growth?
I’m really fortunate that I don’t have to use the money to pay for studio time because I record everything with my producer in his apartment. Instead, the money goes into really expensive things like radio pluggers and PR. Knowing that those aspects are taken care of financially is such a relief because they’re the things that help get your name out there. The people from that scheme have been so helpful since we’ve been working with them, it’s been great.
Yeah, that support and funding is such an invaluable resource to have, especially during this period of Roe. How different would your career be without it?
Completely different! I know that I wouldn’t be in the position to make music on a full time basis. It’s terrible that there are so many things you have to spend money on in order to record and perform music. It’s hard to find the money, especially at the start, to enable you to do everything that is essential to do as an artist.
What are you working on at the moment, is there an EP on the horizon or have you got your sights set on an album?
Right now, I’m putting the final finishing touches on my next single, Hey Thomas. I’m hoping to release that in June, heading into festival season. After that, I want to have an album ready by the end of the year, ideally. I’m constantly writing lyrics whilst playing my guitar at home. My manager Liam Craig also works as my producer, so I’ll generally bring the bones of a song to him and we’ll work on the structure until we have a finished piece. We work well together, it’s just a matter of getting the ideas I have for songs recorded quickly so that I can get an album together.
You mentioned festival season, and I’ve noticed your name on a number of line-ups this summer. You played at Glastonbury, The Great Escape, Output, and Other Voices last year. Did you use those experiences as an opportunity to seek advice from seasoned artists?
Absolutely! I’ve played a few gigs where I supported acts that are a lot further down the line than I am. It really inspires me to see what they’ve achieved and to talk to them about what they had to do to get to that point. I’ve had really insightful conversations with those artists; it’s also great to be able to have the craic with them after a show. You realise quickly that you have to take every single opportunity that comes your way. You never know how you can broaden your contacts whether it’s after an intimate gig or huge festival. At festivals, in particular, it’s so cool to meet people that you’ve been a fan of for years. I like to imagine myself in a similar position to those artists in a few years if I continue to work really hard.
Is there anyone that stands out to you as an inspiration, in that regard?
Jack Garrett has been a big inspiration to me for a number of reasons, mainly because he’s a multi-instrumentalist. Seeing him live encouraged me to figure out how to present my music on stage. That has been difficult, though, because I am a bit of a control freak and it can be strange having to work on certain aspects of Roe with other people.
Would collaborating with another artist on a song be something that you’d be interested in doing, then?
Yeah, I want to work on more collaborations in the future. I had it in the back of my head a few times while writing last year. I’ve been trying to get myself into a mindset to do more collaborations, over the last few months. I actually worked on something with Cian Sweeney from 1000 Beasts in Dublin not too long ago. That was super cool because it was a different dynamic to how I usually work. I like to be in control of writing the lyrics but had to readjust to a different mode of creating music. We wrote the lyrics together in one space. I really enjoyed it and I’m excited to do more projects like that.
Your songs possess that crucially important balance of being immediately radio-friendly but also distinctly your own style. Do you listen to a lot of new music to stay abreast of what is popular?
Absolutely! I’m constantly looking through my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify. There’s nothing I enjoy more than searching for new bands, albums and songs to listen to. I try to go to as many gigs as I possibly can in Derry. I love watching bands that I’m not familiar with, that’s a great way to find new music.
Do you find that you listen to music differently now that you’re reaching a bigger audience? Are you more focused on deciphering the layers of a song and incorporating them into your music?
Oh, definitely! I’m a structural songwriter. I’ll obsess over how many syllables are in a line and how that will, in turn, structure the song. I’ll hear a rhyming structure and it’ll get stuck in my head and I’ll try to find a way to put that in a song. I listened to the soundtrack of the musical Hamilton repeatedly, a while ago. A lot of those songs use a pattern where it’s rhyme after rhyme without a break between them. That was what I wanted to do with ‘Wasted.Patient.Thinking’. The second verse and the bridge in that single have that rhyme after rhyme structure. That was purely as a direct response to me constantly listening to that soundtrack. I’m constantly inspired by musicians. I love creating something new whilst simultaneously incorporating an idea I like into my own songs.
You’re playing some festivals this season?
I’m playing twenty-two gigs between June and September! I’ll be doing Primavera Pro along with a few other Irish musicians. I’m so excited. It’ll be the first warm festival I’ve ever played! I love being really busy and I’m a massive music fan. There are also so many bands I want to see throughout the summer. I always spend so much time scheduling exactly who I want to see the day before I go to the festival.
I love playing festivals. Glastonbury was one of the highlights of my career, so far. It’s such a different environment to consume music and there’s a different mentality to festivals than going to a gig in the centre of the town where you live. What’s great about it is people are more exposed to your music. Someone who has never heard of you can just stumble upon your set, look up your music afterwards, and hopefully become a fan. That’s amazing!
Roe plays Body & Soul (June 22-24) & Castlepalooza (August 3-5)
Words: Zara Hedderman
Photo: Paul Martin Brown
