Some may have seen Fermanagh born instrumentalist Róis perform with Eoghan O’ Ceannabhain on TG4, others may know her staggering and beautiful ‘Uisce Agus Bean’ record last year. This will have done nothing to prepare them for Mo Léan, her strident new extended play, eschewing the virtuosic conventional instrumentation for which she is known, embracing a vast and oceanic sound, a gothic electronic surprise for both longtime fans and new acolytes. Based on a dormant Irish tradition that she may well resurrect, Mo Léan is a complex and beautiful work with some heady thoughts behind it. And it’s just been shortlisted for 2024 Best Irish Album at the upcoming RTÉ Choice Music Prize Awards.
The record is inspired, and inspiring. Can you tell me a little about what Mo Léan is?
It’s a concept EP about Caoining, and catharsis. About coming to terms with your own death, and with grief. Ecological grief. The death of a loved one. Whatever grief might mean. It’s a culmination of all of that, and release of that energy.
Can you tell me about what inspired ‘CAOINE’, the lead single? And that haunting sample that opens it.
There’s only three surviving Caoining recordings in Ireland, and I’ve reinterpreted two of them. An unknown singer on the Aran Islands, recorded by Alan Lomax, which I reinterpreted as ‘CAOINE’, and then Cití Ní Ghallchóir from a Donegal recording. It’s very rare. Usually Caoiners wouldn’t allow people to record them. It was a sacred kind of thing that women would hold.
I have a faint awareness of caoining. I remember the anglicised version of it showing up in books when I was a child, but it’s only in recent years that I became aware of it even being an Irish thing. Could you educate me a little on what Caoining is?
It’s an ancient Irish tradition that I’ve gotten completely lost in. After a death, people would have employed women to mourn beside the coffin, at the wake. It could take all sorts of shapes and forms. Some women would go barefoot, some would tear their hair out, and sometimes Caoiners would put their own woes into the Caoine, about something that happened in the village, or burst out in anger over someone, or it could have been a call to arms, in protest. They took lots of personal baggage and woes in the community into it.
It would have been very “unladylike” in the time of the Catholic church’s occupation, so it was banned by the priests, as they do. It died out with a combination of our colonisation, Catholic church, and the famine, and became a completely lost tradition.
And what can you tell me about the music of Mo Léan?
It’s all electronic based. I really went H.A.M. with production, and produced it myself in Ableton. The only instrument is a bass that my friend plays. I spent a lot of time over the last year learning that music program, and I went to Athens to study sound design. That has been my way of making music recently, I haven’t been touching instruments.
I was surprised to learn about that. What led to that choice for this EP?
I grew up with traditional Irish music, so I play all those instruments. Banjo, guitar, fiddle, tin whistle. I suppose piano is the instrument I would usually go to, but during the tour I’ll be playing electric guitar and synth, and maybe a bit of sean nós. I studied classical music and did the grades, so I have all that, but I think electronics can be more expressive. I just like big cathartic sounds, and big soundscapes.
It’s a remarkable sounding record. How did you approach working with the Caoinings?
The way I approached it was adding harmony. Once I had added synths, I spent a good bit of time chopping up vocals and crafting soundscapes. I had a little session with John ‘Spud’ Murphy, he has an additional bit of production on some of the songs as well, and added some of his nice synths and added a nice oomph of catharsis to it.
And how did ‘FEEL LOVE’ come about?
I wanted to have a dancey one, to have that climactic catharsis. It goes through a few different genres, but it was the most fun to make. A lot of synths, and a kind of trap element to it. But that was just messing around in a library in Athens with Ableton. Headphones, and no actual hardware, just Ableton stock. John put a little synth and sequencer on it and then Tailtiu from Belfast put some synth on it as well. She is one of the best collaborators, amazing mixer, and DJ, and nobody knows about her. She’s one of those DJs that’s all over Europe all the time, never at home.
Who have you been listening to lately, with such a profound change in direction? And who inspires you?
I’m big into this Catalonian artist, Marina Herlop, her work is very intuitive. Also, Daniella Lalita, a Peruvian musician that I’ve been heavily inspired by. Meredith Monk and Julianna Barwick also. I’m deeply inspired by people in Ireland like Rory Sweeney and I have to say Jinx Lennon, he’s amazing, and The Deadlians.
We were singing ‘I Don’t Want To Ride Your Aul One Anymore’ up in Belfast and we were talking about the meaning behind it, and it’s just class. That’s why we want to live in Ireland.
MO LÉAN is available now on all streaming platforms and as a limited edition vinyl through XXX, available on Bandcamp.
Words: Adhamh Ó Caoimh
