The Dublin Community Blog

Almost October, but still time to squeeze in the September-”issue” of Discovered in Dublin. And this time we are featuring a young lady whose hypnotic sounds are quite fitting for the upcoming autumn season – and who likes knitting. Abigail Smith is a singer/songwriter hailing from Dublin, has played the Electric Picnic in 2008 and has recently released her debut album  “Night Time Walking”. And she’s also the sister of Dublinblog’s very own Roseanne.

Without further ado, here’s what Abigail has to say:

Tell us sth. about yourself and how you started making music, how you write your songs, and maybe a bit about your debut album “Night Time Walking”:

I started writing songs when I was first able to write music. I had a little manuscript book. My first song was about seagulls. Night Time Walking is my first release. It consists mainly of songs arranged for voice, piano, viola and cello. I wanted to do one take on each song and release this rather than doing take after take. I think this can take away the edge. I love the connection between musicians in a group setting and how we all move through the song together. When I was a kid I loved hearing the musicians humming along to their improvisations or the chair squeak of a musician recorded on my Dads jazz records. These days recordings can be so clinical. I wanted this album to have a real human feel to it. The songs have always just come into my head. I write lyrics quickly without thinking too much about them as this often blocks the flow of ideas. Then I go back over them. I try not to be a perfectionist because the perfectionist in me would never let me do anything! Then I arrange the music for the instruments I want and we rehearse together. With any creative work you have to just let it all go at some point. It’s not the finished piece that has as much interest to me to be honest. I am always excited by the song or music I am working on. Putting music out is all part of the process too so I am very excited to have the album out now.

The musicians on this recording are Gráinne Deery on piano and Lioba Petrie on cello. Aaron Faye produced it. When I play live Niamh Loughran and Maeve Buckley often join me on violins with Andrew Cooke on bass and Andy B Clarke on drums.

Do you think it is an advantage to hail from Dublin (or at least being labelled so)?

Yes. Dublin is a great place for all kinds of creativity and there is a great mixture of cultures from all over the world. For example I heard an amazing Klezmer group busking on Talbot Street last week. We have a great tradition of storytelling and sing songs here and music is really part of the fabric of this brilliant city. I love it here.

How important is the live performance for you? And do you always work with a band or do you do solo shows as well?

Live performance is very important to me. Anything can happen and the audience and the musicians really communicate in the live performance environment. Music changes the energy of a room. I think it helps me as a musician to become truly aware of the present. I can only ever be with the note I am playing or singing. I have to let go of what has come before and not worry about any tricky bits coming up! Music is part of time having a beginning and an end. It is an incredible process and so exciting. I love to perform with the full band as we all bring something to the sound we are creating together. I have performed solo but I do love the experience of performing with a large ensemble. I will be singing one of my songs with a full guitar orchestra in the next few months. I can’t wait to try that!

It seems the visual aspect of music is also important for you – New York Tisch Film School made a video for you, and you wrote the music for “Trolley Boy”. Coincidence, networking or planning?

Winning the Tisch Film Music video was a real boost. I was very lucky that the director I worked with, Adena Rice was really on the same page as me creatively. We are both into craft and making things. She is an incredible knitter. One of her dreams was to create a knitted world so we went from there. It was a brilliant process and we had half of Dublin knitting leaves for us. I had great fun making some props for it too.

Teemu Auersalo, the director of Trolley Boy, heard my music through Andy Clarke who plays drums in my band. Andy is also a very talented animator and digital graphic artist. Writing and performing the music for this film was also a very interesting process. It was great to work as part of a team and try to get across the directors vision through the music. I think like everything in Dublin music is a small group and we all get to know each other and support each other.
http://www.glimpsefilms.com/trolleyboy/?page_id=5

What do you think about the current discussion about downloading, filesharing and copyrights? Is the web an advantage for new bands (with or without deal)?

I think for unsigned bands the whole file-sharing thing is great. I personally don’t part take in it but it’s more because I never got into it. I love going out and buying the cd. The artwork and lyrics are another aspect that I really enjoy. I think it is great to support new music and the likes of my space is a brilliant way to hear new sounds. Radio can be good for discovering new music but the Internet is just an incredible resource for music fans and new bands. The spotify idea sounds pretty interesting to me.

Where can we find more information about you? And, is there anything the world needs to know about you?

You can read all about me and hear some songs on my myspace page www.myspace.com/abigailsong

I am playing in the Button factory on the 20th of October. A short documentary called ‘The City of the Dead’ by Alessandro Molatore, which I did the music for, will be screened and I’ll be performing with the band after. The film is about people who live in graves in Cairo. It is an amazing film and I loved writing and performing the music for it. http://www.cactifilms.net/city-dead.html. It’s definitely worth checking out.

My album, Night Time Walking is available in Tower Records and Road Records. You can also download tracks on http://www.downloadmusic.ie/abigailsmith.

All the world needs to know about me is that I am very happy to be living in the world!

If you are an artist/musician/band/busker who wants to be featured on “Discovered in Dublin”, please send an email to authors@dublinblog.ie