Blending influences that range from her gospel singing upbringing to time spent bartending in the trad pubs of Ennis, as well as her own take on folk delivered with a truly mesmerising vocal, Susan O’Neill (also known as SON) is a rising star of the Irish music scene.
With much of her recent output focused on collaboration with Mick Flannery, the Clare singer has also been working towards her second record, a follow up to 2018’s ‘Found Myself Lost’, a release that frequently takes her to the US and Canada, as well as tours across Ireland.
Looking back, O’Neill can see her early influences shining through. “One thing that really stood out to me when I first did the gospel choir and my brass band was the feeling of communal sharing of sound. How powerful I could be,” she says. “I was very young in the band, around 12. I started to notice getting goosebumps and feeling the hair on the back of my neck stand up during certain moments of this song. The use of dynamics will allow users to swell into a moment that sounds like a type of bliss. I realised around that age, that music was a very profound thing. Something I had not yet words to describe and probably still don’t, but I can try.”
That sense of profound engagement is still something that O’Neill looks to practise, and it links back, partly, to that early time in Ennis.
“I always described Ennis as having a song in the air,” she says. “Music in the pubs, music in the streets. I worked in quite a few pubs and one in particular had a great trad scene happening. I would serve pints to those who frequented the bar. I became friendly with the musicians and sometimes I would jump out from behind the bar and collect glasses, and during this round-trip, was often asked by the resident musicians to share a song with the pub.”
“They would back me with their expert playing and wow, I really loved being asked. I began to learn different tunes, keeping them in the back pocket. There’s nothing like winning over a heaving pub, inviting them to sing along, and finishing a song with an army of voices joined in that moment. Like any scene anywhere, sometimes it’s what you make it.”
When it came to ‘In The Game’, a lockdown album produced with Mick Flannery, O’Neill tapped into a different aesthetic.
“Working with Mick, and putting out an album, was truly joyous,” she says. “It was a really cool idea to play characters and write for the characters. I found I could use this when it came to tapping into the emotion of delivering the songs to a live audience. It is also really unique to get to blend voices through songs that are very rich in their dialogue. Some of them are full-on arguments between the characters, there are intimate and vulnerable moments that occur within the story as well. All of which could be used to get to the core of a very universal theme. “
“We practised a lot in the initial days over zoom, and although it wasn’t ideal, it shows that you can really work with the tools that are available and do something cool with it.”
As for the future, that solo follow up record is not too far around the corner. “I’m working on a brand-new album right now. It’s nearly finished,” O’Neill says. “I’m really excited about it. I really want to zone in on what exactly my message is and why I want to say it. I have found what that is, and it has taken time to mature into it. I’m at a place now where I feel proud and excited about what I’m working on. I feel that it’s fresh and new and true to me.”
