IMELDA MAY | INTERVIEW
Dublin-born musician Imelda May’s new release 11 Past The Hour is her sixth studio album and her fourth in the UK Top 10. She and Rhonda Lee Reali discuss the importance of platforming women, moving on from rockabilly, and impromptu jams with Ronnie Wood.
Imelda May has had a very fruitful past year. Last year she joined female musical collective Irish Women In Harmony on a recording of The Cranberries’ Dreams in aid of domestic abuse charity SafeIreland; debuted spoken word EP Slip Of The Tongue, with an alternative version of one of its poems, Becoming, later included on compilation album Good Night Songs For Rebel Girls; had her poem, You Don’t Get To Be Racist And Irish, displayed on 200 billboards across Ireland; and hit the UK top 10 for the fourth time with latest LP 11 Past The Hour.
Imelda, tell us what you’ve been up to during these life-changing times.
I’m doing a few other bits and pieces and collaborations with different artists. I’ve been busy creatively over this past year, writing a poetry book as well. It’s been wonderful that I have so many ideas, and my creativity is flowing so fast I can hardly keep up with it, but it’s a little manic trying to do it all.
One of the results of all this is that it’s given people extra time to get more done. I’d happily sit writing all day, but soon as the record company hear you’re ready to release, then it all kicks off. I’d love some of that time back!
Your poem Becoming is very powerful and encompassing. Girls do need gutsy role models – it’s important they see strong women to aid their confidence.
On the few interviews I’ve done in the last few days, I was talking, and I could see people kind of glazing over. I said to one of the interviewers, “I can see all of those books and CDs and albums behind you – turn around and have a look at them.” He was laughing, and I said, “Really, have a look. How many women are in there?” He’s like, “what?” “I guarantee you, that’s almost all men.” “I can’t believe it, but it is!” he says.
“I’m not against men’s fabulous words, I love them,” I say. “My books are full of Oscar Wilde, James Joyce; my songs are Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.” All these wonderful men that I adore and couldn’t live without their influence, for sure.
“Whose words have influenced you the most in your life?” I asked him. “I guarantee you’re going to tell me either your mother or your auntie or your grandmother. It will be a woman, so why aren’t their voices not heard outside the home? Why are they not written down?” It’s because a lot of women couldn’t get careers, didn’t have time for careers. They were raising families, but they certainly weren’t encouraged from a young age. I’m out to try and fill my bookshelves and my music collection with more women and those that are trying to.
“I want to rebalance my collection because,” I said to him, “when I go home, my mother has a lot to say and my father has a lot to say, and I want to hear both of them. I’m not going to say, ‘Do you know what mam, I just want to hear dad and everything he thinks.’” My mother would be the one that probably talks more sense. [laughs]
So within our music and within our literature, I want to have the full view. They balance and complement each other in a lovely way. We definitely need to address the balance. Children growing up should be given both views, and all options for all emotions – learn how to accept them, how to deal with them as best they can. We don’t have to be strong all the time or vulnerable all the time.
The Good Night Stories For Rebel Girls series are so inspiring….
I have the Rebel Girls books, and I read them to my daughter. We love going through them. She loves listening to them, and I discover wonderful women through them, too.
Your new album, 11 Past The Hour, is obviously different from the rockabilly records you did before. Is this a continuation of 2017’s Life Love Flesh Blood?
Yes, it’s a continuation – a progression, I’d say. The next chapter along. Life Love Flesh Blood was definitely a wonderful awakening for me. I got known in my rockabilly phase, but I started off singing blues and jazz and roots music – I did all of that without anybody noticing. I got to tour and learn my craft because I never had any formal musical education. With my rockabilly albums, I got to a stage well before the last album where I said I couldn’t take it any further. I felt limited by what I could write.
When it came to Life Love Flesh Blood, I wanted to write and follow the songs as opposed to the songs following me. I saw where they’d go rather than trying to make them fit into something else; that was very liberating for me, and I continued that on this album. That’s how it will be from now on because it works for me as a writer – as an artist – to not know. It fires me up, takes me out of my comfort zone, a lovely freedom.
What would you say to the fans who feel you sold out leaving rockabilly? Do you think you would go back?
No, of course I didn’t sell out. I was probably making more money from rockabilly – from touring – because there’s not many people doing that. I was able to tour and do well, but no, I didn’t sell out at all. That’s not my style for anybody who knows me, that’s not how I work. I never go back.
I was brought up with blues and jazz, traditional Irish music, Van Morrison, Phil Lynott; Stray Cats, Carpenters, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones. All those wonderful artists. When I started singing as a teenager, all those influences were in there. I was into blues and jazz, toured with a swing band. Then I got into R&B, I discovered soul and northern soul. It all moves along. Listening to Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, I was also listening to The Cramps. I was into punk so much. I loved Violent Femmes and the Clash. That’s what got me into rockabilly cause I thought, “Where did this start?” I wanted to find out who those punks were into.
When you listen to The Cramps for instance, so much of it is blues, R&B, rockabilly, including the Ramones and all – that’s how my joining with rockabilly began. When I mentioned that to anybody, I saw them recoil: “oh, you don’t want to do rockabilly!” I was going, “Why is there this hatred for music that was so important?” That’s what made me go forward with that cause I felt like it had been – other than the Stray Cats – shunned as music, and I don’t think any music should be shunned, especially any kind of music that’s so influential. In Beatles interviews, they said they listened to rockabilly. When I was working with Jeff Beck and with Robert Plant, they both said it!
When things took off for me with rockabilly, immediately people put a box around you; I never lived in that box. It was put around me because it’s simple for people. That’s what you are for the rest of your life, and that’s not how music should be. That’s why I was so caught up, from 16 to my 30s, learning about and listening to all this music. It’s been a massive learning curve, and I’ve really enjoyed it.
I understand what you’re saying about being boxed in. You have to keep an open mind.
There’s so much amazing music, and if you talk to any artist, they’ll give you a whole list of different types of music that they’re into because you’re influenced by…. It’s flavour, isn’t it? All different flavours coming together. I can’t see why we should limit ourselves when there’s a whole beautiful world of music we can explore.
I feel the same way. With everything, books, music…
Yes!
There’s so much you want to – need to – get through.
Yes, even the classics. “Dear God, I’ve never read them all!”
Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood is featured on two cuts off 11 Past The Hour. I understand you’ve been friends for a long time.
When I was 16, I went with my brothers and sisters to this basement club in Dublin – they had to sneak me in because I was too young. Then I started to sing there. The club was mostly full of musicians, and I fell in love with the whole vibe of it, the way teenagers do. I discovered what keys things were in, and I’d write them up my arms and sit on a stool in the corner listening, hoping somebody would ask me to sing. Then I’d know what song and what key – I’d read my arms. The musicians would encourage me and give me pointers.
Ronnie Wood came in one night, jumped up onstage and jammed. We had a great time! Years later, I’d been touring with Jeff Beck, who said, “I want to introduce you to my friend Ronnie.” I said to Ronnie, “We’ve met before a long time ago, but I’m sure you don’t remember” – and he did! He said, “You’re that child that was down onstage singing the most kick-ass blues.” I was delighted. We picked up from there and have been friends ever since.
Why did you choose Noel Gallagher to join you on your single Just One Kiss?
I’d asked Ronnie to play on it already, and when he played that solo, everybody in the studio, their jaws… it was a moment. He nailed it. With Just One Kiss I said, “It’s a dirty rock’n’roll number, you know?” It has a dirty groove to it, a gorgeous groove, and I knew it had to be a duet. It needed more than me, and I wanted a raspy, sexy voice.
It was Bono who introduced me to Noel. I’d gone to see Noel many times, and I love him and the High Flying Birds. I love his Oasis stuff as well, but I just love his newer stuff. I think he’s absolutely a genius. I love his writing and his voice. I’d just been to his gig – he texted me and I said, “I’d love if you could do this,” sent him the track, and he loved it. I think our voices balanced well together. He revved it up a notch.
Who sang with you on Don’t Let Me Stand On My Own?
Niall McNamee. He’s a wonderful singer-songwriter and an actor. It was Ronnie and his wife Sally [Humphreys] who introduced me to him: Sally’s a wonderful producer, and Niall was in a lead role in one of the shows she was producing. We got on really well and wrote together because I’d heard his songs and thought they were amazing. Then we kind of fell in love, then he kind of moved in [throaty mischievous laughing], and that’s how things are now. We’re dueting but we’re not writing anymore. We’re very happy now.
I did not know that but thanks for the info! [Mutual laughter again] I really like that song.
He started [Don’t Let Me Stand On My Own], then he was getting rid of it. I said, “No, no, this is a great song. Let’s finish it.” So we sat down and started writing together. It’s beautiful – about mental health. Holding each other up and being there for each other, which I think you need, we all need.
You’re very independent and assertive – you take on a lot of different modes – but this song was different.
Yes! We have so many different parts, sides of us – and we should have. There’s a very strong song on the album called Never Look Back, about remembering but moving forward; learning from the past but not going back there. Some days, we do feel like we could take on the world. A lot of times we feel that the world has totally shattered us, and we haven’t got a drop left to give. We need our friends and our family around us.
It’s good to be vulnerable and to accept all emotions. You can’t just be happy and strong all the time – let yourself be melancholy for a while. You do pull through rather than fight, but we have many hats. You’re not gonna behave the same with your mother or your child as you would with your girlfriends out on a Saturday night around a big jar of margaritas!
The single 11 Past The Hour sounds very Bondian?
I had a few people saying it sounds like a soundtrack to a David Lynch movie. I’ll certainly take that. When I wrote that song, I kept on seeing 11:11 everywhere. I looked [11:11] up, and it’s brought me on this whole new journey. 11:11 is a calling, an awakening, an intuition – the universe opening up and learning. It’s brought me to a world of numerology and astrology. How ancient civilizations built masses of things, including in Ireland – this place, Newgrange, that took them generations to build. All for five minutes of sunrise that enters this chamber. It’s gotten me into paganism and pre-Christian life in ancient Ireland.
When I wrote 11 Past The Hour, it starts with 11:11, but then I thought about how even though we’re adults, we feel like we’re supposed to be grownup, but we’re not. We’re all as a child pretending to be a grownup, a lot of the time. Maybe it’s because as my mother gets older and dementia has set in, and she’s going back to childhood, it’s made me realise that the child is always in there. That longing that we have to be scooped up, have arms wrapped around us, and be told everything is going to be alright. That’s what I want that song to be – whether that’s your mother that tells you, or your father, or your lover, or your god. I’m getting all emotional thinking about my mam, you know? It’s difficult but you have to love every part of her the same way she loves every part of you. We’re scooping her up now. It’s so lovely. We’re scooping her up in our arms and telling her everything is going to be alright.
Imelda May’s 11 Past The Hour is out now on Decca Records. Info: www.imeldamay.co.uk
words RHONDA LEE REALI