New Dawn Hayes
As Gemma Hayes steps back into the fray with her long-awaited third album, Hot Press arranges for her to have a tete-a-tete with long-time collaborator Dave Odlum.
Peter Murphy, 06 Jun 2008
It was a lot like the inserts in When Harry Met Sally. Singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes and producer Dave Odlum might not be a couple in the romantic sense, but since the latter helmed the former’s debut EP back in the early part of the decade (among his first major post-Frames production jobs), both have enjoyed a fruitful creative partnership. It’s testament to Odlum’s studio skills that Hayes holds him in the same regard as sonic wizards like Dave Fridmann and Kevin Shields, both of whom she’s worked with over the course of three albums.
Since producing Hayes’s Mercury-nominated debut Night On My Side, Odlum has based himself in Black Box studios in France, crafting albums for dEUS, Nina Hynes, Josh Ritter, The Frames and many others, in the process establishing himself as one of the most sought after record-makers in Ireland. He and Hayes, plus allies like Kevin Shields, Joe Chester and Paul Noonan, have teamed up again for her third album and first independent venture The Hollow Of Morning, a hazy dawn fantasia that is equal parts pastoral folk and dissonant drone.
The two are as easy in each other’s company as one would expect of a pair who’ve spent endless late nights in the submarine-like environment of the studio. They’ve also taken HP’s invitation to interview each other seriously, showing up with reams of questions scribbled on the backs of envelopes and hotel receipts. Would that our job was always this easy.
Gemma: I think we met in the Irish Film Centre coffee shop. I had called David up because I wanted to make a demo, invited him along to a show to hear my songs, and that was it really. I met him just a few weeks before I first met Mic Christopher. We started recording stuff in Mic’s house, because Dave was living with Mic at the time. I remember Mic fell off the motorbike, he broke some ribs and a leg and he was in the hospital, and we decided to basically finish one of his songs and just surprise him with it in the ward. So we were staying up until all hours of the morning doing oohs and aahs and trying little fiddly things. He was delighted.
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