Sarah Lynch s earliest musical influence came from her grandfather, Jim Bud Clancy, who ran a famous dance band from their native Limerick during the 1960s and 70s. Encouraged by his success, Sarah began playing the trumpet when she was only a nipper, and was writing her own songs by the age of 13. Since then she s blossomed into a full-time singer/songwriter, with guitar, keyboards, percussion and a strangely haunting voice now added to her original brass.
Until now, Sarah s songs have been acoustically-based. It s just the way I was writing, she explains. But I m trying to re-record, and I m going through a sort of drum n bass-type style.
At the moment I m rehearsing with a new band, and they re brilliant. There are so many rock outfits around the place, so I m looking for something that s a little distinct.
And what does that actually involve?
A lot of experimenting, laughs Sarah. Loads of it! Some of it doesn t work, but when it does work, it s great. That s what rehearsing is all about.
Sarah was involved in the recent and much-lauded album, To Boldy Go, an interesting new project put out by the Origin label.
To Boldy Go was a compilation of artists that have not yet been signed, she explains. It s tough for bands starting out; even established musicians, it s not an easy line of work. So a few of us got together, decided that we re going in the same direction, and under the supervision of the Origin recording company who gave us technical and legal advice we put together this album. There are eight bands involved, and we each had two songs on the album. The idea is to help the bands develop, and hopefully somebody, or all, will get a deal out of it. It s easier than doing it by yourself.
Does that kind of collectivism happen a lot on the Irish music scene?
I don t think it happens enough, Sarah observes. I haven t heard or seen anything like that before happen around the country, so I couldn t tell ye, to be honest. But I think it should happen more. It was a really positive experience, in that it s put me in contact with a group of people who are at the exact same stage and have the exact same highs and lows as I have. We made good friends as well as everything else.
What music are you interested in yourself?
Personally, I have huge respect for so many different artists for different reasons. I really like Madonna s new album, Ray of Light. That was excellently produced, and I suppose that s something similar to the sound that I would look for. Then Bjvrk, I love her music because of her fearlessness in crossing different styles. I don t think you could peg her into one particular category. And then Siniad O Connor, for the fact that she makes it seem so natural it s almost like breathing, her lyrics and her singing. And to be able to do that, it s inspiring to watch.
What do you tend to write about?
It s directly linked with me, I suppose, because if I experience something then I would write about it, and if I m having a difficulty or problem dealing with something, then I will write a song about it. And the reason I do it is because it s great at the end of a show if you have someone come up to you and say, That song, I could really relate to it . They might relate to it for completely different reasons to why I wrote it, but it s about getting a message across. I feel I have something to say, and I m going to use music to do that.
Next month, Sarah releases a single called Ophelia s Song . What s its general vibe?
I was studying Hamlet, she explains, and in it, the character Ophelia drowns herself. And my interpretation of it was that she let other people s opinions form her own opinion of herself. So it s a sort of fighting back song. It s a case of: I m going to do what I have to do anyway, so just accept it. It s an upbeat song; the instrumentation is acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboards, Hammond organ and drums and bass. And I put a flanger pedal on my voice as well. Ophelia drowned, so the desired effect was that my vocals would sound like they were coming from the water.
I can only try these things, Sarah concludes. If people like them, they like them, and if they don t, they don t! n
Sarah Lynch will play a series of Dublin gigs shortly, but dates are yet to be confirmed.