Irish Lion: The Full Hot Press Interview with Damien Dempsey

Damien ‘Damo’ Dempsey is not a violent man but, as the bulging biceps beneath the sleeve of his black t-shirt attest, the muscular singer-songwriter likes to train regularly in his local boxing club in Donaghmede to keep in shape. Needless to say, he’s a major fan of fellow Dubliner Conor McGregor.

“I haven’t ever met him, but I think it’s incredible how he’s mastered his mind,” he says. “He’s mastered his visualisation, and I think it’s brilliant the way he’s done that.”

Damo shifts uncomfortably in his seat and makes a surprising confession: “I’m still fighting my mind. The demons come to me. I don’t think they come to him now that he’s sort of controlled it. I’ve a lot of admiration for that.”

It’s a sunny Thursday afternoon in Dublin, and we’re meeting in an upstairs room in The Workman’s Club. Seventeen years into his career, the 42-year-old is about to release his seventh studio album, Soulsun. He’s been doing press interviews all afternoon, and is visibly relieved that this will be his last of the day. Actually quite a modest and unassuming individual, he’s never been too big on self-promotion.

Indeed, most of Damo’s most intimate revelations are far more likely to be found in his soulful, spiritual songs than spilled out to an interviewer’s digital recorder. The powerful title track of the new album opens, “I never thought I’d feel this weak or rejected/But I just know it’s gonna pass/I hope and pray that it won’t last…”

A scary portrait of a depressed mind, clearly it was penned during a particularly low period in his life.

“I was in the horrors when I wrote that,” he recalls, shuddering. “It was about three years ago. But I just had to get through it. I sort of thought about the great things in my life, the people I loved and all, and sure I have music, and… just I knew that this’ll break now, you know? This’ll break in a week or two. And the soulsun’s going to come again. It’ll shine from me outwards.”

He freely admits that he has regular bouts with the black dog of depression. “I go up and down like that, you know?” he shrugs. “It’s just probably hereditary or something. So it’s just writing the song in the dark times, obviously tends to resonate with some people when they hear it. There’s a lot of dark times now, isn’t there, for people, whatever’s going on with the social media thing, and the modern world puts so much pressure on people.”

I don’t think life has ever been especially easy for the vast majority of people…

“True,” he nods. “But I was looking at kids down there where we swim sometimes, between Malahide and Portmarknock, and it’s just all the phones and all the gear they have, and all the runners. And they’re shaving their legs, and the boys are shaving their armpits and all. Getting their teeth whitened, and fake tan, hair’s perfect and all this. I was thinking that when me and my friends were younger we were in rags, you now? Nobody gave a shite, like. Everyone’s the same. So I think there’s a lot more pressure on people now. A lot more pressure on kids and all.”

Do you ever welcome the dark times? In the sense that at least it makes for good creative fodder?

“I dunno,” he says, doubtfully. “What I’ve found is helping me… I learnt this off the internet. I’m learning lots off the internet, it’s amazing how it’s opened things up. But I found this stuff called 5 htp [Oxitriptan]. Do you know the stuff? They used to sell it here in the pharmacies, in Holland & Barrett. Brian Cowen, when he was Minister for Health, he banned it. Obviously the pharmaceutical companies gave him a push.

“But I get it now in Kilburn, at the Holland & Barrett there. And I just take one or two a day, and it really helps you know. It’s serotonin, from an African root called griffonia… The fact that they banned it here just really fucking angers me.”

Face darkening, he continues. “You can get it in Newry, but I buy loads of it in London and bring it back to people here, who are a bit down and all, and they say, ‘That’s amazing stuff!’ It takes about five or six days and then you’re out of it. Whenever you’re feeling blue you just take this stuff. I’m sure we had it like in the old days, we’d use roots or bark or we’d know what to use when someone was a bit down, you know?”

Have you ever taken Prozac?

“Nah, no, I wouldn’t go near it,” he replies, shaking his head. “I’ve never gone to anybody, a doctor or anything, and said I was depressed because I knew they’d put me on that stuff. I’ve heard very bad things about it, that it makes people like zombies and deadens their emotions and all. I don’t think that’d be a very good thing for a writer.”

Well, it tends to kill people’s empathy…

“Yeah? Well fuck that!” he laughs. “That’s a huge part of my psyche.” Do you smoke marijuana?

“I find that I do take a bit of that,” he smiles. “I have to watch it though. I find that when I mix it with tobacco, me head gets all mad with crazy thoughts, but when I smoke it just on its own, it’s much better for me, makes me smile.”

Well, anything that brings a smile to your face can’t be all that bad.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he agrees. “It fucking annoys me that a fella in a suit won’t let us use the medicinal qualities of this plant that could help tens of thousands of people around the land with all sorts of different ailments. Yeah, even people in my own family who are suffering from different things... and this guy in a suit says, ‘No, you can’t have this.’ I mean they can take the THC out of it, so you don’t get high, use the properties for the body and for pain and all. But this fella says no. That fucking drives me mad. And then they refuse point blank to stop dumping toxic waste into the water supply! It’s bullshit. In my song ‘Simple Faith’, I’m saying to people... don’t fucking trust these big institutions... question them all the time.”

Back to the music. Soulsun was produced by Damo’s manager and drummer John Reynolds, and recorded in his north London studio. Reynolds has produced his last few albums. So what’s the bond there?

“He’s a massive fan of what I do,” explains Dempsey. “John believes in what I do – really believes in it. I love his drumming, it’s very sympathetic to my lyrics. He’s a great drummer and a great producer as well. He’s great for me, songwriting wise, not to tear off on a song – just refine it and make it better. He’ll tell me if it’s shit, he’ll tell me straight to my face. I need someone like that to bounce off.”

Soulsun also features a stellar cast of female guest vocalists, who Dempsey refers to as “The Mighty Celtic Warrior High Queens.” Dido, who sold 21 million copies of her debut album, No Angel, sings on a tender love song entitled ‘Beside the Sea’. ‘Pretty Bird Tree’ features Dingle singer Pauline Scanlon, while fellow Dubliner Imelda May appears on a break-up song called ‘Big Big Love’.

“We’ve played with Imelda, she’s a huge fan, been to our shows and all,” explains Damien. “We had this song about a break-up and thought she’d be perfect for it.”

It was presumably ideal timing for her, given the break-up of her marriage…

“Yeah, we didn’t know that at the time… but she was crying when she heard the song.”

Was that your own breakup you were writing about?

“Yeah, it was a break-up,” he nods, looking uncomfortable.

Who with?

“Well… we’re great friends,” he laughs. “It’s about staying friends with people you care about. On and off, it was a long time…”

The Dido collaboration came about through a chance meeting in Brian Eno’s house.

“I was walking with John Reynolds one morning in Hyde Park, and we bumped into Brian Eno,” he recalls. “Brian said, ‘Come along… we have a singing night in my house, we’d love you to come along and sing a few songs.’ So I went along and it was all lovely finger food on the table and bottles of lovely wine and smoked salmon and all that gear. And Dido was there, Annie Lennox and a few other people.”

Is that a typical afternoon in Brian Eno’s house?

“Exactly, yeah,” smiles Damien. “We just had a list of songs to choose from and did harmonies then. I was talking to Dido and she said, ‘I love your song ‘You’re Not On Your Own Tonight’ off the album Shots.’ I said, ‘I’m a huge fan of your singing, too’, and we just thought of her for ‘Beside the Sea’. I’m just thinking now, it’s mad because I wrote that song in west Clare. I used to go down there on my holidays for a week in the summer. Spanish Point. She used to go to Limerick, and I guarantee you, because all of Limerick goes to Kilkee and all, that she had similar experiences down on the west coast of Clare. The song kind of gelled. The two of us gives a nice imagery of two lovers going down to the beach.

“And then Pauline’s on the album as well,” he continues. “I’ve obviously loved Pauline’s singing for a long, long time. I’ve been singing with her in sessions now for a good few years – she’s like a songbird or something… an incredible singer, so I wanted her on the album.”

Amidst all the plaudits Damo has won over the years, one of the most notable is contained in Morrissey’s Autobiography. The legendary Mancunian singer describes watching the Dubliner performing at a session in Dublin’s Four Seasons Hotel. “Damien captivates and enchants with all the love of one blessed and unselfish,” he wrote. “I can see myself crying at his funeral, missing him already.”

So any chance of a Morrissey duet at some point?

“I’ll have to ask him,” he smiles.

Well, Moz clearly has a lot of time for you...

“I’m up for it.”

When did you hear about the book?

“About his book? I was off touring somewhere and someone just texted me, ‘You know you’re in Morrissey’s book?’ Then I read the book and I thought it was an incredible way to write, a totally different way to write a book. It was great to see where his influences came from, his childhood in Manchester and all. His link to Dublin. Yeah, it was interesting. Though he said he could see himself crying at my funeral. I wouldn’t quite like that though.”

Maybe you should respond by saying you can see yourself crying at his own send-off…

Damien Dempsey burst out laughing. “Well, you know something? I might and all!”

Soulsun is released on Clear Records on June 9. On the same night, Damien Dempsey plays Mandela Hall, Belfast. He also plays the Iveagh Gardens, Dublin on July 21.