Ciaran Lavery: "I always admire people who take risks, especially Björk"

Alongside the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the tufted titmouse, the title of eclectic Antrim musician Ciaran Lavery’s new album might just have earned itself a place in the misnomers hall of fame.

Light Entertainment is anything but. A far cry from the home renovation shows polluting evening TV screens, the record reflects the sense of paranoia, deceit, conflict and desperation that crashes like a tidal wave across our modern lives.

“I enjoy novels and movies where the titles are not necessarily alluding to what is inside,” says the Aghallon native. “I’m also a huge fan of indie movies like The Squid And The Whale – where the name is not really letting you in on what the themes are. So I feel it’s the perfect tongue-in-cheek title for something that’s looking at a lot of heavy topics.”

Ciaran Lavery Light Entertainment

His fifth album overall, as Lavery describes, is an “apocalypse record”. What is it that makes the artist so pessimistic?

“It’s probably the end of the world for a lot of us,” he says. “What’s happening in Palestine, what’s happening in America right now, and even what’s happening in the North of Ireland. I never intended to be a kind of political writer, and I don’t consider myself one.

“I always think it’s quite a dangerous tightrope to walk, but I certainly think I’m at a point in my life now where it’s very strange to see things happening twice. The same things are happening and it’s just a different person in a different suit.”

He teases out the thought further.

“There’s something quite dystopian about the world that we live in,” Lavery continues. “I remember being in an airport a few years ago, and being perplexed by a sign that said ‘No Hoverboards’. I thought, ‘Jesus Christ’, because in my mind, hoverboards have always been associated with Back to the Future.

“When you think about how we all rely on our phones, how we look at technology, the things you can do through an app – all of this instantaneous gratification has become everyday life.”

This search for easy gratification has seeped into the music industry, putting undesirable expectations on artists – a theme Lavery explores on the Joshua Burnside-featuring ‘We’re Looking For A Hit’.

“We can only interact with whatever the world is turning into,” says Ciaran. “I remember having a music industry conversation with someone in London, and they were saying that pop songs are being front loaded. So basically every song starts with a chorus, because they know that you’ve got five seconds to keep the listener’s attention. Song formats are being structured in order to accommodate the modern day listener, who may be much more casual than the album listener.”

As Lavery explores in Light Entertainment’s third track, ‘Ted Bundy Tapes’, the desire for media to be satisfying, distracting and soothing has also extended to other mediums.

“I’ve always been fascinated by it,” he notes. “This sounds really strange to say, but as a nine or 10-year-old, I used to have some books on serial killers. I was also a very frightened child and I still am. But I’m really interested in the irony in finding solace and a reprieve from the intensity of the real world by burying myself in a true story about a guy like that.

“The general scope of what we, and these streaming services, determine as entertainment is quite surreal.”

Sonically the album is expansive and experimental, characterised by atmospheric pianos and synths, skittering rhythms and subby bass. It’s perhaps not surprising then, when Lavery says the records used as references were Tyler The Creator’s Igor, Thom York’s The Eraser and Björk's Debut.

“I find them to be unique, in that they just follow whatever they want to do,” he says. “Tyler’s new stuff he’s putting out at the minute is just incredible. He’s one of those artists who kind of falls into the same world of Tom Waits, in that he just seems to do what he wants to do creatively.

“I always admire people who take risks as well, especially Björk. I just think she’s so difficult to pin down. She essentially exists as her own genre, so there’s an admiration for her inability to be pigeonholed, which l find really fascinating.”

• Light Entertainment is out now.