Have Album, Will Travel

Since the release of her debut album in September, Cavan-born songwriter Lisa O’Neill has garnered quite a cult following. Of course, it helps that the record comes with a memorable title: Has An Album.

“That was just a little accident,” Lisa laughs. “When the first mix was done, I was giving it to a friend and I was writing something on it for him. I was thinking I need to give it a name! I wrote Lisa O’Neill Has An Album and it stuck.”
She may have support slots with Kila and Scullion and performances at Electric Picnic behind her but O’Neill says she’s not ready to give up the pub sessions just yet.
“It’s made me hard. You have to holler! And you meet all sorts of people. I love the characters. Everyone’s got a story to tell.”
As well as getting bigged-up by childhood hero Charlie McGettigan on MySpace (“I found him and said hello and he wrote back and said that he loved my stuff!”), one of Lisa’s proudest moments was winning a fan in the form of the late Ronnie Drew.
“I did a gig and he was playing the same night. I sang and he sang, and then he brought me outside for a chat and he was very interested in my music. He wished me luck and he told me that music had given him a very happy life. It was about six months before he died.”
Lisa’s musical career began when she was barely out of short-pants. “I got guitar lessons when I was 14. My brother wanted lessons so my parents sent me along too. I stuck with it. He didn’t... I don’t remember thinking too much about it to be honest. I loved music growing up. My Dad’s a musician and he played in a few show bands.”
She moved to Dublin when she was 18 to study at Ballyfermot Rock School. Meanwhile she was cultivating a taste for such outre singer-songwriters as Nick Cave and Joanna Newsom.
So what does the future hold? “My second album is written so I’d like to have it out by this time next year. I don’t see what the point is in wasting any time. The longer I leave it, the more chance it’ll lose its energy.”