more songs about fucking, drinking & death

WHAT IS it with these first generation Irish? Listening to Michael J. Sheehy explain his upbringing here in Whelan s dressing room of a rainy September afternoon, you could be forgiven for thinking him the result of some bio-genetic experiment in which mad scientists attempted to construct the perfect ex-pat Paddy popster a dash of Shane MacGowan s catholic alcoholism and Tipperary lineage; a hint of Jarvis Cocker s fascination with life s fleshy underbelly; a dollop of Elvis Costello s unflinching psychodrama circa Blood & Chocolate, Morrissey s moon-in-the-gutter lyricism . . .

When you grow up in London with an Irish background, it s the same with black kids whose background is Jamaican, MJ considers. They do the same thing: you kind of take the piss out of your parents, you do the accent thing, you go to church and do your first holy communion, it s a community thing.
It s funny, he expands, when you get people who come from Ireland to London or whatever, they re very patriotic in a lot of ways, but there s a mixture of hatred for Irish people as well, which I found in my own father. I don t know if it s normal or not, but there were certain things about Ireland he hated, possibly the hypocrisy more because of the church rather than the people, the way people s ideas are shaped. He always had a big bee in his bonnet about that and I think that rubbed off on me somewhat and I think that comes across in the songs.
For sure, Sheehy s first solo album Sweet Blue Gene is a grotty postcard from Irelandon that smells of musty pubs, dank flats and twilight hours, as much a snapshot of the city at night as Tindersticks debut, or Gallon Drunk s From The Heart Of Town. And while the record is a couple of cuts short of classic, Sheehy exhibits the makings of a serious songwriter, particularly in his willingness to confront the kind of social and personal concerns you ll rarely find in the pages of Social & Personal. Exhibit One: Oh Sweet Jesus , the semi-biblical tale of a young guy whose pregnant girlfriend has an abortion and ends up in the asylum.
Hardly gut-busting stuff, Michael. Is it autobiographical?
Not all of it. Some of it would be loosely based around my father s life rather than my own. I mean, that s just a passionate subject for me, not so much for the men even though it s from a male point of view, that particular song but I just feel that for a woman to have to leave her country to have an abortion is . . . difficult. I dunno, to me it just doesn t seem right in terms of law and everything else, there doesn t seem to be a lot of compassion in that.
Speaking of compassion, elsewhere, I Can t Comfort You Anymore is tender but bleak, with the protagonist unable to offer solace to a friend who has suffered a death in the family.
There s nothing like a bereavement to rock your faith, Michael observes, quickly adding, if you have any at all in the first place. With this particular song, a friend of mine lost their mother completely unexpectedly in a car crash, and there s not really anything you can say to somebody in a position like that. They re obviously just completely shocked and sobbing uncontrollably and that s the most difficult time to believe in God. If you ve lost somebody, it s very difficult to call on that kind of faith because it s suddenly . . . for me it s rendered completely irrelevant in the face of something like that. Nobody wants to hear, It s alright, she s in a better place, or some shit like that some people would possibly take that as an insult to their intelligence.
Sheehy began his career with a ramshackle combo called Dream City Film Club, grinding out a squalid urban blues for Beggars Banquet, tunes with titles like Shit Tainted Shades , Pissboy , and Perfect Piece Of Trash . When asked to drop a few reference points, the singer recites the following litany:
The Birthday Party, The Stooges and possibly even The Virgin Prunes, he says, just for being mavericks in a time where you had a band like U2 doing War albums and being very spiritual, almost Christian rock. The Virgin Prunes were already doing Zoo TV on small stages in Ireland in 84.
DCFC infamously got their name from a London porn theatre which burned down some years ago, with many of the clientele still trapped inside. Michael s fascination with pornography is also evident on Everything Is Beautiful off the new record. Why the preoccupation with the skin trade?
It s very hard to explain, he says, weighing his words. To put it very simply, I mean, how often do you get the opportunity to watch two people have sex? (No comment PM.) To me, that s as simple as the fascination is. There are certain subtleties in porn that I find interesting, particularly if you get the hardest core I m not talking about any kind of shit involving children or animals or people nailing their scrotums to wooden boards but more just, it s interesting to see if the people are actually enjoying themselves when they re doing this. And the gamble, what they ve got to lose. I mean, they re basically saying, I am a porn star, this is about what I am . You can t exactly go home to your mother and say, with pride, This is my latest work .
I find the real people who do this tragic in a lot of ways, he continues. And also, I love the opportunity to sit down and watch a video of two people, and trying to realise whether they re actually really into it or just acting. In a way, between pornography and making rock music, what s the fuckin difference in terms of being an exhibitionist and having that ability to be able to perform or not, as the case may be?
So what does Michael J. make of the marketing of Britney and to a lesser extent Christina Aguilera the Lolita/Humbert syndrome?
It s an interesting one, he admits. I mean, in all honesty I don t think there s that many men who can sit there and watch Britney s video in the school, Hit Me Baby One More Time , it didn t really cut the mustard for me. The latest one, Oops, I Did It Again in the red PVC all-in-one suit now you re talking! Yeah, that turns me on. And she s possibly a little older, and it shows! I m not interested in a 16 year old girl, I m not particularly interested in an 18 year old girl, but in the case of those videos that she makes, yeah I know there is this thing of trying to appeal to the old guy looking at the young girl, but I think that s a very male way to look at it because at the end of the day, I d wager a bet that more than 50% of Britney s fans are girls, possibly of a similar age. That s scary, because I get a little worried about girls sprouting their tits before they ve even get a full set of teeth.

Sweet Blue Gene is out now on Beggars Banquet.