Young At Art

When you re 18 and footloose anything seems possible. When you re 23 and the world tells you that anything seems possible, you re on the pig s back, ar boin na muice, so to speak. Siniad Lohan s 23 and she s riding bareback as we speak.
What Do You Think I Am (the very absence of a question mark underscoring the self-assurance that s set her apart from the opposition from the start) is a bolshie debut. In the time-honoured vein of the lonesome troubadour, the singer/songwriter with more ochsn scials than Peig Sayers, it s an album for the fainthearted soul that s been prematurely wizened by life s harsh realities. Basking at No. 8 in the Irish album charts, it s also a lot more than a song cycle with an identity crisis.
Who Do You Think I Am is the bare bones of Lohan stretched boldly across the centre stage. If James Brown was black and proud, Siniad Lohan is young, independent and proud. Where others cower in fear of rejection, Lohan carries her material aloft with an enviable disdain for the received wisdom; hacks come and go, as far as she s concerned, but her songwriting will go on.
Anyway, what matters is her own opinion, not that of some disembodied dissenter beset on disembowelling for the want of something better to do. At least that s what Siniad Lohan reckons.
She s been well-nigh adopted by Declan Sinnott for the past five years, so impressed was he by her prowess when he first heard her at the tender age of 18 summers.
I started to sing my songs in public for the first time five years ago, she recalls, in The Lobby in Cork, and so Declan heard from other musicians in Cork that he should come along and listen to me because they felt that what I was doing was very interesting. So he did, and I got to know him. Then I rang him up one day and I said that maybe we should get together and play, and he said Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, so it started from there.
And like the knight in shining armour, Sinnott put his recording facilities at Lohan s disposal, placing himself at the production helm. Flattered by his belief in her abilities, Lohan set to the task with a verve and a determination that s since become her trademark.
But the record took a long time to record, she interjects, anxious to dispel any notions that her debut has emerged overnight, when in fact its gestation was closer to that of an elephant than a mayfly.
There was no record company involved, she elaborates, and Declan just took the record on board himself, so we were able to do it whenever we were free. So the record evolved as we got to know one another better, and began to think in the same way: we started it about two and a half years ago and we finished it about six months ago.

Already a veteran of a course in Music Management and Sound in Colaiste Stiofain Naofa, Lohan came to the recording process with a firmer grounding in the do(s) and don t(s) of the music business than many a more seasoned performer. Did she consider it an advantage to be au fait with at least some of the sharks tactics prior to her own initiation into the den where more than a handful of Daniels have perished?
Yeah, it was a help, she agrees, somewhat unconvincingly. In the end though, you ve got to go out there and experience things for yourself. Hearing about the pitfalls was good but it s only when you re doing it for real that any of it makes sense.
Question markless questions of identity are something that Siniad Lohan is far from preoccupied with, album title notwithstanding. As far as she s concerned, there are far more pressing problems to be dealt with than naval-gazing, and her sights are fixed firmly in the distance, and far from her own belly button.
I have no problem remembering why I m doing this, she insists. I remember why I started to write songs, which was purely for myself. I was innocent of any thoughts of an audience or of people who might be interested in hearing them. Actually, to tell the truth, I was surprised that people took me seriously because I wasn t consciously writing for a market or for an audience.
My reasons for writing are not commercial at all, she continues. It s a very introverted sort of writing, and it takes me a long time to get them right. I think that doing interviews and being on the television are grand, and I appreciate people coming up to me and saying that they like what I do, but it s not the whole thing. The biggest buzz I get is from playing a gig or writing a song. That s what s important to me. None of it would go to my head because I just don t see it as the main thing, for me.
Cutting her live teeth on so successful a vehicle as the Woman s Heart tour doesn t seem to have fazed this Cool Hand Luke of songwriting either. Sharing a stage with a quartet of already well-established female performers did nothing to tarnish her own self-esteem.
The tour was great, she ventures, but I was very laid back about the whole thing. I want to get my songs to as many people as I can, so the tour was a brilliant stepping stone. The gigs were luxurious, there were some gorgeous venues, the crowds were very appreciative so I was very grateful to Mary (Black) for letting me come on during her set. It was a great experience alright.
And what of the dangers of being pigeonholed as a particular kind of artist on the strength of her association with the woman s Heart tour? Does she fear being perceived as a twee middle-of-the-road artist , as Frances Black has recently said, with the added connotations of safety and lack of individuality?
Lohan rubbishes the notion of being tarred by anyone else s brush but her own, regardless of the boxes that some might like to see her in.
Not at all, she scoffs, because there s a generation gap between me and the woman on the scene, except maybe Siniad O Connor. At least we are coming out of the same world, I don t consider myself a folk singer anyway. There are better folk singers in the country than me. What I attempt to do is to write my songs the way that I feel. I m obviously the best at being myself, so nobody else can do that. People will categorise me no matter what I do, but I let them say what they want because it doesn t bother me in the slightest.
Lyrically, Siniad Lohan could be accused of being a tad obtuse, with many of her songs impenetrable even after repeated listenings. Is she aware of the barriers that may be imposed between herself and her audience by such an oblique approach to writing?
All of my songs are autobiographical, she explains, and it s very hard for me to describe what I m trying to do because I m so involved in the songs. What I want to do is to take a photograph of a feeling or a moment, and freeze-frame it. I try to describe it strongly enough that I ll always remember the moment when I hear the song. At least that s what I m trying to do!
As yet, she hasn t patented a songwriting technique, and she s hopeful that the process will never become so streamlined that a formula can be adopted to capture the moment.
It seems to be different every time, she says, with a note of relief, but sometimes I get a melody in my head and I just sit down and the words suggest themselves over the music. Sometimes then, it s the other way around. I certainly don t say: I m going to write a song about a lovely day or this or that. That never happens.

For someone with youth distinctly on her side, many of Lohan s songs suggest that there s quite a depressive streak to her character. It s a safety valve that comes in handy every now and again.
Yeah, she signs, listening to the songs, I agree that some of them are very melancholy, but that part of my personality seems to come out in my songs only. It s not evident in the rest of my life, so it seems to me that writing songs caters for that emotion, you know. Everything that s happening career-wise has been very positive for me so the more negative feelings seem to come out in my songs.
So there s an element of therapy in putting pen to paper?
Absolutely, she responds, other songwriters that I know have said to me that writing songs is like healing yourself. As far as I can see, I m given the songs when I m in the right frame of mind, so when I sing them, I give them to others. And I would never try to put my interpretation of what they mean over anybody else s. If someone gets something else out of my songs, that s fine by me.
If she is to search for role models, Lohan averts her eyes and ears from the music scene, finding souls far closer to her own in the hallowed halls of academia (or even in the advertising department of automobile corporations). It s there that she finds someone who speaks her language.
Brendan Kennelly is absolutely my favourite writer, she enthuses, and to be honest I m more into writers than singers. It s in his personality, the way he talks, the way he expresses himself. He s totally himself and that s what I would like to do with my music too. I m not copying anything. I m not trying to be like anybody.
Is she encouraged by the success of women singer/songwriters in particular, over the last few years? Time was when the only pens that made an impression were those of male songwriters, who (surprise, surprise) were bound to depict the world from a male perspective. Is life easier for the female songwriter now that sisters have been doing it for themselves for a spell?
I don t think about it really, she says. I still would be doing what I m doing, ploughing along with my own career, regardless of the Woman s Heart tour. I still would ve been noticed because I m good enough at what I do. But it definitely sped it up for me I suppose! Meeting the right people at the right time.
Ultimately the gender issue is irrelevant, according to Lohan.
Luck will only take you so far, then if you have what it takes, it s staying power that s needed. You have to have a spark to bring to the music. It s not going to happen the other way around.
On the brink of her first solo nationwide tour, an enviable proposition for anyone trying to carve a niche for themselves in these days of diminishing live venues, is Lohan apprehensive at the prospect of keeping the show on the road on the strength of her own material alone?
I m looking forward to it, she says, with not a hint of trepidation. It s a challenge, but I m very comfortable performing on my own because I ve been doing it for a number of years now. It s going to be hard work, but it s going to be great, because it s my own thing.
So the risk of immersion in a cotton wool-coated world where she s centre stage doesn t pose problems for Siniad Lohan? After all, it s not your common or garden experience to share the stage with the likes of Christie Hennessy, Jimmy MacCarthy, Mary Black and Sharon Shannon at the tender age of twenty-three. Lohan s insistent that she s not prey to such colour-by-numbers seductions.
I just take everybody as I meet them, she says, blithely. I read in a local paper there recently that Siniad is a star. I don t consider myself like that at all! I m still doing what I was doing five years ago, except that I m being noticed and recognised for it now. It s very flattering but you know, it's grand! Of course I get advice from people, but you have to go your own way in the end.
And of the future? Siniad Lohan hopes her passport gets stamped as often and as exotically as possible.
I want to go everywhere, see everything, do everything, she laughs, her feet visibly itching. And all in the next 12 months.