Róisín Meets: Lisa O’Neill – a ‘compelling and singular talent’

Lisa O’Neill has been writing music since her early teens, making her mark on the Dublin folk/trad scene when she moved to the city from her native Cavan at 18.

She is known as “a compelling, singular talent” – something she told Róisín Ingle she is more than happy with.

On this week’s podcast, Lisa joined Róisín to talk about her third album Pothole in the Sky, saying she no longer worries that she is “winging it”.

“I’m not the best instrumentalist in the world, but I’m a good singer and I’m a good songwriter and I mean what I say . . . and I’m putting it all into it . . . so recognising those things help,” she said.

Her first foray into music was playing the tin whistle in the local marching band at the age of seven, before graduating to the guitar at 14. It was then she found her voice, but it was a long time before she heard it was any good.

“Nobody was saying that is a very interesting or unique voice. I won’t mention any names but I was told at times to tone it down,” she said.

O’Neill spoke to Róisín about her musical influences and said she tried her best to fake it as an All Saints fan at school. Instead she was more interested in what her parents liked.

Mentors

“I was listening to whatever dad was listening to, a lot of Willie Nelson, Freddie Mercury, Patsy Klein. Mam was listening to music in the house as well, Karen Carpenter . . . That’s what I knew moved me and if I was a bit addicted to it I used get up early in the morning to listen to it.”

She cites Billy Bragg as one of her mentors and spent some time with him in Tasmania writing music for a film. Lisa said she was so overcome by the prospect that it was, “so scary that I might not go, but that was never going to happen”.

O’Neill brought a 90-year-old baritone ukulele along to the podcast and played three songs: Gormlaith’s Grieving, Nasty and Red Geansaí, which she says is about “lads take us serious, or don’t take us at all”.

She is in Cork to kick off her Irish tour this weekend, before a gig at Whelan's in Dublin on May 20th. O'Neill will also be performing across the country throughout June. See here for a list of dates.

To listen to the conversation or other episodes of the podcast, go to Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher or irishtimes.com.