Forget the image of the nice Irish colleen singing twee, trad-pop tunes for an ultra-conservative mass market at the middle of the bóthar. The new girls on the block are writing sharp songs packed with emotion, writes Kevin Courtney
Let's call them the Rí-Rá Sisterhood. They're the new generation of Irish rock chicks, and they're playing at a Mercury Music Prize ceremony near you. Their divine secret? An ability to mix folk, rock and electronic sounds; a knack for writing sharp, emotionally charged indie tunes; and a steadfast refusal to bow down to a male-dominated Irish music industry.
At their head is a petite lady from Ballyporeen, Co Tipperary, whose début album, Night On My Side, was nominated for this year's Mercury Music Prize. In the event, Gemma Hayes (for it is she) didn't bag the much-coveted accolade, but her nomination has exploded the image of the nice Irish colleen singing twee, trad-pop tunes for an ultra-conservative mass market.
It also signalled a change from the "Woman's Heart" middle-of-the-bóthar genre which blended trad, pop and country music. Hayes is part of a new breed of Celtic chanteuses, tougher, more independent and more versatile than their predecessors, influenced by completely different heroes and heroines, and motivated by far deeper passions and desires. These new girls on the block are still relatively unknown, but there's no doubt the torch has passed into their capable hands.
Ireland has given the world such strong alpha males as Bono, Bob Geldof and Van Morrison, but - firebrands such as Sinéad O'Connor and Dolores O'Riordan aside - most Irish pop women have come across as cuddly, inoffensive and unthreatening to the male status quo. A few years ago, when you thought of Irish women in rock, you pictured a bevy of secondhand Roses singing tailor-made tunes by the likes of Jimmy McCarthy, Paul Brady or Hal Ketchum, and purveying a predictable range of jazz, pop and easy- listening standards.
The Rí-Rá Sisterhood is different. They write their own songs, they don't play up to the Irish auntie stereotype, and they wouldn't sing songs like No Frontiers in a fit.
Hayes is the best known of the bunch, but it may not be long before Nina Hynes, Ann Scott, Alice Jago and Margaret Healy are familiar to fans of quality Irish rock. If these women share a common thread, it is their ability to blend folk and rock music to create interesting and arresting tunes, spurred on by such disparate influences as Nirvana, The Pixies, Jeff Buckley and Madonna.
The Sisterhood is wide-reaching, and not all its members are new faces or solo fliers. Maria Doyle Kennedy has been performing for quite a few years as a member of The Black Velvet Band, but has recently come into her own with her solo album, Charm. Singer-songwriter Una O'Boyle occasionally performs with electronic dance act Hyperborea, but is gaining a growing following for her eclectic solo work and her regular performances at Dublin's Cobblestone venue.
Maggie Keane released her début album, Luna, in 1998, and is now promoting her new single, Happy Day, with a gig at the Cobblestone on November 20th. Catherine Dowling fronts a band called Babelfish, whose two EPs, Sometimes and Conversations With Robots, reveal her to be mature, talented, and firmly in control of the reins. Carol Keogh, former singer with The Plague Monkeys, has formed a highly-regarded new band, The Tycho Brahe, with Plague Monkeys guitarist Donal O'Mahony.
If you're looking for the Sisterhood, they don't have a coven, but you might find a few of their members at Whelans on Wexford Street or - until recently - at Dave Murphy's singer-songwriter nights at the International Bar on Wicklow Street. At Gemma Hayes's sold-out show at Whelans last month, you would have spotted Ann Scott and Alice Jago backstage. The result of this tightly-knit musical network is that a lot of the same musicians play on the records. Look at the credits on Gemma Hayes's album, Night On My Side, on Nina Hynes's Staros, Babelfish's Conversations With Robots, and Ann Scott's Pauper Tiger EP, and you'll find many of the same musicians, such as guitarist Karl Odlum and bassist Dave Odlum (both former members of The Frames), drummer Dave Hingerty, and numerous others from the Dublin indie scene.
If there's any rivalry between today's Irish rock chicks, it's purely playful: these girls regularly attend each other's gigs, and often team up to perform concerts together. Recently, Ann Scott, Alice Jago and Margaret Healy played triple-headers at Whelans and the International Bar, and were joined onstage by many of the scene's movers and shakers.
But while the girls are happy to stick together, they're not so sure if they want to be lumped together. All are fiercely protective of their own musical vision - they want to be seen as unique and individual despite their shared reference points. They also don't appreciate being set apart from their male counterparts. As far as Nina Hynes is concerned, the Irish indie scene is no longer segregated along gender lines.
"I'm not so much interested in separating the girls from the boys," says Hynes. "Initially, when the girls would get up to play, they'd be less confident because Irish rock was seen a bit of a boy's world. But things are more open now, and it doesn't really matter what sex you are."
Hynes, from Dún Laoghaire, dropped out of Trinity College and went busking on the streets of Paris, then returned to Dublin to pursue a full-time career in music. To deflect attention away from gender, Hynes chose not to use her face on the artwork for her superb second album, Staros. The surreal Alpine landscape of the cover is more in keeping with her musical horizons, which stretch from jazz to electronica to trip-hop.
"I think it's safe to say I wasn't influenced by A Woman's Heart," she says. "I listened to people like Blondie, Sade and De La Soul, a lot of jazz and hip-hop, and exotic stuff like Bulgarian voices. I was always looking for something new and unusual. Initially, my music was a little strange, with unorthodox structures. I was always trying to go beyond boundaries, to sound as out-there as possible, but these days I'm more concerned with writing better songs."
Staros is dotted with quirky touches - a trumpet here, a xylophone there - but the weird arrangements are anchored by excellent tunes such as Mono Prix, Time Flies and Last Song Of The 20th Century. "It's quirkier than straightforward rock - in fact, I'm not sure if rock is how I'd describe it."
Ann Scott, from Foxrock, studied journalism in college and worked at the Irish Field racing paper. However, her interest in equine matters was overshadowed by her love of performing, so she too headed for the bars and outdoor cafés of Paris, accompanied by her friend, violinist Jenny Healy.
"I wasn't really into music when I was growing up," admits Scott. "My older brothers were real rockers, though, and they would take off my Madonna records and play Metallica and AC/DC instead. So I got revenge on them by learning all these Angus Young guitar solos, just to drive them crazy."
Scott's début release, The Pauper Tiger EP, is influenced by The Pixies and Nirvana; she also claims a strong admiration for the queen of Irish rockers, Sinéad O'Connor. Scott financed the recording of Pauper Tiger herself, and released it on her own Raghouse Records label.
"We're all working on a restricted budget, but we don't want to just play acoustic music," says Scott. "So rather than pay musicians, the girls all pitch in, and people like Mundy might drop by and play a bit of lead guitar. The scene is good at the moment because everybody is in the same boat, everyone helps each other out, and everyone gets inspired by each other."
"It's a good time to be playing music right now, because there's a lot more freedom," says Catherine Dowling, the Kilkenny-born singer with Babelfish. "It's also a good time to be awoman in the business because there's a lot more self-confidence. I definitely think rock music is a boy's culture, and as a woman you have to stand out and be really good to get noticed. Anyone who did well, like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald or Janis Joplin, it was hard for them, and they had to be strong. There are a lot of very good female singers around, and they all have very strong personalities. You have to prove yourself to be taken seriously."