Irish poet, performer and fashion designer Sinead O’Brien today shared her new track ‘Fall With Me’ – out now on Chess Club Records. Produced by Dan Carey (Speedy Wundergroud, Fontaines DC, Kate Tempest) the track explores the pleasure of surrender. The release is O’Brien’s latest foray on Chess Club – the label which birthed artists such as Jungle and Wolf Alice, and more recently the likes of Alfie Templeman – and follows ‘Limbo’, which premiered via The Fader, and ‘A Thing You Call Joy’ which drew praise everywhere from The Guardian and Loud And Quiet to BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6 Music. O’Brien has also announced headline dates in Manchester 9 (May) and London (21 May) as well as support slots around the country with Warmduscher, Bambara and Kim Gordon – details of which can be found below.
Originally from Limerick (a city with ‘a kind of grey industrial place with a certain poetry to it’), O’Brien’s work captures every day and the in between in a way that transcends any genre label. Writing from her own observations, O’Brien’s influences can be found in the realism of Mark E. Smith of The Fall, Patti Smith and The Slits, and the works of literary icons such Frank O’Hara, W.B. Yeats, Joan Didion and Albert Camus.
‘Fall With Me’ is described by O’Brien as “an invitation to surrender. What would it be like to stand still in slow motion? To sink, even if just for a moment – to give yourself over to the pleasure of surrender.” She goes on to say, “The motif of a ‘head carousel’ rolls through the piece. I saw an image in a library which had all of these giant heads on a rotating wheel. It was such a statement, like a modern-day counter-response to the classical imagery of the scales, balance, zen. This image of ‘the self’; going around and around in a trap says so much about “now” actually. How to manage the wheel, gathering momentum while maintaining its equilibrium. How long can the head hold.”
O’Brien adds: “There is a questioning of ‘essential elements’; “This is an ode to the most basic conditions” the minimum needed to exist; emotionally, materially, socially. What are these essential elements? The ‘unnegotiables’ – The stilts holding up the house. I like this feeling of unresolved or unfinished business. A piece which could go on for longer or even indefinitely. These clues to the past and hints to the future. That’s what I’m getting at. It’s a chapter from a bigger body of work.”
Listen to ‘Fall With Me’ – BELOW:
A multifaceted artist, O’Brien’s writing has also been published by the esteemed London Magazine whose alumni include T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath and William Burroughs. Her unique fusion of spoken lyrics and art rock has piqued the attention of luminaries of both genres, seeing her perform with John Cooper Clarke and The Brian Jonestown Massacre at sold out theatres across the U.K. Playing live with her band and collaborators; Julian Hanson (guitar) and Oscar Robertson (drums), Sinead O’Brien’s transfixing performances are placing her at the forefront of a resurgent post-punk wave that is taking the capital and beyond.
See Sinead O’Brien live in 2020:
20 Mar | Heaven, London w/Warmduscher
8 May | Brudenell Social Club, Leeds w/Bambara
9 May | YES Basement, Manchester
14-16 May | The Great Escape, Brighton
21 May | Chats Palace, London
22 May | Villette Sonique at Cabaret Sauvage, Paris w/Kim Gordon
2 Jul | VIDA Festival, Barcelona
23-26 Jul | Bluedot Festival, Cheshire
24-26 Jul | MIDI Festival, France
1-3 Aug | All Together Now Festival, Ireland
20-23 Aug | Green Man Festival
27-30 Aug | Into The Great Wide Open, Netherlands
4-6 Sep | Moseley Folk Festival, Birmingham
Sinead O’Brien – Fall With Me – out 11/03/2020 via Chess Club Records
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