With the upcoming release of his new album, The Art Of Pretending To Swim and a show at the latest big music festival on the block, All Together Now, Conor O’Brien from The Villagers sits down with Peter Dunne to talk the commercialisation of Pride, the relief of coming out, and taking a new musical direction.

Photos by Rich Gilligan.

It’s a hot day at the tail end of Pride week in Dublin but Conor O’Brien is enjoying ever sunnier climes. He’s in Madrid just as that city’s own Pride celebrations kick off, catching up with GCN to talk about The Villagers new album. A sonic departure from the raw introspection of Darling Arithmetic, this beautiful new collection of songs was a conscious attempt to try something new.

“I definitely had the intention of making music could move to,” Conor says. “I wanted to make something that would excite the band as well. I’m so used to touring now, wanted to make people dance, something that wasn’t quite so earnest and whispery. I’d done that so much that was bored of it, really.”

While both this and the previous album were recorded in Conor’s home studio, this latest one presented more of a challenge. Gone was the bare, stripped-back sound, replaced by a lush, full, audio landscape. The process of self-teaching on how to create that sound became a job in itself.

“I spent a lot of time reading manuals on how to properly record and produce and mix,” Conor elaborates. “Once I’d done that for a year realised I’d forgotten to write any songs. Then it was about getting back to my notebook and mixing that in with what I’d learned in the previous year. The previous album was a much more emotional experience, about the therapeutic value of writing, while this was more about trying to challenge myself.”

Although musically more up-tempo and of a brighter hue than past work, the lyrics sometimes belie a deeper melancholy. Themes of hope, and indeed hopelessness butt against a greater search for meaning. Was the emotional investigation a conscious decision?

Conor ponders for a moment before replying. “For me, when I’m making music it’s lots of tiny steps. find it hard to figure out the overall intention. It’s only really a year or two afterwards start to realise – oh, that’s why was going there. can’t really control what influences me, but this time around was listening to a lot of gospel music and soul music. That kind of music for me is like an antidote to my over analytical ‘anxiety’ brain, so emulated it to a certain degree to make something which would make me feel the same way when was singing. The idea of faith was inherent in the album. That could be faith in love, faith in a God.”

One of the album’s highlights, ‘Long Time Waiting’, a pianoled slow burner which explodes into a brass-fi lled middle eight, has that previously mentioned juxtaposition of music you can dance to accompanying lyrics which can be read as anger or disappointment mixed with resignation. Conor’s description of the song brought up an interesting point about the commercialisation of gay culture.

“I feel a little bit of anger when I see buses driving around with rainbow f ags on them. Something that was used by other people to make me feel so shitty when I was younger is now being used to sell drinks.

“Long Time Waiting’ is really complicated actually. feel like the middle eight takes it to a diff erent place, where the lyrics say: ‘I don’t need no validation from anyone’. So there’s obviously an anger in there, but it’s also the moment where the weakness of the narrator is exposed. On that validation thing, like, feel a little bit of anger when see buses driving around with rainbow ags on them. And shouldn’t feel that anger but kind of do because feel like something [being gay] that was used by other people to make me feel so shitty when was younger is now being used to sell drinks and shit. don’t feel like I’m necessarily right in feeling that, but still feel it. There’s something a little bit twisted about that.”

COMPLETELY LETTING GO

Conor came out publicly during the release of the last Villagers album. The fi rst track on Darling Arithmetic, ‘Courage’ opens with the lyrics: ‘It took a little time to get where wanted / It took a little time to get free / It took a little time to be honest / It took a little time to be me.’ He says that coming out freed him as a songwriter as he didn’t have to worry about lyrical metaphors any more. “It was never natural to speak about my sexuality to strangers, but would have been out in my personal life. It does feel kind of liberating in a way, like, completely letting go.”

“ It was never natural to speak about my sexuality to strangers, but I would have been out in my personal life.

For some fans, the impact was huge. As he explains: “In Poland the other night there was this girl, a journalist who interviewed me, and she ended up crying because that album really helped her. Growing up in rural Poland wasn’t the easiest for her and she was telling me all the stories and we both ended up hugging and swapping numbers. had a lot of that situation where ended up just going out to the merchandise stand after the show and meeting so many people. I’d never done that before. usually go to shows and get drunk, but this time was actually meeting people and feeling connected to the world, and really needed that. It was lacking for a while.”

Has that new connection with fans meant there is a weight of expectation now to keep incorporating his sexuality into his songs? Conor doesn’t seem too pressured. “Maybe, but don’t mind that really. feel with this album wasn’t really worried about that; it was more making music that made me happy. My own little artistic world is kind of in its own place, don’t really have control of that.”

The reaction to the fi rst outings for the new material proves that the fans are more than happy to go along with the fresh direction. “We played two nights ago in Poland in a place called Bialystok. almost asked the audience’s permission, like, ‘We’re gonna play some new songs, is it okay?’ When asked if they wanted to dance, instantly people were jumping off their chairs. It was kind of mayhem for the next 20 minutes. That’s not usually a thing at Villagers’ shows! There were these guys in front dressed as unicorns and we were screaming in each others faces. We came off stage buzzing, going, ‘Why didn’t we do this earlier?’”

The aim of the album – music you can dance to, doesn’t seem to be just for listeners either. Fans might see a whole new side to Conor, as he teases: “Amalia and – she plays piano in Villagers - we’re discussing maybe, don’t know if it will happen, but we might try some dance routines in the middle of the set. If it works it’ll be great, if it doesn’t we’ll look like the non-dancers that we are.”

While touring the music is something Conor says he lives for to a certain degree, there’s one downside, “For some reason always miss Dublin Pride. I’m always on tour somewhere or I’m always playing something. It’s really annoying, I’ve missed it again, so want to make sure make it next time.”

Who knows, The Villagers might even perform at it. We’ll leave that one out there for Conor to think about.

‘The Art of Pretending to Swim’ is released on September 21. The Villagers play All Together Now, August Bank Holiday Weekend at Curraghmore House, Co. Waterford, alltogethernow.ie