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Camille O'Sullivan
Photo credits: Sean and Yvette, Jamie Baker, Joanna Murphy
Chameleon-like on stage, Camille will perform songs and stories about loss, love, joy, light and darkness – some are hymnal and at other moments she will rock out, choosing music from her favourite writers Cave, Cohen, Bowie, Radiohead, Brel and Arcade Fire, along with some new originals presenting a one-off intimate evening.
We speak to Camille ahead of her show at Komedia on September 12th...
We are all looking forward to seeing you at Komedia in September. For those who aren’t familiar with your live shows, what can we expect?
Maybe have a little drink beforehand. The shows have been described as an emotional rollercoaster. Basically I sing the songs of other people and in this
case it's about people much loved and lost with Shane McGown, Sinead O'Connor, Cohen and Bowie, but there'll be also people like Radiohead, Tom Waits, Nick Cave and it's about, it's almost being chameleon like on stage where each song is a story and you become a character in each song, so it allows you to become different things. Sometimes you can be very vulnerable or very funny or you know explore the dark and light side of yourself and so sometimes it can be quite sad and then it can be quite bonkers, but basically expressing all the madness and joy in my life at the moment, as things are unraveling.
What are your earliest memories of singing and which musicians and songs influenced you the most?
Well, I remember just really singing along to records in my parents collection, so there was like Jacques Brel and the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, so I have quite a low voice because I've always been singing to male singers and dancing around the room Myself and my sister used to make little tickets for them so we could put on shows and I suppose I was influenced through my parents record collection really, and my sister's. I could hear through her room David Bowie and Pink Floyd and John Lennon. I was a massive fan of Bowie, my parents, of course, loved The Beatles and the Rolling Stones and later on I started falling in love with the music of Bob Dylan and Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen, so they're all kind of incredible kind of storytellers.
I understand you used to put on performances for your parents as a child. Have you always loved performing and does that love of the theatre come out in your live performances?
My dad was really surprised when I gave up architecture, and so was my sister, because they were like, 'why do you want to become a singer?' It was just something I really loved to do, but I was quite shy about it. My daughter is the same now too, just kind of hates it when she gets discovered singing nearby. I have nerves because of it, but the love of singing takes over and I think becoming something else is really fascinating to me, that you maybe can't express yourself in your own life but you can on stage. Maybe I have a 'Sasha Feirce' in me, like Beyonce does, and I just love exploring different emotions and maybe it's a cathartic therapy for me. It's pure joy to be vulnerable and to release yourself and be in the moment.
When you listen to a song to incorporate into a live show, what is it you listen out for most - the music, the lyrics or how you can bring your own interpretation to the song?
Sometimes it's absolutely about the lyrics. - These are great questions, by the way. Sometimes, like with Nick Cave, it's like you're moved by both, or with Bob Dylan, but it's like, to me, those songs, the lyric is king. And in those cases, when it's kind of like, say, the side of him which is like a hymnal or like a ballad - I wouldn't even move on stage, because all I want is the lyric to come out. But I would absolutely, I think it's the charge of a lyric with a very beautiful, haunting melody, which is what makes songs so special.
So, I sometimes think if you can't sing a song a cappella by itself, it's going to be a hard song to kind of get right. I usually test that out by walking around town, sing the lyrics to myself and the melody until I kind of feel like I own the song a little bit more. But then, when you've got songs like kind of like 'Stagger Lee' or 'Moonage Daydream' by Bowie, that's all about just unleashing a rock side to you, a rock chick or whatever.
"Maybe I have a 'Sasha Feirce' in me, like Beyonce does, and I just love exploring different emotions and maybe it's a cathartic therapy for me"
And interpreting a song, I suppose, is like when you take a piece of theatre and you do a monologue, you just sit with it and you find where there's kind of a moment in it. You're explaining it to the audience and then there's a moment of like what's really important in that message that you have to get across. And with Cave songs, for example, or with Shane songs even, usually the first verse and the last verse are very similar, It's kind of like slowed down, rhythm is taken out of it. So you can just really sing, speak it. And then there's a moment you can unleash yourself in the middle of the song to kind of defiantly tell the story or bring joy to it. So there is, I suppose, whatever makes you love the song in the first place and that made you feel like dancing or crying is the reason in the end that you want to sing it. And unfortunately, not all songs are yours because they can be, you can sound like a bad wedding interpreter. Like, and I've done weddings and I know when I've done something bad and there are good wedding interpreters. So I think there's a moment you feel that it, because it moved you that it's something in you that you want to express in that song and that's where the interpretation makes it more your own. And I think what's lovely with audiences, you're not telling them how to feel.They have their own stories.So that song means something to them.
I'm still learning though. Sometimes when I get nervous and the audience maybe aren't on side, your inclination is to try and explain it more. You shouldn't do that. You should try and sing it to yourself like you're in your own room saying it to yourself. So that helps you sometimes try and make it be more about your story. Hope that makes sense.
Do you prefer the more intimate venues than performing at festivals. Or do both bring out different sides to your performances?
I like both for different reasons. With festivals, it's the audience, I'm terrified, because they're like a big animal, so I have to be like a big tiger when I come out. I remember somebody in Cork saying to me; 'You were like a little mouse and then you came off like a big lion'. So you have to kind of magnify yourself. Even in a big festival, you have to be authentic and, you know, see people's faces and chat with them. Intimacy is the hardest one, but it's the one that's like not a pin drops. And, it's just about the slightest movement or the silence that's hanging in the air between songs are as important as the singing itself. But it's very much like you're in conversation, even if it's feeling like it's only coming from me to them, I'm absolutely resonating with like, if they're shy or if they're boisterous. But yeah, it's very special. And maybe that's helped all those years of doing theatre or even ballet, like, you know, how you stand on stage in your presence. So probably intimate performances, even if they're terrifying.
You used to tour with the Pogues. It was very sad to see Shane McGowan passed away recently. What are your memories of working with the group?
It was very sad. He was a very lovely person, quite shy, actually. And even though, and like Sinead, authentic as bejesus, but Shane was wonderful.
He never held back in what he thought. So I'd sing with him, but then I'd run away from him in case I thought he didn't like what I did. But luckily, people said he did like what I did.There was alchemy on stage. Definitely the punk feeling. What was great about him, he just went out and sang and everybody else, they're all front men, but it was like twister, you know, a vortex around him. And the audience were like this incredible loving animal, but like ferocious. So I've never seen the like of it and it's certainly of another time. And I don't know if we'll ever see that kind of band again, because I suppose it came at a time when, not say more innocent, but, you know, it was reactionary. And maybe I think, would Shane have been that singer if he was someone who had been brought up in Ireland?
It was kind of like shocking, himself and Sinead, watching them on stage. It made you want to become a better performer. And I think the worst thing people are always like, oh yes, he drank and all the rest. I mean, a lot of Irish musicians do, but he was an amazing singer and musician, and he could sing any song. Like there's loads of songs, like there's a beautiful one 'Lucy 'by Nick Cave, and of course, 'Wonderful World'.
When we had to sing his songs at the National Concert Hall, I actually realised - Oh God! I'm going to sound terrible. Trying to sing his songs and copying him, is really hard because he had this really brilliant way of kind of landing the line. And even in songs like 'Will You Go, 'Lassie Go' and 'Wild Mountain Thyme', like just a fantastic interpreter himself and just a beautiful man. It was a pleasure to get to know him as a friend, and his wife, and to see him a few days before he passed. And we had a good laugh and good fun. Yeah, very special.And all of them, like all that band, all individuals, all wonderful.
Other than the tour, what else do you have planned for the rest of 2024?
Oh my God, I get so scared of performing. I'm just in Edinburgh now, so I'm like, why did I agree?
I'm going to be doing some theatre stuff and maybe lots of recording actually. I want to record because that's something I forget to do as a live performer.I want to hang out with my new puppy, a Springer Spaniel and our cat Gugu. Bonnie Bluebell is the other little puppy and my little daughter. So I'm having great times with her. Learn how to maybe go back to ballet classes, do a bit of that, maybe roller skate. Maybe just hang out with my friends more. I'm so honoured and glad to be performing and I'm going to be going out on the road with Sharon Shannon, touring later, which will be amazing.
And maybe doing stuff more with the Symphony Orchestra. But just, having time out too, so to do painting and stuff.
You remind me of Kate Bush in many ways, was she an inspiration for you?
Oh my God, that's such an absolute honour. I love Kate Bush.
I remember driving my sister crazy. She was trying to record from a tape recorder to the record player.And I kept on making noises into it, annoying her. I must have been about five.
She was an absolute inspiration.I think she is phenomenal. Like, I loved all her albums. And God, when you think she was maybe 14 when she wrote, you know, 'Wuthering Heights', and I never realised David Gilmour had kind of like produced that record.
I'm such a fan of Bowie and I suppose she's like the female version. But I love all those things, 'Dreaming of Sheep' and 'A Woman's Work'. She just inhabits her songs and the fact that she dances and has this incredible voice. Yeah, I think she's the most amazing artist out there. I don't know, she's like some kind of wonderful, you know, because she's man, woman and child and ghost and everything. Ethereal, just mind-blowing.
two tickets to see Camille O'Sullivan at Komedia on Thursday 12th September. For a chance to win, simply click the link below and follow the steps.
Win
to book tickets to see Camille O'Sullivan at Komedia on Thursday 12th September, simply click the link below and follow the steps.