From Newfoundland to Valentia Isle

Canadian singer Amelia Curran hears sounds of home in the Irish accent. She talks to Ed Power

AMELIA CURRAN is Canadian on the outside but feels Irish under the skin. “I’m from Newfoundland so I have Irish blood, I’m sure,” says the cult singer-songwriter. “They say most Newfoundlanders do.”

The connections between Ireland and Newfoundland, which lies off the north east of Canada, go back centuries, she says. At the inaugural Valentia Isle festival in Kerry this weekend, Curran will be on hand for a ceremony to mark the link between the two islands. In a way it is going to feel like coming home.

“There is a big Irish influence here in Newfoundland,” she says. “Some of the accents certainly sound as if they are from Ireland. I was in Kilkenny with a friend from Canada several years ago and a guy in the pub refused to believe that she wasn’t from Waterford. We got into a pretty heated argument. He could not accept she was from Canada. He kept saying ‘no — you MUST be from Waterford. It’s your accent’.”

After more than a decade away, Curran recently moved back to Newfoundland. She had left to further her career. The island is on the fringes of Canada, culturally as well as geographically, and if you have ambitions you have to go elsewhere. At the back of her mind, she always knew she’d return. Newfoundlanders are like that.

“I lived on the mainland for 12 years,” she says. “However, Newfoundlanders are pretty notorious for wanting to come home. I couldn’t wait to turn around and get back. A lot of young people leave here. The thing is, it’s only when they travel through the rest of Canada that they understand how different they are. It gives you an understanding of how special the place is. From a distance, you appreciate it all the more.”

With her husky voice and profound lyrics, in Canada Curran has been hailed as heir to the country’s most famous songwriter, Leonard Cohen. She is flattered by the comparison.

“People often assume that it annoys me,” she says. “It doesn’t. I take it as a compliment. It is both flattering and overwhelming. I would not consider it irritating. It is nice to be likened to someone you admire. You can’t read too much into these things.”

Curran’s music is stark and confessional. However, she is careful not to put too much of her real life into her songs. You get a sense of where she’s at emotionally. Usually that is as deep as it goes. She doesn’t gush or sob on the listener’s shoulder.

“I use an awful lot of metaphor,” she explains. “That hides things from people usually. I mean, it isn’t my intention to be secretive. It’s just that sometimes stuff is difficult to explain. That is where music comes in. What you are trying to get across isn’t so much the story as the philosophy behind the story. The feelings behind the experience.”

She’s taken a long route to success. Her first three albums were self-released and she spent a lot of time busking on street corners across Canada. For a while she wondered if she’d ever make it. Then the internet arrived. Things got easier. She still works hard. But her career is no longer the constant struggle against adversity it used to be.

“Well, MySpace came along. That changed things. I don’t know if people have to put in 12 years of graft any more to make it. Nowadays it probably just takes three years. That’s a change for the positive.”

The basics of the job haven’t altered much, however. Curran plays 200 shows a year on average and tours for months on end.

“I love my job,” she says. “It’s a fantastic thing to do with your life. On the other hand, it can be tiring, playing so many gigs. You are on the go two thirds of your year. Yes, it is romantic because you are moving around a lot. However, it’s funny because it’s like you are travelling without the experience of travelling, if that makes sense.

“I’ve been to Dublin four or five times and I barely know the place,” she continues. “You arrive in a city, play your concert, sleep — and then you leave in the morning. You have no real sense of having experienced a place. So, it’s certainly a drag in that way.”

* Amelia Curran plays at the Valentia Isle Festival on Saturday and De Barras, in Clonakilty, on Wednesday, Sept 19.