Home is where the heart is for revitalised John Spillane
In the dark corner of a Dublin hotel bar, Spillane has been explaining how he came to make his new album by accident. “I was asked to present a television series by TG4,” says the singer-songwriter, originally from Wilton in Cork.
“The idea is that I would wander around Ireland, visiting a number of small towns. I would work behind the bar and get talking to the characters. It was a great gig. However, I don’t have any ambitions to be a presenter. So I wrote a song about each town.”
Spillane, 52, is clearly delighted and relieved to have released a new record (also called Life In An Irish Town). Since his previous label EMI shuttered operations in Ireland the future has been uncertain. The company was a huge supporter, releasing his 2008 hit Songs We Learned In School, which sold a phenomenal 40,000 copies.
“Songs We Learned In School was EMI’s idea and turned out to be a huge success,” he says. “They couldn’t put out copies of the record fast enough. I’ve sold 100,000 records, of which 40,000 are accounted for by that album.”
As if label woes weren’t enough to worry about he is also recovering from a bout of ill health. In the middle of a rare overseas tour in 2011 (he prefers to play Ireland), he experienced ‘pins and needles’ in his chest. He went to the doctor and was diagnosed with angina. It was a haunting moment, given his father had died of a heart attack when Spillane was just one-year-old.
His heart specialist told him to give up smoking (he had resumed the habit at his mother’s funeral in 2008). In addition he was prescribed cholesterol medications and aspirin and had a stent put in his back. He now exercises daily and has improved his diet. Fingers crossed, the lifestyle changes appear to be working.
“I’m the black sheep of the family,” he says of the heart scare. “I have four brothers who have very sensible jobs in accounting and what have you. I’m the one who was out drinking and playing in bands. It caught up with me. I’m lucky in so far as I had a very gentle warning.”
After EMI departed the scene, he wondered where he would turn next. Then TG4 came along with its offer of a presenting gig (the show Spillane An Fánaí aired recently). Inspired by his journey across Ireland, he wrote a batch of songs and secured a contract with Universal Ireland, the country’s biggest label.
“My genius of a manager schmoozed his way into the record company and got me a deal. We had six songs, each inspired by a town. I wrote a seventh, ‘Life In An Irish Town’. I had a few others lying around. Originally it was supposed to be an EP. We ended up with a full album. I recorded it very quickly. It was a great experience.”
Travelling from town to town was a perfect gig for Spillane, who sees himself as a wandering troubadour of the old school. He tries to tour in Ireland as much as possible and is inspired by everyday Irish life to a degree rare among the country’s ranks of singer-songwriters (one of his early hits was called ‘The Dunnes Stores Girl’).
“Ireland is full of richness,” he says. “Some artists are always touring abroad. I like to play Ireland. I love the folklore and the legends and the way these little towns are so fascinating. I did that thing of going to the US and Germany for a while. I prefer Ireland. It’s really easy. A lot of the places are close to home. You can drive there and back in the same night.”
The singer describes himself as a tortoise in a world full of hares. A professional musician all his life, he didn’t sign his first record deal until he was aged 40. “I’ve sold a respectable number of albums,” he says. “Not huge, but not bad either.”
Spillane was born in 1961 and grew up on the southside of Cork. A shy child, he received a guitar for his 15th birthday and formed his first band. Initially, he played rock music. He turned to folk on deciding it was ridiculous for someone from Ireland to sing in an American accent.
Spillane studied Irish at UCC and is fluent in the language. While he has no ambitions to work full-time in television he took away a great deal from his collaboration with TG4. Naturally loquacious, he embraced the task of interviewing pub-goers with gusto. He would pull pints, strike up an exchange, produce his guitar and bash out a tune. It was exhausting but deeply rewarding.
“It is an interesting angle to get to know a town from,” he says. “When TG4 arrives it’s like the circus has rolled in. Everyone comes in to check out what is going on. It was very intense. You would record all day and then you would be singing and playing music all night. It was very much a noon to night job.”
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