Mick Flannery and Susan O'Neill get into character for a fine collaboration
Mick Flannery and Susan O'Neill. Picture: Michael Conlon
From Islands In The Stream to Where The Wild Roses Grow, rock music would be far poorer without the his’n'hers duet. And yet acclaimed songwriter Mick Flannery never imagined he would one day follow in the iconic footsteps of Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, or Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue. Sharing the mic wasn’t for him, he felt. The collaborative impulse was not in his DNA.
“I was kind of afraid of it,” says the Blarney-born artist from his home in rural Clare. “I felt I would lose some of my good ideas if I put them on the table. That it would be a 50/50 split. I don’t really think that way any more. I’ve learned that things happen between two people that may not have happened had you done it on your own.”
He is talking about In The Game, a collection of rococo break-up ballads recorded during lockdown with up-and-coming Clare songwriter Susan O’Neill (who occasionally performs as 'SON'). These brittle love songs are told from the perspective of a couple whose relationship is on the rocks. Think an Irish gothic take on Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra – or Nick and Kylie’s Where The Wild Roses Grow with a dash of Flann O’Brien.
In The Game isn’t autobiographical. Flannery, a former stonemason, is in a happy long-term relationship. The 37-year-old is, however, drawing on both his own experiences and those of friends. When it comes to it, he feels that all unhappy couples are unhappy in the same way. And so, in telling the very specific story of In The Game’s fictional lovers, he is laying bare universal truths.
“If you’ve ever sat around with your friends to talk about relationship troubles, it’s the same kind of commentary that comes along,” says Flannery.
“Communication problems. Jealousy. Lack of understanding. Everyone has their stories, where they’d go ‘oh shit, we had a blow out last night and I’ve said things I shouldn’t have said’. We tried to put that in verse.”
Flannery is one of his generation’s most feted songwriters. He is twice shortlisted for the Choice Album of the Year award. Four of his albums have topped the charts – most recently a live lockdown LP recorded at Cork Opera House. Though he carries himself modestly, in the realm of Irish confessional rock he’s a star.
Yet for all his accomplishments, it had never previously occurred to him to make a duets record. The proposal came from his manager Sheena Keane– who had also taken on O’Neill as a client. With the pandemic having left both artists with reams of spare time, Keane suggested that they swap ideas and see what happened. Flannery, to his mild surprise, was drawn to the idea of working with O’Neill, who had supported him on several occasions.
“Our manager suggested our voices would go well together,” says Flannery. “We had a couple of songwriting sessions. We’d only really known each other for a couple of years, really.”
For O’Neill, In The Game came at the end of one of the strangest years in her life. In March 2020, she was in Australia on what was supposed to be the first leg of a world tour. Then Covid struck and the globe began to shut down. And so she was pressed with the existential question of whether to stay or go.
“I was two weeks into a two-month tour,” she says. “I remember at the time thinking this [Covid] could last a month – a whole month. But then it started to effect the whole globe, and there was this underlying need to go home. It was clear we were about to experience something. And that it was necessary to be around love ones at that point.”
O’Neill decided to return to Ireland. She found accommodation at the Doolin Hotel, which appointed her artist in residence.
Echoing Flannery, she says that at the start of the partnership she didn’t really know him. However, the opportunity to record that told the story of a couple though through difficult times was too good to resist.
“It was the first time I’d done a concept album. To get to a place where you are trying to embody a character – it’s kind of like going out with a mask on. You can be somebody else. To write and sing songs from that perspective – it’s just a great idea.”
With the country plunged into a state of advanced hibernation, meeting in the studio was not always possible. Instead, much of the work was carried out virtually. Flannery, a bit of an introvert by nature, was surprised by how much he enjoyed the process of virtual collaboration. Not being cheek by jowl with his writing partner removed much of the awkwardness. Instead, the songs became the priority.
“The co-writing was a lot of phone calls and video calls,” he says. “Before, if you were writing with someone, you’d have a room booked for four or five hours. It was designed so that you’d produce a song in that time. I prefer the phone call route. You can leave each other alone. ‘Let’s hang up and work on what we think – I’ll call you backing 20 minutes and see what you have’. You couldn’t do that [face to face]. You’d be annoying each other.”
Lockdown has been an opportunity for both Flannery and O’Neil too try new things as artists. Flannery has, for instance, toyed with writing songs inspired by his love of the game of chess. And yet long-term they know that nothing will replace the gap left by live music.
Thankfully, the industry looks like it will be getting back into gear soon. “I truly, at the bottom of my heart, believe music is an essential service," says O'Neill.
- In The Game is out now
