'I love this set-up': Sigrid all set to get Cosy in Mitchelstown
Sigrid plays Walsh’s in Mitchelstown. (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
From tears to cheers, pop star Sigrid has an intense relationship with Ireland. She famously broke into sobs of joy when overwhelmed by the welcome at Electric Picnic 2018. Eighteen months later, she played the first arena show of her career at Dublin’s 3Arena. And now she goes from one extreme to the other as she prepares to travel to Cork for a show at tiny Walsh’s pub in Mitchelstown on Sunday, November 20.
“I did a 'cosy' acoustic tour in May around my album release. I love this set-up so much. I felt like I got to present my songs in a different way. I got more time to talk between the songs,” she says.
To go from a 14,000-capacity room to the back of a bar is an exciting contrast says Sigrid, who will also be performing intimate gigs at the Chasin’ Bull, Bundoran (November 21), the Limelight 2 in Belfast (November 22). “I love doing my big arena shows. Of course, showing up with my full band and production is a completely different thing than it is to sit on a barstool and play your songs. And chat in between. It’s fun and challenging for my voice. I get to use it in a different way. Playing massive stages is my favourite thing in the world. But it’s great to mix it up a bit.”
Challenges are something Sigrid has embraced throughout her career. From Ålesund in western Norway (population 70,000), she broke through in 2017 with Don't Kill My Vibe. That song was a pre-MeToo anthem which recalled a real-life encounter with a condescending male producer (who thought he knew better than the artist with whom he was collaborating).
Sigrid followed that success with hits Strangers and Plot Twist — and the chart-topping 2019 album, Sucker Punch (which went top four in Ireland). She has, however, switched things up with this year’s How To Let Go album — a collection of often stark lockdown tunes where Sigrid reflects on fame and what it does to your spirit and your soul.
For all the angst, How To Let Go is ultimately optimistic. Written after she had ended a relationship, single Mirror, for instance, is about Sigrid reclaiming her confidence and a sense of control over her destiny. Yet she does so in a way that feels hard-won and visceral rather than sappy and fake. Or, as Sigrid puts it, “I love who I see looking at me/In the mirror”.
She returns to those themes of self-esteem and public scrutiny with a new single, Everybody Says They’re Fine, which appears on an expanded edition of How To Let Go. “What I'm doing can't be right,” she sings. “I walk around, freakin' out inside”
“That's something we all walk around thinking sometimes. We all have our moments. You think, ‘I look picture perfect for people around’. And in your head, you're just feeling a bit lost,” she says.
“We've always had those moments of not knowing what you’re doing. Or if what we are doing is right. All those thoughts. I definitely have that at times. It felt nice to say that.
She leans towards her laptop, caught up in a thought. “I often try to come to some sort of conclusion in my songs — not because I try to sugarcoat anything. I love how I get to write my way out of things. And feeling there is hope in the things I think about. But for this song, it’s flat out… ‘some days are a bit shit… and that’s fine’.”
Sigrid is thoughtful and quietly spoken. She isn’t particularly introverted. She has found fame a challenge, however. Recording Sucker Punch, she was in some ways operating in a vacuum. Second time around she was aware of the spotlight. It made for a new experience.
“It is natural to some degree to become more self-conscious than you were before,” she says. “Your face is plastered everywhere. There are a lot more opinions from people you don’t know. When I grew up, and I was playing piano and singing, the only people who had an opinion was a piano teacher who was a helping hand, or friends at school — or family, who sometimes got tired of me humming at home. It was a completely different level.”
How To Let Go reached two in the UK charts — a new high for Sigrid. She is glad it was well received: the NME praised it as “cathartic, sincere and life-affirming”. Second albums can be a complicated business.
“There’s definitely big expectations to second albums for artists. What’s it going to be? Is it going to be like the first one? So it sets up expectations that weren’t on the first one because nobody knew what to expect. I’ve made a record I’m super-proud of. I love it. And I think it shows a different side to me. And for the next one — who knows?”
Sigrid came up with the idea of a 'Cosy' tour of Ireland after staging intimate gigs in the UK around the release of How To Let Go. “I wasn’t able to go to Cork, Donegal and Belfast in 2018. I had to cancel some concerts because I got ill. It felt right to do it. I love Ireland. I thought it would be nice to go back and see these places and do an acoustic tour and make it up to you a bit.”
The dates are in the middle of a busy European run that will include a gig at 3Arena, Dublin on November 29. They also come at the end of a hectic a busy year for the singer, speaking from her dressing rooming Edinburgh.
The subject of artists taking on too much has been in the headlines recently. A growing number of singers have postponed shows because of burnout — including Arlo Parks and Fontaines D.C. Does Sigrid ever feel she could do with a breather?
“I find a strange calmness in touring. The tour bus is incredible: I’m travelling with my best mates. We have a good time. But yeah, tours are pretty heavy at times. Travelling back and forth in time zones can be very heavy. I’m glad to see artists out there taking care. You have to put your health first.”
This year marks the fifth anniversary of Don’t Kill My Vibe. When it comes to gender dynamics, the music business still has a lot of catching up to do. Last month a UK parliamentary inquiry concluded the MeToo movement had “not infiltrated the industry to the same degree it has with the film business”.
With Don’t Kill My Vibe Sigrid at least did her part to help open the conversation. Half a decade on, she must take pride in that?
“If it contributed a tiny bit to it, that's the most important thing that song could have done. But ones who really contribute to change is everyone making a change in the music industry and speaking up.”
- Sigrid’s Cosy Tour of Ireland starts at the Yard Bar at Walsh’s Mitchelstown, Sunday, November 20, as part of the Autumn Air event. She also plays 3Arena on Thursday, 24 November
