Martha Wainwright on Snow Patrol, fond memories of Ireland, and that song about her dad 

Martha Wainwright plays Cork Opera House in June 

Martha Wainwright is at Cork Opera House on June 9. Picture: Gaëlle Leroyer

The music industry was in a weird place when singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright released her self-titled debut album in the spring of 2005. The internet had unleashed a wave of digital piracy that posed an existential threat to the business’s profit model of flogging overpriced CDs at a vast markup. In a panic, labels were slashing their budgets. If you were a young artist looking for a record deal – as Wainwright was at the time – the outlook was grim.

“How I understood that best was my mother and my aunt had been signed to a major label when they started out. And were supported by labels to develop their career.” says Wainwright – part of a rich music dynasty that includes her aunt and mother, aka Quebec folk duo the McGarrigle Sisters, her songwriter father Loudon Wainwright III and her older brother Rufus who, a year previous to Martha had put out his Want opus and was at that time being loudly heralded as the future of music by Elton John.