From Belfast comes a fascinating musician Emer O’Neill, who has been appearing in coffee shops and small venues all around the UK and Ireland for a few years. Now she has a self-released EP, ’1982′ and very good things are on the horizon.
Emer O’Neill – Lincoln
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We avoid the term ‘singer-songwriter’ here. It is true that Emer sings, and writes songs. It is also true that singer-songwriters often strum guitars and pour their hearts out to strangers in smoky cafés late at night. But there’s a lot more to the art. Emer’s instrument is her voice, and her cut-straight-to-the-bone lyrics. On ‘Lincoln’ she bangs and rattles the guitar, stretching the vocal around the melody as far as it will go. ‘Lucky Number 13′ contains a lyric that makes everyone sit up and listen (I guarantee it), while ‘Dignity’ is so bare faced and honest it might even make you feel uncomfortable, as if you were listening into someone’s confession.
Watch Emer tell the story behind ‘Lucky Number 13′ and ‘Lincoln’:
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Emer primarily writes folk songs. They all seem to come from personal experience, and they celebrate the universailty of experience. They speak to emotions we’ve all felt at one point, and when we look into her songs we see things we might love about ourselves and might loathe about ourselves.
It’s a tough thing to be so blatantly honest these days – particularly in the music industry. As a result Emer O’Neill is sure to divide opinion – which is what makes her so good. Undeniably honest, she can flip between heartbreaking and uplifting in a heartbeat, and still there’s no trickery there. What you see is what you get.
Emer O’Neill – Lucky Number 13
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Her strong personality comes through in her music, but also in her career. To release ’1982′ Emer started her own record label ‘A Lot To Say Records’. What better statement of intent is there?
In this podcast episode, we filmed Emer at home as she guided us through 3 tracks from ’1982′. Note her disarming habit of catching the camera with her eye, engaginthe viewer, smashing down that ’4th wall’. We thought it was the perfect representation of an artist who’s music is at once engaging, disarming and then, when you’re not looking, goes straight for the jugglar.
Emer O’Neill – Dignity
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Director: Will McConnell
Bandwidth 2009
