DAMIEN DEMPSEY. Strapping ex-boxer, up-and-coming musician with large numbers of prestigious accolades coming out of his ears, and the self-elected Voice Of The People of Ireland. And, at the time of this W&H interview, a very busy man, running late for a sound check for his performance supporting The Proclaimers, at Shepherds Bush Empire, London.
Listen to Dempsey's music, and initially you will be confused, if not
incredulous: "He's rapping. In a thick Irish accent? Surely not." So you put the album down and go do something else, and then you find yourself humming along to his Bob Marley-esque multi-syllabic verses. This is because whether you like them or not, they are desperately catchy. And he has also made full use of the Uilleann pipes, which is never, ever a bad thing.
His style his a bizarre homogeny of traditional Irish folk, reggae, rap, rock, and acoustic music, which works very well because of Dempsey's brutal honesty, great sense of humour,uncompromising lyrics, and his total lack of pretension. So what inspired Dempsey to create such an unusual sound?
"Well," he explained in his Dublin affect, "It was like, when I was a kid my parents would be singing folk songs, like Christie Moore and the Dubliners. And my brothers were listening to reggae and ska. When you're a kid, you're just like a sponge, so it just kind of happened."
But the rapping in Irish, what's that all about? "Haha! Yeah, well I was just trying to create my own sound. I liked rappers like Ice T, before he sold out though. The stuff Public Enemy did was great, the descriptions, the way he did it. I could just get everything I wanted to say into the 5 or 7 minutes by rapping."
This being Dempsey's objective, it's certainly an appropriate medium. This man is on a mission to speak out against corrupt governments, soaring house prices, drug addiction, domestic violence, child abuse, and a whole host of other social injustices. He is obviously moved by the plight of the underdog, the conviction of his narrative is very powerful and forces you to take notice.
"This probably comes from the folk tradition," Dempsey pointed out, "The singers always laid it on the line, they never sat on the fence. Bob Marley, Christie Moore, Sinead O'Connor, they all did that and I see myself as their pupil," laughing to himself, "Their disciple almost. And now it's what I do."
Not wanting to beat about the bush, Dempsey writes hard-nosed lyrics such as, "I am an angry man. I vent it when I can, on the bag [he is an ex-boxer], not the skag" (It's All Good), or "It's a parents worst fear for a child to end up on the smack" (Ghosts of Overdoses), there are examples in literally every song he's written. Well, they certainly cut straight to the chase.
"I don't have a poetic sense of words," he admitted, "It's all layman's terms so to speak. But it gets the message across though."
Prior to his rise on the Irish music scene, Dempsey played and performed for about 8 years before attending the Ballyfermot Rock School, where his unique style, and skills as a musician and performer flourished. "I got to know a lot more people who were really serious about music, like I was. There were other musicians who went there like Damien Rice, who went on to do well, so it was really good. Before the Rock School I didn't really know anyone who was that serious about it."
I can't decide whether this is a bit 'Fame-Academy', or whether he would have become successful regardless: it has to be the latter. He seems to have had one hit of extraordinary good luck after another. Take his 'Seize The Day' album, which features Sinead O'Connor on backing vocals throughout. How this came about is one of those dream-come-true moments that I'm sure every
musician lives for.
"I wasn't actually there when she recorded it," he told us, "We had no money, and John Reynolds who was the producer, he was working on it at home on his computer, and he sent Sinead a copy of it. She loved it and did the vocals on it."
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"I didn't actually know about it at the time, so John gave me the mix and said that he'd sent it to a friend who'd put some vocals on it, and if I didn't like it then we could take them off."
Wow, I mean seriously, you're a relatively unknown, poverty-stricken musician (ok, allow for poetic licence here, but it's an impressive story), creating your album, and out of nowhere you have one of your musical idols singing on your albums, that's crazy. "Yeah, its brilliant! I feel blessed," he said, sounding like an overwhelmed child in the World's best sweet shop.
That isn't the only impressive jaw-dropping moment in the career of Damien Dempsey. He was signed to Morrisey's Attack label for a one album deal, and has toured with him on various UK and Irish dates. Again, this came about because Morrisey discovered his music and was impressed enough to want to be involved.
"A lot of Morrisey's family are still in Dublin, and it was his cousin, I
think, who gave him a copy of my album for his birthday, cause you know Morrisey likes all different kinds of stuff." And the rest is history.
Oh, and Dempsey has supported Bob Dylan, and Brian Eno helped out on his recent "Shots" album as well. So not only are prestigious musicians helping out on his albums; he is picking up critical acclaim left right and centre, and his live performances are notoriously powerful and moving.
One of his songs, "It's All Good", is one of the more popular crowd
pleasers. "When I play that one at my gig, I get the crowd singing the outro ["Love Yourself Today, OK"], and when you get over 1000 people singing that all at once, it's a really special feeling."
"The best thing is hearing a load of people coming back from the chip shop or something, and they're singing 'Love Yourself', like a football chant." That's got to be the best sort of cover version when you hear people whistling or humming your tunes! "Yeah definitely. And the words, 'Love Yourself Today', it's a good thing for people to sing as well."
Ah, what a guy, spreading a little bit of sunshine into all our lives.
So what are the plans for the future, since things are really gathering momentum outside of Ireland? "We're going to come back to England to capitalise on the new fans we've made playing with The Proclaimers, then there's Germany, and we'd like to do the East Coast of America - there's so much to do, I'm going to be kept busy!"
So it's all good then (see what I did?), "Yeah, I mean, people ask me 'how's it going?' and even when you're not earning that much money, you need to put things into perspective. I have my health, and I'm doing what I love most. I feel very lucky and privileged to be in this position. In the end, it's all about the music."
Indeed. Peace brother.
(More information on the magical life of Damien Demspey can be found at www.damiendempsey.com)
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