I first met Michael McDermott at a gig upstairs in Whelans, Dublin in December 2016 where he played a set of songs that captivated the small but attentive audience despite travel weariness and a heavy cold. We spoke afterwards and kept in contact. From the Westies to his recent solo albums I have been an enthusiast for his music (as are others) though he still exists largely under the radar. His performances at the Kilkenny Rhythm & Roots Festival (2019) were very well attended and the very well received. They showed that while his albums feature a full band, in the live setting he has been playing in a solo capacity with just guitar, harmonica and piano - all he needed to deliver his songs with a clear intensity and passion. We did an interview at that time but looking back many things within the world had changed and so Lonesome Highway decided to catch up with him to discuss life and living in these stressful times.
A visit to the Michael McDermott website michael-mcdermott.com is a welcome window into his music and more including his last album What In The World … at a special download price.
Your reflections on where your life was at the time was the backbone of What In The World … Has the lockdown been detrimental to your writing?
I think the mood or the energy we felt as a nation here was palpable. I think everybody saw this was a slow moving train for destruction. Racism, bigotry was on full display from Pennsylvania Avenue to Main street. The dye had been cast. We will be recovering from these four years for a while. WHAT IN THE WORLD … was a culmination of a lot of things. It was something I heard myself saying more and more. Personally I had lost two family members to suicide in the span of 3 days, which was a shock. It was the feeling of life getting harder and harder to understand. Even when I was a lunatic drug addict and drunk, there seemed to be certain social structures that kept things in place. Now, everything was topsy turvy. I think people are really feeling that. Suicide is becoming a reasonable option for people, and that is a stunning revelation. Without having to travel my writing has been really in a good place. I’m disciplined about it. Being at home all the time, has really been great for the work.
You have played a number of online concerts in recent times. Has that acted as anything close to a substitute to in-person live performance?
It was a bit of a learning curve. I have a wonderful base of fans and we are really interactive. This has made it much more possible to make people a part of the show. I feature fans and people who want to be heard or have something to say, can be on my shows. I’ve levelled the playing field, so if anything, we have strengthened our bond with our audience, which has been an unforeseen gift to this whole process.
Are you, given the current political and pandemic situation, hopeful for the future?
There is a great historian, Jon Meacham, who explains that we have been here before as a country. 100 years ago in America, President Woodrow Wilson, locked up newspaper editors and 50,000 KKK members marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. What makes this different is the way we are communicating and spreading information or disinformation … Hopeful? Hmm, I’ll use a James Baldwin quote, “I can’t be a pessimist, because I am alive.”
We last had the opportunity to speak when you played at The Kilkenny Rhythm and Roots Festival but I know circumstances changed since then. However, where you happy with the reaction on that tour?
I was thrilled with that. I loved it. I loved the town and the people. It was really a highlight for me over the last several years. I certainly hope to get back there someday.
You largely play solo these days. Do you any plans to work with The Westies as a unit again as many of those musicians are featured on your solo albums?
No real plans for The Westies. I love most everything about that band. It’s writing from a different part of my psyche, that has caused the delay. So much has been going on in the world and personally, that the writing has turned rather inward. I need to get back in touch with the criminal part of my head, that I assure you still does exist, but rather, has just been a bit dormant. My old guitar player Frank Root was murdered back in 1998, he was executed in a drug deal and I couldn’t watch violent movies for quite some time. Movies like that, I had loved in the past. With Trumps’ criminality on display and documented 24/7 that identifies that his was in essence a crime family. I have kind of recoiled in some of the same way from those topics or investigating them further, I will again, for those criminals I find very fascinating. It’s a life I saw up close, what people are pushed to and what people are willing to do, that intersection has always been one that fascinated me.
We have talked in the past about the elements of negativity of your past which led to addiction. You have overcome that now but do you feel that your music is now a positive element in your life and also for others?
Wow, great question. I guess you’ve just forced me to consider that. I think that even in “the old days” I never was interested in writing hopeless or downtrodden songs. I always wanted to believe there was a way out … or a way through rather … I do think the tone of the songs has changed. I’m still a drunk and a depressive drug addict. As they say, “Once you’re a pickle, you’ll never be a cucumber again.” But as we know, you need the darkness in order to see the light.
There are songs where the subject is redemptive like Until I Found You. Are they easy to express or easier that the more angry material?
They are much, much harder. It’s so easy to become sentimental or overly romantic. So it is a real challenge to write something about relationships or love that doesn’t make you wanna puke. Love songs are tricky. Anger, resentment, disappointment and shame - those are my defaults. Those are my wheelhouse. It’s the vulnerable stuff that is scary.
As a writer you are always moving forward so do you then stockpile the songs you have written (I know a previous album Orphans was a collection of songs that didn’t fit previous albums) or do you tend to compose new material for a particular project?
I feel like a shark. I work quickly. I’m always moving forward. I have pulled some older songs forward, although it feels a little like cheating. I tinker at songs, words, maybe a line or two but most of it is written quickly. If it’s not working, they get abandoned fast. I’m manic about moving forward.
So how does inspiration come to you?
I’m from the school where you have to find it. Even if I’m just sitting at my computer and the well is dry. I need to sit and wait. Sometimes just write a bunch of crap, because you never know when you might punch a hole in the wall and then suddenly there is light. If I’m in the other room in front of the TV then those moments might happen and I won’t be there to witness it and go exploring. Some songs are lucky but you have to create your own luck. If I’m on the couch on my phone I know I won’t be writing a good song in that time. That fear of knowing a good song might be floating by in my studio and if I’m not there to let it in, that is terrifying.
As a professional musician who can’t currently work in the same way as in the past are there ways that you can foresee any possible alternatives to get your music across?
I feel a little guilty in saying that I have enjoyed this new arena. Creating a streaming show that feels more like a TV show. It’s a more controlled environment. You’re not exhausted getting there and the club doesn’t have the Air Conditioner cranked up and there’s no distracting chatter in the back of the room. Now I realize that sounds rather vacuous, but right now, I’m enjoying it.
What In The World … was released at a time when you could really tour behind it. None-the-less did it sell as well as previous albums?
It didn’t sell as well. You need live shows to move records, to people that came with friends, people that never heard of you, Without that exposure, it was only very hardcore fans.
How have you been filling your time in the last few months. Do you read a lot or have you found inspiration in other ways?
Reading a ton, and I’ve loved it. Stuff I read a million years ago, went and redid all classics, Hemingway, Chandler, Fitzgerald, so that was fun. I also reread Catcher In The Rye, I tried to learn French and have been meditating. I’m writing my memoirs about the insane life I’ve lived. Which has been rather harrowing, having to relive it all, yet therapeutic in some ways. I’ll be glad when it’s finished.
Since the days of being in a band that had a major label deal and moving to an independent process has that given you the freedom to do the music you want?
I was always lucky to be able to do the kinds of records I wanted. I never had that pressure. Of course I’ve had heads of labels say “ Why can’t you write another, A Wall I Must Climb, and want to punch them. Oh you want an 8 verse song with no chorus? I can write ten a day … It gets a little lonely working alone all day every day so on days when I get Heather to come sing or play or get my guys to record even remotely … those are happier days.
A song like Shadow In The Window seems to be something of a powerful exorcism onstage. Is that therapeutic overall for you?
I have to be careful with a song like that. I have to use it to somehow to (which might seem grandiose) help others. That cheque’s in the mail for all of us. So I really try and be careful not to make it too much about me and my father. Sometimes it does but then I feel I have let people share in the experience. I’m on stage for a collaborative experience with other people. When it starts just becoming about me then I’ve lost. I have gotten caught up in that song and just started blubbering on stage … some days … I just can’t help it, I think the audience is empathetic. That’s a kind of drama I don’t want. I want them to shed the tears - not me.
Such material can be something that evokes so many feelings in others that it must be a satisfying experience to have achieved that?
It is, but I want to write the next song that is gonna do that. Maybe its my junkie mentality, but I want the next hit (a dopamine hit, not hit record).
What do you see as the way forward for you in the next months and year. Any plans for a new album?
Yes, I’m so excited about this one … I can barely stand it. When I’m done typing here, I will go back to work. No release plans or anything but I’m hoping late summer/fall 2021.
At these times I imagine that, like for so many of us, family is a vital. Has this been a good time for you as you have been at home much more than usual?
You’re absolutely right. It’s been amazing. I haven’t been home this much ever. Frankly, I’m a little worried about when the time comes to leave again. I might go kicking and screaming.
Interview by Stephen Rapid
Above photography by Kaethe Burt O’Dea