Brian Ó hEadhra
Brian Ó hEadhra is from Dublin in Ireland, and is now permanent resident in Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland.  He sings traditional and newly composed Irish and Scottish Gaelic songs as well as being a prolific singer and songwriter in English. 

Brian is most known as being the driving force behind the Celtic supergroup Anam, that has to date released five albums, three of these on the huge Japanese owned JVC label.  Now Brian has realized the ambition of releasing a solo album that after only a few weeks out, has gained huge acclaim from UK music critics.  

He recently [2006] spoke with Glen Clifford about the new solo album, called 'Life':

Glen:  Last month saw the release of your debut solo album, how have the last few weeks been?

Brian:  They've been great.  I have been developing my website (www.brianoheadhra.com) and selling the new album - and there's been renewed interest in the older Anam albums as well (available from www.anammusic.com). ...The local Highland press has been very enthusiastic about 'Life' and I'm hoping to see a few more reviews in national and international press very soon.  I've also been doing a few local gigs and will perform two songs on a Gaelic TV show in January.  Basically, I'm taking everything in my own time, this is the beauty of owning your own record label.  The only person to answer to is yourself.  Saying that, you do have to be very motivated to keep the momentum going!

Glen:  Before Anam, was a solo album ever on the cards, did you record demo's, what were your musical dreams back then - and what years are we talking about here?

Brian:  I have always been playing or singing music from a very young age.  I suppose I seriously started thinking about music as a profession when I started writing songs as a teenager.  I think my first song was written when I was around fourteen in 1985 - you do the maths!  It was called 'Bottom Bunk Blues'.  I still have all those songs on cassette.  I bought a Yamaha four-track cassette recorder and demoed everything.  That is when I started learning about recording techniques and various music styles.

Glen:  We'll get back to the new album in a moment, but if I could get a little background from you to bring us up to date:  A lot of people here (in Australia) are a bit confused about the whole Anam thing.  Did the group ever break up?

Brian:  Not officially, we just stopped gigging really.  In 2001 myself and my wife Fiona Mackenzie, who also is in Anam, moved to Ness in the North of the Isle of Lewis, which is pretty remote.  We were there for a year while I ran a new Gaelic Arts & Culture centre called Taigh Dhonnchaidh.  We became tired of touring and I was keen on developing my Gaelic language as well as music/arts administration and management.  We really decided to do gigs again in late 2004 and did our first one in ages at the Celtic Connections festival in 2005.  The new line up is myself and Fiona along with Nuala Kennedy on flute whistle and vocals and Gordon Gunn on fiddle and mandolin.  It is practically the same instrumentation as the original Anam line up in 1993.

Glen:  Although we now have Anammusic.com where there was once 'Anam.co.uk' - was this change because somebody forgot to pay the registration renewal, a copyright issue or because you've started your own record label in that name?

Brian:  We released the domain name 'anam.co.uk' in 2001 as someone asked to buy it.  I didn't want to let it go, but they offered us £2,500 and at that time the band had stopped touring, so I let it go.  

Glen:  What are your plans for 'Anam Music'?

Brian:  Well the record label and band will keep going, although at our own pace.  I hope to record another album in 2006 as will Fiona.  Maybe even two albums each!  We both write in English and in Scottish Gaelic and feel that we have enough material to make a few albums.  Anam may record its sixth album in 2006 too.  Even though we don't gig as much anymore, we still feel that we have some great tunes and songs to release.  I will keep developing the anammusic.com website too.  

Glen:  But you also have your own website now, it seems you've got a plan to keep the identities apart? 

Brian:  My solo career is important to me but will always be strongly linked to the Anam Music artists.  For example, I play guitar for the Mackenzie sisters and also do the odd gig with Christine Primrose and other folk.  I like the idea of mixing my talents with other musicians and singers.  One thing I will not do is go out on tour by myself as a solo singer song writer.  I love company and hate the idea of being a lone singer out on the road.  Must be such a lonely life, although I have plenty of friends who tour like that and enjoy the solitude.  I'll just keep doing my own writing and recording while also working with other musicians.  

Glen:  We have just done a feature on our website on Celtic music in Japan and still today, whenever I think of the two words 'Celtic' and 'Japan' - I think of Anam.  Anam were the first - and probably the only - ever Celtic group to be signed to JVC, a major Japanese label... This must be a long story, but could you give us some highlights how that came about?

Brian:  Myself and Aimee Leonard released Anam's second album in 1995 and had a track put on a compilation album called 'Celtic Women'.  JVC/Victor heard this track and asked for more material.  They obviously saw how Riverdance and Celtic music were on a high and were looking to have their own Celtic act.  Faxes went back and forth between Dublin and Tokyo and they then asked to meet us.  We had long negotiations about contracts and material and eventually signed a four album deal.  We recorded three albums for JVC and launched each album in Tokyo first and then around the world.  It was great visiting Japan and touring the world.  We played great festivals and halls - some that stand out are the Altan Festival in Tokyo; the Taipei National Concert Hall, Taiwan; Port Fairy Festival, Australia; the San Francisco Celtic Festival; the Time Cafe, New York; the radio promotion tour of UK & Ireland for the album 'Riptide'.  We were lucky to get such support and are thankful to have been given the opportunity to play for so many people around the world. 

Glen:  Let's go back even further, you were brought up in Newfoundland and made the leap to Ireland, how old were you then?

Brian:  I was in fact born in Dublin and then move to Newfoundland when I was two years old.  My father was studying and collecting Folklore there and also had a television show called 'All Around the Circle'.  We moved back to Ireland when I was seven, which was a huge move for a family of four children.  It took me and my siblings years to adapt to the Irish school system and culture.  We all had Canadian accents and did feel different to the other kids.  All of this has been an influence on my music.

Glen:  You see yourself as Canadian-Irish - Is this the right term?

Brian:  Good question!  I see myself as half Irish, half Canadian and half Scottish!    I feel a mixture of the three now.  I love exploring the different cultures and outlooks of these countries.  My mother is 100 per cent German-Canadian, so biologically I am half Germanic and half Irish.  What a mix!  I suppose I am simply North Atlantic! 

Glen:  Here again we have some history to fill in, Anam started while you were doing your BA in Dublin... and when did it make the leap to Scotland?

Brian:  Anam moved to Scotland in 1997.  The band had changed from four college going lads to myself, Aimee Leonard from Orkney and Treasa Ní Earcáin from Dublin.  We were getting many more gigs in Britain than Ireland and had made many friends on the Edinburgh scene such as Shooglenifty, Deaf Shepard, Claire Mann, etc.  It proved to be a good move as I then met my wife Fiona Mackenzie and continued to make music and get heavily involved in the Scottish music scene. 

Glen:  Anam became known as a type of Celtic super-group because of all the different sounds or influences, was this ever your intention?

Brian:  Yes, we always wanted to use influences from the different Celtic nations, not limit it to just an Irish or Scottish band.  We respect each tradition but also feel that we can write our own material and mix and match.  There are plenty of other bands who play 'pure' Irish or Scottish or whatever.  We just did what came naturally. 

Glen:  No doubt all your migration and travels have affected
your music (?)

Brian:  I suppose it has.  In the past few years I have learned a lot about Highland and Scottish Gaelic music.  Fiona and I are also very interested in music from other cultures.  I used to be in a band with Brian Finnigan from Flook.  We were called 'Upstairs in a Tent' and Brian and I went back and forth to Sweden a few times.  There I heard great Swedish folk music.  Brian once gave me a cassette of Marta Sebastian from Hungary and that is often played in the house still.  It is interesting that you have Arron Jones with Claire Mann, Catriona MacDonald (Blazin' Fiddles) and Brian Finnigan from Flook featured on the homepage of Celtic-Musicians.Net, - because between Fiona and I, we have recorded with them all!  I sometimes do gigs with Bruce MacGregor here in Inverness too; all amazing musicians. 

Glen:  Now I've heard the new album 'Life' and just featured the first few tracks the other day.  It's great to see you've released something where you have penned all 11 tracks - and let me say, I can't fault any of them!  How long were these songs hanging around in your head?

Brian:  There were originally 14 tracks on this album but I cut out 3 as I felt they were weaker than the others.  It was also a bit long.  Most of these songs were written between the ages of 15-25.  This makes the album quite eclectic, with different styles reflecting the musical influences I had at the time of composing.  I don't know if I would play all of these songs live now.  It would really depend on the venue and audience.

Glen:  Was there a timeline when you knew you'd get it
recorded and released?

Brian:  It all happened organically and in its own time.  I have been so busy over the past few years, the album had to take a back seat.  I did feel though that it is the right time to release it and time to move on to write new material for a new album.

Glen:  The album sounds as if this is really how you have seen life in the past few years, or even a decade or so - how many of these songs are Brian's in the truest sense - as opposed to writing how you see other people relate to life?

Brian:  I write songs from my own perspective or from that of characters or situations.  The song 'Sleep Until I Die' is one of the more recently composed songs.  That has a lot of how I feel about life.  I feel that we all need to question our own existence, society, culture, rather than drift through life without questioning anything or anyone.  The song 'At the End of the Day' was a present written for my friends Darragh and Maria who got married a few years ago.  It is a simple love song which I feel sums up how lucky a person is to find true love.

Glen:  This is a bit of a worn question but what tracks from 'Life' are the ones that come to you in the shower, the ones that seem to be on auto-start?

Brian:  I suppose it would be the songs 'Life' and 'Not as Young'.  Those songs have really stuck with me.  I sometimes sing 'Time For Sleep' to my baby daughter Orla.  It works - sometimes!

Glen:  There's an absolutely gorgeous song from one of your Anam albums titled 'Nan's Song' which should have been top of the pops for a decade as far as I'm concerned!  Nan's Song is quite complex, yet some people say that the best songs are usually the simplest... Do you follow any personal rules when it comes to songwriting?

Brian:  Fiona Mackenzie wrote that song.  She is my favourite songwriter and singer.  I'm not just saying that because she's my wife.  She could be one of the biggest names in songwriting if more people got to hear her songs and voice.  She and I write quite acoustic and relatively simple songs.  Saying that, we still do put a lot of thought into each composition.  It also depends on what you think of as 'simple'.  What is simple for us may seem complex to the next singer or band.  I write what comes naturally to me and try to make the words and melody weave well together.  Ultimately, I think you have to write something that you would like to listen to at home on your hi-fi.

Glen:  In the sleeve notes for 'Life' I read that it was recorded on location in Collander and Lamington, excuse my ignorance, but are these studios or did you do the 'mobile thing' like the Peatbog Faeries recently did?

Brian:  I used my own portable 16 track studio for the guitars, harmonica, keyboard.  The rest was laid down in the studio proper.  If you have a good mic and a digital studio you can record anywhere.  You do however need to know about microphone and recording techniques.  I always think about how the Beatles originally had such a simple system for recording and still came out with those early classics.  They are a great inspiration to me.

Glen:  So this album was about Life, I can't help but wonder if you've got some songs coming about death, a very folky idea?

Brian:  None yet, but Fiona does deal with death in her songs.  I should really try it.  I believe that we should not only focus on the positive elements in life but also confront the darker ones.  This should bring balance and understanding to those who seek answers in life.