FT: So you’re setting off on a set of Irish gigs, and you’ve promised some new songs. Does that mean there’s a new album due?
KG: Next Year. How this has come about, is myself and Annie have the next album written, and with experience, we have learned that the best way to prepare for making a new album, is to go out and road-test the songs and play them in front of people. I’ve been writing songs for well over 40 years, and in the early days, the thinking was, that you’d record the album, and then go out on tour and promote the album, but any songwriter will tell you, ‘God if I had only known in the studio, what I knew after a year of touring’! The songs might be in a different key, you might slow them down, you might edit out a little bit of it, or you write another verse. Whatever it is, you find out a lot by playing the song in front of a lot of people, in a live situation. Even though I would say the album is written, I would be amazed if we didn’t make some changes before we hit the studio. We go into the studio at the end of June, after these Irish shows, and a German tour of 20 dates.
FT: So what can the audiences expect this time around?
KG: We’re giving the new songs a good blast, where we can work on the songs, and get the album ready. We have a policy, at the end of each show, we like to do a song, that we have done before. The good news for the audience is we are well aware that the people come to hear, songs that they know as well, so it’s a well-balanced show, I think anyway. There may be 10 new songs, but there are plenty of the old favourites, of Kieran Goss solo stuff, like ‘Outta my Head’, or ‘Reasons to leave’ or ‘Just around the corner’, Old standards now I suppose. But we are also singing songs from the debt duo album, ‘Oh the Starlings’
FT: I think the show in the Lyric, promoting that album, was the last time I saw you in concert. Some great songs on that album.
KG: Well thank you. We were very proud of that album. It was unfortunate the album came out at the end of 2019, and we all know what happened then! We had huge plans to do things to promote the album, but we only got 5 shows done, and then the world went into Lockdown. In those two years of the pandemic, I know for a fact, that we cancelled 156 shows, in 6 different countries.
FT: Do you have a title for the album yet?
KG: No, that tends to reveal itself in the process in the studio. What I like to do, is when we are in the studio, to keep the radar out, if there’s something that encapsulates the album, or represents it. So, while we don’t have a title, but we do have the songs, and I think, just in the natural order of things, one of them will move forward, and become the title track.
FT: Annie and your good self, have been doing a lot of touring. Is it difficult to keep a balance between Home life and Touring?
KG: It is. Nothing’s perfect. The great thing for us, is Annie and I have been together for over 30 years, married for 27 or something like that, so we have turned it in many ways, into a lifestyle of what we do. But it is primarily about the music. Annie was a well-known harmony singer, long before she met me, and that’s actually how we met, She was doing a session for me in Windmill Studios in Dublin. She is a pretty well-known drummer, albeit in a different style, her thing then was funk and soul. I know people whose marriages have suffered badly from touring and just being away so much, and feeling isolated, so we are lucky in that when we have a few days off on tour, we’re together in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, or wherever we happen to be and we can enjoy that, and make it part of our life. But both Annie and I are very clear, that Sligo is our home. So it’s the best of both worlds in many ways. It’s all about that balance.
FT: Your gigs have always been a happy mix of song and craic, always a great night out, ultimately they came back because of the quality of the songs. Is it difficult to get that balance right? Has your performance on stage over the years?
KG: Well thank you, When Annie and I started doing the duo, we felt it was important, to forge a new path for the duo, we both agreed that I would pull back a bit on the humour and the craic. So even the show you saw back in the Lyric, was probably a more intense and emotional show, than at previous Kieran Goss solo shows. I think that is a move for the better. But it’s been refined over a period of time. As Brendan Murphy said to me ‘My god, it’s amazing what 300 shows on the road can do to a show’. I think it’s a better show now. We are more at ease doing it. I wouldn’t say it’s a heavy night, I think people will just enjoy it, and that is the real test. I take it as a compliment what you were saying as to why people were coming out to the solo shows. People loved the songs, but I think they loved the sheer ease of the night and the enjoyment of the show.
FT: You’ve co-written with a lot of other fine artists, Brendan Murphy, Jimmy McCarthy, Sharon Vaughan, and Kimmie Rhodes to name a few. How easy or difficult is it to produce songs working alongside someone else, and what other artists would you like to write alongside with, in the future?
KG: I like to write with all of them again. I particularly like writing with Brendan Murphy, for the simple reason that we’ve been friends since we were at school. When you know someone so really well, there are many shortcuts, the minute you say something. We grew up listening to the same bands, we’re from the same town, and we went to school together in the same class, so there’s so much unsaid and unwritten communication going on. Sometimes, you can say a word, or he will make a reference to something, and you know exactly what it is. So writing with Brendy is always a fantastic experience for me.
As a songwriter, I think I learnt the most, from working with Rodney Crowell. He comes from a different world, he comes from Nashville, he has words that we don’t use, and we have words he doesn’t use. He is also good craic. There are a couple of others, maybe without the high profile, like Colm Sands. We’ve been friends for a long time, but we’ve never actually got around to writing a song together. Someone who can write a song like ‘Michael’s Orchard’ is someone I would like to sit in a room with and write. We’ve been lifelong friends, but we’ve never been able to quite manage it. It’s something I would love to remedy, to be honest.
FT: If you had to offer one of your original albums to someone, who hadn’t heard of Kieran Goss, which album from your back catalogue, would you give them, and be able to say, this is Kieran Goss.
KG: It’s a very good question, and I know which ones are my own personal favourites. There was a period I was making songs in a bedroom in Dublin, with a great guy called Pat O’Donnell, who is a great producer and songwriter. But we made ‘Worse than Pride’ and ‘Red Letter Day’, and those two albums came out very quickly, and represented a very special time for me and Pat, in that the world was changing in how you made records. And we had to keep it quiet, that this album was being made in a bedroom in Chapelizod in Dublin. For people to take you seriously, you were meant to work in a big studio, with a big record deal with Sony. And we were going the opposite. The amazing thing is ‘Worse than Pride’ remains the biggest-selling album, I’ve ever had. And it was made in a bedroom, where we had to stop recording, if a bus went past! It was a number 1 album in Ireland. So, those two albums, ‘Worse than Pride’ and ‘Red Letter Day’, have a very special place for me. Having said that, I do believe, the current album you are working on, should be your favourite.
FT: Thank you Kieran, for being so generous of your time, good luck with the tour and the album, and I look forward to catching the gig in Lisburn.
KG: Well thank you, it’s been my pleasure.
For a full list of Irish and U.K dates and ticket information check out kierangoss.com