(Source)
28/11/2008
Irish Independent interview
An interview from the Day & Night supplement of Irish newspaper The Independent:Roisin Murphy: I’m no R'N'R cliche...
Her latest album has been hailed as the pop dance album of the year and now Roisin Murphy has America in her sights. She talks fashion, fame... and camogie with Eamon Sweeney
The notoriously fickle business of breaking America is a pop star's holy grail, not to mention a potentially lucrative meal ticket. A few years ago, a disillusioned Robbie Williams famously packed in the Transatlantic slogs to hawk his wares.
Meanwhile, people who couldn't get arrested on this side of the pond, such as London pomp-rockers Bush, inexplicably became enormous. A recent jaunt by Arctic Monkeys was said to have “bounced off rather than broke” the United States. Even gargantuan rock behemoths like U2 and David Bowie struggled for years on loss-making tours before hitting the jackpot with a vengeance.
It's impossible to say if Arklow-born pop chanteuse Roísín Murphy is going to crack the States, but you can be sure that she's going to have fun trying. By all accounts, she comprehensively stole the show from under the noses of every generic guitar band in town at this year's CMJ Music Marathon in New York, as her eye-popping pantomime of sound and vision enthralled the music, style and popular press alike.
The week before she took Manhattan, Roisín was a part of a unique once-in-alifetime collaboration with the New Silver Cornet Band in Tennessee – a blues-rock troupe formed by the whiskey creator Jack Daniels himself. In recent years, the tipple beloved by tattooed rockers everywhere has hosted exclusive performances by the likes of Elbow and the Flaming Lips to celebrate Jack's birthday.
This year, Ash's Tim Wheeler, former Stranglers man Hugh Cornwall and Young Knives geek rocker Thomas Dartnall are all onboard alongside Roísín, making for a curious meeting of musical minds on a hill overlooking the famous distillery in Lynchburg, a so-called official ‘city' in a dry county that has one set of traffic lights. Nobody really knows what to expect, least of all the artists who've rehearsed for a grand total of an hour and half. “It'll be seat of our pants stuff, but we're all old pros by now,” Roísín laughs.
Seasoned pro that she is, Roísín croons her way through the theme song from The Wire, Down in the Hole, and a slick version of Bryan Ferry's Slave to Love, soon to be featured on a advert for Gucci starring James Franco. A frankly bizarre but brilliant version of Baby I'm Scared of You by gospel pop vets Womack & Womack also features.
She dedicates Scarlet Ribbons, a song from her most recent album Overpowered, to her father Micky Murphy. Then, Tim Wheeler plays Running Back by Thin Lizzy and the night climaxes with a mass sing-along on Gloria by Them. Even in this famous backwater of Tennessee, the heart and soul of the party is most definitely Irish.
Roísín is far from being a nobody in America. “But I'm certainly not a household name,” she reflects. “I think I'm swimming out there somewhere in the ether. Strangely, my song Ramalama, which I always thought was just a totally weird song, is the one that people are making up funny dances to and posting on YouTube.”
Of course, Roísín is as revered for her sense of style as she is for her music. Kanye West is a big fan of her outlandish outfits and Irish Independent fashion blogger Angela Scanlan recently revealed, “She's been my girl crush forever.”
Murphy is a firm believer in having as much fun with her look as possible. “All the fashion stuff is a performance,” she says. “It shouldn't be taken too seriously even though it is an art form in itself. It's quite a big job to style myself as richly as I do, but it's a story and it's a story I'm just beginning to tell.”
Once somewhat derogatorily dubbed a “fashion junkie”, it's an accusation she laughs off. “OK, I've done interviews where I've got dressed up because that's what I like to do,” she counters. “So they'll start their write up saying, ‘Roísín Murphy is looking me and up and down’. Look, I couldn't care less! I'm certainly not judgmental. I don't show up looking like a rock ‘n' roll cliché because that doesn't interest me.”
When Roísín released Overpowered last year, it was hailed in America as the finest European pop dance album of the year. In the UK, one enthusiast claimed it was the best grown-up pop record since Madonna's Ray of Light, remarking: “I hope Ireland doesn't get too offended if Britain comes to its senses and recognises Roísín Murphy as a National Treasure.”
“I wasn't embraced as an Irish artist back in the Moloko days,” Murphy muses. “Modern electronica isn't what you think of when you think of Irish music. Now, they see the name Roísín Murphy and there isn't much more I can be! I like people to use the fadas, but sure I can't sue them if they don't! People always say to me, “Do you feel Irish?” Are you out of your mind? It's like saying does this chair feel green! It's not a question for me. It's exactly what I am and I'm not anything else.”
The former camogie player who “put out a few teeth in my time” tries to keep tabs on what's happening in her homeland. “In the last year I've been a bit more like my Mum and Dad, watching the news and reading the paper all the time,” she says, “but I can't claim to know much about Irish politics. Actually, I met Bertie Ahern the other day at an awards ceremony in London. When I come to Ireland, I go straight down to where I'm from. Arklow is very different now. It's three times the size and behind where I was brought up there is a huge shopping mall. I feel blessed as a child that I could go wherever I liked. It's not like that anymore.”
Murphy is looking forward to her Irish tour kicking off next Monday. “When you do have a great gig at home it's amazing,” she enthuses. “But it's complicated because home is many places – Dublin, Manchester, Sheffield and London are all hometowns for me in that they're all nightmare guestlists.”
After concluding the tour, she'll resume work on her third album in 2009, intending to work with nu-jazz innovator Seiji again who gave Overpowered its “sleepy, synthesized feel”. Murphy can see more narrative creeping into her work, from the songs themselves to the theatrical stage shows. The bottom line is that like this peculiar weekend in Tennessee, it's going to be a lot of fun.
“Music has given me a fantastic lifestyle,” she concludes. “I work extremely hard, but I love every minute of it. Although I couldn't work as hard if I felt there was a ceiling on anything. I spent £125,000 on four pictures for the sleeves for Overpowered and I loved spending it! It was like making a little movie. Ambition can get you freedom.
“While I'm obsessed with my work, I've kept myself far away from the machinations of the industry. I find it weird when artists know the name of the accountant in the record company – I haven't got time for any of that! I loved it when Morrissey said that he knows record labels rip you off, but he's an artist who likes to be institutionalised! I'm not sure if I'm that dogmatic about it, but I think I could find all sorts of ways of funding my fantasies.”
Live in Brussels 2008
Yes, it's official! Go to www.roisinmurphy.com to check out Roisin performing live in Brussels less than one week ago.
A big thank you to Roisin & her team for sharing this!
27/11/2008
Christophe Coppens
Several of Roisin's extravagant stage outfits have been designed by the Belgian fashion designer Christophe Coppens.
Christophe kindly send me some pictures of a model posing in some of the outfits Roisin is currently using...
Christophe kindly send me some pictures of a model posing in some of the outfits Roisin is currently using...
MTV Romania feature
In some countries Roisin gets the treatment she deserves. One of those countries is Romania, where MTV News reported on her Bucharest show.
26/11/2008
She's not a pop star!
A nice short interview with Roisin from The Guardian, in which she admits she's anything but a pop star. Hooray!
What got you started?
Performing Don't Cry for Me, Argentina as a gift for my mum when I was nine. My whole family's gobs dropped open - they couldn't believe I could sing.
What was your big breakthrough?
Going up to Mark [Brydon] at a party in Sheffield in 1994 and saying, "Do you like my tight sweater?" I guess he did, because he took me to his studio that night and recorded me saying it. That was the beginning of Moloko.
Who or what have you sacrificed for your art?
I have no idea - I can't imagine what my life would have held if I had not been a musician.
Are you fashionable?
Yes - this job is one outfit after another.
What's your favourite museum?
Sir John Soane's Museum in London, for its sense of going back in time.
What one song would feature on the soundtrack to your life?
Jacques Brel's If You Go Away, sung by Shirley Bassey. I'd have it at my funeral - it's the most dramatic, annoying, drama-laden song to leave people with.
Do you suffer for your art?
Yes, I'm very capable of being a miserabilist and a worrier. Especially when I made Overpowered - I was working with people all over the world.
What advice would you give a young singer?
If you really want to do it, you can - especially today. Records are cheaper to make; you can even put out your own.
What work of art would you most like to own?
When I was 16 and on a tour of Europe, I fell in love with Le Corbusier's Notre Dame du Haut chapel in Ronchamp, France. I'd quite like to live in it.
Complete this sentence. At heart I'm just a frustrated ...
Sexual maniac. I'm brave and fearless when I'm performing, but in real life I'm actually quite prudish.
What cultural tip would you give to a tourist about Britain's arts scene?
It's not as good as you think. In eastern Europe, you can feel the politics in the air. People ask me why London is so cool and I say it's not - look at Warsaw.
What's the biggest myth about being a pop star?
I wouldn't know, because I'm not one.
What's the greatest threat to music today?
There isn't one. Music will go on regardless. What people are actually concerned about is the threat to music revenues. But I'm sure they'll figure out how to make more money; they always have in the past.
In short
Born: Arcklow, Ireland, in 1973
Career: Formed electronica duo Moloko in 1994 with then-boyfriend Mark Brydon. Has released two solo albums, Ruby Blue (2005), and 2007's Overpowered. Performs at the Academy, Leeds (0113 389 1555), tomorrow, then touring.
High point: "Touring the Moloko record Statues in 2003."
Low point: "Breaking up with Mark in 2001, and continuing to work with him."
Picture by Steven Stausens
British Fashion Awards
Roisin attended the British Fashion Awards in London last night, looking velvety with a feathery touch.
Thanks to Betty for the pictures!
25/11/2008
Brussels fan pictures
Two great fan pictures of Roisin performing in Brussels on Sunday night.
The first picture was taken by Michel & the second one by Stijn.
24/11/2008
Brussels last night
Roisin gave a spectacular show in Brussels last night, which was recorded for online viewing. For some reason she always seems in her element when performing in Belgium.
Pictures courtesy of Pieter Morlion.
22/11/2008
Ugo.com interview
Click here to watch an interesting three minute interview with Roisin from ugo.com.
Thanks to Betty for letting me know.
More from Amsterdam
HMH Amsterdam
Roisin took to the stage in the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam last night. The picture above was taken by Dennis Stempher.
Check out this video for all the evening's highlights...
21/11/2008
Yorkshire Evening Post interview
Roisin is performing in Leeds this Wednesday. Reason for The Yorkshire Evening Post to have a little chat with her.
The alchemic soup that is Roisin Murphy's music has made her the darling of every cool young thing in Britain.
Part house, part soul, part electronica, this satisfying dovetail is clearly a carefully judged balance between commercial and underground – and yet, prior to her recent success, her life was completely random.
Born in Ireland and raised partly in Manchester, it was only because she moved to Sheffield with her lover that they created Moloko, the equally fashionable but initially directionless band from whence she came.
Now her solo career has burgeoned to the extent that she's now as much a style muse as she is a singer/songwriter, with a shiny mane of Greta Garbo-esque strawberry blonde hair often juxtaposed with the kind of avant garde outfits which could leave Grace Jones balking.
And at 35, she now finds herself looking back on two years in which her second album, Overpowered, became a modern classic adored by everyone from geeky musos to clubbers and the fashionati.
Forget the randomness of the past, the all new Project Murphy was launched with a distinct and independent trajectory. Now she's landed.
"When Moloko broke up I thought it all might get taken away from me," she said. "I got seriously panicked because I'd been doing it for so many years. It was then that I got serious and started being a bit less haphazard about everything.
"With Overpowered I set out to record an album with lots of different writers and producers that reference lots of different things and I did that, so now it makes me quite proud that I sometimes tell people who like my music about Moloko and they don't know who they were. They just know me.
"Now I like to walk a line with everything I do. It's about feeling as alive as possible, feeling vibrant. I mean the whole dressing up thing, it's about me wanting to tell stories, to complement sound with vision. It's just about MORE, you know?"
There are still delightful hints of the random about Murphy, still an air of tongue-in-cheek eccentricity. One minute she speaks softly and sweetly, the next she's mischievously effing and blinding like a navvy.
The accent, meanwhile, is a curious mix of Irish and the northern brogue that she undoubtedly picked up during the formative years in Yorkshire and Lancashire, formative years which also forged the independent musician she is today.
"I don't believe I'd be an artist at all if it weren't for Sheffield," Murphy said. "People who are serious about music are aware of Sheffield, I mean, from no other city could come Cabaret Voltaire and, on the other hand, Human League.
"I remember in Manchester you had every option on the scene, every nightclub – and I went to them all.
I used to often go up to Leeds as well, Back to Basics was the night we loved, very glamorous.
"By the early 1990s I'd moved to Sheffield and I found it was one of the places that everything had already happened, it had already morphed into much more of a fusion with DJs playing more rare groove mixed with house and industrial punk.
"It just seemed much more sophisticated than Manchester, but then it was also just fortuitous that I met this guy and fell in love."
The guy in question was Mark Brydon. Legend has it their relationship started in 1995 when she approached him at a party with the chat up line: "Do you like my tight sweater? See how it fits my body?" (A line which would eventually be looped to create the vocals on one of their first tracks.)
The union would last ten years and see them release four albums, most notably Things To Make and Do, plus the two hit singles which nudged them further into the commercial spotlight, Sing it Back and The Time is Now.
Murphy said: "We started making music with no intention whatsoever of becoming a real band so we started with things like me just repeating Do You Like My Tight Sweater? over and over again against a backing track.
"Initially the face of Moloko was just going to be these three dolls who featured in our first video but then curiosity got the better of us and we made a whole album which was quite punky and dubby and it turned out to be successful, people really liked it.
"I started making music by the default of getting into a relationship and, to be honest, I didn't take it very seriously for a number of years. I mean, I loved being creative but as far as a career was concerned it didn't dawn on me until we actually split up and I decided to go solo."
The result was a new record contract with EMI and her debut release Ruby Blue in 2005. Despite some acclaim it took 2007's slickly produced Overpowered to regain the ground she lost with the Moloko split.
It was the title track which really captured the public's imagination, not just by mixing a deep acid/electro track with a soulful song about lingering love but also by briefly introducing 'oxytoxins' into the national vocabulary.
Mainstream
The album as a whole initially saw her join forces with a team of producers and writers varying from Groove Armada's Andy Cato and Richard X to Calvin Harris and even ubiquitous pop maestro Cathy Dennis.
But interestingly the Harris/Dennis collaborations never made it onto the final tracklist – so does she have an aversion to anything too mainstream? Too close to the classic pop formula?
"Do you know I don't know if I do like pop music or not," she mused. "It depends what you call pop music I suppose. I could say I like Talking Heads therefore I like pop music but I'm not sure they qualify.
"I certainly wouldn't be fascinated by the formula of pop, put it that way.
It's upsetting when someone who could be a more serious artist might be buying a Girls Aloud album to dissect it and find out: 'How does this work?' I find that very cynical.
"Don't get me wrong I wouldn't mind having a top five hit, but Let Me Know from Overpowered was the closest I've come I think but even that referenced house and disco not really pop music.
"Early in her career Madonna, for example, must have had a massive influence on me 'cos I was a young girl and she was this bolshy, inspirational figure and I used to go around singing Like a Virgin, back when I was virgin.
"And my stuff references the era when she first came out surrounded by all that electronic music and disco, but these days the likes of Madonna and Kylie and the rest of it they all seem to reference the same stuff."
Outfits
Demanding almost equal attention to her music is Murphy's sense of style, an off-piste mix of fashion and art which, at different times, draws inspiration from just about every movement and era imaginable.
It began with the shimmering number which blinded watchers of the video for Moloko's 90s smash, Bring it Back, and reached its zenith with the bright red knitted number which adorned the cover of Overpowered.
"My outfits are all about the narrative, about telling stories," she explained. "It's about adding something to the narrative of the songs and being more complex than your average pop star or rock 'n' roller.
"God, I remember we did a shoot for the first record and there I was in this mental head piece with red leather boots and a hoop skirt," she recalls. "And in the 90s that was edgy, I mean, everyone was going around in Helmut Lang blazers being really serious but I've never been like that.
"I also remember going on the Album Chart Show last year along with all these Indie bands and 12 year olds in the audience. I was wearing this bright blue Louix XIV dress cut into a mini skirt with me legs stickin' out.
"And the reaction was palpable. You could see the look on their faces, it was like 'What the hell has she got on?! she's doing my head in!' But it's not about getting attention or hiding or anything like that, it's just about being truthful to who I am I guess."
Another selection of eyebrow-raising outfits are likely to be showcased next week when Murphy takes to the stage of Leeds Academy as part of a lengthy UK tour.
"There's talk of a third album but, to be honest, I've been so preoccupied with this show," she said. "It's been going on so long that we decided that this time round we had to do something different again.
"So we've completely revamped and renewed things and it will BLOW YOUR MIND, I promise ya. I actually love touring, maybe it's the tinker in me, and I tend to get quite carried away when I'm performing.
"Last year I split me eyebrow open headthrashing on stage when I headbutted the back of a chair. It was a right mess. But I've learned my lesson – I still thrash about but now I always check the chair's been removed first."
The alchemic soup that is Roisin Murphy's music has made her the darling of every cool young thing in Britain.Part house, part soul, part electronica, this satisfying dovetail is clearly a carefully judged balance between commercial and underground – and yet, prior to her recent success, her life was completely random.
Born in Ireland and raised partly in Manchester, it was only because she moved to Sheffield with her lover that they created Moloko, the equally fashionable but initially directionless band from whence she came.
Now her solo career has burgeoned to the extent that she's now as much a style muse as she is a singer/songwriter, with a shiny mane of Greta Garbo-esque strawberry blonde hair often juxtaposed with the kind of avant garde outfits which could leave Grace Jones balking.
And at 35, she now finds herself looking back on two years in which her second album, Overpowered, became a modern classic adored by everyone from geeky musos to clubbers and the fashionati.
Forget the randomness of the past, the all new Project Murphy was launched with a distinct and independent trajectory. Now she's landed.
"When Moloko broke up I thought it all might get taken away from me," she said. "I got seriously panicked because I'd been doing it for so many years. It was then that I got serious and started being a bit less haphazard about everything.
"With Overpowered I set out to record an album with lots of different writers and producers that reference lots of different things and I did that, so now it makes me quite proud that I sometimes tell people who like my music about Moloko and they don't know who they were. They just know me.
"Now I like to walk a line with everything I do. It's about feeling as alive as possible, feeling vibrant. I mean the whole dressing up thing, it's about me wanting to tell stories, to complement sound with vision. It's just about MORE, you know?"
There are still delightful hints of the random about Murphy, still an air of tongue-in-cheek eccentricity. One minute she speaks softly and sweetly, the next she's mischievously effing and blinding like a navvy.
The accent, meanwhile, is a curious mix of Irish and the northern brogue that she undoubtedly picked up during the formative years in Yorkshire and Lancashire, formative years which also forged the independent musician she is today.
"I don't believe I'd be an artist at all if it weren't for Sheffield," Murphy said. "People who are serious about music are aware of Sheffield, I mean, from no other city could come Cabaret Voltaire and, on the other hand, Human League.
"I remember in Manchester you had every option on the scene, every nightclub – and I went to them all.
I used to often go up to Leeds as well, Back to Basics was the night we loved, very glamorous.
"By the early 1990s I'd moved to Sheffield and I found it was one of the places that everything had already happened, it had already morphed into much more of a fusion with DJs playing more rare groove mixed with house and industrial punk.
"It just seemed much more sophisticated than Manchester, but then it was also just fortuitous that I met this guy and fell in love."
The guy in question was Mark Brydon. Legend has it their relationship started in 1995 when she approached him at a party with the chat up line: "Do you like my tight sweater? See how it fits my body?" (A line which would eventually be looped to create the vocals on one of their first tracks.)
The union would last ten years and see them release four albums, most notably Things To Make and Do, plus the two hit singles which nudged them further into the commercial spotlight, Sing it Back and The Time is Now.
Murphy said: "We started making music with no intention whatsoever of becoming a real band so we started with things like me just repeating Do You Like My Tight Sweater? over and over again against a backing track.
"Initially the face of Moloko was just going to be these three dolls who featured in our first video but then curiosity got the better of us and we made a whole album which was quite punky and dubby and it turned out to be successful, people really liked it.
"I started making music by the default of getting into a relationship and, to be honest, I didn't take it very seriously for a number of years. I mean, I loved being creative but as far as a career was concerned it didn't dawn on me until we actually split up and I decided to go solo."
The result was a new record contract with EMI and her debut release Ruby Blue in 2005. Despite some acclaim it took 2007's slickly produced Overpowered to regain the ground she lost with the Moloko split.
It was the title track which really captured the public's imagination, not just by mixing a deep acid/electro track with a soulful song about lingering love but also by briefly introducing 'oxytoxins' into the national vocabulary.
Mainstream
The album as a whole initially saw her join forces with a team of producers and writers varying from Groove Armada's Andy Cato and Richard X to Calvin Harris and even ubiquitous pop maestro Cathy Dennis.
But interestingly the Harris/Dennis collaborations never made it onto the final tracklist – so does she have an aversion to anything too mainstream? Too close to the classic pop formula?
"Do you know I don't know if I do like pop music or not," she mused. "It depends what you call pop music I suppose. I could say I like Talking Heads therefore I like pop music but I'm not sure they qualify.
"I certainly wouldn't be fascinated by the formula of pop, put it that way.
It's upsetting when someone who could be a more serious artist might be buying a Girls Aloud album to dissect it and find out: 'How does this work?' I find that very cynical.
"Don't get me wrong I wouldn't mind having a top five hit, but Let Me Know from Overpowered was the closest I've come I think but even that referenced house and disco not really pop music.
"Early in her career Madonna, for example, must have had a massive influence on me 'cos I was a young girl and she was this bolshy, inspirational figure and I used to go around singing Like a Virgin, back when I was virgin.
"And my stuff references the era when she first came out surrounded by all that electronic music and disco, but these days the likes of Madonna and Kylie and the rest of it they all seem to reference the same stuff."
Outfits
Demanding almost equal attention to her music is Murphy's sense of style, an off-piste mix of fashion and art which, at different times, draws inspiration from just about every movement and era imaginable.
It began with the shimmering number which blinded watchers of the video for Moloko's 90s smash, Bring it Back, and reached its zenith with the bright red knitted number which adorned the cover of Overpowered.
"My outfits are all about the narrative, about telling stories," she explained. "It's about adding something to the narrative of the songs and being more complex than your average pop star or rock 'n' roller.
"God, I remember we did a shoot for the first record and there I was in this mental head piece with red leather boots and a hoop skirt," she recalls. "And in the 90s that was edgy, I mean, everyone was going around in Helmut Lang blazers being really serious but I've never been like that.
"I also remember going on the Album Chart Show last year along with all these Indie bands and 12 year olds in the audience. I was wearing this bright blue Louix XIV dress cut into a mini skirt with me legs stickin' out.
"And the reaction was palpable. You could see the look on their faces, it was like 'What the hell has she got on?! she's doing my head in!' But it's not about getting attention or hiding or anything like that, it's just about being truthful to who I am I guess."
Another selection of eyebrow-raising outfits are likely to be showcased next week when Murphy takes to the stage of Leeds Academy as part of a lengthy UK tour.
"There's talk of a third album but, to be honest, I've been so preoccupied with this show," she said. "It's been going on so long that we decided that this time round we had to do something different again.
"So we've completely revamped and renewed things and it will BLOW YOUR MIND, I promise ya. I actually love touring, maybe it's the tinker in me, and I tend to get quite carried away when I'm performing.
"Last year I split me eyebrow open headthrashing on stage when I headbutted the back of a chair. It was a right mess. But I've learned my lesson – I still thrash about but now I always check the chair's been removed first."
Brussels show will be filmed
Some word from the official website: Roisin's concert in Brussels this Sunday will be filmed. From early next week it will be available as a stream.
I Can't Help Myself - Live in Sofia
Finally I've found a good video of Roisin performing I Can't Help Myself, wearing that weird yet wonderful 'two men on my shoulder' outfit.
Moloko memories 1998
Blog reader Baz has sent me another set of never seen before pictures of Roisin on stage in Liverpool in 1998. Baz vividly remembers the night in The Lomax...
> Baz: This is one I remember taking... and it wasn't quite the photo I wanted to get either! It was my attempt to snap Roisin when she smiled.
During the songs she'd be mean and moody yet as soon as each song ended and the audience cheered, her face would light up as she'd smile, acknowledging the applause. I pressed the button on my camera a split second too late as she dropped the smile, yet at the same time, it does make for an interesting photo of Roisin... there's a really sweet demure quality in her eyes.
> Baz: This photo is interesting in that you can see Mark in the background enjoying a midset ciggie and you can see his entire keyboard stack... which Roisin later sent toppling over during the encore!
It was interesting how by the 2003 tour he was on Bass whereas back in 1998, he shared keyboard duties with Eddie. It's also a nice near full profile of Roisin capturing her long black leather skirt she wore that night.
Now, Roisin's shows are very extravagant with multiple costume changes whilst back in 1998, things were very different and much more basic so she wore the one costume for the entire gig. It is worth pointing out again that the top she was wearing was amazing at the time. Thanks to the flash, you cannot see that the blue pads on her chest was an ongoing luminous digital counter that ticked away throughout the entire show.
> Baz: It's interesting to compare and contrast these archive pics with modern day ones. Roisin even in her mid 20's was extremely photogenic and stunningly beautiful!
Click here to check out the previous story about the gig.
> Baz: This is one I remember taking... and it wasn't quite the photo I wanted to get either! It was my attempt to snap Roisin when she smiled.
During the songs she'd be mean and moody yet as soon as each song ended and the audience cheered, her face would light up as she'd smile, acknowledging the applause. I pressed the button on my camera a split second too late as she dropped the smile, yet at the same time, it does make for an interesting photo of Roisin... there's a really sweet demure quality in her eyes.
> Baz: This photo is interesting in that you can see Mark in the background enjoying a midset ciggie and you can see his entire keyboard stack... which Roisin later sent toppling over during the encore!
It was interesting how by the 2003 tour he was on Bass whereas back in 1998, he shared keyboard duties with Eddie. It's also a nice near full profile of Roisin capturing her long black leather skirt she wore that night.
Now, Roisin's shows are very extravagant with multiple costume changes whilst back in 1998, things were very different and much more basic so she wore the one costume for the entire gig. It is worth pointing out again that the top she was wearing was amazing at the time. Thanks to the flash, you cannot see that the blue pads on her chest was an ongoing luminous digital counter that ticked away throughout the entire show.
> Baz: It's interesting to compare and contrast these archive pics with modern day ones. Roisin even in her mid 20's was extremely photogenic and stunningly beautiful!
Click here to check out the previous story about the gig.
Overpowered - fan remix
Roisin fan Phantomweight has made his own remix of the now classic Overpowered. Go to myspace.com/phantomweight to check it out.
19/11/2008
Uncensored interview(s)
This is one part of a series of interview clips from uncensoredinterview.com.
Click here to check out the rest.
18/11/2008
Blond & Black
Betty sent me this picture of Roisin sporting a simple & classic black frock at a recent event.
17/11/2008
She can't help herself
Aron sent me these two pictures of Roisin performing I Can't Help Myself in Berlin.
Moloko interview 2003
A nice little Moloko interview with Roisin and Mark Brydon backstage at Umbria Jazz, July 2003.
15/11/2008
Two great live shots
I came across these two pictures today. They were taken earlier this year in Sydney.
A day in the life of...
Have you ever wondered what Roisin's life on tour looks like? Well, here's a little view behind-the-scenes (source).
As you can see it's not all glitter and glamour. I just hope for Roisin and her entourage that the road from Berlin to Prague wasn't too bumpy.
German crowd surfing - part 2
Like the last time Miss Murphy was in Berlin, she took to a bit of crowd surfing on Thursday.
Thanks to Aron for the video!
14/11/2008
Berlin setlist
Blogger reader Mavin sent me this scan of last night's setlist. Here's what he has to say about the Berlin show:
The concert was amazing. The house was packed and Roisin sang for me as I was nearly front row. Imagine, I stood there looking into her eyes. She was singing looking straight at me and smiling. She was like 10cm away from me. I should have kissed her, damn. Just joking. She was really great!
Check out www.myspace.com/mavindamix for Mavin's own mash up of Slave to Love vs Womanizer by Britney Spears.
13/11/2008
Pull up to the jumper
Simon Henwood's paintings of Roisin Murphy have been used for some fashion designs by Lone Costume.
See more at www.simonhenwood.com.
Polska ♥ Roisin
Poland loves Roisin and all her Polish fans showed it in the Arena Ursynów in Warsaw last night. Post your feedback on the show if you were there!
Picture courtesy of frotography.pl.
11/11/2008
Another lobster picture...
Another picture of Roisin wearing a lobster as a hat, courtesy of DEX New York.
Photo: Karl Giant
Hair: Scott Wasserman
Some word from Tennessee
The List has written a report of Jack Daniel's JD Set in Lynchburg, Tennessee, of which Roisin was part:
Roisin Murphy noted the lack of preparation time, saying of the 90 minutes to rehearse seven songs that "it's going to be seat of your pants business but we're all old pros now. Usually my thing is more rehearsed and plotted out and has to have all these different edges to it so that takes a bit longer than just to go and rock it out."
But she didn't skimp on the prep this time with a set list of woozy lounge numbers spanning Moloko tracks to *3The Wire*2 theme song, 'Where is the What'. Her own 'Through Time' and 'Scarlet Ribbons' joined Bryan Ferry’s 'Slave to Love', Tom Waits’ 'Down in the Hole' and ‘Baby I'm Scared of You’ by Womack & Womack.
Talking about the attraction of the project, she cites the draws to be "the musicians that are involved and the experience that that brings for me and the confidence that maybe I'll get from doing something like this." And, no doubt, the chance to sing 'Peaches' with Hugh Cornwell.
Picture courtesy of livvylovesmusic.
10/11/2008
Paper Magazine interview
Blog reader Kiniec kindly sent me these scans from Paper Magazine. In the interview Roisin expresses her wish to work with US producers on her next album.
08/11/2008
Dazed & Confused
A rare picture of Roisin looking rather dazed and confused, taken at the end of last year.
Thank you Betty!
07/11/2008
Zoo interview
Here it is, the Miss Murphy interview from the previous edition of Zoo Magazine. Enjoy!
06/11/2008
Irish Voice interview
An interview with Roisin from The Irish Voice online:
She's a famous pop singer and a internationally respected style icon – the Gucci fashion house put at the heart of their Fashion Rocks show this year – but at heart Roisin Murphy’s still a Wicklow girl who went to London and became a star.
Last week she was in New York to promote her latest album Overpowered by playing one of the most anticipated one-night-only shows on New York’s calendar this year.
Critics have described her as Madonna with talent, or Amy Winehouse with her act together, and they have called her latest album so good it’s unnerving.
What’s amazing to Irish fans who have followed her career for over 11 years is how relatively unknown she still is in the U.S., outside a large cadre of big city hipsters and Williamsburg trendsetters.
Last week’s packed concert at Mansion in Chelsea did a great deal to raise her profile here. Although she loves to write and record her albums, Murphy’s true passion is performing live and seeing the music come to life in stage shows that literally dazzle.
Alongside her irresistible beats and her impressive – and sometimes completely insane – stage outfits is the electronic dance music that has made her career.
“I’m looking forward to the New York show because it will be different to the more structured European sets we’ve been playing,” Murphy tells the Irish Voice. “There’ll be more concentration on all the hits here. It’ll be one big party from start to finish.”
For her New York gig Murphy wore a jacket with a deer attached to it that hung around her like a dead weight, perfectly capturing the meaning of the album’s title song “Overpowered” in a very unexpected way.
Ireland hasn’t produced another pop star like her – ever – and she’s been a trailblazer since her days as one half of the electronica dance outfit Moloko.
“Overpowered is a celebratory record,” she says during her interview at New York’s fashion-forward Grace Hotel. “No one else has used that term to describe it yet but that’s exactly what the record is.
“Writing it was a remarkably freeing and creative period for me. I was at a point where I was writing six new songs over a few days. Working with different producers and the new perspectives they brought to it was so rewarding.”
What’s fascinating about Murphy’s music is its breadth of reference. One minute she’s Bowie circa Ziggy Stardust singing big anthem showstoppers like “Movie Star,” one of the greatest pop songs of the last decade, while the next minute she’s a vamping Grace Jones singing an art house tune.
Disco meets electronica meets rock and roll performed with a distinctive soul singer’s voice. It’s no wonder her audience is as diverse as her own sound.
Says Murphy, “I was very nervous of that song “Movie Star” when I first recorded because I was afraid it was a little too much hold your scarves in the air and sing girls and boys, you know? So I took it to Sheffield to the production house there and dirtied it up.”
Trying to make sense of how a trailblazing pop star like Murphy got started in Wicklow is a puzzle, but she sees no mystery herself.
“I am exactly like all my Irish aunties. We have never worked for anyone else, even in the worst of times. We had our independence. We’re Celtic tigresses,” she says with a laugh.
“All the women in my family love dressing up and showing off and I’m no different myself. I don’t feel any different to any of them and they don’t feel any different to me.”
Murphy says that the whacked out costumes she often wears are essential to her performance and her stage persona, because they say something about the song she’s singing, and they free her up to take risks.
“If I went on stage in jeans and a t-shirt that would be dishonest. Even when I was a little girl in Wicklow I had an exhibitionist streak, like the time I went into town and got my hair shaved into a marine cut. When she came my dad started crying, but I loved it. It was so liberating.”
She's a famous pop singer and a internationally respected style icon – the Gucci fashion house put at the heart of their Fashion Rocks show this year – but at heart Roisin Murphy’s still a Wicklow girl who went to London and became a star.Last week she was in New York to promote her latest album Overpowered by playing one of the most anticipated one-night-only shows on New York’s calendar this year.
Critics have described her as Madonna with talent, or Amy Winehouse with her act together, and they have called her latest album so good it’s unnerving.
What’s amazing to Irish fans who have followed her career for over 11 years is how relatively unknown she still is in the U.S., outside a large cadre of big city hipsters and Williamsburg trendsetters.
Last week’s packed concert at Mansion in Chelsea did a great deal to raise her profile here. Although she loves to write and record her albums, Murphy’s true passion is performing live and seeing the music come to life in stage shows that literally dazzle.
Alongside her irresistible beats and her impressive – and sometimes completely insane – stage outfits is the electronic dance music that has made her career.
“I’m looking forward to the New York show because it will be different to the more structured European sets we’ve been playing,” Murphy tells the Irish Voice. “There’ll be more concentration on all the hits here. It’ll be one big party from start to finish.”
For her New York gig Murphy wore a jacket with a deer attached to it that hung around her like a dead weight, perfectly capturing the meaning of the album’s title song “Overpowered” in a very unexpected way.
Ireland hasn’t produced another pop star like her – ever – and she’s been a trailblazer since her days as one half of the electronica dance outfit Moloko.
“Overpowered is a celebratory record,” she says during her interview at New York’s fashion-forward Grace Hotel. “No one else has used that term to describe it yet but that’s exactly what the record is.
“Writing it was a remarkably freeing and creative period for me. I was at a point where I was writing six new songs over a few days. Working with different producers and the new perspectives they brought to it was so rewarding.”
What’s fascinating about Murphy’s music is its breadth of reference. One minute she’s Bowie circa Ziggy Stardust singing big anthem showstoppers like “Movie Star,” one of the greatest pop songs of the last decade, while the next minute she’s a vamping Grace Jones singing an art house tune.
Disco meets electronica meets rock and roll performed with a distinctive soul singer’s voice. It’s no wonder her audience is as diverse as her own sound.
Says Murphy, “I was very nervous of that song “Movie Star” when I first recorded because I was afraid it was a little too much hold your scarves in the air and sing girls and boys, you know? So I took it to Sheffield to the production house there and dirtied it up.”
Trying to make sense of how a trailblazing pop star like Murphy got started in Wicklow is a puzzle, but she sees no mystery herself.
“I am exactly like all my Irish aunties. We have never worked for anyone else, even in the worst of times. We had our independence. We’re Celtic tigresses,” she says with a laugh.
“All the women in my family love dressing up and showing off and I’m no different myself. I don’t feel any different to any of them and they don’t feel any different to me.”
Murphy says that the whacked out costumes she often wears are essential to her performance and her stage persona, because they say something about the song she’s singing, and they free her up to take risks.
“If I went on stage in jeans and a t-shirt that would be dishonest. Even when I was a little girl in Wicklow I had an exhibitionist streak, like the time I went into town and got my hair shaved into a marine cut. When she came my dad started crying, but I loved it. It was so liberating.”
05/11/2008
Roisin & Simon
The lovely A. from 10.17 sent me these pictures of Roisin and Simon Henwood at a party earlier this year.
04/11/2008
Extra tickets for the Sofia show
Due to high demand some extra tickets will be made available for Roisin's show in Sofia on Thursday.
Click here for more information.
Click here for more information.
Esquire magazine shoot
While in the US, Roisin was photographed for men's magazine Esquire. Here are two pictures from the shoot. I will post some more later.
Thanks to Betty!
03/11/2008
Through Time in Porto
A video and picture of Roisin performing the amazing Ruby Blue song Through Time in the Casa da Musica in Porto a few night ago.
Photo courtesy of 'no i'm not, i'm very married.
04/11 update: Benjamin Gibert from benjivolt.blogspot.com sent me a picture of the set list:
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