Clash Music interview

A recent interview with Roisin from clashmusic.com:

There are troopers, and then there’s Roisin Murphy. Not only did she film the famous ‘Sing It Back’ video with a dance-threatening injury, but here she is, spurting out new material not three weeks after becoming a mum.

Salutes all round, then. Mind you, even dancefloor icons have their limits...

“It’s much too soon for me to be thinking about going out and playing again… maybe when Clodagh’s past the ‘nightclub’ stage. Right now she sleeps all day and likes to come alive for a bit of a dance through the night. She’s a lot like her mother that way.”

Still, even before Murphy Jr came into the world, she’d already inspired the recently-emerged track ‘Momma’s Place’, in which Roisin dishes out sound motherly advice while incongruous jagged disco implosions blart away, suggesting that being with child did wonderful things for her muse.

“I’ve been very prolific while pregnant,” she admits. “Hormonally I was very inspired, and, of course, doing [big single] ‘Overpowered’ has given me lots more confidence, I don’t get shy any more about working in any situation or with anyone at all, which is quite new for me.”

Indeed, the ex-Moloko lass can now hand-pick her production partners, the likes of cutting-edge dance types Crookers, although those collaborations are unlikely to see the light of day in traditional fashion. Even for someone who once swam, albeit slightly off-kilterdly, in proper pop circles, that’s not how this return is panning out at all. She’s releasing tracks one at a time, but good-naturedly refutes the idea that they’re singles.

“I like the idea that you can just bring something out now and have it not be about the video, not be about being a pop star, just be about the music. You can let it live and find its own level with people, and I’m finding that really interesting at the moment,” she explains. “Mind you, I’m never interested in anything for too long, but this is much better than having endless discussions with a record label about which single to start with and what’s going to go with it, which is probably wrong anyway.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with all the new stuff, though,” she concedes. “I might well decide that it probably should be an album at some point.”

Still no master plan then, but at least she knows what’s coming next. “The next track’s going to be ‘Demon Lover’, which is a lot more funky house. And it’s got some MCing on it! It’s got Wiley on, Donaeo, Kano’s on there too. I asked them - well, I begged them - to do it, and they all really wanted to. They’re all fans of my stuff - well, maybe it’s their girlfriends that are fans of it, but they did it anyway.”

So that’s what 2010 holds: lots of people she likes, songs that’ll show up when and how they’re good and ready, and a sensibility that’s broadly dancefloor-based but otherwise impossible to classify. Is she conscious of constantly challenging her audience?

“I’m conscious of always challenging myself,” comes the reply. “Every record I’ve ever made has been a huge jump for me. I’m probably a bit of a challenge addict, to be honest, although if I was totally addicted I’d probably bring out an Irish folk album! You should see me doing that in the pub. There’s not a dry eye in the house.”

Words by Iain Moffat