Interviewed ‘Music is all the time concerning the thriller’

‘Music is all the time concerning the thriller’

Gemma Hayes interviewed 

Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes has introduced three London reveals subsequent month.  Thursday 4th and Friday fifth September 2025 might be up shut and private in St Pancras Previous Church.

Saturday (6 September 2025) might be a bit extra of a raucous affair at The Lexington in Kings Cross.

Pete Harvey spoke to Gemma for Louder than Warfare concerning the current single, the final album, guitars, pedals, shoegaze and omelettes.

By the use of introduction, right here is the video for ‘Central Lodge’ the third single to be taken from ‘Blind Religion’ (2024) Gemma’s sixth studio album.

LTW: Was any of that footage shot particularly for the video? the cityscapes or something?

Gemma: That’s all previous footage. Alfred, the director, has used pictures that he took and video from a household vacation. The remaining is from motion pictures that he liked and pictures that occurred to him whereas he was listening to the tune. He’s picked some stunning moments.

When the ocean was coming in on the backside of your chair, I used to be pondering ‘it’s going to get her chair moist’, however then I realised it was a inexperienced display or no matter. 

Gemma: What I really like with Alfred’s visible tackle the tune is representing loneliness with the subway. There are such a lot of folks, but it surely’s fairly lonely. There’s one thing actually stark about that. All people’s in their very own world, surrounded by strangers. 

Properly, additionally when you’re on the tube, like late at night time, there isn’t anyone there.

Gemma: Yeah, you received’t discover me down within the tube station at midnight.

Within the first line of Central Lodge does the man have a sore throat or is he getting excessive on cough syrup?

Gemma: I reckon there was a little bit of getting excessive on cough syrup, however on the time I used to be younger and I wasn’t positive why. “There’s no spoon, you’re simply ingesting out of the bottle”.

Properly, that might be a clue. ‘Central Lodge’ is a collage of a number of various things.

Gemma: As a result of we had been on tour, it’s extra simply flashes of photos of a time. It’s almost just like the video. One minute it’s Manchester after which the following scene in my head is on stage in Dublin. Someone that I cared for deeply, sadly, killed himself ultimately as he acquired older. However this was a time after we had been type of younger, he was heading, however he wasn’t absolutely down that street of substance abuse but. He’d undergo his spell after which he’d clear up and I used to be very a lot clear and our lives merged for some time and it was fantastic. He was a really delicate human being and I’m not shocked that typically essentially the most delicate human beings begin to self-medicate with a view to cope with stuff.

Let’s speak concerning the songs on Blind Religion (2024). How did you give you the form of the album? Do you continue to consider it when it comes to vinyl, you recognize, with observe seven being necessary?

Gemma: Yeah, I imply, it’s to me, I’m old skool. The album is of a chunk. So there may be an arc. It begins off actually fairly kind of light after which it kind of brings folks on a journey. Whether or not folks hearken to it that means or not is as much as them. However for me, that was learn how to do it.

What guitar do you write on?

Gemma: It relies upon, I really feel like every guitar has a particular character. If I need to go for a type of a tragic Nick Drake tune, I’ve a extremely, actually previous Gibson. I picked it up in a secondhand store in America 25, 30 years in the past. It’s an unpleasant guitar as a result of anyone bloody properly varnished it with a nasty varnish.

It sounds actual honky. It’s acquired an perspective, you recognize, it’s not a phenomenal sounding guitar.  So if I need to do candy plucking, I take advantage of that honky guitar simply to offer the plucking a bit of bit extra kind of an perspective. I have a tendency to jot down loads of the fingerpicking songs on that previous Gibson.

After which I’ve a Dan Electro baritone guitar. Okay. Which I completely love.
If the tune is nice, I wish to have that darkish, you recognize, deeper sound on the baritone.
I even have a Thinline Tele that I’ve put a bass string on. All people mentioned, don’t put a bass string in your Tele, it’ll warp the neck. Nevertheless it hasn’t. I do loads of mad tuning. I can tune that proper all the way down to an A pointy.

There have to be anyone passing you completely different guitars with completely different tunings on a regular basis if you’re enjoying?

Gemma: For years, I’d have seven guitars and I’d have a guitar tech and I’d do the set checklist so I might possibly maintain onto one guitar for 2 or three songs. However now I’ve it all the way down to a advantageous artwork. I’ve a kind of Christmas tree sort guitar stands proper behind me. So for some songs, I’ve the band, as a tune ends, create a drone, a phenomenal kind of like Sigur Rós sort drone on the stage whereas I seize the following guitar and simply have it able to go.

Which shoegaze bands influenced you?

Gemma: Massively, it might have been My Bloody Valentine, Loveless. Particularly that album. I don’t are likely to hearken to loads of music. I’ll discover an album and I’ll simply devour that album for years and I’ll almost take in it. So Loveless has stayed with me, I’d say for 20 years. And there’s a nostalgia to it. From Loveless and to a lesser extent folks like Sonic Youth, I don’t see them as shoegaze, to be trustworthy, however there’s a component of it.

What about Swervedriver? Did you ever dabble with them?

Gemma: Yeah, Swervedriver and there was Trip.

Swervedriver are my favourites notably as a result of despite the fact that they’re from Oxford, they sound like they’re from the Midwest.

Gemma: I discover that with Trip as properly, they’ve such a giant sound. As in, it doesn’t sound from a particular place on the earth.

I suppose that’s the shoegaze factor, isn’t it? It’s epic partitions of fuzz and nice for driving. It’s simply driving music.

Gemma: Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah, completely. However I additionally discover that music shifting. It strikes me once I hear it. I ended up doing just a few reveals with My Bloody Valentine as their assist act. It simply blew my thoughts to be a part of their ensemble on the street. To face there and hearken to the music, it overwhelms you a lot. It’s stunning. And with My Bloody Valentine, the chord progressions are beautiful, you recognize, and it’s very courageous. They might maintain on one chord for 5 minutes.

I really like people music as properly, you recognize, however I get a bit of bit bored with kind of simply an acoustic guitar within the people world, you recognize. I don’t play solo for that purpose. For me, it’s all about texture. After I go to see, let’s say anyone enjoying solo, I discover myself simply getting a bit of bored as a result of I feel songwriting is essential, however for me, the manufacturing on stage is essential. Even when you simply add a double observe vocal or add a drone underneath a bit of acoustic tune, unexpectedly it’s in a very completely different cinematic place. So for me, it’s necessary to have folks on stage creating sounds.

Who’s going to be with you in London?

Gemma: My full band. Drums, keys, fiddle. I’ve acquired two multi-instrumentalists. I’m actually excited concerning the UK reveals as a result of the band are simply killer.

Being again in Baltimore (County Cork, Eire) and away from London and Los Angeles you’ve needed to discover a complete bunch of latest guys?

Gemma: New-ish, considered one of them I’ve been enjoying with for 3 years and the others would have been a few 12 months and a half, so comparatively new.

You’re huge in Eire, you’re huge internationally, there are folks coming to the London reveals from everywhere in the world however you’re lesser recognized within the UK?

Gemma: It is sensible as a result of I didn’t do something for 10 years. There was a buzz within the UK with my first album (Evening on my Aspect, 2002) as a result of it was nominated for a Mercury Prize. However then I ended touring. I’m not a touring artist, so I’ll disappear for just a few years.

Do you have interaction with social media?

Gemma: You must be very laptop savvy and social media savvy and importing continually and promoting a life-style, promoting your self when it comes to, you recognize, continually speaking, continually pushing. And I’m simply not gonna try this. For me, music was all the time concerning the thriller. I’m not attention-grabbing, personally.

Couldn’t you simply type of prepare dinner one thing for TikTok? Just like the footballers do? ‘Right here’s Gemma Hayes making an omelette’.

Gemma: Properly, there’s one thing actually pathetic, as a result of if you don’t have loads of followers and also you’re simply making an omelette, it’s not as superb as making an omelette and getting, like, 100,000 likes. There’s one thing actually unhappy about having one or two likes on your omelette.

Do you will have a pedal board? What’s on it?

Gemma: I’ve acquired a Tube Screamer and a Blue Sky delay with stunning, attractive woozy sounds. I’ve acquired a Vox vocal harmoniser, an equaliser pedal, a Boss loop station, an AB field and two DIs. That’s it.

So that you simply put that via a clear sounding Fender or one thing?

Gemma: I’ve acquired a Vox VT40. It’s a small little amp. I used to have the large AC, what had been they known as?

AC30? However you need to play them actually, actually bloody loud, don’t you?

Gemma: Actually loud and the valves on the again can warmth up and trigger points. This new Vox is actually sturdy. It packs a punch on stage. The BlueSky pedal has modified how I write. It’s a Strymon. They do superb pedals. If you would like that shoegaze sound, simply woozy delays. It’s actually modified how I sound reside now. I can actually add extra texture.

I suppose you may get the Strymon going, put it via the loop station after which change away to a different sound.

Gemma: That’s what I do. So that you simply create a mattress of a drone, you recognize, of simply wooziness. After which you may have a bit of plucky guitar over it and right away, it’s far more cinematic.

Go and see Gemma Hayes in London this September. The reveals might be filled with absorbing and intimate storytelling from considered one of Eire’s most quietly good musical voices.

Central Lodge

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All phrases Pete Harvey. {Photograph} by Gemma Hayes. Extra writing by Pete on Louder Than Warfare might be discovered at his creator’s archive.