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"Echoes"
Program Transcript - "Máire Brennan - Perfect Time"
"Echoes"
Program X-30, Public Radio International (aired the week of 22
July 1998)
Voices heard
in the interview:
JD: You're hearing Echoes
and I'm John Diliberto. We all know the voice of Maire Brennan
from the Irish band Clannad, singing traditional Irish tunes
and stacking her voice in those gorgeous choirs like "Theme
From Harry's Game". Maire has just put out her third solo
album, and it's an unadulterated Christian recording released
on the Word label, which specializes in Christian pop. We visited
Maire in Ireland where she talked about her new music and new-found
faith. Kimberly Haas brings us Maire Brennan's Celtic Christianity.
(sounds
of footsteps walking outside)
KH: Walking along the
pier just across the street from her home south of Dublin, Ireland,
singer Maire Brennan, from the group Clannad, soaks up the quiet
ambience of sailboats, ferries, and the breeze blowing through
the harbor. It reminds her of growing up in County Donegal.
MB: Beautiful. I mean,
where I grew up in County Donegal, is uh, the mountains are behind
me, there're hardly any other houses around, and in the distance,
you know, you can see the sea and the dotted little islands,
and there it's really, it's really beautiful.
(loud sound
of the Irish ferry horn sounds)
MB: Oh! There she blows!
Ah, there you go...live from Dun Laoghaire.
KH: I could get all poetic
and say this is where Maire Brennan comes for her inspiration,
but lately she's found a different source. Although she doesn't
like the expression, Maire has become a born again Christian,
and it's this faith that informs her latest album, "Perfect
Time".
(music from
the song "The Big Rock" plays)
As the eldest
child of nine in the Brennan family, Maire Brennan, like most
good children of County Donegal, was born and raised Catholic.
MB: The way my parents
brought us up, and we, we were all brought up the same way, emm,
and, you know, when any of us are at home we always go to church
with my mum and dad, you know, and sing in the choirs. Emm, but
I suppose in the way that I've followed it on and, uh, practicing
as, as a Christian, it's, there're, there are no members of the
family that do it.
KH: Maire says she became
a Christian about eight years ago. Despite her apparent success
with Clannad, she felt an emptiness in her life. Back in her
studio, just across the harbor, she wrote about those feelings
and broken dreams on the hymn-like title track to her album "Perfect
Time".
MB: Well, it's just all
the, the to do with just being on the road, rock n' roll, social
life. Uh, you know, I suppose being out there in that mad world
drinking too much or, you know, uh, I mean, having blurred feelings
about things or past love affairs or anything like that. But
it's being released from broken dreams, as well the dreams that
you thought you needed and you don't.
(music from
the song "Perfect Time" plays)
KH: Maire Brennan practices
a charismatic brand of Christianity. She attends St. Mark's Church
in Dublin where you might hear her sing a hymn like this...
(Maire sings
a church hymn in Gaelic unaccompanied)
Many of the
songs on "Perfect Time" are like hymns, but a few transcend
their Christian lyrics, to espouse universal themes like "Na
Paisti" ("The Children") which is partly about
her own two children with photographer and husband, Tim Jarvis.
MB: You know the honesty
that kids have. You know when they're not afraid to say somethin'
that says "But YOU said...." Yeah. Why do we hide so
much when kids are always straight about what's black and white,
basically? And, and that side of the purity of the kids--they're
wonderful t', to learn from in that way.
(music from
"Na Paisti" plays)
KH: "Na Paisti",
like many of the songs on "Perfect Time", rings with
the choral harmonies and Gaelic tongue that have become a trademark
of Clannad since "Theme from Harry's Game".
DW: One of the amazing
features about her voice is that when you do double track it
up like that, it sounds infinitely bigger.
KH: Denis Woods produced
"Perfect Time" as well as a pair of recent Clannad
albums.
DW: She has a very kind
of haunting vibrato in her voice that when, when it's multi-tracked,
it sounds absolutely amazing.
(music from
"Perfect Time" plays)
KH: For one piece, "Song
of David", Maire Brennan returned to her ancestral home
in Donegal to record with the church choir, directed by her mother.
MB: While I was singing
it, I thought "I could do my part in the studio so I won't
worry too much". But when we got back into the studio, and
Denis said "listen to this", and I heard, I was so
relaxed and I was just enjoying it so much, and I was enjoying
singing with my mum's choir and everything. It just all fitted
together. It was extraordinary. It was lovely.
(music plays
from "Song of David")
KH: Although we celebrate
the exotic religions of the East, bow down to the preachings
of Native Americans, and swoon to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Qawwali
wail, Christian music has never garnered much excitement with
those not already in the choir.
MB: If, if I was to say
to you "Look, I'm into Hindu" or "I'm into Buddha",
and you'd be looking at me and saying "That's amazing"
and "Where'd you get this?" You know, I mean, you're
nearly allowed to do that because you think it's more exotic
or something. Where Christianity's kinda got a, maybe, boring
tag attached to it. But it's, believe it or not, it's as, as
incredible, if not more so, than, you know, any religion that
you'd ever come across.
KH: In a world of music
in which Qawwali hymns, Islamic prayers, and Tibetan chants are
a norm, Maire Brennan adds a new wrinkle, with ancient Celtic
roots, to the spiritual music ferment. Her latest album is "Perfect
Time", on the Word label. For Echoes, I'm Kimberly Haas.
(the entire
song "Perfect Time" is played)
(Copyright 1998 -
Echoes
and
Public
Radio International) |
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