Interview: Lisa Hannigan
On first meeting, Lisa Hannigan comes across exactly as you’d expect from one of the acoustic music scenes young darlings. She’s gorgeous, down to earth and charismatic to boot. The Irish songstress is probably best known for her Mercury Prize-nominated album ‘Sea Sew’ in 2009, but when I met her she was getting into the flow of things with tour supporting the legendary Richard Hawley at the Engine Shed. “My impressions of Lincoln are really good so far, as I’ve got to see the lovely Cathedral!
“The tour has been going really, really well with Richard and it’s great to be able to listen to his music every night. I mean I knew some of his records from before but the new songs I think it’s been really great to hear them over and over again. I’m really getting into it and Richard, well, he’s just such a brilliant songwriter and the band are all brilliant, and it’s kind of all been a bit of a dream tour.
“I only found out a month before that I was doing a tour and I was really excited, as I’ve been around the UK a lot, and it’s just nice to do a support tour now as they don’t know you, and that’s a nice feeling. Often as a support band, you’re fighting a battle. But there’s something satisfying about trying to win an audience over, and Richard’s audiences are great for that. He’s not a just hyped up and everyone is here to hear one song, no, he’s a career artist, so people listen and are far more receptive.”
Lisa’s set at the Engine Shed proved that she could win over any audience. She strolled onstage somewhat nervously it seemed. But once she had an instrument in her hand there was no stopping the girl as she bounced boisterously around the stage. But while here songs are beautiful and lightly strung, Lisa does admit to a wilder side.
“I am a bit of a rock chick, all the moshing if there’s any goes on in my gig. I’ve crowd surfed before. My crowd surfing was sort of combined with stage diving, in that I kind of climbed up on a barrier and jumped back, but I suppose I haven’t technically stage dived from the stage. It was awesome, but I think for a lady it’s a rather perilous experience, or it can be, I think it was all right when I did it, I don’t remember any grope-y feelings! In fairness to people, they might even be groping you, but they are just trying to hold you up!”
‘Passenger’, Lisa’s newest record, has been out for over a year now and took her a while to write. “I was writing while I was on tour and it did take some time, however we did manage to record it in only a week, so quick to make but long to prepare.”
And here is where my research fell down…as you see Lisa’s Wikipedia page said that “Her blog posts are noted for containing recipes for baking cakes.” This is a statement that Lisa told me was completely incorrect! “I tried to change the page but Wikipedia won’t let me!
“I hate Wikipedia, they’re awful! My Wikipedia I would say is 50% absolute shite.”
Many thanks to Rob for setting this interview up for us.
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