Camille O’Sullivan Talks New Live Show, Future Plans, Influences And More

Born in London of a French mother and Irish father, vocalist and songwriter Camille O’Sullivan is currently touring the UK and Ireland and kindly took time out of her busy schedule to talk with JLTT:

You have your live show ‘Dreaming’ which you have been touring in the UK. What is the idea behind the show?

The idea behind the show is basically after being isolated for two years and not working trying to get fit and do a bit of hula-hooping, roller-skating and eat well. It all went south, I started drinking and eating chocolates. I was unravelling before that but I thought I’d embrace the unravelling. I suppose many years before I tried to be more enigmatic as a singer and now it was about showing me for all my eccentricities and who I am as a person.

It was still through all of the music of the people I love like Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Brel and that’s all about bringing people on an emotional journey to express all of the different aspects of yourself as a person. People have joked after seeing the show “We loved your shows before but now that you’re losing it and sharing it with us.”

Sometimes in the songs, there is a lot of dark comedy and I suppose it is just giving the audience the ultimate hug and giving them as much love as possible after we’ve gone through such a strange time. Now just embracing the madness of life and a bit of rock n’ roll, bit of ballads and maybe revealing who I am. It’s joyous and there is a bit of hula hooping too!

 Who are you collaborating with in the show and what do they do?

I am collaborating with Feargal Murray who I’ve worked with the past twenty-five years. He is a very good friend of mine who plays trumpet, piano and sings. He is able to take all my craziness onstage. It makes it so special and intimate the two of us as usually it is a band. He is just wonderful at accompanying somebody and interpreting songs.

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

Born in London but brought back to Ireland as a small child. Lived in hometown eight miles outside of Cork called Passage West. It was unusual, beautiful, village, twenty crazy pubs and by the sea. Strange, eccentric, beautiful, not mystical, bizarre.

 Do you have any further live plans for the UK/Europe in 2024?

Yes we will be touring. We will be in Union Chapel in London with our new show ‘Love Letter’ which also has another title in Ireland ‘All Souls’. That will be touring to England in September and also probably for the month of August in Edinburgh. Also, Milton Keynes, Cambridge and Bath. Usually, we travel to Germany in the Autumn and then we’ll be doing the big dates in Ireland which includes Olympia in November.

‘Love Letter’ is about Shane McGowan and Sinead O’Connor mostly, two dear friends. I sang recently at Shane’s funeral so sometimes songs come like a haunting or a calling to you and Sinead was an amazing writer and a lot of people knew of Prince but nothing of hers. Shane’s writing was just extraordinary so I just really want to get those lyrics to stand out which are like poems. It has been really amazing even the last few days going through all of their songs and catching the most beautiful ones of them. So we will be doing that on tour and probably including a bit of (Leonard) Cohen and (David) Bowie who I was big fans of so those loved and lost. Then Probably Australia in the New Year.

How do you look after your voice?

 I don’t look after my voice. I remember a few years ago someone asking me “What do you do before a show?” I’m usually having a little bit of wine, I hardly do any exercises because I wasn’t trained I was an architect before so I have no training in singing just how to interpret songs.

I should care and I think part of the training of the voice is not to speak after gigs too much in a pub. The other thing is, when you are gigging all the time it helps keep your voice going so when I had those two years out that was the hardest thing as my voice was tired after that. Don’t do anything too crazy but enjoy yourself to.

 In doing some research, I discovered that you have previously been a portrait painter and an architect. What did you learn about yourself during that time? Do you still paint at all? 

What did I learn about myself? That I am a creative person who needs some kind of creative outlet whether its painting, drawing or creating architecture. I mean, we just finished our house in Dublin so I spent a good few years doing the architecture of that. I still do portrait painting and I keep a sketchbook when I travel. I’m not very good at writing unfortunately but I do love to draw.

The one thing I suppose I learnt when you sing somebody’s song and learn how they sang it, you understand why they made decisions. It is a similar thing when you draw or paint somebody’s painting – You discover the reason why they made the decisions they made and you learn so much from it. It is the same with architecture, if you build a model. I used to always say when I was teaching in university: “If you sketch something like a building, it goes into your head straight away and you actually understand it far more by drawing it not by looking at it, not by talking about it.” So, it is the same thing of inhabiting songs and some people in my rehearsals joke that I am more of an architect then a singer because I am all about let’s make it dark, let’s bring them into this space. When I was an architect it was the same ideas “Like what is the emotional feeling you feel when you are travelling through this dark room?” It is the same type of thing in my head.

Architecture was a difficult course, and I had no life when I was doing it so when you sing in a building it is amazing and you are swimming in it. We’ve sung in the Sydney Opera House and Royal Festival Hall in London these incredible buildings, beautiful things.

When you sing you are just “Wow!” and I’m taking that all in. I just think it is probably all down to emotion at the end of the day and just how do you bring people on that journey and how do you express the feeling you want to emit from somebody’s face like a portrait.

Do you have any plans to release any music or live recordings in the future?

Yes I do – We have old recording from The Royal Festival Hall and then during lockdown, myself and Fergal went down to a farm in the middle of the countryside and recorded about a hundred and fifty songs that we loved, my parents loved just for us. Actually, a lot of people have heard them and said gosh you should bring them out.

Then I suppose the next recordings will be the shows we are doing at the moment. There is probably about a backup of eight different albums and then I’ll get my act together and start doing some of our own songs. There is a few coming live and recorded.

Who are some of your musical influences?

My musical influences are mostly the people I do sing but it ranges from everything to classical, rock, pop, ballads. I just love all music. I suppose David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, Jack Brel, Leonard Cohen, PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Tom Waits. All people who sing with their own voices and have a left of centre way of speaking.

I suppose that generated for me when I first started singing Kurt Vile, David Bowie (Who I adored), The Beatles and John Lennon. They had their own way of storytelling so they would be major influences on me. I love Chopin and Debussy and probably veer more towards French/European/English rather than Irish.

What’s happened losing Sinead (O’Connor) and Shane (McGowan) it’s made me realise that was such a big influence for me growing up even though I didn’t feel comfortable singing Irish songs but that is the long answer to that.

Photo Credit: Stephen Powell Camille O’Sullivan will be touring the UK in February, March and September 2024 at the following venues:

Feb 11th Brighton Dome 

March 7th Reading, South Street Arts Centre

March 8th London Union Chapel

NEW TOUR  – SEPTEMBER 2024

3rd Colchester Arts Centre

4th Milton Keynes, The Stables

5th Cambridge, Junction

6th  Norwich, Playhouse 

7th Hebden Bridge, The Trades Club

8th Manchester, Band on The Wall  

10th Leeds, City Varieties 

11th Winchester, Theatre Royal 

12th Bath, Komedia 

For tickets visit: https://camilleosullivan.com/gigs/