QR Music: Interview with ROE: "The indie thing is coming back."
With just a select few tracks available to stream, 19-year-old multi-instrumentalist Roisin Donald, or ROE, has made her way onto some of the biggest playlists and line-ups you could imagine – among them, Glastonbury, no less. Ahead of her set at QR Underground, we caught up on what it's like to go from hometown gigs to festival stages, and the welcomed shift the industry is experiencing thanks to independent labels and musicianship.
Playing the Belfast/Derry gigging circuits for years, how have you found moving out of that into the comparatively bigger U.K and Irish scene?
It’s been alright! Because I’ve been down to Output festival where a lot of the industry come over from the U.K and other places, it’s great to be able to network at that and for that to be in Belfast, because it’s so close to me. That really helped with branching out to the U.K and down to Dublin, because you kind of need festivals and industry stuff like that to let you go into these different kinds of markets.
With the North being so small there’s a real community atmosphere between a lot of artists, especially at gigs like one you played last night for Big Wild. How does it compare playing for local, kind of grassroots independent art collectives, and then playing the likes of Glastonbury?
I love playing gigs like last night’s, I love playing with people that I know. At this stage I know a lot of the bands down in Belfast as well, and it’s nice to be able to do shows with them, because you’re meeting up and you’re talking about all the gigs you’ve done, and everything that’s coming up. It’s nice to have that sense of community, and to be able to say that they’re family. It’s completely different whenever you go off and do gigs like Glastonbury, because you don’t know anybody else there. But at the same time, people were so lovely– you do meet new people and it’s a completely different experience. If I’m doing gigs with my friends, or with bands I know, it’s a lot more comfortable. It’s good to be doing gigs where you don’t know anybody, and it kind of kelps you be able to talk to new people, and be able to network. It’s class, I love both scenarios – having that kind of comfort, and being able to go off and meet new people.
Playing Glastonbury, obviously that’s a huge moment for anyone. Have you brushed shoulders with any of your favourite artists?
We found this band that were playing on the BBC Introducing Stage as well, who are called Care. My manager Liam and I had never heard of them before and we were sitting side-stage watching, and they were unbelievable. We got to chat to them backstage, and then met up with them at Eurosonic over in Holland. We were just chatting away, talking about what’s coming up. That was really cool, because it’s nice to be on the same wavelength as somebody like that.
You covered Worry by Jack Garratt for Live At The Lockup. You guys have a kind of similar kind of set up and sound, in a loose sense. Would he be one of the artists who influenced you to go down a more electronic route?
Yeah, definitely. He’s one of the people that got me into this kind of do-it-yourself attitude, one-man band, and being able to think outside the box and do the different parts myself. I love the big synths and the way that he writes. It’s kind of pop-y, but also super big and massive sounding.
Listening to those kinds of artists and deciding to take a similar route, I wonder how that transition from acoustic to electro-pop came about practically. Did you just mess around with drum pads and synths yourself?
Yeah, well me and Liam started working together before the whole shift into that, and the songs we started out with were more full band sounding. We both thought that that wasn’t really the sound I wanted to go for, and we were both into the likes of Jack Garratt, and big synth-y sounds. My mum got me this SBD-SX drum pad for Christmas, and that really helped in being able to do everything myself and to experiment using that, playing guitar and then with a loop pedal. It keeps growing, so it’s fun trying to find different ways to do things from the norm.
Speaking to other bands who have stressed how much being signed changes everything, in terms of sound, budget, and studio access. Have you experienced a lot of change in sound from having been unsigned to now being with Fictive Kin and having management?
The thing with Fictive Kin is it’s a tiny label – it’s literally just Liam and Paul, with Paul does all our music videos and stuff like that. It’s not a big change because I was working with them anyway. Me and Liam sit down and do all the songs in his living room, I write the songs and he goes away and puts the production behind them. Then we sit down and work out how we’re going to do them live. It hasn’t been a massive change, because it’s still this DIY thing, and there’s not a lot of people involved, so there aren’t a lot of hoops to jump through. Because we have the funding from Help Musicians NI for the next two years, it’s really helped. We don’t use the money for big studios, so we can use it for PR and stuff like that.
A lot of the artists we speak to are either unsigned or independent, and it’s so interesting to hear things like that because it really shows indie labels are doing so much for the industry at the moment. There’s been a huge resurgence in this kind of indie, DIY scene, and it’s really interesting because it seems – thankfully – to be women pioneering this. Are you happy to see a shift in focus to a more sense of real musicianship within the industry?
Yeah, definitely. And the focus on women is way better than what it was. Being a solo female artist in the music industry today, I think it’s a bit easier than what it was a few years ago. I’m noticing that whenever I do gigs down south [of Ireland] there are a lot more female artists, and it’s not just all male four-piece bands – not that I’m putting them down, but it’s a nice change. You do notice the indie thing is coming back, and it’s cool seeing the way things keep changing. I think the electro-pop thing Is really prominent these days – I keep finding new artists I love listening to because it’s kind of like my sound, and they weren’t there a few years ago, so it’s cool.
Agreed – when I first heard 'Wasted. Patient. Thinking.', I immediately heard that synth-y Superorganism, The Japanese House kind of sound. Seeing young women on stage playing not just one, but two or three instruments at a time is fantastic. You’ll be doing this for us at Underground, which is all about giving local artists a platform. Which NI artists would you like to turn people on to?
Jealous Of The Birds is a big one. Lost Avenue up here [Derry] are amazing. Cherym are a female punk band from Derry and they’re incredible. Their EP launch is tomorrow and I’m so excited to finally see them live. Hiva Oa if you haven’t heard of them? [Yes, they’re amazing] They’re class. We’ve done a few gigs with them and they’re unbelievable, just such lovely people. There’s a lot! So many bands popping up, and it’s great to see that it’s not just flatlined. There’s always something new.
ROE plays Queen’s Radio Presents Underground tonight in Bar Sub. Doors at 7:30.
7:30 Doors
7:30 - 7:45 Carl O'Neill
7:50 - 8:10 Buí
8:20 - 8:45 Fox Colony
9:00 - 9:25 Ghost Office
9:35 - 10:10 ROE
10:20 - 11:10 Sister Ghost
By Addison Paterson