Interview with Shaun O’Reilly: ‘Music is pretty much all I’ve ever done, I’ve always been in love with music’

London-based singer songwriter Sean O’Reilly brought out his third album in three years, Burn the Boat, this summer and is now hard at work on his next album, which has been inspired by his impending fatherhood.

Earlier this month, he released the single ‘I’m Alright (What Can You Do?)’, which has both a Beatlesey and a Stereophonics vibe, and which also appears on his recent album: ‘I find it hard to talk about my own songs,’ O’Reilly said. ‘The whole album is a “turn it around” patch, the song is testament to that, really. It was inspired by Mark Lanegan, he’s sung with Queens of the Stone Age. He’s inspired by old school blues where you can have a bridge and a chorus without it being too rigid.’

‘Who the Hell’ on the same album came about in a similar way: ‘At first it was downbeat and depressing (laughs) but then we started throwing claps at it. At the start, it was just me on the piano but we’ve added in violins and lots of other things.’ The song turns out to have been inspired by his dad: ‘My dad passed away when I was 14,’ he said. ‘When good or bad things happen, it’s been an ongoing joke with friends and my mum that dad is watching over me. There’s the line in it “My old man was moving plates for me”, which is saying that he’s watching over me. When I play it live, it gets me a bit emotional when people sing it back.’

I tell him that he reminds me of Stereophonics’ frontman Kelly Jones on some songs: ‘I get Kelly Jones a lot, I think it’s the gravelly voice, but I get Metallica as well,’ he said, sounding bemused.

Another track on the album, ‘End of the Line’, is a melancholic yet reflective tale about the end of a relationship that has run its course: ‘It’s one of those ones where I tried to tap into my subconscious, it’s about being relieved that something has ended, do you know what I mean? It’s a bit like pulling off a plaster – it hurts at the time but then it feels great,’ he said. ‘I was reading a lot of William Burroughs at the time. Songs that are real, that are based on other people’s experiences, that feel genuine, that’s what I also look for in other music. I like any music that’s true and genuine.’

‘Sometimes when I’m writing lyrics, it’s slightly inhabited, you can’t go down the rabbit hole’

O’Reilly has expanded his creative outlets since lockdown to take on another challenge: writing short stories and has published two volumes, Eighteen Short Stories, Volume I and Volume II, which include humorous tales about Sambuca-soaked spice girls in pubs, crazy characters in job centres and doppelgängers on the tube. ‘I wrote two albums in a year and then a book. I read a lot, I love reading and I love being creative, I think it came out of that,’ he said. ‘Sometimes, when I’m writing lyrics, it’s slightly inhabited, you can’t go down the rabbit hole but with short stories you can, you can pad out the story. When I’m writing short stories, I sit in the kitchen, get a cup of coffee, turn my phone off, put on classical music – often piano – and set my alarm for an hour. I’m laser-focused, it’s worth five hours of being distracted. For songs, it’s similar but without the classical music, I’ll normally sit at the piano. I’ve set myself a goal of 10 albums in 10 years. I’ve done three in three years, so I’m on track!’

We chat for a bit about the process of writing and the talk turns to the American singer-songwriter Jason Isbell: ‘I saw an interview with him and I had a flash of inspiration,’ he said. ‘In it, he said there’s no such thing as writer’s block. It doesn’t matter if what you write is bad, you have to persevere and allow yourself to be bad. I think Bob Dylan said the same thing. When you allow yourself to be bad, you take the pressure off. I could write 10 songs and only use two but it’s not a waste, your songwriting’s getting better all the time. It’s sort of therapy to write, dealing with your life.’

His next album is being influenced by the birth of his first child, due next month: ‘The past three albums have been a diary,’ he said. ‘Now, I’m in a happy, settled place but whatever’s happening in my life seeps into my songs, they’re more introspective. The songs I’ve written for the new album are so different so far.’

I mention that I really like his ‘Bowie Song’, the opening track on his first album, It’s a Vulgar Road We Take (2020), and say that his strumming on it reminds of me of Nick Drake: ‘Ah, well, it’s Open D tuning on that one (where you tune the open strings to D A D F♯ A D instead of the standard E A D G B E), that’ll be why it reminds you of him. It’s about an ex-girlfriend who sang along to Bowie songs.’

‘I’ve learned in those long sets playing different songs by different singers that you use different techniques with your voice’

Living in London, cover gigs are in strong demand and they have taught him some valuable lessons about how to use his voice: ‘I’d do three-to-four 45 minute sets and I’ve learned in those long sets playing different songs by different singers that you use different techniques with your voice,’ he said. ‘I cover Dave Van Ronk, he was a big inspiration to Bob Dylan in the 60’s. I do Neil Young as well. Or Van Morrison, he doesn’t sing rigidly, he uses free flowing vocals. I see the cover gigs as practice, you can try different techniques, singing quietly or loudly (laughs). I shout ‘I’m Alright’ but I’m whispering on ‘Slow Down Son’.

O’Reilly credits his mum with getting him into music: ‘My dad was Irish, so we listened to a lot of traditional Irish music like Luke Kelly. My mum loves music, my love of music comes from her. She loves Tracy Chapman. With music, she always told me to listen to the words. We’ll have a glass of wine, chat and listen to music, that’s our routine.’ He started playing the guitar when he was 15 and left school around the same time and worked for two years to fund his guitar lessons before attending Guildford’s Music School when he was 17. ‘I’m 36 now, that was a pretty long time ago,’ he laughed. ‘Music is pretty much all I’ve ever done, I’ve always been in love with music. I think it was Tom Waits who said: ‘Find what you love and let it kill you’ (It was actually German-American poet Charles Bukowski, although Waits may well have borrowed the saying.) Ok, you shouldn’t let it kill you (laughs) but it can ALMOST kill you.’

Like many musicians who eventually find their way to folk music, sometimes from the punk scene, O’Reilly actually started out in metal bands, including Flyin Ike and War Elephant. ‘Bands like Pantera (a former heavy metal band from Texas), I love them,’ he said. I ask him who he’d go and see if he could go to any gig tonight. ‘The first thing that comes into my head is Phil Anselmo & The Illegals, he used to be the singer for Pantera. It’s horrible, thrashy stuff but I love it!,’ he grinned. ‘I’ve got boxes of metal music packed up, my girlfriend doesn’t like it but I want to see something that I’m not doing. I’d love to go to an Iron Maiden gig tonight, I’ve seen them hundreds of times.’

If he could share the stage with anyone, he is quick to think of someone: ‘Nick, my producer, he played with Laura Marling in Hyde Park this year, Neil Young and Bob Dylan were playing. I remember thinking “Wow, that’s two of the best songwriters ever up there”, so I’d say them. I respect anyone who can do something for 50 years.’