Force of nature Damien for Arts Festival Show

A true force of nature in concert, Damien Dempsey comes to Monroe’s Live on Friday, July 17. The Dubliner’s show is part of the impressive music bill at this year’s Galway International Arts Festival.

When he takes the call for this interview, Damien is in the studio working on the follow up to the sublime Almighty Love. How is the recording going?

“We’re getting there. I’d say we just need one more big song,” he says. “I’m going over to London in a month’s time, so we’ll see what I can come up with. We’re about ninety percent there.”

Damien’s back catalogue includes songs about love, politics and the ups and downs that life throws at you. What themes are standing out in the new album?

“There are a lot of songs about soul, spirituality and stuff like that; nature,” he says. “Pagan stuff, it’s kind of Celtic. There’s a song called Soul Sun – we might call the album that, we haven’t decided yet. The sun that shines from within, you know?”

The Celtic Tiger and its cruel aftermath were the focus of some ire from Damien. What’s his take on the current state of things?

“I think there’s a change, definitely, in the air,” he says. “A lot of people are going back to the Celtic mysticism. There have been too many scandals in the church, all the skeletons are coming out of the cupboard now. It’s turned a lot of people away from the Roman Catholic Church. But when they turn away and there’s a void, and they don’t believe in anything anymore, I think that’s dangerous.

For more, see this week’s Connacht and City Tribune.