Superb single and new album on way as Cathy Davey plays Town Hall

Date Published: {J}

Sometimes waiting for a good song to come on the radio can be like looking for a needle in haystack. But, every so often, a track will come along to clear the dross out of your head. Cathy Davey’s latest single Little Red is one such tune, a joyful burst of music that is surely one of 2010’s best tracks. And the good news is that the Dublin-born singer plays the Town Hall, Galway on Saturday, May 8.

It has been two years since Davey released the hugely impressive Tales Of Silversleeve and dominated the airwaves with the infectious Reuben. Is Cathy happy with her soon-to-be-released third album The Nameless?

“Happy? Happy seems a little too simple,” she says. “I think the songwriting and everything is good. I’m always, forever, disappointed with what I achieve in the end. It’s such a long project and I only have myself to blame for what comes out in the ending. But I’m happy that I gave it my very best shot and you have to abandon it at some stage.”

In the period since her last album, Cathy has again become an independent artist after parting ways with EMI. The singer reacted quickly to the situation by doing what she does best: making music.

“The first thing I did was to get out of the house in Dublin, because it’s too expensive for me!” she laughs. “I went to the country and I started recording. The first thing I felt was ‘well, I’ll never have to give them songs and have them not react to them’ . Which is the worst way someone can react to songs! So that felt good.”

Cathy enjoys being away from the pressures an artist feels when they are signed to a huge corporation like EMI.

“I know for a fact that I’m not suited to a major label at all,” she says. “The thing I didn’t get when I signed to them was in order [for them] to put in X amount of money to record and promote the album, I have to make double the amount back. Or they’re not happy. The only people who are going to do that are people who are a very different breed to me entirely.

“I just want to record at home and do things quietly,” Cathy adds. “I don’t want to dress up in ‘fashion clothes’ and I don’t want to do things that jar with my sense of integrity. Trying saying that to record executives is very hard.”

Unlike some acts which have been let go by their labels, Cathy Davey isn’t bitter about her dealings with EMI.

“I was absolutely fine; it wasn’t a surprise. They were dropping a lot of people. It’s all fine, I don’t blame them – they need to make a lot of money, because they invest a lot of money. I wasn’t doing that for them.”

Seeking to recharge her creative batteries, Cathy went to the small town of Albi, near Toulouse in France.

“It’s a tiny town and really pretty, but it wasn’t for the prettiness,” she explains. “It was just somewhere where I didn’t know anyone and I couldn’t speak the language. I got down to work for a month.”

Like anyone travelling on a budget, Cathy had to be wary of baggage restrictions.

“I brought small instruments! I brought a tiny drum kit in a suitcase, like a toy one. I bought a mandolin and tin whistles and had to come up with new songs with those. Anything with mandolin was written there. Little Red, The Nameless, Wild Rum – they were all written there.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.