Interview: Class of 2010 - Villagers buy a ticket for the circus

When we last spoke to Conor O'Brien, just six short months ago, 2010 had already been a pretty spectacular year for Villagers. His "predictably remarkable" debut album had just come out to almost universal praise, he'd already knocked plenty of critics bandy at SXSW and ratcheted things up a notch further with a stunning performance on Jools Holland. However there was still a Mercury Prize nomination to come, a rake of triumphant festival slots and an end of year poll appearance or 20. Before he signs out of the year with the second of two shows at Dublin's Vicar Street tonight, our top draft pick of 2009 joins the Class of 2010. 

Hi, Conor. Thanks for taking the time to speak to us again in the space of just a few months. It’s been quite the year for you – have you had a chance yet to sit back and take stock of the various successes?

Sort of, although we’re still in the middle of it really. It’s been unbelievable in terms of everything we’ve managed to cram into the space of a year. Apart from anything else, I’ve visited a ridiculous number of countries that I’d never been to before, which is pretty exciting – and I managed to see the inside of a hotel room and a venue in each of those countries! We’ve had ups and downs along the way, but overall it’s been a pretty amazing experience. I think we’re a better band now because of it, because we’ve just been incessantly playing; it’s really cemented certain aspects of the music… which usually means it’s probably time to end!

When we spoke with you just before the album came out in May, it was just after your appearance on Jools Holland, which you described as being a pretty surreal event. Have there been many similar moments since, or are you able to take things a bit more in your stride now?

There were definitely some surreal moments, but mostly surreal in a good way. I’ll probably never forget certain festival appearances; like, we played this festival in western Germany called The Haldern Pop Festival, and that was a huge highlight because we didn’t know what to expect. We turned up and The National were headlining that night. Haldern is one of those great, small festivals where no band is overlapping with another and, even though The National were headlining, for some reason the organisers chose us as the band to lead the festival – like, we were on the cover of all the booklets, so everyone was waiting for us to play. When we did, it was in front of this packed spiegeltent, and it was just one of the best shows we’ve ever done. It felt like we played pretty well, but the audience were giving back as much energy as we were giving them. It was just incredible.

So did they have Villagers in massive writing, and then The National in smaller font underneath?!?

No, no (laughs), they didn’t even really do it like that. That’s why it’s such a good festival: they give as much importance to the up-and-coming bands. Everyone’s in the same area backstage too, so later on we were hanging around the campfire with the guys from The National, and they were giving us loads of advice and being really fatherly to us in a band sort of way! It was just a brilliant festival… that plus Electric Picnic: playing to the fully-packed, huge tent, which was something I never really envisaged us doing. That was pretty spectacular.

Yeah, because at this year’s Picnic you played the same format as you had done in 2009: a solo set in the Body & Soul Arena, and then a full-band show under a tent later on – only to vastly larger crowds this time out. Was that a good barometer of just how much more widely your music has spread in 2010?

Yeah, people were singing the words of the songs this time as well, and I think that was one of the first times we’d experienced that – the mass singalong. I don’t think our songs particularly lend themselves to the football chant style, but it was pretty exciting and pretty cool that day!

In terms of playing further afield: again, when we chatted last time you were just about to head off to The States for the second time. You’ve been back across again since… How have the shows been going over there? Was it like starting from scratch once more?

I think I’ve been in The States five times altogether this year – either three or four solo tours, and then the last one was a full-band tour during which we pretty much crossed the country, which was a pretty spectacular experience. It definitely was like starting from scratch, though; for the first few shows I was playing to quarter-full venues, but one big thing that changed that was when National Public Radio (NPR) over there picked up on it and decided they liked us a lot. So the second and third times we went over, there were more people at the shows. That culminated with the full-band tour ending in New York with a sold-out show at The Mercury Lounge, and everyone singing the words back at us again. It felt like we paid our dues over there this year to a certain extent, and we might hopefully see the benefits of that at some stage in 2011. We got that Carson Daly Show appearance too, which was pretty exciting! You could tell it made a bit of a difference at a couple of the shows after that.

I guess something else that made a difference was the Mercury Prize nomination. I know – because you were there at the launch show – that you knew before everyone else did, but how did you initially find out about it?

My manager called me and told me maybe a week or two before… It was obviously quite a surprise. It was cool, but I’ve got a weird thing about competitions and prizes and stuff. You don’t want to appear that you’re not thankful for it, but at the same time you don’t want to put too much weight on anything like that; otherwise there’s always a danger you might want it again the next time around, and you might try to write music specifically to get it. I definitely don’t want to go down that route. The Mercury was cool, it was fun… It was kind of like going to a circuis!

What about the whole merry-go-round that goes with it, the extra media attention etc.? I know you recorded a session for The Sun, for instance! Did you ever see yourself doing something like that?!?

No, I didn’t think I was Sun material really – but apparently I am! They did a little impromptu interview with me just after I’d done the session. I was emailed the resulting article then, and it was quite an interesting insight into how they can just move your words backwards and forwards and make a little collage with them. It was quite creative… I think they’re quite creative people!

You mentioned earlier on that the band have been getting better and better, and I remember you mentioning before that they were your secret weapon, that they always brought something different every night. Has that continued to be the case?

Yeah, certainly for the most part. Like, a recent show we played at The Arches (in Glasgow) was one of my favourites yet – it almost felt like a new band for some reason. It’s weird: it can just depend on the crowd, or the mood the band happens to be in. We haven’t grown completely tired of playing the songs yet, and I’ve got a couple of new songs too; I’m only really playing them solo for now, because I haven’t had a chance to do the arrangements yet. I always remember… whenever I was a fan of a band, I always enjoyed the first solo version of a new song, so it’s quite cool to be able to do that.

We’ve heard you play one of those new songs, ‘In A New Found Land’, a couple of times alright… We’re looking forward to hearing how that one comes out.

Yeah, me too! I’m really looking forward to it actually.

Do you hope to get some time to work on new stuff next year?

Next year we’ll probably tour more sporadically, so I can try and write much more stuff and have blocks of time to give to that. January is my first block-booked time – after that they’re sending me to Singapore and Australia... I’ve written some new songs over the course of the year, but need that block of time to properly develop them. I’m hoping to do it nine to five, six days a week. Clear my desk and just get working!
 

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