Susan O’Neill today releases her solo album ‘Now in a Minute.’ One of the most highly anticipated Irish albums of the year. Vulnerable but strong, dark but hopeful, it confirms Susan O’Neill as a fascinating and gifted new voice in music.
Described already by Clash as “Superb” and the Sunday Times as simply “Exquisite” alongside previous nominations for the RTE Radio 1 ‘Best female folk artist’ and the Choice Music Prize, it’s no surprise that in the early reviews of the album and songs from Now in a Minute describe Susan as a “Artist working at the top of her game..” and “A wondrous showcase of O’Neill’s bubbling creative prowess” (Hotpress)
Known as a songwriter of many depths, with a timeless voice and a growing reputation for standout live performances, recently described in a live review from the Haldern Pop Festival in Germany as creating “a real emotional hinterland” when she took to the main stage with the Stargaze orchestra.
In the past 3 years since the release of her duet album In The Game with Mick Flannery, Susan has been invited to share stages across North American, Europe and the UK with Phoebe Bridgers, The Teskey Brothers, Calexico and Valerie June to name a few. Selling out headline tours in her native Ireland, and laying the seeds across all territories for her next chapter which begins today with the release of Now in a Minute
Recorded over the past 18 months between County Clare and Cork, with engineer and producer Christian Best (Mick Flannery, O Emperor). Additional mixing from Irish born, Los Angeles based engineer Cian Riordan (St. Vincent, Lana Del Ray) ) and Canadian engineer Daniel Ledwell (Rachel Sermani, Jenn Grant). The album saw Susan reuniting with Mick Flannery on four co-writes (Tijuana, Lilt, Everyone’s Blind and Too Many Ways) and also collaborating on an array of the songs with musical brothers Cillian and Lorcan Byrne. Joined on several tracks by Killian Browne on Piano and also featuring Alan Comerford on guitar.
On working with the Byrne brothers, Susan said: “It was great to work with them again, they’ve grown so much musically. There’s a moment playing together when you feel like the engine is revving, the telepathy is working, it’s so quick. There are nerves, excitement, and fun. There are infinite possibilities.”
“Writing entails dreaming up songs. There is self-expression and practice but then you have to deliver them to people, and that involves neon lights, hi-res amps, smoke and mirrors, and you have to trust the process, and I trust them, totally.”
Susan goes on to say regarding the actual album making process “It was a dressing up and dressing down of thoughts, moods, lyrics and noises. Working with Christian Best and the band on this was special, cultivating 12 new songs. it’s not like a sound we’ve made before”
From opening song, the ethereal ‘Apparitions’ described by Susan as “Sitting with darkness inside yourself, unafraid to acknowledge the depths, but saluting that thread of hope you find at the bottom” to the driving ‘Lilt’ “a feminine salute to the journey of countless women that had a need to flee”
On ‘Everyone’s Blind’ Susan said that “a melody rose up as easily as breathing” this song casts longing eyes homeward ‘Give You My All’ can’t help but lift the spirit, and the haunting ‘Malachi’ an ode to older times, and young friends lost. It’s a ballad for the ages, a real heart wrench. A song of honesty that’s not afraid to lean in.
The result is an album that brims with darkness and light, passions that burn and consume, chaos and solitude, brave journeys towards freedom, beautiful, crucial connections with others and that thin thread of hope that lifts the heaviness within.
Now in a Minute is available everywhere now.