On my own, I am free to do what I want to do
John Grant on going solo and why he’d love to live in Ireland
John Grant is an artist who feels unconfined in his musical choices. The night before I spoke to the 55-year-old American singer, he had taken to the National Concert Hall to perform the songbook of country music legend Patsy Cline. He invited CMAT, an Irish artist on the fast track to greatness herself, to sing with him. He features on her single, Where Are Your Kids Tonight? and is the perfect foil.
‘She is such a great songwriter and it is a great song. I am sure she is going to be around for a long time,’ he says of the 27year-old Dubliner who has just released her second album, Crazymad, For Me, which is reviewed below.
So far so countryish, but you will also find Grant as vocalist in the supergroup Creep Show made up of him and American indie rock act Wrangler. If you wonder what danceable electro metal sounds like, check out their underrated Yawning Abyss album.
The Michigan-born singer, who now calls Iceland home, will return to Ireland in early November to play the Sligo Live Festival.
‘When I play Sligo, it’s gonna be my songbook where I’ll be drawing from my tiny little body of work!’ he says with mock seriousness. Grant started out as vocalist in 1994 with Denver band the Czars. He was the Denver-based alt-rockers’ main songwriter and recorded six albums. Since leaving them in 2006 he’s released five solo albums: from The Queen Of Denmark in 2010 to 2021’s Boy
From Michigan, travelling musically from indie folk through guitar rock to synth pop, all the time increasing his fanbase. Grant has collaborated with artists such as Sinéad O’Connor, Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue.
Those tie-ups and musical pitchshifts are not something he thinks are possible in a regular band set-up.
‘I don’t think it would have happened with the Czars. It is definitely much harder when you are in a group,’ he says. ‘When you are on your own you don’t have to worry about it.’
Sinéad O’Connor was a guest vocalist on his second album Pale Green Ghosts and also recorded her own version of his song The Queen Of Denmark, and they became friends.
It was a stipulation of our interview that questions about O’Connor were not permitted. However a few days after our interview, he told Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ Radio One, ‘it wasn’t necessarily easy to be close to Sinéad… she had a lot of walls up. She had a very small circle. She very graciously let me into her life and sort of took me under her wing’. He
added that the singer led ‘a very complicated life and would disappear for long periods of time. But, yeah, we were close and I did love her, and I know she loved me…I grew up listening to her, so I never really felt like I deserved to be in her presence. It was incredibly special. I don’t want to talk about it very much. It’s a precious thing’.
Grant’s friendship with Sinéad was platonic. The singer, who is gay, has lived in Germany and New York. He moved to Iceland 11 years ago, inspired as much by the impact of its culture on him as its remoteness and ‘cool crisp air’. ‘I’ve always been intrigued by Iceland because of all the beautiful music that comes out of there like Bjork, the Sugarcubes (her first band) and Sigur Rós,’ he says. ‘When I got there I really wanted to tackle that language. I have also met some wonderful people. I sometimes think about moving to LA. I have a good circle of friends out there. I don’t have to dive into any fake, unsavoury worlds that I don’t want to have anything to do with. ‘I often think about moving to Ireland too because it is so exquisitely beautiful and I love it there but I’m older and it is not as easy to pick everything up and move around. I may stay in Iceland or I may move on. But for now I’m going to finish my record, go out on the road and just continue to do what I love. That’ll be plenty.’’