HAIL DECLAN O’ROURKE, MASTER STORYTELLER AND OVERNIGHT SENSATION – AT LAST!
“You’ll see the picture, feel the wind, smell the sea breeze..”
PAUL WELLER ON DECLAN O’ROURKE
“DECLAN’S A MASTER storyteller. He will put you in that place. You will see the picture, feel the wind, smell the sea breeze. You’ll be totally involved.” Says one of Irish singer-songwriter Declan O’Rourke’s biggest fans: Paul Weller.
Weller has been friends with O’Rourke since they were both signed to V2 in the early 2000s, when the Irishman’s 2004 debut album, Since Kyabram, went double platinum in his native country. Since then, wider success has eluded O’Rourke outside of Ireland, and he’s well aware of his long, slow arc to worldwide overnight sensation.
“I’ve been toying with the idea of a song about that,” he laughs. “Something like, ‘If it takes me half as long to be an overnight forgotten I’ll be doing all right’.”
O’Rourke is one of those songwriter’s songwriters who picks up celebrity fans like glitter on a glue gun. Weller, the late John Prine, Paul Casey, Glen Hansard and others have all sung the praises of this poetic storyteller, historian, late night emotional confidante and setter of the world to rights. He’s also an exceptional guitarist, a gifted fingerpicker with a complex percussive style to rival Michael Chapman or John Martyn. Again, Weller is effusive with praise for his friend’s abilities. “He’s a stunning guitar player, just ridiculous, like he’s playing two or three parts at the same time.”
O’Rourke himself has an unlikely theory about his playing. “I first expected to be a drummer, loved playing drums, so if I have a style at all it’s down to a percussive element from those days – I’m a drummer trapped in the body of a guitar player.”
Until new album Arrivals, O’Rourke had been obsessively independent, acting as his own manager, agent, tour manager, producer – a true one-man band flogging himself around the world without seeing much net gain. Eventually, he realised, “I could keep holding onto the pie, but it was a small pie”. With a support team now in place, O’Rourke decided this was the time to work with a producer, so he texted his friend: “Have you ever produced anyone else?”
“To be fair,” he says, “Paul didn’t jump right in, he wanted to hear the songs first, see if there was anything he could add.” And add Weller did, literally getting hands-on and providing the piano on gossamer smoky jazz club tune This Thing That We Share, the album’s closing track (hear it on this month’s Weller-curated MOJO CD).
One person not on the album, however, is O’Rourke’s cellist wife, Eimear O’Grady. They first met when playing a session for the same band, but these days O’Grady mainly works as a TV stuntwoman. “Paul kept saying we should get her in to play, but in these Covid days her career is far busier than mine, and someone has to stay home to watch our three-year-old.”
If Arrivals changes O’Rourke’s fortunes, they may soon be paying for a lot more childcare.