RuthAnne Interview

Interview with

RuthAnne

I have interviewed a lot of Irish artists over the last six months, from Aslan to Wild Youth everyone has been so good to allow me the opportunity to interview them. But I was so surprised to see how eager and polite RuthAnne was for our interview on Saturday night. I was brought into a small box room in the greenroom in Whelan’s. This was my first interview in Whelan’s but not my first gig. Walking in brought back memories of seeing the Strypes in their prime headlining the venue. I set myself up on a bench in that box room and prepared for my interview with RuthAnne.

RuthAnne has written songs for many different successful international artists such as, Work B*tch by Britney Spears and Slow Hands by Niall Horan, along with many others. With an already amazing career I had to find out where it all began.

Where did it all begin for you?

RuthAnne burst into a response. “People tend to ask, how long have you been in the music industry? I feel like I have been in the music industry since I was 17 when I won the Jacob Song contest, when I wrote that Jojo tune. But I know I have been in it since I was 7. I was freakishly writing songs from that age, even when people asked me while I was growing up, what do you do? I would always say I am a singer-song writer. Whether I was getting paid or not this is what I was doing. I was obsessed from such a young age.

RuthAnne found initial success writing for Jojo at a young age. There was a multitude of occasions that lead to her fame. This raised the question, was there any other situations that made her believe how big she was going to be.

Was there any other moments that made you realise, this is going to be my future?

“Yeah I think that Jojo song was more of a surprise if nothing else, I was so young. It was a case of, oh my god it’s climbing the charts, oh my god it’s number two, oh my god it’s in the Billboard Hot 100. I was excited to see it went to number 19, so when it just kept going you almost don’t get the chance to take it all in. So I guess it only became real when I started to get publishing deals, being brought out for fancy meals. This was when I realised this is something I can actually do. But you never get the chance to take a step back. It’s always a case of writing that next track and next tune..

I was fascinated how a person could keep coming up with different songs very regularly and asked if she found it difficult.

Did you find it difficult to keep coming out with more songs at the time?

“I was incredibly lucky to have never experienced writers block or anything like that. Sometimes there are days where you can’t find something great or anything at all. But even if you just write whatever is in you, even if it’s a bad song, just get it out of the way which leaves more room for the good songs. I think for me it was always about trying to find my voice, everything was leading up to this point now.”

I am a big fan of the lyrics that RuthAnne writes and I wondered if she uses much Irish influence.

Do you like to keep to your roots when you’re writing songs?

“As a song-writer it was hard for me to stay in  Ireland, to get in with the artists I wanted to write with I had to travel. LA is a big hub for artists and so is the UK, so I would travel between them. But when I started my own album I recorded the Dublin gospel choir, I used Bressie and Niall’s studio for Love Again, I was trying to incorporate my Irish roots into different songs. My first single The Vow I found really had that Irish Celtic harmony and it is really important to me.”

I find it really interesting how different Irish artists use and are opinionated by Irish culture, this led to the next question.

How important is Irish culture in your song writing?

“It’s everything to me. I love soul, a lot of people would link that to America, but I grew up watching The Commitments, and we have some amazing artists like, Glen Hansard, Sinead O’Connor and now Hozier. It’s a very soulfull country. So when people say, oh your music is very soul you must like American soul, I think it comes from the Irish  soul as much as America.”

What made you decide to take a step away from writing for others to writing for yourself?

“I think it was a journey for me. As an artist I wanted to write my own songs, when you go to the music industry there can sometimes be seven or eight people in a room writing lyrics and I needed to quiet people down, I needed to work on my own craft. But I needed the life experience to write these songs. This is why we buy Adele and Ed Sheeran albums as opposed to pop albums, everything they’re saying is from and about them, so for me representing Ireland as a female I wanted to get my story across.

 I began to find LA very uninspiring and decided to come back to Dublin and ended up writing half of the album in about three weeks and then I realised this is a body of work that sounds like me and is my story.”

Which would you prefer to do  now looking back, your own solo work or writing for different artists?

“ It’s both, definitely. I was just in LA writing for Niall on his record, I have been writing some dance tunes so honestly I love doing both. A few years ago I was finding it difficult writing for both and working for different people. But now I have managed to find the perfect balance to just take each day as they come. I honestly don’t think I could do one without the other.”

I am very admirable and excited to see Irish artists doing so well. RuthAnne is a force to be reckoned with in the music industry. I finished the interview and then watched the gig afterwards, it was set up like an MTV Unplugged show and she was truly inspiring to watch. Her new single “Love Again” is out and is something that needs to be heard quickly! Thank you to everyone who made the interview possible, thanks to RuthAnne for giving up some time in her very busy schedule to allow for an interview. I would also like to thank Carl McGrath who was my photographer for the night and Max Falvey from Stage Aura for a few shots during the gig.