Her Emm Is True
Her fans include David Bowie, Bono and The Cardigans’ Nina Persson – and now she’s released possibly her finest record yet. EMM GRYNER talks about raising her game and steering clear of the ‘indie-folk’ vogue.
Peter Murphy, 10 Aug 2009
Ontario-raised Filipino-Irish singer Emm Gryner’s 12th album Goddess is one profound-sounding record. But then, she’s no ingénue. Gryner’s played keyboards in David Bowie’s band, is an active member of A Camp’s touring ensemble, and Bono named her ‘Almighty Love’ as one of the six songs from the last 20 years of music that he wished he’d written.
When Gryner opened with that tune at her upstairs show in Whelan’s a couple of months ago, it wasn’t hard to see why. Even in stripped-down guitar and piano format, the thing’s a monster. And as she proceeds through the wintery depths of the latest album, with detours through some inspired covers (among them PJ Harvey’s ‘The Mess We’re In’, featuring a cameo from Matt Lunson, and a stunning piano-and-vocal take on The Clash’s ‘Straight To Hell’) you know you’re experiencing something.
Earlier that day in the Library Bar, still recovering from a tour bus break-in in Belfast and being double booked with a Swiss band in a guest house in Slane the previous night, Ms Gryner attempted to answer our most pressing question: where does the ache in these songs come from?
“A song like ‘Empty Hole’ is about as personal as it’s ever gonna be with me,” she admitted, “but I don’t necessarily write it literally. I think it’s just kind of daring to go a little bit to a place of discomfort. At this point in my life I have people around me who I know aren’t gonna bolt if you don’t censor yourself. So, being married for example, people think, ‘Oh well, she’s married now, that’s the end of her art,’ but it’s quite the opposite. Drama never really goes away, so I figure just lay it all out. Luckily I’m with someone who’s inspiring and very supportive of what I do. That’s super-rare I think.”
Songs like ‘Die Evergreen’, ‘Empty Hole’ and ‘Match’ are weighty enough to feel like the culmination of any songwriter’s career, so it’s doubly surprising when it emerges that Goddess was conceived as a low-key departure from 2006’s Summer Of High Hopes.
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