“Have you got just a minute / Are you easily led? / Let me show the backroom / Where I saw the dead”, are the first words uttered on ‘Becoming a Jackal’ the debut album from Conor J. O’Brien (AKA Villagers). The combination of dark brooding story lines and bitter-sweet harmonies on the record have earned O’Brien multiple critical plaudits and songs from the album such as ‘That Day’ and ‘The Meaning of the Ritual’ have made Villagers a household name. Villagers play their biggest Limerick show to date when the band headline Live at The Big Top at The Milk Market this Wednesday.
O’Brien formed Villagers after the break-up of his previous band The Immediate and all of the songs on ‘Becoming a Jackal’ were written in the period following the break-up of his previous band.
The Immediate who first performed as The Subterraneans made a considerable impact on the Irish music scene despite releasing only one album. Sunday Tribune’s Una Mullally named The Immediate as the “Best Irish Band” of 2006, saying “they have the ability to be one of the most important Irish bands of the decade, if they can hold it down.”
That album was ‘In Towers and Clouds’ released in 2006 It was nominated for the Choice Music Prize described then as sounding like “Franz Ferdinand getting beaten up by Joy Division”. With it’s star still on the rise and a debut Oxegen appearance imminent the band split suddenly in May 2007, citing “existential differences”.
Since the split Conor spent time as guitarist in Cathy Davey’s band and contributed to her Choice Music Prize nominated album ‘The Nameless’.
Villagers was born as a collection of musical poems penned by O’Brien, he says “the songs were all written in the same period of time, with the same general preoccupations in terms of lyrical theme. Basically, I was obsessed with death”.
O’Brien released The Hollow Kind EP in February 2009 and after signing to Domino Records, Becoming a Jackal was recorded in Villagers guitarist Tommy McLaughlin’s home studio, with Tommy engineering and co-producing alongside Conor.
“We wanted to make it sound a bit like a Neil Young album, not to dress it up too much, like someone is whispering in your ear, but also to get the epic-ness at times.”
Conor J O’Brien proved himself as an artist of integrity with a stunning performances RTÉ Two’s Other Voices television programme in 2009 and on Later … with Jools Holland the following year. He produced a record of charm and mystery creating the artwork and playing almost all the instruments on Becoming a Jackal. The album was shortlisted for the Mercury and Choice Music Prizes and earlier this year frontman Conor O’Brien scooped an Ivor Novello songwriting award for his track “Becoming A Jackal”, receiving the 2011 prize for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, the most prestigious of the Ivors.
Villagers are due to kick off four days of tremendous live music in Limerick when the band plays Live @ The Big Top on stage at The Milk Market on Cornmarket Row. The band will play this Wednesday September 21 ahead of Calvin Harris on Thursday, The Stunning on Friday and Jape’s appearance in Dolan’s Warehouse on Saturday.
Looking towards the future, the time has come for O’Brien to begin to assemble ideas for the much anticipated follow-up album. With this in mind, Villagers appearance at Limerick’s Milk Market will be the last show for the band this year.
The band has been trying out some of the new songs live at recent appearances, O’Brien comments, “we’re doing a couple of songs. One of them is called Grateful Song. I tried to write it with a view to the band really feeling like they could rock it live.” Also the band is showcasing ‘Memoir’ a song originally written for Frence actress/singer/songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg due to appear on her new album, ‘Stage Whisper’ out in November.
The Villagers concert will be an opportunity to celebrate one of this country’s finest records in many years before O’Brien moves on to prepare the follow up to Becoming a Jackal.
