Sinéad: The Bald Facts
At the tender age of seventeen, Dubliner Sinéad O'Connor packed up Ton Ton Macoute, packed her bags and headed for London. Two years on she's had a few close shaves, recorded with the Edge and is on the verge of seriously launching her career with an album in January. Interview: Molly McAnailly Burke.
Molly McAnally Burke, 20 Nov 1986
Most of the songs are more serious, however. One is considered by Sinéad to be typically Irish bordering on folk - it's called 'Jackie' and is about a fisherman drowning in the Aran Islands. There are also a couple of religious tracks. "Not the 'I Love God, Man' type of thing," she explains, "I'm not especially religious but there are certain aspects of things I read in the bible that strike me as very moving and inspire me to build a song around. One is called 'Sit Easy Beside Me', based on the line 'I made a promise to my servant that I would not let him die.' It's my emotional interpretation of the line."
Is she steering clear of lyrics of the occult type after her experience with the Ton Tons? I wondered if the concept of witchcraft offended her own religious perspective.
"I don't mind what people dabble in - it isn't necessarily wrong, but in my experience when people get into magic they become obsessed - their whole lives, even their music gets overrun with it. I believe in something I call God - something out there - but I wouldn't even try and say what I think it is. I haven't a bloody clue and I'll only find out when I die. I believe that heaven and hell are situations on earth that you create for yourself. I certainly don't believe that anyone is controlled by spirits or the devil or anything - that's bullshit. I believe everyone on earth is put here with a choice of going up or down and that everyone is in control of their own life."
She sounds almost unrealistically optimistic. "I'm not saying I don't have bad patches, but I know I'm in control because I can talk myself out of them. Believe me, I worry constantly. It keeps my weight down!"
Slight, she is, though with an athletic structure indicating advanced tom-boyish horseplay. Her body hair has been painstakingly removed leaving an alabaster glint on the delicate calves that disappear disconcertingly into Doc Martens. Everybody one earth wants to know about the drastic haircut.
"Actually it was something of an accident," she admits. "I went on holidays to Greece and had my hair dyed black at the time. It was starting to grow out and I went to an Italian barber and asked him to remove the dyed bits. He didn't have a clue what I was saying and just shaved away. I loved it and haven't looked back since. The record company loves it too - it gets a laugh."
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Molly McAnally Burke
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