Kevin Fowley - On Our Radar Q&A: "What you make is a combination of everything you’ve listened to, all of your influences"

How did you come up with the idea of rearranging your childhood lullabies?

It was probably just to do it for the family. At the beginning, I wasn’t necessarily thinking that I’d release it. Then I developed the guitar part for ‘Ne pleure pas, Jeannette’ and I enjoyed the process. My grandparents in France made this book of songs for my sister’s kids. I was looking through it and thought, ‘I’ll put something together’. I guess it kept on growing, and eventually I went, ‘I think it’s good enough to put out’.

How do you think your dual nationality comes through?

What you make is a combination of everything you’ve listened to, all of your influences. On a more micro level, my musical upbringing would be hearing my Ma and my Granny singing these songs to me and my siblings. Also my dad, who’s from Donegal, playing the fiddle. They would have been the first bits of music I was exposed to.

The way you describe your childhood memories is quite joyful, but there’s also a sense of yearning to the songs.

I suppose it’s the head space I was in at the time. I started off with a melody on the guitar, and then expanded it and developed the arrangement. So it wasn’t much of a conscious decision – it was more what sounded right as I was doing it. The songs themselves are kind of sad. It’s funny, ‘cause as a kid, I wouldn’t have necessarily paid much attention to what they’re actually about.

But going back to it, ‘Ne pleure pas, Jeannette’ is dark: “Don’t call your lover or else you’ll be hanged”. ‘Á la Claire Fontaine’ – when you’re a kid, you think it’s about someone taking a swim in a fountain But actually, when you look at it, it’s about sexual impurity and getting rejected by the people you love because of it. Some of them have more adult themes, but you don’t realise that as a kid.