Magically hip

The notion of an independent release has changed over the last few years. Nowadays, an album released through a so-called indie label can have more financial backing than many major releases, with so many once-independent labels now affiliated with the big boys, so it is hard to define what is a truly independent release. But that won’t be a problem for Ursula Burns, who has just released her fabulous second album, Spell.

“I earned every penny for this album through playing music, and that takes its toll,” explains Ursula. “There were a lot of sacrifices along the way: every time you get two grand, there’s another two grand to find. But when you are paying the bills, you make the decisions. When you get creative control, every single penny you sweat to earn is worth it.

“It was quite cheaply recorded but not cheap in terms of someone who is living on the budget of a musician,” she chuckles.

It should come as no surprise that Ursula earned the money for Spell through her art. After all, Ursula Burns has been performing all her adult life, having run away to join a travelling theatre company in her younger years, before concentrating full-time on her music. Her debut LP, According To Ursula Burns, released in March 1999, was written and performed exclusively on the harp, but for this album, Ursula moved from the harp to the piano.

“When the thing you love suddenly turns to a job, which for me was playing the harp, the association of work is so strong that you can’t come home from a gig and feel inspired to pick up the harp,” she explains. “Also, you have to let your limbs recover, so it wasn’t possible for me to write anything.”

Ursula was also beginning to find her first love quite restrictive: “After you’ve written so many songs on the harp, it does become a limiting instrument, just because of the nature of it. With a great deal of ease, you can nip from major to minor on a piano, but not on a harp.”

The switch to tinkling ebony and ivory wasn’t as seismic as you might think, though – the piano has long been part of her musical life.

“I was playing piano from the time I could reach it,” she admits. “When I was about three, I used to call into this wee old lady next door for a glass of lemonade and to play her piano.”

Swapping instruments wasn’t the only major transition made by Ursula prior to recording this album,

however: there was also a more physical change.

“To write Spell, I moved out to a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere,” she explains. “I knew that I wanted to cut away all distractions. I needed to spend an awful lot of time on my own. I needed space, light, peace and quiet.”

This self-imposed isolation was well worth it, as Ursula ended up with a wonderfully warm, rich album, which utilises a plethora of styles and moods.

“There is nothing worse than going to a singer-songwriter night and listening to 12 ‘Oh god she left me’ songs,” sighs Ursula. “I really believe in pacing an album, and even using humour. So songs like ‘Excuse Me Mister Hart’ and ‘No Denial’ are lighter, more throwaway. I think that’s maybe where my theatre background comes in: like the way that Shakespeare brings in comic characters to lighten the tone. I find it easier to write slow, sad, beautiful ballady type songs, but a whole album of them would bore me stupid.”

My favourite song on the album, ‘Small Square Parks’ is about as far from a ballad as you can get, a taut, nervous and utterly compelling piece, which is high on tension.

“That’s one I was really pleased with because I almost didn’t put it on the album,” she admits. “There are moments in your life when there’s serious stress or pressure going on, and capturing something like that in a song can be really difficult. I think that song really does sum up one of those points when everything is cracking and you can’t see things clearly.”

Spell was produced by Kieran Kennedy, whom Ursula maintains was “an integral part of the whole recording process. I can’t speak highly enough of him.”

Ursula doesn’t expect to be challenging Westlife for chart domination this year (“Oh God, maybe next year”, she laughs), but for now is enjoying the buzz gained from creating an entire album herself.

“My wish for the album is that it gets into the hands of people who would like to hear it,” she says simply. “That will be a slow process. But I don’t think I could have done it if I was being forced like putty into shapes that I’m not built for. This album is a true, honest thing.”