Retaining Hope: Somebody’s Child And Their New Chapter
“It’s really strange!” Somebody’s Child songwriter Cian Godfrey smiles from his London apartment, a matter of days ahead of the release of the project’s self-titled debut album. “I’m not sure what to think. We’ve been at this for so long and at this point we’re really just hoping people connect with it.”
It’s been five years since Somebody’s Child burst onto the scene with that incredible, mature-beyond-their-years live set, coupled to debut single ‘Make You Alright’. Since then, the band have released three projects, represented by 2020’s ‘20-Something’, and the 2021 double-feature of ‘Hope Amongst Other Things’ and ‘Staying Sane’. Along the way they’ve released their hit singles ‘We Could Start A War’ and ‘Jungle’ which have racked up millions of views.
Three months ago Godfrey and the band made the move from the Irish capital to London permanently looking to find some new and fresh inspiration for material and increased support from those at home. “We’d rinsed everything,” he admits. “We’d written from 9-5 for two years but hardly any music came out and I think we just needed a change of scenery”.
“We just felt like we weren’t being supported like we used to be at home”, he admits. “It felt like there wasn’t a chance for homegrown artists to make an impact without having to have a sold out tour in Japan or even having broken America already”.
With the album now released to the world, Cian Godfrey sat down with Clash to discuss how life has changed for them since ‘Staying Sane’, crafting the perfect debut and losing a connection to home.
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How have things been since you released your previous project ‘Staying Sane’?
Very good. We’ve had our labelmates Kiss come on board which is a saving grace especially in some questionable times for everyone in the music industry. Things have been going well I have to say. With tying the album together, Mikko was the catalyst behind that in understanding what we wanted from the album, keeping it raw while also finding a way of sounding a way you want a first album to do while also keeping things intrinsically us. W’ve so many different songs in different styles it was nice to have someone there to help bring it all together.
What was it like whittling down the tracks from the hundreds you’ve written to the 11 on the album?
It was tough. We started off from scratch but there was some there that defined our sound a bit more than others. Tracks like ‘We Could Start A War’ became an anthem for us at gigs so it was tough to leave that out. We released it on a really small budget at the time, self-managed, self-released, self-published so there was room for growth. We felt there was room sonically to move up with that.
Your debut album is self-titled, why that as an album name?
We’ve been toying around with our style for quite a while and we’ve been trying to balance between what we want to create and Somebody’s Child is the real accumulation of our work, it’s all the different styles we’ve tried over the years under the same roof so it felt like the right thing to do. It was originally called ‘Duality’ because I felt that was fitting for how we wrote – neither one nor the other, but the string in between… so it just kinda made sense. But we couldn’t use it as SlipKnot have a song called ‘Duality’ so it was taken! (laughs)
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You recorded the album in London but it’s inspired by life in Dublin and its artistic community – what’s been your experience of the Dublin eco-system?
When we started in Ireland we got some really good support, great airplay on radio and everything like that but as we started going down the more alternative route we struggled to garner the same industry interest in Dublin and it’s because we decided to shift focus. There is a bit of a… people say you can’t depend on the Irish music industry to make a living off it and I know there are some exceptions to that but our music is full of British influences so it felt apt to move over here and record.
There is a ceiling on where you can go in Ireland. There’s so few radio stations that cater for us that the most we can hope for at this stage is an 11pm-12am slot on the national airwaves. There’s so much politics involved as well that it’s hard to stand up against the people who are on the major labels and who have a monopoly over what gets played and it feels like no one likes you until you’ve done well abroad. My relationship is bittersweet. There are some really great people who support us but we’ve kinda been ignored in the past.
You’ve mentioned in the past that over time since the band started in 2018 you’ve struggled with connecting in the Irish music industry, could you tell me a little bit about that?
At the start, people got behind us but there’s only a certain amount of things you can get in the Irish music industry and there are a lot of things I just don’t feel we’re in competition for… for whatever reason. It’s a tricky subject in a lot of ways. Basically there’s a monopoly by two or three major male Irish artists that own that land. There’s rightfully a push to get more Irish women on radio but unfortunately it’s often the people that need support the most that are being impacted and not the big players. It’s tough for an up-and-coming band. We don’t get the support we used to in 2018… for the worse for us but I know overall there has been a big positive shift industry-wide. I think it could just be a little bit more fair. We’ve had so many great supporters along the years but I want it to be my home and it just didn’t feel like it… I guess that’s why we moved, too.
What do you want new listeners to take away from the album?
I just hope the people who need to hear it can hear it and that it affects people. Whether that be social commentary or politically charged or introspectiveness, if I can make people change for the better or make someone’s day slightly better that’s all you can ask for. With people’s whittling attention space if they manage to get through a whole song it’s a huge achievement – nevermind an album! – but hopefully it can change people’s perspective on something.
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‘Somebody’s Child’ is out now.
Words: Cailean Coffey
Photo Credit: Jim Fuller