‘London and Dublin are both eye-wateringly expensive, but London offers more’

Sinead O’Brien

London, says Sinead O’Brien, is “the centre of opportunity ... a big, consuming city where energy is currency, and everything is transactional. The Limerick sprechgesang songwriter and multidisciplinary artist moved to the UK capital from Dublin in 2013. After graduating from NCAD, where she studied womenswear fashion design, her initial aim was to work in the design industry.

A period of acclimatisation (“there’s something about seeing yourself reflected in an environment that is not ‘home’ and not familiar”) eventually sent her on a different creative path. Spending seven years as a senior womenswear designer with Vivienne Westwood was all well and good, but writing, she admits, “was the way I carved out time for myself. Carving out something of my own was important.”

A year has passed since she made the crossover to working in music full-time. “It’s feeling very natural to me, and I see a lot of possibilities with where I’ll take it. I like being directly responsible for my productivity, my day-to-day schedule and, most importantly to me, having full creative control over what I do. Right now, London is still the right place for me to be based, and I love it as much as I ever did.” Her “itchy feet” are scratched by considerable travel for work, yet in a creative/artistic sense, at very least, she uses the city to its full potential, frequently going to exhibitions, plays, readings, dance and performances. “I thrive on all that stimulus.”

Having lived in London for almost ten years, she has jettisoned former five-year plan stratagems. Envisioning the endpoint and going straight to it “didn’t leave much room for growth ... While still being very deterministic and goal-oriented, I try to leave room for spontaneous things to occur.” If she had stuck to the plan, she notes, “I wouldn’t have crossed over into writing and music.” One end result, however, is “I got to know who I actually am. I think it’s the most valuable thing that’s happened, becoming fully acquainted with myself, which translates to knowing and believing in my taste, my voice, my ideas, knowing how to handle my creativity.”

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‘I left Dublin because it was so expensive. Now London is equally expensive’

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All too inevitably, the sense of community in such a large city is different. There is, O’Brien has observed, a level of anonymity to which she has become accustomed. She describes it as “an iciness” but is aware that might, unfairly, come across as negative.

“In reality, for someone like me who actually needs a lot of hours working alone every day, it suits me. In Ireland, there’s a very different kind of community feeling, especially in the countryside, specifically West Clare where I spend time with family.” In London, she advises, the word “neighbour” has quite a different range of associations than it does in Ireland.

“That independence versus connectedness within the community is the biggest difference for me.”

Sinead O’Brien’s debut album, Time Bend and Break the Bower, is on Chess Club Records

Kean Kavanagh

Moving to London? That was an obvious choice, says Kean Kavanagh. Just after Christmas, 2020, the idea of “heading towards another summer of lockdown that mirrored the last depressed me. I’d been living in Dublin for eight-and-a-half years since moving up from Portlaoise at 18, and with the opportunity to see and play live music removed for the foreseeable, I didn’t feel very inspired to remain. It felt like a good time to try something new.” On May 1st, 2021, Kavanagh and his girlfriend left for London.

“I was hopeful that it was a good time to try and find somewhere to rent as this had been one of my greatest fears about leaving Dublin. I had a good room in a house in Drimnagh where the rent wasn’t extortionate; the idea of giving this up froze me, but the desire to be somewhere new and to be growing in some new direction overcame that.”

The decision is working out for him. “Being here feels exciting. There’s so much going on every day that it gives me energy and lifts me. Also, some of my friends who moved over got jobs in music that they wouldn’t have had any access to in Dublin. London has a big music industry, which means there are more jobs in music for people outside of the creation of it. It feels good to see friends getting a chance to work at something they’re passionate about.”

Being in a place where I feel lucky to live, and having great friends around me, keeps me motivated and allows me to think and write at my clearest

How is it working out for him creatively? He has, he says, reignited his love for writing and recording music. “Being in a place where I feel lucky to live, and having great friends around me, keeps me motivated and allows me to think and write at my clearest. Writing music with new friends regularly here has freed my mind a little from the boundaries I had set for myself in terms of how to write and produce a song. So at the moment, I feel like I’m on a roll.”

One of the main things he misses about living in Ireland is the spontaneity of “going out and knowing I’m going to bump into friends. The anonymity in London is nice for lots of other reasons, but when you’re in the mood to get it going, it’s hard to beat having a focal point you can head to where you’re right in the mix of things. By that, I mean Main Street, Portlaoise or Dublin city centre, whereas London is a collection of villages with a thousand centres.”

With the move comes perceptive self-realisation. “Knowing that you can pack up your stuff, move someplace else, and the world doesn’t fall down around your ankles gives you some confidence in yourself. If things don’t feel right for you, there’s something new you can try. You can reimagine yourself, and do it somewhere else, if need be.”

Kean Kavanagh is cofounder (with Kojaque) of Soft Boy Records

Ailbhe Reddy

Unlike Sinead O’Brien’s established tenure in London, Ailbhe Reddy moved there a mere six months ago. With studio, sessions, creative collaborators, gigs, management, record label, booking agency and publishing all based in and around the city, she says it made simple logistical sense to be there full-time.

“As of now, I think it is the right place for me to be. I really love it, and I have lots of friends here. I had lived in Dublin all my life, and while I love Ireland and Dublin, I was finding it quite difficult to remain there as an artist.” Reddy is finding inspiration not just from friends but also from other musicians; she is living with Fears/M(h)aol singer, Connie Keane. “It’s cool to live with another full-time musician, we can talk shop in the kitchen whenever we want and give each other advice, or be a listening ear for any struggles as well as celebrating the wins!”

Professionally, it is, so far, running smoothly, and she has discovered far more opportunities for work at stand-alone gigs, support slots and festivals. There are, she adds, more recording studios to work out of and considerable additional chances to meet people to collaborate with. The downsides include missing home, “especially my family and friends”, but that is balanced by having “landed on my feet with the friends I have here and where I’m living, so I’m very grateful for that. It is also really easy to get home frequently, and I come home for work a lot, too.”

It does feel that London has more of a mix of cultures in the same place, which is really refreshing. There are also a lot more spaces for LGBTQ+ individuals

There is, however, an equally important disadvantage. “I wouldn’t trust the Guinness in most places here. I’m sorry to say, but the rumours are true!” Beyond bemoaning the uninformed pouring and lacklustre taste of the pint of plain, Reddy says she hasn’t noticed too many other differences. “It does feel, however, that London has more of a mix of cultures in the same place, which is really refreshing. There are also a lot more spaces for LGBTQ+ individuals.”

Since Reddy’s move away from her beloved Dublin and close network of friends, initially unanchored but now reasonably settled, what does she think she has most learned about herself? “I really love markets” is not the answer we were expecting, but the postscript rings with a particular frankness. “I am a bit braver than I thought I was. And I love making new friends.”

She has no plans “at the moment” to return to Ireland. “I really miss my family, but find the time I do see them to be really nice and of higher quality. I’d love to eventually move back home.”

Ailbhe Reddy’s latest single is Shoulder Blades

Orla Gartland

The main difference between existing as an artist in Dublin and London, says Orla Gartland, is that while you can write and record songs anywhere, what happens next? “You need a team — a manager, a publisher, a booking agent, perhaps a record label to really make a meaningful go at this. That industry infrastructure really feels lacking in Ireland, and Irish artists living at home often have UK or US-based teams around them. I should say, however, there are a few really excellent Irish managers and artist teams out there — plenty of cowboys, too! — but I didn’t have access to them when I was coming up.”

Gartland moved to London in 2015. She says she couldn’t get a firm grip on the necessary procedures to work as a full-time musician in Ireland, yet friends of hers had managed it in London. She adds it was impossible for her to have known how things could have worked out, but says that professionally and creatively things are going better than she had ever hoped for.

“I have a wonderful manager here called Claire, without whom I would be lost every day, and last year we worked with a distributor, The Orchard, to release my first album independently. It made the top 10 of the main UK album charts and the top three at home. Somehow we sold more week-one copies than Lorde! It’s been a long and winding path at times but I’m really proud of my journey so far.”

The housing crisis at home seems even worse than in London. I’d almost certainly have to move out of Dublin altogether if I came back

And her head space? “The longer I do this the more aware I become of how hugely broken the wider music industry is right now. Streaming culture has butchered what would have previously been our primary income stream, so artists like me are having to get creative to keep their heads above water. The pursuit of music as a career is not without its sacrifices, but it’s the only thing I know how to do and most importantly, I love it.”

She is fully armed, she adds, with a store of life experience. “I’m stubborn, ambitious, dangerously hard-working and I can do most things if I put my mind to it.”

Culturally, she says, London is hard to beat, despite there being “less craic — nothing beats a night out in Ireland. I’ve been really lucky with the community I’ve built here, but I often miss being around Irish people, Irish warmth, Irish humour.” She has no immediate plans to return to Ireland. “I’d love to move back someday but Ireland’s not making it easy.

The housing crisis at home seems even worse than here — I grew up in Drumcondra, in Dublin, but I’d almost certainly have to move out of the city altogether if I came back. Both cities are eye-wateringly expensive to live in, but as an overall trade-off I can’t help but feel London offers more.”

A digital deluxe anniversary version of Orla Gartland’s Woman on the Internet is available on streaming platforms

Tom Coll

Tom Coll headed to London in January 2021 and moved into a small council flat in Holloway with two other members of Fontaines DC. It was, he says, “a practical decision that I ended up falling in love with.” Dublin was shut down at the time, and numerous friends had already moved over.

“It kind of felt what I imagine the ‘80s was like.” He says he was quite content in Dublin and at the time thought living in a vast metropolitan city would be daunting. The challenge of pushing himself away from his comfort zone (“something I’m very glad I did”) made an important creative difference.

“The first thing that hit me was how much of a multicultural city London is. I now live in Dalston, which has a strong Turkish and Afro-Caribbean heritage. Brixton, Stamford Hill, Peckham and Notting Hill all have insanely strong senses of their own place and diversity, and I find that super-inspiring from a musical standpoint. That melting pot of culture is something truly unique to the city, and that’s not even delving into the old-school bohemian buzz of Soho and Covent Garden with all the old boys dressed in their three-piece suits smoking outside the Soho cafes. Artistically, I think it’s a truly interesting place to be a musician, and while I don’t want in any way to diminish how amazing and important the Dublin music scene is, I think it just boils down to the size and scope of the city more than anything else.”

I spent the first year homesick a lot and wearing a paddy cap and getting lots of overtly Irish tattoos. In hindsight, it was definitely some sort of identity that I felt I needed to put across, the typical Irish-in-London experience

Despite the stimulating multiculturalism and buzz, Coll says he spent the first year “homesick a lot” and “wearing a paddy cap and getting lots of overtly Irish tattoos. In hindsight, it was definitely some sort of identity that I felt I needed to put across, the typical Irish-in-London experience, I suppose.” He is now, he adds, much more in touch with his identity as an Irish artist.

“I place so much more importance on Irish culture since I’ve left Ireland, and that’s a really interesting experience for me. I put out a record of traditional Irish music, Goitse a Thaisce, last year because I feel like I subconsciously realised how important traditional Irish music is to me, and I don’t think that would have come about to the same degree had I not left.”

Coll is currently on tour in the US with Fontaines D.C. and is looking forward to returning to London (as well as Ireland in late November for a sequence of sold-out shows and visiting his family in Co Mayo). He reckons that “Dublin seems like quite a scary place to be an artist right now and honestly less affordable than London”, and won’t be moving back any time soon.

“I’m turning 28 this month, and the creative opportunities I see in London right now far outweigh what’s at home. Saying that, if it comes to a stage in later life where I’ve got a family to raise, I’ll be getting the first boat home.”

Goitse a Thaisce (A Compilation of Irish Music: Volume One) is released through Skinty Records. Skinty Fia, by Fontaines DC is released through Partisan Records