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From the very first seconds of Becoming a Jackal, heâs got you. A faint drone of organ, joined by eerie strings and acascade of piano that
collectively casts a Hitchcock movie shadow before a hushed voice asks, âHave you got just aminute? / Are you easily led? / Let me show the
backroom / Where I saw the dead / Dancing like children on amidsummer morn / And they asked me to joinâ â and then the music obliges by
with a similar spectral sweep. âI Sawthe Deadâ is not just the album intro of 2010 to date but also a magnificent intro to the vivid narratives,
grippingpoetry and m ...read more
From the very first seconds of Becoming a Jackal, heâs got you. A faint drone of organ, joined by eerie strings and acascade of piano that
collectively casts a Hitchcock movie shadow before a hushed voice asks, âHave you got just aminute? / Are you easily led? / Let me show the
backroom / Where I saw the dead / Dancing like children on amidsummer morn / And they asked me to joinâ â and then the music obliges by
with a similar spectral sweep. âI Sawthe Deadâ is not just the album intro of 2010 to date but also a magnificent intro to the vivid narratives,
grippingpoetry and melodic depth of Conor J. OâBrien â or as he likes to call himself and his cohorts, Villagers.
Over the course of 11 varied, subtle, complex and plain gorgeous songs, the Dubliner shows just why he is Dominoâslatest signing, while
defying any easy categorisation of his influences or peers. OâBrien namechecks David Axelrod,Jens Lekman, Robert Wyatt and Rufus
Wainwright but you could equally add Paddy McAloon, Paul Simon and RandyNewman to the possible roots of this record. And its creator is
just as captivating in person.
If the album has a theme, itâs change - âwhether physical, emotional or and spiritual,â OâBrien ventures. âI guess alarge part of it is
concerned with growing up; gaining and losing friends... these things change a person and I supposethis is my way of making sure I donât
become a bitter old mess! But I only realised this in hindsight. I donât write in aconscious way; the only thing I start with is a visual image or
colour, and then it just happens. One line suggests thenext, until I have a little patchwork quilt of ideas. If I stick at it long enough, it all
comes together and makes narrativesense.â
Growing up in Dun Laoghaire, a south-east seaside Dublin suburb, OâBrien wrote his first song, aged just 12, a weekafter his older brother
lent Conor his acoustic guitar. âBizarrely enough, my first lyric was âWhen Iâm walking downthese streets, I feel like a monkey in the Arcticâ.
I havenât told Domino that yet! The song was called âPsychicâ, whichwas about being afraid of a psychic friend because he could read your
thoughts. Yes, it was a weird one...â
Roald Dahl books, Jim Henson fantasy films (The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth) and a passion for model painting fed theteen Conorâs imagination,
while his first band, formed with three friends from St. Conleth's College in Ballsbridge,Dublin, defined the adult version. The Immediate
were loved in Ireland for their whip-smart, literate bursts of melody,and their sole album In Towers and Clouds was considered the best
homegrown debut since U2âs Boy back in 1980.But as the accolades escalated, the band shocked everyone by suddenly breaking up. âIt felt
like ending an incrediblelong-term relationship. Iâm terrified of bands now, so I do everything myselfâ says OâBrien, who created the
artworkand played all the instruments on Becoming a Jackal (except for the strings and French Horn which were arranged byVillagers
pianist/organist Cormac Curran).
After choosing the name Villagers - âI like the name because it doesnât offend the songsâ - OâBrien released TheHollow Kind EP in February
2009 and the 7â âOn a Sunlit Stageâ last October on the Any Other City label, run byVillagers drummer James Byrne. After signing to Domino,
Becoming a Jackal was recorded in Villagers guitaristTommy McLaughlinâs home studio, with Tommy engineering and co-producing alongside
Conor. âWe wanted to make itsound a bit like a Neil Young album, not to dress it up too much, like someone is whispering in your ear, but
also toget the epic-ness at times.â
As well as playing solo shows, Villagers also play live as a full band, with Conor being joined onstage by James,Tommy, Cormac and bassist
Danny Snow, as well as sometime collaborators David Crean (on keys) and Richie Egan(of the Dublin-based bands The Redneck Manifesto and
Jape); âTheyâre central to all this. When we rehearse, my littledictatorial act is over and they find their own way of playing it. The shows are
one of most exciting things for me asthe music morphs, so you can hear new lines coming in and things dropping out. But we only rehearse
for a couple ofdays before a tour, so itâs easy. It means I can keep writing instead of being locked in a room together three days aweek. Iâve
always preferred solitary writing, shutting your brain off from everything else.â
From restrained to unleashed, from a whisper to a literal howl, Becoming a Jackal mutates, intrigues and beguiles inequal measure. After the
psycho-drama of âI Saw the Deadâ, the title track â and first single â reveals OâBrienâsbreezier pop chops and a story of hard-fought freedom
(âWhen I grew bolder/ Out onto the streets I flew / Releasedfrom your shackles / I danced with the jackals / And learned a new way to
moveâ). âShip of Promisesâ is marked by arubbery skiffle beat and an opaque lyric (âYou see a mask from your window at night / So you
wake and you gooutside and you put it onâ) while the fragile âThe Meaning of the Ritualâ is much more direct. âSetting myself a task isanother
way of writing, and I wanted to write a love song that wasnât positive toward the idea of love. I wanted todress it downâ.
âThe Pact (Iâll be your Fever)â, to give the song its full title, crosses '50s pop innocence with a dark heart. âIâm told itsounds like Roy Orbison,â
says OâBrien. âTo me, itâs almost like an emancipatory hymn! Itâs almost celebratingromantic love or unadulterated worship as a way of
saving you from staring into the complete nothingness of the day;into the abyss.â
âThat Dayâ is equally another summery melody masking existential doubt. âItâs about how some people manage to livetheir lives incredibly
well while others only see this bleak emptiness, and trying to express that in a rollicking pop song!To me, itâs my glamourous Scott Walker
rockânâroll song - not that it sounds like him. But it feels like Iâm lettingsomething out in a bold, brash way, where some of the other songs
curl around you a bit more.â
One of those âcurlingâ songs would be the wistful, folky âTwenty-Seven Strangersâ, a lyrical journey mirroring aneveryday bus trip thatâs the
essence of bittersweet. âOn a bus, people donât communicate with each other â weârecrippled by all this social mundanity. But we come home
to a loved one, and then we do it all over again next day. Iwanted to express that repetition. I like writing about things that are universal and
stifling, but that we donât talkabout. But rather than sounding morose, I always want to maintain a celebratory togetherness, which is the root
offolk and blues.â
Between âTwenty-Seven Strangersâ and the closing sobriety of âTo Be Counted Among Menâ is the albumâs soul epicâPiecesâ (âFor a long, long
time / I've been in pieces / In the corner of a room / In an endless afternoonâ) and ashowcase for some of the best howling ever recorded.
Howling, as jackals do. Or Villagers. âHowling was an incrediblefeeling, especially coming after those particular words. I donât want to
depress people, so a touch of melodrama canreally connect.â
Young in face but intense around the eyes, OâBrien will probably never run out of insights and incidents, so you can besure that Villagers will
be around for the long term. Which suits him just fine. âI donât want this ever to be the finishedproduct, but to be constantly changing,
moving and growing. I can hear so much more.â
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