With “Romeo” out now, we took some time to hear from Sean MacLeod. Read below to learn more about Sean MacLeod, the story behind “Romeo,” and what’s to come.
Hi Sean MacLeod! Let’s start with how did you get your artist name?
I was given it at birth.
What city are you from, and where are you based now?
I was born in Australia, but my mother returned to her home in Ireland when I was just a baby. So, I grew up on the southside of Dublin, in Ireland. I now live on the other side of the country in small town in Co. Clare.
At what point in your life did you decide to pursue a career in music? How did you get started?
When I was a child, I was sent to piano lessons, learning classical piano. I studied classical piano for seven years or so, but every moment of it was quite murderous because I was the sort of child that couldn’t sit still. I needed to be outside running about and climbing things and jumping off things. I like music a lot, but having to sit at a piano for even the shortest amount of time was difficult for me. However, at the age of 11, I heard the Beatles and suddenly my whole attitude to wanting to play music began to change. I pestered my mum for a drum kit and one Christmas, she gave me some money to add to the money that I had already saved, and I got a rather beat up second hand kit. I played in a few bands while still in school. We used to practice at my house because my mum worked though the neighbors weren’t too happy about it much of the time. My band mates would often leave their guitars and amps there so they weren’t having to get lifts all the time, and so I started to mess about on their guitars and eventually figured out how to play them. I then started to take up the piano again around about 17. I guess I learned the guitar by just messing about and coming up with ideas which the band would turn into songs. I was always much more interested in writing my own music than playing someone else’s.
How would you describe your sound to readers who may not be familiar with you?
Although, I spent many years studying classical piano, not just as a child but also in my late teens and still today and I also studied or I should really saw flirted with other music like jazz, folk, avant-garde, I always felt that the 3 min pop song was the musical form that I should work in because that’s really what I grew up with and that’s the soil from which my music has grown from. So, while I try to understand all types of music, I do so in order to merge it into the form of a pop song. From that perspective its rather Beatles and Bowie influenced because I think they more or less did the same thing. I also like to use vocal harmonies, so that also gives it a Beatles influence. I also tend to build my songs around harmonic structures, rather than grooves or riffs and so that gives it that Beatles/Bowie feel too because they often worked that way. I think its because, particularly in their early work those guys wrote on acoustic guitars, which tends to steer you into using a lot of chord changes to keep the song interesting.
Do you have any hobbies outside of music? What do you do to stay creative?
Music and writing our my hobbies, and I spend all my time either writing music or writing (I’ve published three books on music, and numerous essays). I like to read – usually philosophy and poetry (I like poems because of the language and because they are often not too long). I read a lot about the esoteric and I’m very interested in the work of Rudolf Steiner and much of the lyrics are quite influenced by that kind of thinking, which is essentially that the human being is a spiritual being with a spiritual as well as a earthly destiny.
Who are some of your main musical influences?
I think that I mentioned that already. The Beatles are probably the biggest. I guess early Bowie and a lot of other ’60s groups. The Girl Groups of the ’60s – which I wrote a book on. I like Ray Davies from the Kinks a lot because I think he is a great songwriter. I like Dylan a lot too. I like a lot of ’60s songwriters like Goffin and King and Greenwich and Barry. I like Blondie and that new wave sound and the Cure and the Smiths too. I also play a lot of classical piano and often find a lot in that that is inspiring.
What’s one of the proudest moments of your music career so far?
It’s quite strange because when I had a band – called Cisco – we did a lot of TV and Radio, and we worked with U2’s producer Paul Barrett and we used to play lots of gigs, but as strange as it sounds, it didn’t really mean much because your not really thinking about it much. When you go on TV, your more thinking about what time you need to be there and how to get there and all those logistics, same with gigs and radio and interviews and when you do it you just do it and its over and you go home or have something to eat or whatever and its not anything different to normal life. Writing songs and recording and all that is rather difficult at times and recording is really boring to be honest (HAHA). I think it’s the same for most musicians or writers or artists. The perception to others is different I think to what the artist is experiencing. I think that’s why many artists say they can’t remember much about a particular song or event or something that was really big culturally. So, you would wonder why I or other creative people do what they do. For me, the best moment is when you just come up with an idea. That’s really magical. It really feels like you’ve been gifted this thing – this musical idea and that really is the greatest buzz and when you shape that – usually just get a basic form on it so you can play it and sing it – just you on your guitar that’s for me the proudest moment because you can really feel its an achievement. The spark gives you an excitement and the finished basic version makes you feel that you did a good job with the gift you were given. It’s also great too when you get other musicians together and you hear the song with a complete arrangement. That’s also a nice feeling.
One time, I had this song which I was really impressed with and brought it to my band. They liked it and we worked on it for ages and ages. We played it for the first time on stage during our sound check, and I remember feeling – wow this sounds great – because of the big sound from the PA. I was playing drums at the time with this band, and I remember that you could sense all the others and the sound man and the few people in the venue were really impressed. But, I think the band was most impressed because it was the first time that we had actually heard it through a proper sound system, and it just sounded huge. So, these are the moments that mean the most to me – that’s what keeps it enjoyable and worthwhile.
What would you say are the greatest lessons that you’ve learned so far?
In music? In music, the greatest lesson is to just keep playing, singing, writing and even if it keeps going horribly wrong, you are always getting a little bit closer to understanding what music is, what recording is, what performing is, who you are and the more you do that I think the more you can create the possibility for inspiration to enter and this inspiration gets given to the world. You have to learn to forget about yourself as such and just become really like a vessel.
Now onto your release, ‘Romeo.’ What inspired this song? What is ‘Romeo’ about?
‘Romeo’ just came from a guitar riff – the main acoustic guitar riff. I kind of felt it had a slight Smiths meets the Jam feel to it. The music pretty much wrote itself. The lyrics where more difficult – which is often the case with me. I had to work on the lyrics and from that point of view, I’m not so crazy about the lyrics. I like the music a lot and particularly the production, but the lyrics were not really inspired very much. I thought about them more than just letting the inspiration come. Sometimes you have to do that though or else things don’t get finished. I thought that I should write a song with a romantic lyric because I don’t often do that and I think pop music traditionally uses the theme of love to center the song around. I thought that I should do that and because it had a Smiths feel I kind of borrowed that mood – a little like ‘How Soon is Now.’
The actual idea behind the song is quite real and authentic because it is describing certain situations that most people, and certainly me, have found themselves in – that is to say going out to find a partner and not only coming home alone, but also feeling like you wasted your time or that you couldn’t relate to anyone in the place (i.e. a nightclub or dance) and these compounds the feelings of loneliness. But like I think most of my songs, there is often a sense of hope, and in this song, the main character doesn’t give up hope but maybe one day they’ll meet someone who also doesn’t fit in but they fit each other. I think most people go through that – especially when they are young and so from that point of view, I like the lyric, but it was still a little contrived.
What was the creative process like when making ‘Romeo?’
I think I answered that already. Musically, it was very easy and very quick. Lyrically, it was a bit forced. The recording of it was quite straight forward too. I used a studio called wasteland in Dublin. Many famous Irish musicians have recorded there. It was nice size, and it was very nice to have the use of their amps and their pianos, and it was great to get those really nice sounding instruments/amps on the record. The engineer was very good, and I liked the sound of the finished record. It was a lot more commercial sounding than I usually produce but I like to have things sounding a little more polished from time to time.
How long did it take to complete ‘Romeo?’
The music was done probably in a few minutes – I mean the basic acoustic song, but I think the lyrics took quite a long time. I couldn’t get anything for them, and I think that I just had to sit down and say ok this is what this song is going to be about, and I wrote them – drawing from a mixture of different experiences that I had kind of been through at various times in my life and which related to this theme of trying to find a partner.
What is your favorite lyric in ‘Romeo’ and why?
Possibly the line ‘are you waiting for a moment of chance. Could it be her?’ because I think this is what happens in life – moments of chance (or destiny moments) open up for us and without those moments, we can’t really do much. When they do happen, we need to be aware of them and really embrace them or they are gone.
What message or messages do you hope fans take away from ‘Romeo’ and your music in general?
My music in general is about life is a struggle – it is full of ups and downs, but that we are in this life for a purpose and that alone should give us hope and there is always hope and there will be happiness and sadness and not to let either overwhelm you. Appreciate the happiness and learn from the difficulties and the struggle – even though it can be hard when you are in the midst of it. Ultimately, I want people to feel from the music I make similar feels I feel when I listen to the music that I listen to. Just to contribute something like that.
As regards ‘Romeo,’ I think it’s got an uplifting feel to it from a musical point of view, and I hope people just like that feel and they can hum along or whistle or sing the melody regardless of the lyrical theme. If they do listen to the lyrics, I hope they relate to it especially if they are in a lonely place and it lifts them out of it.
What’s next for you? Are you working on any upcoming projects, or do you have any upcoming shows that we should be on the lookout for?
I have lots of music to release at present. So over the next 12 months, I have a lot of songs to put out and after that I have another lot which I’m just finished recording (demoing really). I have a number of gigs this month in Ireland – two in Galway and three in Clare. I don’t really know after that.
Where can we follow you on social media?
https://www.facebook.com/SeanTMacLeod
https://www.instagram.com/seanmacleod_music_
https://www.tiktok.com/@seanmacleod_music
Before you go, let’s ask you something off topic. What is your favorite food?
My favourite food is chocolate cake, but I don’t eat too much of it these days.
Thank you for the great interview; wish you much continued success!
