Interview: Niamh McKinney is a Damn Luxury

"Damn Luxury" deals with two women whose lives have taken very different paths.

Where did the idea for the song come from?

I got the idea from a short story I'd once started to write, imagining the perspective of a teen mum feeling like she wasn't free in life; watching her friends be carefree and feeling shackled by the weight of the responsibilities of motherhood. I'd never finished it, and thought one line from the dialogue between her and her friend would make a good first line for a song: '"It's all right for you", she said...' Their conversation is imbued with her frustration about the lack of understanding from her friend about her situation, and she tries to explain to her what her life can be like, while the friend kind of loses patience with her a bit, calling her a "misery guts" and telling her to get on with things in a way. I wanted to capture some of those feelings of frustration that a young mother might have, and also show at the end of the song that she ultimately understands that she is really gifted; that she has riches. I wanted the song to have a positive conclusion because family is so important.

It's a very intimate conversation at the heart of the track. Was it difficult to write from both

perspectives without taking sides?

It wasn't difficult to avoid taking sides because I can see it from both sides; the young girl feeling she's missing out and very burdened with responsibility, and the other girl seeing what she has and telling her she's keeping the sorrows of yesterday alive - focusing on the negatives - instead of just going with the flow of her own life. Within a song, you don't usually have much time to go deeply in to a conversation, but I hope the core message of "see how rich I am still" comes through. I think that by the end of the song she has gained the clarity from the conversation to be able see that her life has not been burdened, but broadened.

You've described the song as arriving at a quiet revelation. What do you hope listeners

take from it?

I really hope that the positive ending of the song is what people take from it. I feel the refrain at the conclusion is uplifting and I hope others feel that too. And even though a lot of the other lyrics are obviously weighted with a little negativity, I hope the melody - which feels positive to me - feels uplifting to people. She has shed old ideas of restriction and escaped a certain mindset she'd been living in. It feels kind of triumphant that she's realised having her kids made her "really real"; stripped away artifice.

It's been almost a year since your last release. Was that time away intentional, and did it

shape the song at all?

No not at all; this song was finished a long time ago and we just hadn't gotten around to releasing it! The time away was definitely not intentional, it was just life getting in the way! I am releasing a few a capella songs soon and we plan on keeping the songs coming more frequently now. There is a wealth of material and we just need to polish it up and get it out there.

You write all your lyrics and melodies a cappella before bringing Stephen in. What does

that solo process look like for a song as emotionally layered as this one?

It's sometimes a very gradual process. For this one, I took the old dialogue from that unfinished short story and just re-worked it in to song form on paper. I tweaked lines here and there, keeping the conversational quality while also weeding out the prose, making it more song-friendly. Then, using lines of melody which I record and save when they come in to my head, I piece the melody together. I might have one line of melody or two, and pair them with a line or two of lyrics, and then in singing that to myself the song then takes the oars and tells me where it wants to go, melodically. Usually it will flow very easily. If it isn't flowing, I don't do it. You can't force it. It can't feel like work. It just flies away from you. I usually scroll through and listen to many of my saved melodies until I find one that really sparks with the lyrics. It's unmistakable when it happens. Other times, the lyrics bring the melody with them at the same time. It really depends. I really love the alone time and the deep absorption that happens when writing a song; everything else seeps away and you become engrossed. I love landing on a compelling lyric and pairing it with an equally compelling melody, making the whole thing soar. The melody gives the lyrics new meaning and vice versa. The words come alive in a way that speaks to you differently.

Wicklow comes up a lot when people talk about your music. How much does place feed in to what you write?

It feeds in to it hugely. We are surrounded by so much beauty in Wicklow. I don't know if the same melodies and lyrics would come to me if I lived somewhere else. It's endlessly inspiring. The landscapes here lend themselves to deeply sombre and ethereal moods, as well as ecstatically joyful ones. I think I have Wicklow to thank for the songs really. It is a most inspiring place to live. It has everything; beaches, forests, mountains, pretty towns and villages. It feels like the home of my soul and I appreciate it more and more. I do really feel the melodies that come to me are shaped by the places I see around me here. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFmVk5Bi8Kg