Write a commentWhen days were blending together and I didn’t know if it was Tuesday or Friday, one point of the week anchored life for me. Saturday night, 7pm. I took to putting it in my diary so I could tune in to Cocoons on Facebook for an hour or so of live music performed by fantastic singer-songwriters. The child of Matt McGinn and Cormac Neeson grew into something special and important because the one thing many of us miss most of all is going to a gig and sharing that experience with friends and fellow fans.
Matt is a songwriter of extraordinary talent yet humble and grateful for it. Sitting in his kitchen in the Mourne countryside, while his daughter Maggie carries her favourite chicken about, we reflect on what inspires him and how losing the chance to play live made him come up with Cocoons.
The cancellation of a gig in Newry Town Hall in March was a low point as Matt realised live gigging was gone for a while. “That evening, we were sitting by the fire and I thought, I’m going to go online and play a few songs. And it reminded me there’s so many times in life that I’ve thought to myself ‘God the last thing I need now is doing this gig’ but those are the times that I really need to sing because sometimes it’s the only time I breathe properly in a week. It’s almost like a form of self-therapy. I’ve always felt that when I’m on the stage, it’s more than performing, I’m getting stuff out of my system.”
“Cormac and I were talking and we knew that if we did something it had to be live. There’s little satisfaction in pre-recording because you can keep doing takes and you lose that bit of adrenalin. We started Cocoons and it became apparent that other artists felt the same.”
When it comes to picking artists, Matt and Cormac didn’t want to just book their mates. “We purposely decided to dig deep and make new introductions and especially to find female or young performers. Some of them have really risen to the occasion.” And there’s no end in sight. “Once the bars started to open, we thought that would be it but I’ve booked October 10 so there’s no end to it yet.”
“I’m very lucky. My wife isn’t in the arts so she was working and I was looking after the children during the day, homeschooling and all. I didn’t have to panic. I thought it was important to stay safe. Live music and the music industry has been on its last legs for a few years. If we were in a strong place going into this, we might be OK but it’s going to be hard. Where people used to seek music out, now the radio’s all the same but there are things people in the industry and government could do that would make it a lot easier for people like me to exist. There are some shows willing to go off the playlist. Ralph McLean’s is one, Fiachna Ó Braonáin on RTÉ is another, playing a proper mix.”
Has this time been good for Matt’s songwriting? “With writing, you need to open yourself up a bit and be a bit more vulnerable. I’d written a good bit from September to March so I had time to try and get them sounding good.”
Many Moons Ago, Matt’s latest single, is one of those songs, coming out of a concert with a moon theme last November. It’s a beautifully melancholic song evoking lost love and time passed.
This year was supposed to see the launch of Matt’s latest album, Lessons of War, an extraordinary collaborative project exploring the futility of war all over the world. Four years in the making with a documentary and a tour all booked. “The plan was to test it in a low-key way and then, with the help of the Arts Council, we were going to team up with the people involved and bring it on a tour of the UK but that’s not going to happen at all.”
I can’t imagine how it would feel to see all that hard work and planning just stop, especially for a project that made Matt face a lot of old wounds and help him work out why he felt about things the way he does. “It was the time to unleash it. Long hours went into it but whenever you’re faced with the Covid thing, there was no contest. Now the thought of trying to coerce people to come out for a great evening but to put them at risk isn’t worth it. For me, Lessons of War happened when a lot of people were angry about the war in Syria, the refugee crisis, Brexit and all sorts and then all of a sudden we had to park our anger and I was happy enough not to address the emotions I would have had with Lessons of War and I don’t think people would have wanted that at this time either. But it’s just parked, it’s not gone anywhere. There could be a Lessons of War 2 but right now, with all of this, I feel like I just want to write songs about flowers and love.”Check out
Even a song about love and flowers will become something special in the hands of this gifted man. In the meantime, we laugh as Matt recollects getting an email from Christy Moore, praising his beautiful song, ‘Lyra’. “I got it and I was elbow-deep in nappies and I thought, this is great but I’ve got to get this baby changed.” Not sure there’s a song in that but if anyone can write about how parenthood is the great leveller, it’s Matt.
Cocoons at WWW.FACEBOOK.COM Every Saturday at 7pm
Matt is part of the Sailortown Sessions, a Radio Ulster show shortlisted for an IMRO Radio Award. You can hear his session here: WWW.BBC.CO.UK
