Podge Lane Found the Album in the First Take
Punk Head: You went into that fishing shed intending to make demos, not a finished album. At what point did you realize the demos were actually the record?
Podge Lane: Well I went down to my grandparents with the intent of not doing anything. I’d been so busy the past year with a new album and 200 shows, I just wanted to chill out and chat and maybe play guitar. But as we talked and I felt a level of calm, one story would become a lyric, one afternoon would give me a melody and before I knew it songs started coming pretty fast.
So, I went into the shed to record my immediate thoughts, as I’ve found the more time I have the more I file away the raw idea to something less usable. So I recorded each song immediately as it came with the intent of taking them all back to America to record in a full band setting. But as I kept recording I felt an ease the studio never had before. It felt like how I had felt listening to Nebraska by Springsteen or A Letter Home by Neil Young, like I was being let in on a secret.
And when I listened back to those demos while leaving my grandparents, I realised the album had been staring me in the face the whole time and I wanted everyone to hear these recordings exactly as they came.
Punk Head: Your grandfather's story becomes “The Great Northern Diver.” What made that particular story stick with you?
Podge Lane: Well, it’s funny, I went out on the boat with my grandfather and my fiancé. And my fiancé told me to bring my guitar to take photos. While we were out chatting my grandfather pointed out a bird in the distance. And my grandfather has a great way of telling stories, if he played guitar I would be out of a job. But this bird was called the great northern diver by some, the loom/loon by others. It travelled from North America to Ireland every year, and none of them quite knew why.
And as he told the story, I just started playing guitar and basically making his facts rhyme. I didn’t understand in the moment why it was important to me, it wasn’t until someone pointed out after the albums release that the bird was a lot like me! I’m Podge Lane to some, Padraig to family. I travel from the US to Ireland, some people don’t know why.
Everything just worked out and this story became the catalyst for an album I’m so proud of! I was so excited to record it the minute I wrote it, you can hear at the start of the recording I mess up the line and start again! I loved that moment and the excitement I can hear in myself that I kept it in.
Punk Head: The album moves between inherited stories and deeply personal songs. Where do you think your story ends and your family's begins?
Podge Lane: I don’t think there’s a clear beginning and ending. It’s funny, the more personal I try to write, the more sterile I think it can turn out. Because I’ll start very honest, and then worry how certain lines will be perceived, change, correct etc. until I don’t recognise myself in the song.
Whereas on this album and my last one, I took the approach of writing more from outside perspectives. In this albums case; two lost loves, a bird, my grandfather, my parents, my fiancé. And the more I wrote about them or for them, the more I saw myself and my own struggles in a new light. It’s cheesy to say, but I learned a lot about myself listening back to this album.
Punk Head: You moved to New York and then made a record that seems to pull you back toward the West Coast of Ireland. Did distance change the way you heard home?
Podge Lane: Absolutely! Someone said to me you never feel as Irish as you do abroad, and it’s so true. I saw my home in such a different light. Especially doing lots of shows in America and traveling. I felt a pride in being a troubadour from Ireland, part of a tradition that I could carve my own path from. It’s funny, I never feel a hundred percent anything, genre or home, it always floats for me. But leaving Ireland gave me a greater sense of who I am and the parts of my life I want to keep. And this album is a celebration of many of those parts.
Punk Head: “The Sea!” reinterprets an 18th-century poem. What attracts you to taking something old and letting it live inside a contemporary folk record?
Podge Lane: That one came about in such an odd way. I’ve never felt fully comfortable doing covers. I always feel if I don’t play my own songs then who will?
I started as a songwriter before I ever wanted to be a performer, but I’m always looking for new ways to challenge myself. So with this album, when I was writing the songs thinking it would be more like Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline style. I wanted to make something steeped in old folk and country.
So I looked through a load of old sea poems trying to find the right one to fit this album. I thought about trying spoken word, to start like a Zach Bryan album, or make it into a folk song. When I came across The Sea, it instantly felt like it was written about me.
I rarely feel that connection in myself with poetry. But the idea of someone shouting “I am an adventurer and that is what I will be until the day death finally catches me” just felt so easy. I didn’t want to force a poem into this album, but when I found this one it felt like something unlocked.
I had the chords and melody written in about an hour! It feels good to show respect to the past while creating something new.
Punk Head: You went looking for a way out of overthinking music and ended up making a record built around listening to other people. What do you think you were finally able to hear?
Podge Lane: I honestly think I’m someone who if you tell me “this is impossible” then I’m going to find a way to do it. And that can be a great thing. It fuelled me to record independently, release 4 DIY albums, and tour without a plan for over 6 years.
But when I toured America, I found myself, more than ever, playing songs before they were finished for crowds. I kept getting to fine tune ideas, and loved the creativity that came from trying to make it hit for Friday’s crowd better than Thursdays. And by doing this I lost the part of my independent nature that took every idea or advice as a threat to my independence.
So it was really a case of my finding a self assured voice that appreciated help rather than feared it. Without learning that, this album could have turned out very preachy or “let me tell you about your life” whereas I think it ended up as the best parts of myself reflected back and forth between those I love.
