Hi I'm SOAK, I'm a musician from
Ireland and you are watching
Speed Date with Xtra Magazine.
How would you describe your latest
album "If I Never Know
You Like This Again?"
Uhhhhh... How would you describe it?
Emotional.
"Where have I been all my life?"
Kind of dramatic.
"I don't want to be a souvenir."
A lot of questions are in there.
Like a lot of me asking myself
questions and projecting
those questions into the world, as
well.
And intense.
There's a lot of intense
moments on it.
And honestly, I'd say, ultimately.
It's very honest,
I didn't really shy away
lyrically from what I felt I had to,
like, work out or discuss,
which at times I'm like,
'Oh, you just said that now
everyone's going to hear it.' But
it's also a relief in a way.
"How can I be in the moment
when I'm dreading the end of it?"
What album made you want
to be a musician?
It's hard to say because, like,
growing up, I listened to loads of
Joni Mitchell.
"Bought me a ticket, I caught
a plane to Spain.
Went to a party down the red dirt
road."
And Pink Floyd.
"So, so you think
you can tell?"
My parents' music, really.
And I think probably the first music
that stood out to me that I felt
that I'd find myself was Tegan
and Sara's "The Con".
"Encircle me, I need to be, taken down.".
But finding them when I was
12 or 13 was such like,
like, I don't know, brain
melting kind of thing for me and it
like, in a really appreciative
way. Like, I've never seen
people I identified with so much,
and I think seeing them doing what
they do, I was like,
'Oh, this is possible
for people like me.'
And I found that album to
be a huge inspiration for me.
I played it every day on the bus and
I still play and I like it just
hasn't lost its, you
know, special thing for me.
"Maybe I would have been something
you'd been good at."
That record was so influential for
me as as a younger person
to do find
even like more beyond the music just
as like representatives and
everything they stood for and
real role models.
I'd say that's the album that
kicked me off.
You released your first album
"Before We Forgot How to Dream" at
15 years old.
What's changed for you as an artist
since then?
"Be a nobody."
Everything, kind of. Like releasing music
when you're so young and
impressionable,
I don't know.
I, like, I don't know remember the
last time I've sat down and listened
to any of my prior music
because it is
so intense for me to do that
because there's so much in there.
And it's really like revisiting
your past and your past self.
And that's
not something I always want to, just
like, I can't just dive into that, I
need to prepare myself to be like,
'Here we go.' Cause I'm gonna like,
cringe at things and, you know, feel
sad about things.
"Your in my blood."
Now I'm definitely more of a collector
putting things together.
So yeah,
but I mean, just so much has changed
since I started writing music.
I think just naturally as you
get older and who you develop
into as a person like obviously
affects everything.
"I know you get it bad, you don't deserve this."
Who are your musical icons?
It's ever changing, but I'm
trying to think of, like, consistent
ones.
I'd say at the moment, like, I'm a
huge, like
the Boygenius trio.
"I never said I'd be alright."
I was just on tour with Lucy Decus,
and she's amazing.
I love her music, and also she's a
really nice person, which just adds
to the whole
thing.
"Over and over, over and over again." I'm really fond of all three of
them.
"I'm telling my own fortune."
And the people, I think they're such
reliable musicians, you know, you
can trust that everything they do is
going to be really good.
"The billboard said 'the end is near.'".
But also The National.
"Joe, I'll always think of you." I'll go back to The National every
now and again and be like, 'Oh, so
good.' Even the things I've heard
like a gazillion times,
like, remain brilliant.
You have a tour coming up.
What's something you always have
to travel with on tour?
I'd say my ultimate
the ultimate thing I have to bring
is always my camera.
Like, I just really it's
that collectors thing in me.
I really like to collect
moments and document them.
And I just find so much joy
in like, I really
enjoy walking around and I
think when I have the camera, I'm
really like, 'Oh, I need to go out'
and when I'm on my walk, I
can have a job.
What song would you most want
to cover?
Broken Social Scene are my favorite
band, hands down.
"And you're walking away, and you try to get through."
Any song of theirs, but like part of
me, "Anthems For A 17
Year-Old", kind of, even though
it's like this repeat thing where
the line doesn't change.
Like, it's very samey for like 3
minutes. And so my, it's still
like, phenomenally emotional.
"Drop that phone, sleep on the floor,
dream about me."
Maybe "Sweetest Kill" because
that's the song that got me into
Broken Social Scene.
And I always go back to that and
really, I have a moment with
that song, so maybe that's the
one I would want to do mostly.
"I thought you were the sweetest kill."
What unlikely obsession
do you have these days?
Recently, I've really been getting
into my snacks like, I'm
a real, I like having
snack boxes in wherever
I'm living, kinda hidden.
Nearly like a squirrel kind of
thing.
And I was just
in America and I came back with a
full bag, like an extra bag
of snacks because they have the
elite snacks.
And also, I'm really intrigued to
know what snacking is like in
Canada.
I have been before, but I wasn't
this as committed to snacks as I am
now and I'd really like
to enter that snacking world.
Thanks for watching Speed Date with
Xtra Magazine.
You can find me online @SOAKSOAKSOAK
on most platforms, but usually
I'm on Instagram the most.
And my new album if "I Never
Know You Like This Again" is now.