{"id":476524,"date":"2026-05-09T15:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/476524\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T15:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:31:17","slug":"lemoncello-dublin-is-squeezing-the-life-out-of-musicians-its-not-a-home-for-artists-any-more-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/476524\/","title":{"rendered":"Lemoncello: \u2018Dublin is squeezing the life out of musicians. It\u2019s not a home for artists any more\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Towards the end of writing their second album as Lemoncello<\/a>, in an 18th-century cottage overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in west Kerry<\/a>, Claire Kinsella and Laura Quirke had a hair-raising encounter with the local wildlife.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was one night where we were trying to take a break and we went for a swim,\u201d Kinsella says. \u201cWe were coming back. We had been told that there was a ghost in the cottage next to us. We were driving up towards our house. And there was just this giant hare in the middle of the road, looking out to the sea, ears poised. It was at least three minutes before the hare moved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The animal crouched there, ignoring Quirke and Kinsella, gazing out to sea and towards the shadow of Skellig Michael. Unsettling in most circumstances, the encounter took on an extra significance for the pair, who earlier that evening had been chatting about their families\u2019 love of ghost stories and their own fascination as adolescents with the supernatural.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking about ghosts from when we were teenagers,\u201d says Kinsella, who favourably compares the run-in with the hare to gatecrashing a horror movie. \u201cIt\u2019s spooky. It\u2019s got that very \u2018horror\u2019, terrifying-can-be-beautiful vibe. It\u2019s like there is something bigger than you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair took the experience as an indication they were on the right track during the brainstorming sessions at Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, a restored pre-Famine village at Ballinskelligs that offers residencies to artists.<\/p>\n

The music they were working on, which they\u2019ve just released as Perfect Place, was already shaping up to be a ghostly affair: a storm of taut strings, ominous grooves and heartfelt lyrics about break-ups, heartache and the pain of moving on after you have outgrown someone. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a triumphant blend of the ancient and the modern \u2013 and confirmation that Lemoncello are among the most important young folk acts in Ireland, a reputation that has already seen them share bills with CMAT<\/a> and Lisa O\u2019Neill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perfect Place is a testament both to their friendship \u2013 this is a record they dragged into existence together in the dark of Kerry – but also to the raw honesty of Quirke\u2019s lyrics, which are full of unhappy spirits and painful memories. <\/p>\n

On the heartbreaking Meet Me Half Way, for instance, she sings in her matter-of-fact way over a sobbing guitar, appealing to an important person in her life to \u201cmeet me halfway \u2026 where you\u2019re standing \u2026 too far from me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Heartache in all its forms is the thread that runs through the LP. On another song, Articulate Animal, Quirke warns another significant person to pay attention not to her words but to how she speaks and holds herself: the messages she sends with her gaze, her body language. <\/p>\n

Nodding quietly, Kinsella confirms that the pain of growing apart is a recurring theme of the project. The caveat is that these fractures are not necessarily romantic, and take place against the backdrop of life becoming ever more stressful for artists as rents soar and it becomes ever harder to make a living as a working musician.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an album that was written over a good few years. In that time there were friendships coming together and drifting apart, romantic love coming together and drifting apart,\u201d Quirke says, who is chipper and friendly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, the lyrics can come from one particular instance. Then maybe the next verse is completely different. Sometimes I would really love to know that this song is about this place or this person. It tends to be a reckoning with what I\u2019m learning emotionally with all my relationships at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kinsella and Quirke met while studying in Maynooth; they put on early gigs at open-mic nights at the Roost pub, across the road from the town\u2019s university, where they were studying music and languages. They struck up an immediate connection, though musically they are from distinct worlds. Quirke, who is from Borris, Co Carlow, grew up on pop and was obsessed with Taylor Swift<\/a> throughout her childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI listened to the radio all the time. I was doing my homework: those pop choruses of the early 2000s imprinted something in my brain. Once I found I was into lyrics, I switched to folk music. Folk gives such space to the lyric.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ClaireClaire Kinsella and Laura Quirke met while studying in Maynooth. Photograph: C\u00e1it Fahey <\/p>\n

This was light years removed from Kinsella, who was surprised to discover that her new collaborator was a recovering Swiftie. \u201cWhen I first went to Laura\u2019s house, when we first met \u2013 I was about 19 \u2013 Laura\u2019s desk from when she was a teenager was scribbled with Taylor Swift lyrics. I was maybe a bit more of an indie kid growing up. I was, like, \u2018Woah, we\u2019ve had different upbringings. This is so interesting.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Lemoncello released their first album in 2024<\/a>. They were heralded as a fresh new voice in Irish folk, but they also noticed that they tended to be talked about in the context of traditional musicians such as the Mercury Prize nominees Lankum<\/a> and the Dublin<\/a> songwriter John Francis Flynn<\/a>, whom they have met since moving to Dublin.<\/p>\n

While fans of those artists, they\u2019re careful to draw a distinction. They\u2019re a folk act in the senses that Quirke\u2019s lyrics tell a story and that the textures of their songs are sometimes stripped down, often to the barest bones. <\/p>\n

But they\u2019re not another Lankum, whose music delves into the bogwaters of the Irish psyche. Lemoncello\u2019s influences are more contemporary: alongside the keening vocals and raw, diaristic lyricism, Perfect Place features trip-hop beats and pop choruses.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The sound of young Ireland: the bands and singers to watch forOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe very much respect the folk tradition. We love it. We grew up with it,\u201d Quirke says. \u201cBut we\u2019re not trying to reflect back to ancient storytelling. I can see where people draw that folk line and the storytelling aspect. But, in the musical sensibility, it is sometimes a pop song.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Dublin they experience on a daily basis what some consider to be the city\u2019s unofficial war on its creative community \u2013 an onslaught of rising rents and spiralling costs of living. These challenges affect everyone, of course: it isn\u2019t just artists who have to worry about rent hikes or whether they\u2019re going to end up commuting from deepest Leinster. <\/p>\n

\n

\u2018What we\u2019re losing is artists; we\u2019re losing a scene, because people can\u2019t live here any more.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Claire Kinsella on Dublin<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But they believe a city that\u2019s as hostile to the arts as Dublin is becoming is in danger of losing an essential part of its soul.<\/p>\n

That was Kinsella\u2019s message when she wrote an opinion piece for Hot Press magazine in 2020. She talked of the challenge of balancing her music career, her work as an Irish teacher and the never-ending struggle to pay rent while hoping your landlord doesn\u2019t decide to sell up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am essentially working three jobs to live here,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI\u2019m an Irish teacher, a full-time master\u2019s student, and spend my evenings and weekends recording, playing gigs and doing admin work for the band, to pursue this work I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six years later, has anything changed?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably gotten worse,\u201d Kinsella says. Beside her, Quirke nods her head in agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is squeezing the life out of musicians,\u201d Kinsella continues. \u201cEveryone is feeling the brunt of it. What I can talk about is my own experience. I\u2019ve definitely, in the past couple of years, felt a sense of being squeezed for everything we have in the city, to the point where it doesn\u2019t feel it can be a home for artists any more. It is becoming so artist-unfriendly. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone getting preference in houses, it\u2019s the people with the most amount of cash, the Google, the big tech. What we\u2019re losing is artists; we\u2019re losing a scene, because people can\u2019t live here any more<\/a>. I feel so blessed that I can still live here right now. That is purely based on being really, really lucky with finding somewhere to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LemoncelloLemoncello took a moment last year to celebrate their love of The Corrs by covering Breathless for a Tourism Ireland St Patrick\u2019s Day video. Photograph: C\u00e1it Fahey <\/p>\n

Between albums, they took a moment last year to celebrate their love of The Corrs<\/a> by covering Breathless for a Tourism Ireland St Patrick\u2019s Day video. Often regarded as peddlers of disposable Celtic whimsy, the Dundalk singing siblings have had a rehabilitation in recent years. Breathless was also covered by the hipster favourite Caroline Polachek<\/a>, who has described it as a long-time favourite. Lemoncello feel likewise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to call it a guilty pleasure, because it\u2019s a pleasure,\u201d Quirke says. \u201cIt\u2019s about accepting that this is just good music. There\u2019s nothing cringe about it. It\u2019s a brilliant song \u2013 and very nostalgic for both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nostalgia can sometimes feel haunting. The ghosts that inhabit Perfect Place are altogether more modern, yet they combine to cast a spell no less potent. Claire Kinsella and Laura Quirke have made an album that\u2019s a perfect mix of beauty, wonder and quiet awe: a 21st-century ghost story.<\/p>\n

Perfect Place is released by Claddagh Records<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Towards the end of writing their second album as Lemoncello, in an 18th-century cottage overlooking the Atlantic Ocean…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[158118,14867,52,18,117,19,17,31947,31945,208735,172008,973],"class_list":["post-476524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-caroline-polachek","tag-cmat","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-francis-flynn","tag-lankum","tag-lemoncello","tag-lisa-o-neill","tag-taylor-swift"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116545342271262620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}