Oisin Mod | Produced by Bill Ryder-Jones | New single + album
- Desh Kapur
- 2 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Oisin Mod announces new Bill Ryder-Jones-produced album Canary
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New album out 6th November
“Aside from the sheer quality of the songwriting, musically he's very minimalistic and melody-led. . . Oisin has a great balance of vision and humility” - Bill Ryder-Jones
Today, enigmatic Galway-born singer-songwriter Oisin Mod returns with the announcement of his much-anticipated new album Canary. Out 6th November, the album sees him once again working with Bill Ryder-Jones (ex-The Coral) who also produced his acclaimed 2022 debut Honeycomb. The news also follows his recent single “Mirror Mirror”, which saw Mod on the receiving end of plaudits from the likes of CLASH, The Line Of Best Fit, KLOF, The New Cue, Hard Of Hearing, and more.
Honeycomb saw Oisin delivering on all the promise of his early singles and live dates, supporting the likes of Gruff Rhys. His delicate and hypnotic blending of candid, wistful lyrics, with minimalist yet deeply melodic instrumentation earned widespread acclaim and led to performances alongside Leal Neal (who also designed it’s artwork) and Kate Bollinger, as well as his two only headline shows to date in London and Ireland.
On his second album, Canary, Mod has transposed the sublime musical shimmers and sea mist melancholia of Honeycomb to somewhere far murkier and nocturnal. A world of blinking neon lights and lost highways, of fear and loathing, skullduggery and mistrust, it can feel like there’s something nefarious lurking around each corner. This is particularly true of today’s new single, and the album’s title track. Guitars rumble and growl menacingly, organs catch the light like switchblades as Mod’s hushed vocals speak from the shadows: “When he pulls the thread just right / You’ll sing like a canary”.
The track serves as something of a bellwether for the mood and sound Mod wanted to explore, locking himself away in a rundown house in West Cork for a month to write it. “Jagged thought processes were a big part of where these songs came from,” he recalls. “Being disillusioned and feeling like a cynic and maybe becoming not so easy to be around yourself. That’s the sort of world that a lot of it came from.”
As he explored his internal psychogeography, Mod binged on Twin Peaks and David Lynch films, read John Healy’s bleakly funny memoir The Grass Arena and listened to the clanking psychobilly horror show of Pop Crimes, the final album from Nick Cave’s crow-like Birthday Party lieutenant, Rowland S. Howard. Immersing himself in their art helped flesh out and add colour and a sense of drama to the world he was trying to build.
“Consuming that sort of stuff definitely informed the record,” he reflects. “I knew the feeling that I wanted but didn’t know how to articulate it. I had to start engaging with stuff that was in that world.”
As he had done with Honeycomb, Mod took his demos to Bill Ryder-Jones, former Coral guitarist, solo artist and producer. The pair had recorded Honeycomb together in just ten days, and despite Canary having much more muscular, full-bodied arrangements (Ryder-Jones urged Mod to make a record “with a pair of shoulders”), working with The Fernweh/Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band drummer Phil Murphy, they finished the album in just 12 days.
“Recording with Bill just works,” reflects Mod. “We have a shared vernacular and there’s an understanding of our work dynamic.”
“I’ve got a lot of love for Oisin. Making one album with someone is fine, but if you don’t get on then the chances of making a second one are quite thin,” says Ryder-Jones of their working relationship. “Secondly, I’m a fan of his writing. He has a way with words that is very unique to him, and that counts for so much. Those two things are all I’m really interested in, in truth. It’s actually really easy to work with Oisin. He has a clear picture of what he wants, and my only real job is to facilitate that.”
With records by Bowie and Iggy Pop among their sonic reference points, they tore through a lean, ten-song set that holds together magnificently. On the likes of the slow-burning “Premium” Ryder-Jones’ parts snake around and snap at Mod’s (“if you’re making a record with guitars, why wouldn’t you want Bill Ryder-Jones all over it?” Mod reasons), Murphy drives everything hard and dry, as vintage organs glimmer through the cracks.
“I really like records that sound organised, not to the point of being rigid, but if we found something that sounded good, we thought, Let’s just fucking stick with it...” says Mod. “Music can still sound big without adding a load of stuff on to it.”
Although it uses a deliberately limited palette, there’s an enormous depth and variety on display. See recent single “Mirror Mirror’s” woozy late-night waltz, the pulsating, panic-attack throb of “Stained Glass House”, or the rolling and crashing resolution of closing track “When The Heat Dies Down”, a song that ends Canary on a rueful but ultimately more optimistic note.
For an artist who has already proved himself to be a remarkable talent, it’s an extraordinary step up. “Maybe I was a bit more reserved on the first album,” shrugs Mod. “I was a lot more rigid in terms of my approach whereas with this one I was like OK, let’s just go in and see what happens”
Tracklisting:
1. Always On Leave
2. Canary
3. Morning Again
4. Not On My Watch
5. Got The Wrong Man
6. Premium
7. Mirror Mirror
8. Mile High Moon
9. Stained Glass House
10. When The Heat Dies Down
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