“My songs are not politically-fuelled, it’s more of a self-indulgent process for me being honest”

Ahead of the Æ MAK headline show this Friday, Carla Jenkins has an in-depth chat with Aoife McCann, with photography by Katie Ball.

Aoife McCann’s newest song has feeling about it. It’s fresh and relevant and is a bit like predicting a February heatwave in January, before everyone has started talking and twittering on about it. Her voice, sounding more vulnerable and stripped back than we’ve ever heard, meets us at the song’s door:

we have it all here / tell me it’s real for you / the symptoms of fear

One line encapsulates the sound of a movement within our generation: that we have everything, that it’s hard to believe that it’s real, and that it terrifies us. And yet, despite potentially coming across as heavy, a synth and some percussion cuts in and the track becomes an anthem. It’s light, it flutters, and it moves away from its own subject matter. It’s an oxymoron of a song; knowing its exact ability but misunderstanding the impact it can make.