Maria Doyle Kennedy is certainly a household name. Although mostly known for her gleaming acting career and her iconic role in The Commitments, Maria is no stranger to the music world, with an array of albums under her belt, the latest of which is her live album ‘Maria Live’.
‘‘We decided to do a live album because so many people would come up to me at gigs and say what album is most like what I’ve just heard, and we realised that all the albums are so different, so we decided to do a live album to give them what they wanted” says Maria. The ‘we’ that she is referring to his her and her husband and musician Keiran Kennedy. ”Keiran did a lot of work on the album, I just kind of swanned in at the end and said yeah that sounds great” laughs Maria. ”The recordings are from two gigs, The Pepper Cannister Church and Vicar Street, we didn’t redo any of the recording afterwards, and there are some absolute clangers in there, but it is 100% live.”
Maria claims that when she heard Billie Holiday sing for the first time, she instantly fell in love with music ”Apparently I was always singing when I was small, I got a CD of her music when I was about twelve or thirteen, her voice just shook me up inside and I felt something I had never felt before, I just felt something so deeply”
‘Maria Live’ and Maria’s other albums have all been released on her own record label Mermaid ”I set up the label for two reasons, at the time I was in my thirties and I knew nobody was going to sign me at that stage. So it was either do it myself or not bother, and it kind of took me till then to really find my own voice. It is great being in charge of my own music. I am usually not very good at being told what to do, but it does mean that I don’t get to spend all my time writing and recording. I have to take time to do stuff like VAT returns, which is not always fun”.
On the 29th of May, Maria will appear at The Sugar Club for a gig to celebrate the launch of her live record. ”I’m really looking forward to the show, I love playing live more than anything. It is the only Dublin date and we’re taking a little bit of a break now to write the next album. ‘Maria Live’ is available on iTunes, but the only place to get a physical copy is at The Sugar Club. It’s been two years since the last album and this is like the perfect bookend to all the gigging we have done, before going back to writing.”
Maria beams with pride when talking about the live record and how well received it was. ”It got really good reviews and the people who wanted it, loved it. You can download it, but if you want a real one you got to come to The Sugar Club”
So when can we expect another studio album? ”It takes me awhile, first to write the songs and then to let them go, I would love to say this time next year, but it will probably be a little bit longer”.