Fionn Regan - A writer on loan to music

Now on his third album, the Irish artist is staking his claim as one of the sharpest songwriters of recent years. Loved by his fellow musicians and forever on the hunt for fresh lyrical inspiration, he wields the force of urban rock and the tenderness of fingerpicking with skilled narrative instinct

by Gianfranco Marmoro

A writer on loan to music, who worships Woody Guthrie and Nirvana and used to play his Silvertone guitar trying to imitate Velvet Underground and Modern Lovers, but also a shy author already nominated for the 2007 Mercury Prize and an honorary member of the Trinity College literary society: these are just a few of the fragments that make up Fionn Regan, an Irish musician gifted with a bright, assured musical voice that honors the tradition of post-Dylan songwriters.

The son of a musician, he spent his childhood in County Wicklow, lulled by the sea air of his hometown Bray, a bustling town rich in history and modern tourist amenities.

He made his first recorded steps as Bilbo, documented on the Ep Slow Wall, which gathers three rough but pleasant tracks; two years later Fionn Regan released a series of singles and Eps that caught even the sharpest critics off guard.

The tracks on his two Eps, Reservoir from 2003 and Hotel Room from 2004, are full of personality: the echoes of Nick Drake (practically mandatory for any English singer-songwriter), Jeff Buckley and above all Damien Rice are tempered by solid songwriting and a captivating charm that seems to evoke the poetic force of Leonard Cohen or the more modern one of Sparklehorse, Fionn Regan displays a harmonic complexity that will keep him from ever becoming the new David Gray.

The author's qualities come through in the small details of his music: his melancholic streak never tips into self-pity or depression, his chord progressions are enveloping yet fragile, and his lyrics are miniature stories full of sharp poetic solutions. Fionn Regan loves to upend everyday doubts, redrawing the boundaries of his stories without ever seeking or finding an answer, recounting with cynical disenchantment his own wonder at knowledge.

The attention of Simon Raymonde (ex-Cocteau Twins) convinced him to leave Anvil Records for Bella Union, and after moving first to Brighton and then to London, he released his debut album, The End Of The History.

Excellent compositions, a voice straight out of folksinger tradition, and spare, essential arrangements that manage to convey all of the author's lyricism - this is the outcome of recording sessions that rarely made it to a second take for any given track, though the crystalline sound and robust fingerpicking mark out every note with determination and class.

All the best English and American folk flows through your mind while listening to The End Of History: Bert Jansch, Bruce Cockburn, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Pentangle, Woody Guthrie, yet none of these similarities dents the integrity and artistic quality of the project — take for example the excellent "Hey Rabbit", which sounds like it could have come straight off an Albatross anthology.

Fingerpicking of refined harmonic structure runs through "Abacus", which also offers an enchanting lyric on the philosophy of numerology, while "The Underwood Typewriter" and "Be Good Or Be Gone" take on the shape of small classics of the new folk.

Sparing instrumental touches lend strength to several of the compositions: drums buoy "Black Water Child" with graceful taste, piano permeates the delicate "Bunker Or Basement", bass conjures an enchanted, nocturnal atmosphere for "The Cowshed", while viola and violin skilfully stretch out the pastoral moods of "Snowy Atlas Mountains".

It's "Put A Penny In The Slot", however, that is the most American of the tracks (and this writer's favorite), a song that underlines his love for the first generation of American folksingers, a tribute to the rich history of Greenwich Village, with just "voice and guitar" and a superb lyric.

Only after the American release of The End Of History on Lost Highway (a label home to country singers of distinguished pedigree, like Lyle Lovett and Lucinda Williams) do the doors to the Irish artist's first real recognition open.

Greeted by rapturous reviews, Fionn Regan embarks on a musical journey that takes him to play in Spain, Wales, Texas, Australia, Ireland and San Francisco. His keen sensibility as a writer allows him to gather new stories that would go on to form an album, one that Lost Highway would later refuse to release, shelving it under the title "The Red Tapes".

The tour sees several notable musicians cross his path: Noisettes drummer Jamie gives a copy of The End Of History to Drew McConnell of Babyshambles, who is floored by the incredible quality of the songwriting and goes on to use his own band's downtime to play with Regan, describing his experience with the Irish songwriter as a mind-bending trip, despite the absence of any drugs.

The enthusiasm of his labelmates and of the director of the "Be Good Or Be Gone" video, along with a Mercury Prize nomination, fail to move the wider public, and the album ends up languishing in the cut-out bins of record shops.

The books of Jack Kerouac and Dylan Thomas keep Regan company through his days, as he works at gathering new inspiration for an album awaiting the interest of a new label. This record, too, sees a return to his natural approach to sound, achieved through analogue recording techniques that don't alter the timbre of the instruments.

In July 2008, Regan has the honor of being invited to the Bitter End to share the stage with Liam Clancy, Tom Paxton, Shane McGowan and Odetta (in her last documented performance), and is named an honorary member of the Trinity College Literary Society, with the following citation: "In his music, Mr. Regan has done more than most artists to erode the boundaries between music and literature, his songs forever possessed by the finest poetry"; finally, his song "Put a Penny in the Slot" is included on a compilation produced by the Irish cultural commission and Iasca as a tribute for the English royals, the Irish authorities and President Obama on the occasion of their 2011 meeting on Irish soil.

Having retreated to Ireland, Fionn completes his new recordings with no record deal in place, and thanks to the interest of Jeff Barrett of Heavenly Records, releases his second album.

The Shadow Of An Empire disappoints some early fans, who had been drawn to his spare romanticism. On The End Of History, languor and melancholy led the listener by the hand; here, everything is more direct, almost gut-driven rather than cerebral, yet it all remains vital and intense.

His taste for music with rough-hewn edges fuses rockabilly ("Protection Racket") and indie rock ("Coat Hook"), steering clear of mainstream clichés, and synthesizes past and future in the rock-blues charge of "Genocide Matinee", amid nods to Bob Dylan ("Subterranean Homesick Blues") and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The artistic boundaries are well defined, and the robust rock framework betrays no shortage of inspiration. Fionn throws down a challenge to Bob Dylan on the tough terrain of electric folk-rock.

Music on the road, stripped of the strong, incisive generational touchstones that fueled the fire of inspiration for '70s songwriters, yet still able to win you over with its skillful writing, confirming the author as one of the most lucid songwriters of recent years.

Fionn writes excellent songs, and he also has a captivating voice; his love for folk-rock is genuine and full of good ideas. Even though it forgoes the nocturnal allure of Simon Raymonde's production, The Shadow Of An Empire retains dark tones - a handful of overly emphatic notes in the arrangements seem to overshadow his considerable talent, but an engaging harmonic balance remains.

Interviews from the period reveal a series of episodes and anecdotes about the album's sources of inspiration. Fionn states that the songs were suggested by the clatter of his typewriter keys, but also by life on the road; the songs on the first album were born amid the cosy blankets of his bed, but the stories on The Shadow Of An Empire are more energetic and fun, so it's only natural that the sound is more direct and almost live, free of embellishments and tricks. An urban album that stands in contrast to the relaxed tone of the debut, without losing any depth.

Fionn keeps to his lifestyle, a wandering spirit who used to skip school, preferring the library in Dublin instead. A boy fascinated by the sea and by what lies beyond the horizon. An enterprising loner who, amid countless other pursuits, has found work on a few film sets, thanks to his skill at recreating the effect of rain using traditional, realistic methods.

Always drawn to the forest and its ancestral allure, Regan is happy to return to his parents' house by the sea, with the woods behind it: an ideal place to reread James Joyce and write songs.

But it's his meeting with actress Anna Friel - won over, as it happened, by their shared understanding of Robert Graves's book "The White Goddess" - that provides him with the inspiration for his third chapter, 100 Acres Of Sycamore, recorded in seven days, straight to tape, using the Calrec console that the White Stripes had used for "Elephant", confirming his passion for a direct, natural sound.

The record bears the imprint of the magical, ancient atmosphere of the Valencia village where it was recorded, the welcoming atmosphere of Anna Friel's house, and the intense literary and human rapport between the two gives rise to an album that is like a little story. An album of sturdy folk constitution, a return to the acoustic roots of The End Of History, but the candour of the debut is now tinged with Mitteleuropean airs and neo-classical tones. A bloodbath of sweat that brings new shades to the author's ever-intense lyrics. Yet another change of style, turning every acrid sound into dark, sinister folk-gothic ballads.

100 Acres Of Sycamore, is the tale of a wild, mad love, a story with epic contours brought to life by music and poetry, as its protagonists dance among ancient ruins, an album the author has described as the butterfly born from the chrysalis The Shadow Of Empire.

The orchestral whirlwind that sweeps up the melodic flavour of "The Lake District" is a waltz that has lost its innocence, as Fionn Regan sings unabashedly of love and death, turning the National Park into the lover's body. "Dogwood Blossom" too pushes past the proper bounds of melody with caressing tones, yet once again the words conjure poetic force and visionary suggestion.

The harmonic progressions of "The Horses Are Asleep" are exuberant and imposing, as Fionn Regan describes the awakening of the senses and of sexuality with vibrant tones and a solemnity that resurfaces in "List Of Distractions", skilfully laced with harmonic neoclassicism and refined imagery that escorts the swirling, masterful cut of the strings.

100 Acres Of Sycamore is, in the end, an album that embraces imperfection and the fleeting mood of the moment, neither trying to alter emotions nor promising new ones.

That Fionn Regan has no love for hype or the rules of success becomes clear when, indifferent to the modest sales of his previous record — which nonetheless earned him his first chart entry (at number 91) — he releases a fully acoustic album, yet another instance of the artist refusing to cash in on the attention of critics and audience alike.

The Bunkhouse Vol 1: Anchor Black Tattoo was recorded with nothing more than a microphone and a four-track recorder, a choice that lays his poetic universe even more bare (Fionn considers it his punk album).

No tricks or elaborate compositional structures, just the spontaneity and directness of his guitar and voice, a sonic language that doesn't insult the listener's intelligence, capturing their attention with introspective candour.

The lyrical ideas are sometimes melancholy, sometimes delightful; everything flows with a naturalness that enchants and seduces, and the quality of the songs is remarkable enough to leave one slightly irked by the brevity of the whole (just over twenty-five minutes).

Travel is one of the recurring themes in the lyrics, a metaphor for a spiritual quest that Fionn Regan recounts now with the bittersweet tones of "67 Blackout", now with the gentle social fervour of "Mizen To Malin" or the disenchanted romanticism of "Anchor Black Tattoo".

More than the work of a poet, The Bunkhouse Vol 1: Anchor Black Tattoo resembles the canvases of a painter (a passion the musician has cultivated for some years now), adding to his songbook small gems like "Salt & Cloves", "Midnight Ferry Crossing", "The Gouldings" and the already-mentioned "Mizen To Malin" - tracks that, had they appeared on any album of the past, would be regarded as minor classics.

The long silence that follows the acoustic mini-album, which was never even released in America, coincides with a period of reflection, one that is interrupted when one of his tracks ("Abacus") is sampled on Bon Iver's "22, A Million".

A few months later, the musician expresses his gratitude to Justin Vernon for the shout-out, announcing a new album.

The Meetings Of The Waters is the album of wide open spaces, the project where electronics become part of the color palette and tonal range of the Irishman's music.

Once again the artist moves according to a strong instinctive impulse, the same one that leads him to momentarily set aside his interest in painting to embrace once more his nature as a songwriter.

To be honest, it remains difficult to fully grasp the musician's talent: there's no apparent logic to the sudden rock swerve of "Babushka-Yay Ya" or the typically art-pop brio, in the vein of Blue Nile, of "Cape Of Diamonds": both are dizzying urban stories that deliberately clash with the more rural atmospheres of the rest of the album.

It also sounds misleading that Fionn Regan evokes, on two occasions, the spirituality and emotional force of the East ("愛 Ai", "常に愛 Tsuneni Ai").

There's indeed something new and urgent in The Meetings Of The Waters, a creative euphoria that risks leaving a more definitive verdict on this new project somewhat suspended.

It's as if inspiration sometimes gets the better of reason, alternating intense ballads tinged with folktronica ("Up Into The Rafters" and the title track) with ambiguous dream-pop temptations ("Book Of The Moon", "Euphoria"), brushing up against territory close to Radiohead ("Up Into The Rafters").

The incredible creative tsunami still leaves small gems in its wake: the almost gothic-folk mysticism of "Cormorant Bird", the delicate lullaby of "Turn The Skies Of Blue On" and the naive fragility of "Wall Of Silver" all confirm the author's state of grace.

Perhaps behind the tribulations of The Meetings Of The Waters lie more questions than answers, the kind the author partly tries to resolve in the long final ecstasy of "常に愛 Tsuneni Ai": twelve minutes of pure mystical immersion that, while evoking Japan, retain an ascetic charm typical of Irish music, a possible unintentional homage to the post-"Common One" Van Morrison.

With Cala the author returns to his most natural and profound creative dimension.

Conceived entirely in his hometown of Bray, the album is the author's tribute to the allure of the sea (in Spanish, cala means cove): the shimmer of light on sand, the ripples of sea waves, the enveloping warmth of the sun and the glow of the moon reflected on the water are the images powerfully evoked by Fionn Regan's ten new musical poems.

Stripped bare, the Irishman's new album is dressed in airy, supple harmonies that favor refined, minimal finger-picking, which in turn becomes the raw material for genuine acoustic wonders that seem to converse with silence ("Collar Of Fur", "Under The Waves / Tokyo"), with the murmur of the sea ("The Ocean Wave"), and even manage to describe its most secret depths ("Hunting Dog").

It's the details that make the sonic narrative of Cala so precious, like the delightful and original dialogue between arpeggios, softened percussion and ethereal vocal layering on "Head Swim", or the dark minimalism steeped in noise textures and rich reverb of the title track.

Although harmonically complex and intricate, the songs retain a handcrafted, vivid touch that makes their appeal immediate.

The acoustic mood of "Brass Locket" is indeed ancient and fragile, almost evanescent in the ethereal, romantic "Volca", enveloping and refined in the splendid ballad "Riverside Heights", and even icy and inscrutable in the strange electronic-folk hybrid "Glaciers", which round out one of the songwriter's most intriguing puzzles.

After a long period out of the spotlight, Fionn Regan has announced a new album for 2024, preceded by a handful of singles that hint at its contemplative, delicately descriptive nature. O Avalanche (2024) confirms Regan's return to the island of Majorca, as in Cala the songs are built on elegant fingerpicking and cultured harmonic minimalism; what has changed is the approach, now decidedly more ethereal and evanescent. The constant reverb on voice and guitars creates an almost cinematic suggestiveness, the songs feel like captions placed beneath pastoral images, the notes drift without lingering in melancholy, serenity and optimism peek through ("Islands"), a gentle sentimentality permeates the lyrics (the title track), the fingerpicking is dreamy, diaphanous ("Blood Is Thicker Than Wine", "Farewell"). Recorded entirely on his own, with only actress Anna Friel helping out on backing vocals and production by Ian Grimble, O Avalanche is a deliberately compact record, musically devoid of any real surge: the swaying flow of the guitars, the hazy, intangible voice, and the repetitiveness of the harmonies risk leaving little lasting trace on the listener. With the exception of the lofty dream-pop of "Anja II", and the splendid "Into the Light Of The Sun", there's not much else to add to the Irish artist's songbook. A couple of words are worth spending on the closing track, though, "Deia Song / Llucalcari", one of the album's most intense poetic images, in which the author imagines two lovers who, despite being swept away by an avalanche, face the last moments of their lives dreaming of Majorca's limestone mountains and beaches. Not an immediate record O Avalanche it still needs to be heard in its entirety to be fully appreciated, ideally in complete solitude, lulled by the darkness of nature.

Defined by Lucinda Williams as the generational answer to Bob Dylan, Fionn Regan is one of the most genuinely stimulating and unpredictable songwriters on the contemporary scene, a musician for whom the words boredom and predictability simply have no meaning.

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition

Fionn Regan on OndaRock

Discography

BILBO
Slow Wall (EP, 2000)	5
FIONN REGAN
Reservoir (EP, 2003)	6
Hotel Room (Ep, 2004)	5.5
Campaign Button (2006)	6
The End Of History (2006)	7.5
The Red Tapes (unreleased, 2008)
The Shadow Of An Empire (2010)	7
100 Acres Of Sycamore (2011)	8
The Bunkhouse vol 1 :Anchor Black Tattoo (2012)	7.5
The Meetings Of The Waters (2017)	7
Cala (2019)	7.5
O Avalanche(2024)	7