Out-takes

Enya: "You mean have I ever dreamed of dancing on the tables? Being a different person? A gardener maybe here outside in the park? No, if you like your work as much as I do, you don’t want to be a gardener, not even in this wonderful park. And if I was married and had children, I wouldn’t be at this point. And I never felt that it's the fault of the music that it is like that."

Enya whose real name is Eithne Ni Bhraonain was born on May 17, 1961, the fifth of nine children, in County Donegal in the northwest of Ireland. The singer and pianist’s first hit was “Orinoco Flow” in the '80s. Since her song “Only Time” was played with the pictures of the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2001, she is well known. She has sold more than 60 million records until now. She lives in Ayesha Castle, a castle in the south of Dublin. Her latest album called “Amarantine” will be released on November 18th.

An interview by Gabriela Herpell

SZ: It’s sunny today. Completely atypical for Ireland isn’t it?

Enya: Yes, it’s incredible, it’s no mistake, no cliché, in Ireland it’s nearly always clouded and foggy. And it’s raining a lot. But today everything looks different, people are smiling. And everyone talks about the weather, just because it’s so unusual.

SZ: Do people here only talk about the weather when the sun is shining?

Enya: No. it’s raining all the time. The rain is part of the Irish soul.

SZ: The Irish soul – one thinks of fun, of a pub where someone plays folk music on the accordion, where everyone sings and drinks…Your music however is neither wild nor folkloric, but it’s mysterious and ethereal.

Enya: Do you think so?

SZ: You’re also called “The voice of silence” and your singing is often described as a mysterious whisper.

Enya: That’s maybe because I sometimes sing in the ancient Gaelic language with which I grew up.

SZ: In German ears, your music reminds of elves and melancholy. Not necessarily Irish, but not terrestrial, either: like from a world in between.

Enya: The mystic is deeply rooted with Irish culture as well as the melancholy. But I’m really closer connected with classical music than with funny pub-music like by the “Pogues”.

SZ: CNN underlayed the pictures of September 11, 2001 with your song “Only Time” and nearly all channels followed. How did you think about it?

Enya: The collapsing towers we saw in the news again and again – the grief was awful. But when I heard that many people associated my song with comfort and shelter, I was happy.

SZ: The person at the channel, who had the idea, really gave you a comeback. Your song, that was already a year old, raced to number one not only in Germany.

Enya: I always sold enough records, so it wasn’t really a comeback. But I was surely less known before. After September 11, suddenly a lot more people knew me. I was suddenly invited to thousands of parties. But I kept on doing what I love to do: living a normal life.

SZ: Well, your life isn’t that usual. You spend most time in a studio and you’re known for working several weeks and months on a single song. You must be a perfectionist.

Enya: Yes, I think so. It takes long until I think that a song has the emotional expression it needs.

SZ: I read that you don’t care about anything other than music when you work on a record. So again no time for cozy evenings in the pub.

Enya: I can’t take diversion when I’m working. The only persons that I see in these times are Nicky Ryan and Roma – my producer and his wife.

SZ: Is this exclusiveness necessary for you?

Enya: In the last weeks before the deadline, yes. But usually, I live a a normal life. I just work from Monday to Thursday and have long weekends.

SZ: You live very secluded in a castle.

Enya: Yes.

SZ: In the past, you hardly gave interviews. You’re surrounded by an aura of mystery.

Enya: I have always been withdrawn and even the imagination I had to dress up every day and, like today, drink tea in front of an open fire with a journalist is horrible. So I rarely do it.

SZ: Then tell us today, quickly: How does a lazy Enya-weekend in the castle look like.

Enya: I live a withdrawn life, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what to do on long weekends, you know. I don’t shout it from the rooftops, but I live like every normal person: I invite people, go for a walk and read.

SZ: And you really live completely alone in your castle?

Enya: Well, I have staff.

SZ: And lots of rooms.

Enya: Yes.

SZ: And you don’t hide a partner in one of them?

Enya: Not at the moment. It doesn’t go with my work. It’s very difficult to find someone who understands my engagement for the music.

SZ: But you have the long weekends on which you could search for him!

Enya: In some periods of my life, I had partners. But I find long relationships…well, how can I say it without appearing strange? I’m too much devoted to my music. I know that some people think that it sounds sad, but believe me, I’m happy.

SZ: You’re a merry loner?

Enya: If it means that I like being alone – yes.

SZ: But you’re from huge Irish family, you have eight siblings.

Enya: There was always so much going on at our home. I needed delimitation rather early. I needed space for myself, but it isn’t easy to find this space between all these people. On the other hand, you have so much space inside this family, between all these people there’s empty space that is caused by the fact that you don’t get attention all the time.

SZ: Hm. And I always thought that it was fun being a member of such a big family.

Enya: I often hear that, but only from people who come from small families. Nine children are a lot and fact is, in such a huge group, you aren’t close to anyone. Silence is luxury. For me it was a big day when I went to boarding school. Then I was finally independent and could decide what I’d do on this or that day. You can’t decide anything on your own in a big family. There’s always someone to answer for you. It’s a big “we” and I was happy when I wasn’t part of this “We” anymore.

SZ: So you were very lonely in your big family?

Enya: I was different, you know. I was very young when I got piano lessons together with my sisters in a convent. Classical music. For my sisters it was duty, but I put all my energy and passion into playing piano. And sometimes I think that it was my chance getting space, my room for myself getting distance towards my family: By finding something for myself, something I could have on my own, because no one else was really interested in it.

SZ: I understand. Silence is like a pause for you.

Enya: I started right after boarding school making music, and I just didn’t think about it then, whether and when it would be time to marry and have children.

SZ: To some people it just happens.

Enya: Of course, it could have happened, but it didn’t. Everyone in my family married late. It never seemed to be a priority. Today, I make the decisions on my own and I’m very happy about it. I like company, but then I want to have a break again: time for me.

SZ: Did everything happen as you imagined as a child?

Enya: Oh yes. I’m happy to have found something that I like as much as my music.

SZ: And you have become the person you imagined to become?

Enya. I feel that I kept being myself.

SZ: Have you always sorted out with yourself?

Enya: What do you mean?

SZ: You never wished being different? Being able to do something better? Being funnier, more beautiful or sociable? Sometimes it’s like that.

Enya: I have always been shy. In former times, I wasn’t happy with that, but today I accept it and live my life after it. And I dare to express something private like emotions in my music and make it visible for the public. I also like painting, but it’s difficult for me as it shows to much of myself. If it is included in a song, it’s less a problem for me.

SZ: And now I wanted to lead you away from singer Enya and talk about the private person.

Enya: You mean if I ever dreamed of dancing on the tables? Being a different person? A gardener maybe here outside in the park? No, if you like your work as much as I do, you don’t want to be a gardener, not even in this wonderful park. And if I was married and had children, I wouldn’t be at this point. And I never felt that it’s the fault of the music that it is like that.

SZ: But you don’t look like a woman who has nothing than her career in her mind.

Enya: That’s not the point. I am my music, you see. And when I find it important to separate the working place from home. Surely, there were times when I was very lonely and I leaned back and thought: Did you want that? It needs so much power moving on, getting better, doing nothing else. But it always leads to the same: There’s nothing I’d rather do, no place I’d rather be than with myself.

SZ: Everything had been different. Years ago, you performed live together with the family band Clannad. There was great mood, an audience, a feedback. Do you miss it sometimes, today?

Enya: No, I don’t. I have an enormous feedback, although not live. Those people who sing and play live in the pubs here in Ireland or listen to bands are keen on the traditional Irish music. That’s their world. I like these happy folk songs, too, but what I like better is silent music. When I started composing my own melodies in the 80s, it was even a big risk. The music I made didn’t exist then. No one could say whether it would succeed. My songs have never been modern, or were in keeping with the times at least.

SZ: At the same time another woman, nearly at the same age, was successful, only that her style was exhibitionism. Today, you nearly sold the same number of records. Didn’t you never want to be as cool, tough or sexy as this woman – as Madonna?

Enya: I rather listened to The Police in the '80s.

SZ: Have you ever had green hair then? Or red, or striped? Or maybe too short skirts?

Enya: No, my hair has always been black. I’m not this kind of person who experiments like this. I had a big change only one time, when I was 18. I cut my long hair then, which I had had all my childhood. And that was it with my long hair.

SZ: You must have looked like a black haired princess when you were a child. Like princess Enya after which you was named?

Enya: Unfortunately, it isn’t known how she looked like. We just know her story.

SZ: And how is it?

Enya: It’s tragical. It was prophesied that the princess’s husband would kill her father if she ever married. The king brought her to a lonely island where no men existed. But one day, a boat sank in front of the island and one of the persons who had been shipwrecked was washed ashore clinged to a part of the wreck.

SZ: And coincidentally he was young, unmarried and handsome.

Enya: Anyway, she married him. And her father even agreed, because they met under these unusual conditions and the prophecy couldn’t have meant something like this.

SZ: That’s a nice little story!

Enya: If there wasn’t the end. The husband killed the father then, of course. It happened when they were hunting, I think, or was it in a war? Anyway, the husband accidentally shot the father-in-law. In Ireland a lot of people are called after such mythological persons, whose stories often end really dramatically. The Irish love stories that stir them, storytelling is a big thing here.

SZ: But you don’t want to tell me that the Enya-myth kept you from marrying until now.

Enya: No, my grandfather proposed this name to my mother then, he new the tale, but he didn’t really know how it ended. Roma found out about it later.

SZ: The couple Nick and Roma Ryan are very close to you. Nick is your producer, Roma writes the lyrics. How comes that someone like you doesn’t write the lyrics on your own?

Enya: It started like that and it stayed. When we produced the first record, I composed melodies and only thought about instrumental music. I didn’t know then that I would write real, closed songs.

SZ: But who then told you to write closed songs?

Enya: Nicky Ryan. Nicky was the recording engineer of Clannad, the one who recognized my talent. We left the band together.

SZ: There had been quarrel before, hadn’t it?

Enya: Yes, Nicky and the band had different opinions about music.

SZ: It is said that the band lacked vision. Wasn’t it difficult to leave the Clannad-family in hostility?

Enya: No, the band didn’t offer me a different choice. I was background singer, one of many, just another unimportant member. No-one was interested in my other talents, I wasn’t allowed to write songs on my own. Then Nicky came and he had the idea about what we could do together.

SZ: And with you, he could finally live his vision?

Enya: Well, the sound with which we’ve been successful for years, really was his vision. And today he still tells me when a song is finished. It was one of his first ideas that I should sing all the voices, and because his wife liked writing poems, she wrote the lyrics. She found the right words for what I wanted to express right from the start. Today, we know each other better and Roma knows well what I am like and that I don’t feel the desire to write lyrics on my own.

SZ: Sounds rather symbiotic. Are Nicky and Roma a kind of replacement for a family?

Enya: No, they are my business partners and my best friends. They live close to me and there’s no one I spend more time with.

SZ: And friends are those people one can choose oneself.

Enya: Exactly. The welcome counterpart to family.

Note: Transcribed by Book of Days.

The Amarantine promotional tour finds Enya willingto answer more personal questions, and answering them more directly, than she has since Shepherd Moons.