Interview with Aoife Wolf – Part 2
by Killian Laher

No More Workhorse caught up with Aoife Wolf for an update as to how things are going for her. You can find the first part of our interview here.

NMW: Do you do most of the playing yourself or do you bring in other musicians? How does it work? 

AW: I play the guitar myself and sing and then usually bring other players in for the other instruments. I played the synth on the last single (A Ringing In The Ear), which was loads of fun because my producer, who I’ve recorded all of my music with, is Julie McLarnon in Analogue Catalogue. And she said, ‘this single’s not done. You need to write something else’. Then she went to feed her kids and she handed me this synth. I wrote that part and we recorded it half an hour later. I love that bit in the song. There’s always moments like that.

NMW: Tell me about the song, The Woman Who Shot Andy Warhol.

AW: I’m fascinated by that era of New York, in the late sixties, artists hanging out together in the Factory. I have a bit of a fascination with the Chelsea Hotel and all of these moments in history where a lot of artists are crossing paths, I find that stuff really beguiling. The Woman Who Shot Andy Warhol is about Valerie Solanas, who shot him. She had quite a fascinating story. I just really resonated with her story because of the paranoia aspect of things.

NMW: She thought he was controlling her. 

AW: He was actually stealing her ideas. She also thought that the government were listening to her through her bedsheets and that there was a microchip in her womb. I think that Warhol used to keep her around because he believed that she was a talented writer and he liked the stuff that she had to say and he would kind of mine her speech for ideas, for his work. Her anger towards him wasn’t unwarranted but I just thought it was a mad story.
I have a kind of fascination with madness. It never seems too far away.

NMW: Are you working on an album?

AW: I am. I’m going into the studio soon to finish it off. I have a big habit of wanting to throw all of this stuff away and start something new. So today I’m in that phase of reworking things. It should be out next year.

NMW: Do you think albums are still important?

AW: I only listen to albums, I’m a big consumer of albums. I’m not really a singles person at all. If I like what somebody does, I want to hear the whole world of it. What’s fun about it is creating a world and creating this timestamp, because four minutes is not really enough to get the idea of an artist. It’s nice to go inside a whole story and whole sonic world with a theme and maybe a message. I just think that’s a really fun thing to do. I listen to things quite obsessively, so it’s nice to have one mood. If you listen to an album that was released this year, then if you go back to it, then it’s like, that was what I was listening to in 2023 and that’s what that person was experiencing.

I just think it’s a really beautiful thing, the way artists transition between different phases or different eras. I’m a big PJ Harvey fan and she’s got quite distinct eras in her music. It’s so wonderful to see an artist that started off in their twenties. She’s now in her fifties and she has a collection of songs for all of these different points in her life. I think it’s a wonderful thing and it’s an artist’s job to portray the development of their art and of their person through that. So, yeah, I’m very, very pro album.

NMW: Have you heard PJ Harvey’s new album (I Inside The Old Year Dying)?

AW: I haven’t listened to loads of it. I’ve only heard the one song, but it was great. She’s such an inspiration because she’s so daring… She’s very rough around the edges. I think that’s what I really like about her. Everything’s really raw and she’ll sing out of tune at times. I love to hear people singing out of tune. It’s such a rare thing to hear because people don’t want to leave it in the recordings. I guess it’s considered that you’re a bad musician if you’re singing out of tune. But I don’t see it that way, especially in the wake of the AI revolution. I feel like we should be singing more out of tune. ‘They’ (artificial intelligence) can’t do that. Well, they probably can, but it would probably sound terrible!

NMW: Have you any more plans for any more gigs?

AW: I’m supporting Lael Neale in the Workman’s Club on the 14th of September (Editor – Interview took place in early September),  supporting Maija Sofia in Belfast on the 30th of September and then I’m playing with Elaine Malone in Donegal on the 14th October.

NMW: Do you think the Irish music scene is in a healthy place?

AW: I think it’s in a healthy place, I get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff that’s going on all the time, the amount of talent coming out of the country is amazing. There definitely seems to be an appetite for music but there are a lot of challenges that come with the current state of the music scene that I don’t really know how to address so all we can really do is keep making and seeking out music that moves us.

Aoife Wolf’s music can be found at https://aoife-wolf.bandcamp.com/track/a-ringing-in-the-ear 

Her latest single A Ringing In The Ear is out now.