Apart from a ghastly sleeve that makes him look like an extra from The Night Of The Living Dead, Sticky Music have done a grand job in launching IAIN ARCHER to the CD-buying public. James Lewis spoke to the Irish singer/songwriter.

Iain Archer

One of the busiest artists at Greenbelt this year must have been lain Archer. The Irish singer/songwriter did a set supporting Martyn Joseph and Tom Robinson, gigged at the Performance Cafe, did an unprogrammed clutch of songs on mainstage just before Steve Taylor and sang in the Sticky Music tent at least five times over the weekend. His diligence was rewarded. A serious quantity of copies of his then just-released debut album flowing from the afore-mentioned Sticky Music tent.

Despite his rather intimate style of performance, both in subject matter and accompaniment, lain commanded the crowd admirably from the mainstage and it is probably safe to say that his fifteen minutes of fame (if they numbered that) up there won't be his last.

Fans of the local music scene in Belfast may have seen lain in an earlier musical incarnation, playing guitar for an indie-ish band called Dorothy Fields though surprisingly, given this man's pipes, no vocals. "I was never a singer until I put my own bands together - I had never thought about singing.... I think more and more I got into 'songs' and less and less into 'guitar' and the more I got into songs and writing melodies, the more I got into singing and it was natural then to want to do it on my own - not to have to bother with band politics."

The move into balladry after three years of Dorothy Fields, came as the result of trying out different bands and different styles. Inspired by seeing various people playing solo acoustic, most notably the sublime Brian Kennedy, lain realised that this was what he wanted to do. "It was quite daunting at first, getting up there on your own after you've been in bands for so long."

In the best possible way, lain is a bit of an Irish music cliché! His songs steer clear of the mythologising of much spiritual rock music and lain himself seems to be entirely free of any pretensions of stardom, merely confessing to be thrilled at the prospect of having an album out.

Greenbelt appears to be a big point in Iain's calendar. "Greenbelt seems to be a landmark - you work towards there and then work after. Getting the album out in time for Greenbelt has been brilliant - it's all happened over the summer and now we've got it in our hand and we're ready with it, so after Greenbelt I'll just get out there, get the gigs and go with it."

After being the 'hit' of the successful compilation of Irish artists 'Sounds Irish' and recording a 4-track EP 'Rain' (both of which got glowing reviews in Cross Rhythms) lain met up with RIB - that's Reid, Irvine, Butler of Lies Damned Lies and Sticky producers - at the Arklight festival in Ireland when the Sticky Music stable went over to perform. After last year's Greenbelt Sticky Music asked him to record an album and set him the task of writing some new material, "I pulled out the stops between October to January, I just wrote and wrote and wrote. I was living in Glasgow and I wasn't doing anything so I just sat up nights and worked on songs. Around 80% of the songs on the album are new ones. I went into the studio with just my acoustic and the vocal, demo-ed them and the guys came back and said they loved them. That was really encouraging, to feel there was progression... the new stuff was better than the old stuff, I wasn't going downhill!"

Many of his songs come across as being very personal and are often directly addressed to a person or persons unknown. "At the moment I find the things I want to write about are real life things that are close to home - I find it really difficult to write about things that aren't in my own experience - I think also to be a singer-songwriter you've got to have a story and you've got to have a very honest story to tell. I think that's what I try to do -to be as honest as possible. I suppose you wear your heart on your sleeve, but then at the same time I think a lot of people can find something to identify with."

"It's quite a tough thing when you're writing songs that are really heartfelt and personal, but I don't think I've ever come to a point where I've said 'I can't do this', because as I've said it is really important to me to be honest about me. I feel people are onto a loser if they don't see the real you. Through your songs and through what you do it's so easy for people to see an image and not a real person - it's important there's a reality."

As a songwriter, lain confesses to finding the actual process behind writing a little bit of a mystery. "The actual process of song writing is a very natural thing - they just happen. It's very much, a song will happen as a song together. It's rare that I'll write a lyric and then put music to it. I'll sit down with my guitar and sing the words and play the music and it comes together." Not that it all falls into his lap. "Then there's this process of refinement over a couple of months to get it to where I want it."

lain comes originally from Bangor from a musical family and is a PK (that's pastor's kid to the uninitiated). Coming from Northern Ireland and having lived in Belfast, it's not surprising that lain is a little wary of the church although he seems to have sidestepped cynicism remarkably well. Having had sectarian views drilled into him at school and even at church, it was an enlightening experience to leave "The Troubles", so to speak, and move to Glasgow, and made him realise how short-sighted some people's views were.

Possibly the most touching song on the album is "Papa Burns", a song inspired by meeting up the afore-mentioned Papa Burns recently, having not seen him since school. The song is unashamedly nostalgic and expresses compassion for an old friend who repeatedly seemed to be given the short straw by life. Apparently the song's namesake is not yet aware of the tune, "I've been around Bangor trying to find him - but I haven't found him yet. There's a few guys from school who have heard the song - I think it's brought back some memories for them."

lain took a B Sc in Human Communication at University and relationships between people are the gist of the album's material and a recurring theme is an expression of pain, though expressed without rancour, indeed lain states "I won't be bitter" on the track "Rain". This track and "Expectations" are borne out of experiences with people expecting something that is incapable of being lived up to, and these along with the title track, "Playing Dead", are an all too accurate portrait of what one recent book labelled "Spiritual Abuse". Of "Playing Dead" lain says, "It's a very reflective song. It's just about childhood, the kind of experiences you have as a small child that make you so much of who you are in terms of strengths and insecurities. It all sorts of works around the sort of games you play as a child. But I think that the games you play as a child become more real and more poignant games when you get older. Adults play the same games as a child does - they just don't do it as openly." Anyone who has seen the playground tactics that passes as adult interaction at work and, unfortunately, too often in churches, will find it hard to disagree with that.

lain is resigned (if that is the right word) to the fact of such machinations, admitting, "Never do you find a person who's near-perfect, let alone a whole church!" But he does want to find a place where his questioning doesn't provoke adverse reactions from insecure people who want everyone to think the same way as they do. lain has obviously suffered such rejection in the past and wants to find somewhere that he can continue his journey of faith amongst fellow travellers rather than hindered by people who wish to stay put - and who can blame him? "That's where it's at, for me anyway. So many people just accept what they hear and it's almost heretical to question - but that destroys people. A lot of people need the security of just knowing. For me, I need the security of being able to ask "Why? What? How? When? Is this the truth and why is it the truth?"