Deep meaningful conversations with singer and songwriter Sinéad Harnett

Image credit: Emilia Gayner

If you’ve not heard of Sinéad Harnett - either as a solo artist or in one of her many musical collaborations, or even her newly released album Ready Is Always Too Late - have you been hiding under a rock?

Seriously though, you are missing out my friends - but it’s ok, because I’m here to enlighten you.

The fact that before I even got on my Zoom call to chat to Sinéad, we agreed that no make up on either of our sides was required, just furthered my appreciation for this down-to-Earth London girl. Aside from that, we delved deep into some home truths, from love lives to her career, to her recent collaborations, to what she would bring to a dinner party. No stone was left unturned in this DMC (deep meaningful conversation, for those who aren’t acronym savvy). Ultimately, the biggest theme to come out of our chat though was the new album and Sinéad’s career so far as a journey to self-love.

Emily: I guess I want to start with how you first fell in love with music? Did you know from a young age, or fall in love with it in your teens - where did the initial fire come from?

Sinéad: I spent a lot of time alone because I lived with my mum and my sister went to university and she had a different dad, so she would spend a lot of time with that side of her family. So, when we got given a piano by a family friend, I just started playing on it really young. Probably around six or seven I knew that I loved it but it wasn’t necessarily encouraged because my mum wanted me to do something academic. So it was kind of like a secret hobby.

Emily: Yeah, I used to play the piano as well and I’d go and tinkle the ivories. I’m obviously not as talented as you but it was a nice release when you’re young.  

Sinéad: Yeah, one hundred percent.

Emily: So the new album. It’s just come out this year, very exciting stuff. I really wanted to know where the name of the album came from (Ready Is Always Too Late)? It intrigues me and I feel like there’s a story there.

Sinéad: Aww, thank you. So, the first song on the album is called that, and it’s about being quite into someone and wondering where it was going, and them saying we need to wait ‘til we’re ready. I feel like that’s always an excuse, that word. What do you mean, you’re not ready? When are you ever going to be ready!

That led me to think about my own journey to self love and confidence. It had always been put off by ‘I don’t really feel ready yet’, so it just became an ongoing theme of the time of my life that I was in. I made a lot of changes before I released the album; I moved to America, found management, and finished the album there. I just did things like that without thinking about it and started to feel confidence that I’d never had, which is really hard in this industry, so that’s how the title came about.

Emily: Very cool story. I just knew I needed to ask you that! Obviously you released your first album a few years ago, so what was the creative process like this time compared to last time?

Sinéad: For the first album, I don’t feel like I was very good at validating myself with boundaries. So the first one I was a lot more depressed making, and lost as a person so it was harder. They say ‘no art is finished, it’s just abandoned’ and I forget whose quote that is, so it means you’re not like, ‘this is great and this is finished’, but the second time around I felt a bit more supported both by myself, and by my team.

I’d gone into a new phase where I’d cut out things that were unhealthy for me in my life, you know, relationships that weren’t nourishing me the way I needed them to. The first one, I feel the energy is a little less self-assured, whereas the second one, I’m a bit more sure of myself and celebratory of who I am. So, I think the second one was more joy-filled to make and I’m more comfortable in my artistry.

Emily: Yeah, I mean it definitely shows! It must be so nice looking at them both now side by side and seeing your own personal growth. Do you think COVID and having a bit of time off before that second album gave you a chance to breathe and assess, and did that break impact the new album in any way?

Sinéad: Yeah, because before that, I was too busy all the time. Doing too much, trying to fit too much in, not getting enough sleep, working excessively but not working smart, just hard. When that happened, it was obviously really sad because we were mourning so many things and we really couldn’t be distracted anymore from the world’s flaws and cracks. So even though I felt really sad for people and the world, I felt like for the first time my time was mine. I could have balance and, touch wood, I’ve not been ill since this started as I’m now getting 8 hours sleep and I’m looking after myself. I really learned to like who I was for the first time in my life. So, I definitely took value from the weird time.

Emily: So did I. It was like this weird feeling of being sad for what was going on in the world. Everyone was so scared about what was happening in that first lockdown, but I took the time to better myself and I was like I’m literally the best version of myself right now!

Sinéad: Yes! Definitely.

Emily: It’s so refreshing that it happened to so many different people on so many different levels as well. It’s kind of bittersweet because there was the bad stuff going on too but it’s nice to hear that people needed to chill and detox.

Sinéad: So many of us wouldn’t, like Wallis (Day), said to me you wouldn’t have realised that or had that time to yourself if COVID didn’t happen.

Emily: Yeah, it’s so true. When would you have had that change to just stop and re-evaluate? Sometimes when you’re that busy, your mind goes in a million different directions, and you can’t sleep and like you say, getting 8 hours of sleep is such a small thing but makes such a huge difference.

Emily: I actually saw that you put up a post about 10 minutes ago on Instagram about hopeless romantics, and I was going to ask you whether you consider yourself a huge romantic, which I think you do. But I have this thing about the phrase ‘hopeless romantic’ because it’s actually really negative. So my question is, would you describe yourself as a hopeFUL romantic?

Sinéad: Yeah, what is the point in the hopeless bit?

Emily: Exactly! I wrote this huge ranty article about why I hate hopeless romantic, and why it should be hopeFUL.

Sinéad: Oh my gosh, did you?!

Emily: Yeah! I can’t deal with it. Why does someone describe themselves as hopeless?

Sinéad: I feel like we’re connected. Yeah, I would consider myself that one hundred percent and I only read the definition recently because I just got out of a relationship, and I was like how again is this happening, why does it always just go wrong? So I read that post, and I was like yeah, that’s definitely me, but it does feel like hopeful would make more sense. If you were hopeless, then why would you keep doing it?

So, I definitely am (hopeful) and it’s funny, I got sent a video from Tidal that’s going out soon about my journey, and every clip (they wanted loads of clips from me over the years) I would remember, ‘oh, I was in love with that guy then, I was in love with him at that point, that’s who I was with then,’ and I thought, oh no. I don’t know if you’re familiar with an artist called Jasmine Sullivan, but she had a Tweet that was pinned and she said, ‘Interviewer: Jasmine, what do you do in your spare time when you’re not making music?’ And she replied, ‘picking the wrong men.’ I felt this in my SOUL, and the point for me is that I think the reason why most of us are hopeless or hopeful romantics is because we’re searching for a love that we’ve probably been searching for since we were kids. You then repeat patterns, you go for people that feel familiar, the way they treat you is familiar so it feels real (which I learned from Alain de Botton). I read it and I was like yeah, I’m someone who gets stuck in a cycle.

Emily: Oh, I know the feeling. You go for the same type of person and get stuck in an endless cycle and you can’t break the pattern because then it feels weird. If someone’s too nice to me, I get put off and think they shouldn’t be so nice to me.

Sinéad: Exactly, but then something in us keeps going back to the fire that burnt us. And we still believe that this time it will be different.

Emily: That’s very poetic, ‘the fire that burnt us.’

Sinéad: Not gonna lie, we need to get some help, babe!

Emily: We can help each other, we’re good!

Sinéad: Are you with anyone now, or do you like anyone now?

Emily: Errr, no not really. I’m a perpetually single person, but I think it’s because I quite like spending time on my own, and I’m quite picky (which is not really an excuse). I just feel like I don’t want to settle for anything less, which is kind of a powerful stance to be in but simultaneously kind of limits your possibilities quite significantly.

Sinéad: One hundred percent. Not to plug myself, but I’ve got a lyric on the album on a song called Like This, that says, ‘I must settle down, but I ain’t settling.’ So, I want it all basically. I want the house, the puppies, the growing the vegetables in the garden, the music studio, the painting room - I want it all but I’m not going to settle for less just to have it.

Emily: Totally agree. You know what, I’ve always wanted a painting room with an easel looking out onto a sea view. I’m glad the painting room isn’t just me!

Sinéad: Let’s manifest it.

Emily: Someone else who I interviewed (Romina of Ychange) spoke to me about manifesting. She said every day she writes what she wants to happen in her diary or notepad. But it kind of reminds me like when you got detention at school, and they made you write lines or the same sentence over and over. But then it must work and drill into your psyche or subconscious. Are you a big manifester?

Sinéad: I try to, yeah. If you see it and you believe it, then it’s way more likely to happen.

Emily: True, and it must be good for confidence as well. So (to change topic), obviously you got a lot of traction career-wise when Wiley had you on song, Walk Away. Do you think that was a big career-changer? And obviously that’s a Grime track, so was it quite hard to transition away from that into more what you now sound like which I guess is more like R&B? And would you ever go back to Grime?

Sinéad: I think that he started my career by finding me and tweeting about me incessantly. The industry were then like ‘who’s this girl?’, but I didn’t know who I was either so that’s why I feel like from then to now has been quite a journey. Grime - if it happened naturally, ok. But I don’t see it happening! I don’t feel like it was a huge thing to transition because I don’t think anyone thought I started out in Grime, I think they don’t even know how I started out so it didn’t feel like a transition. What was difficult, or challenging, was finding out who I was alone. Because obviously I collaborated with a lot of people - Rudimental, Disclosure etc - who am I without them? Without jumping on their waves kind of thing.

Emily: But then, jumping on their waves has got you to where you are now. So, I guess it’s a good thing. It must have been difficult feeling alone though in that situation.

Sinéad: Yeah.

Emily: I actually heard you on Mixed Up podcast with Emma and Nicole talking about imposter syndrome - and was that a point in your career where you felt that the most?

Sinéad: Yeah. I mean it’s taken years to get rid of that. There’s obviously still moments all the time where you ask yourself, what are you doing, but even Drake’s acceptance speech at the Billboards this year, he said that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. People had asked him, you know, how do you do this? How do you keep being successful? And he was like, ‘I’m so self-conscious about my music, I don’t even know if what I’m doing is right half of the time!’ So if he feels like that, then we’re all ok to have niggling doubts.

Emily: I love that. It’s basically like fake it ‘till you make it - no matter what job you have, whether you’re a musician, or a project manager like me (in my day job) - I honestly have no idea what I’m doing.

Sinéad: Yeah and also the hardest part, I think, with being in entertainment is that you have to constantly project who you are, and if you don’t like that person, it’s just so hard. As I was growing up, I was in unhealthy patterns and I became an adult, and graduated from uni and it was like now you’re in music. Obviously I was grateful, but I was like I don’t know who I am as a person, let alone as an artist. So it was a good seven years of working hard, by working hard I mean getting out of bed and going to the studio when I hated everything I was making, hated the way I looked, hated the way I sounded, hated everything I was writing. That’s what I mean by work. It’s still trying. So you gain this confidence when you refuse to give up, then that’s when I think it’s fun. And until it’s fun, I don’t think you do well because being at that fun high frequency is what attracts fans and more people.

Emily: It’s also just an admirable quality to keep persevering even when you know, you’re not feeling it, because a lot of people would give up at that hurdle.

Emily: You’ve already mentioned collabs already, (Rudimental, Disclosure, Kaytranada, Snakehips etc), do you have a dream person to colla borate with (dead or alive)? 

Sinéad: Umm…Pharrell. Because he is so amazing. Tom Misch, I love. I grew up listening to like Lauren Hill, Amy Winehouse, Christina - I mean, that vocal. Just…everyone!

Emily: Too hard to pick! Your most recent collaboration that came out, called Nah with Sonny Fodera and Kolidescopes - I cannot stop playing that song. I know it was also played on this years’ Love Island, but I listen to it whilst I’m walking down the street and I had it on repeat three times. Because when the sun’s shining and you have a good song in your headphones and you’re walking down the street and you get that feeling like you’re owning this shit - there’s actually nothing better.

Sinéad: Yeah! That’s sick.

Emily: Yeah it’s definitely a summer banger. What’s the response been like?

Sinéad: It’s been really good. It takes a while for things to be heard though, so really the work begins now. We have to post about it, do TikToks, Love Island was a huge help for the Shazam’s. Releases generally the work starts the day of release, as opposed to it stopping. I do feel like it’s been a really special one, it’s way more pop that stuff I’ve done before which I felt was the right time for me to do. I love Sonny, we’ve collaborated before, so I’m really excited. I’m seeing big things for it and I feel like if you see it, it might happen.

Emily: I always ask the women that I interview on The C Word, what women inspire them. Who would you choose?

Sinéad: OK, amazing. Both of my sisters; my sister is a mother of two and I feel like she played a huge part in bringing us up. She is just a wonder-woman, I don’t know how she does it. Also lockdowns have been really hard for everyone, but especially parents. I lived down the road from another family and the mum and sister of that family inspire me to love with my whole heart and I feel like they taught my unconditional love. All of the females in my life and friends inspire me too though and when we think about women in the public eye, I feel like women who use their fame and platforms in right way like Natalie Portman for activism, Angelina Jolie.

I’m also just so moved by performance. People that just take me somewhere else. Like Normani, I think she’s sick. I love that she is killing it right now.

Emily: Here’s a fun one for you, what is the one thing you’d bring to a dinner party?

Sinéad: Ummm…probably a Thai dish that I cooked. A Thai green curry. I’d bring that and be like ‘hi guys, if you want a starter.’ I feel like if you bring a dish, it’s just nicer for the host.

Emily: Definitely. Would you bring something Irish as well?

Sinéad: Yeah, I’d have to bring some potatoes! Because they’re my favourite ever.

Emily: I don’t think you can go wrong with potatoes and a Thai green curry.

Sinéad: Exactly. Maybe put them together? That would work, for sure.

Emily: Last question for you, I know you’ve spent the last few months in America, writing and launching the new album but what’s next for you in 2021? Please say a UK tour?

Sinéad: Yes! UK and Europe first in 2022, followed by other countries and America after that. It’s hard to plan anything now though timing wise - but I feel like last year we learned that life is what happens when you’re making plans, and we don’t know what’s going to happen now but we have aims and global touring is an aim.

Emily: Let’s manifest the global tour! Anything else going on for the remainder of 2021 we should know about?

Sinéad: I’ll be pushing the new single and the new album, but expect some shows with Sonny - I’d love everyone to get involved, dancing to the song. I’m going to be writing way more as well to release some new music this year and just trying to remain a balanced person from all the lessons that I learned in 2020.