Irish singer-songwriter Anna’s Anchor is undertaking a mammoth task. Armed with his guitar, a notepad and a trusted pen, he will embark on a journey that sees him play on a different Irish island each weekend throughout June and July, releasing a new track written and recorded at each location.
As he undertakes his projects, Marty Ryan will be keeping us up-to-date with all his goings on through his ‘The Islands Diary’. Each of the new tracks will be available to download via the official Anna’s Anchor website every Thursday.
Hello! My name’s Marty. I’m a musician from Ireland and I have an alternative/emo project called Anna’s Anchor. This summer I’m going on a mad adventure called ‘The Islands’ and Punktastic have asked me to take you guys on it also. Every week in July and July I’m going to a different island off of the coast of Ireland, playing a gig, writing a song and then recording and releasing the song every week (Thursday to be exact). 8 weeks, 8 islands, 8 gigs and 8 songs. Every fortnight I’ll be filling you in on everything weird and wonderful about each date as it progresses and the inspiration behind each song. The islands off of Ireland are very remote with spectacular and harsh landscape so they’ll provide the best possible environment to write the most honest songs as possible. So without further ado…
Week 1 – Bere Island Co.Cork.
I live in a place called Limerick, which in short is really far away from most of these islands. I got up at 6 am, my poor road worn car filled to the brim with flight cases, speakers and guitars. I drove for 4 hours, up and down the mountains in Kerry until I eventually reached the small port town of Castletown Bere. The ferry was a few miles out of town from a run-down pier. On recent tours, I’ve been actively seeking the feeling of “how the hell did I end up here”, well on this tour, that feeling occurred immediately as the ferry pulled up. This being the only one I could bring my car onto, it was a narrow steep reverse onto the boat which my poor car was barely able for.
Wheels spinning, smoke flying, I eventually got her on and we were off. 15 minutes later I was on island time. As soon as I got off the ferry, an old lady asked if I was “the music man”. Very welcomingly, she showed me where I would be both playing and staying for the night in the little harbour village known as Lawerence Cove. The only other guy in the lodge that I was staying in was still pretty hammered from the night before. He told me he would be at the gig tonight to hurl abuse. A promise which he only half upheld. It was a beautiful morning. I drove off and hiked up the West side of the island.
Then onto the eastern side of the island which was a real contrast. It was low lying and had both an existing army barracks and abandoned one that was straight out of a PlayStation game. It felt a little weird how quiet and silent it was. Being from the city I guess you get suspicious of silence rather than enjoy it. It was then time to set up for the gig. I booked all the shows myself by just cold calling bars; it was Russian Roulette to a certain degree but this was the path less travelled so I had no choice.
O’Sullivans bar was the spot tonight, A really old country pub with some friendly inquisitive locals, and also some locals that had a look of “you better not upset my quiet pint”. The bar filled up later in the night, there were some tourists that really enjoyed it, and some locals I could tell that didn’t which was better than expected considering I had myself mentally prepared for 5 old guys thinking “who the fuck is this kid and what does he think he’s doing?”
While I was packing up, one of the tourists, a drunk older man that owned a yacht asked if he could buy a CD and gave me €50. I didn’t have enough change for all of that and told me to keep that. There was no way I was selling him one CD for 50 quid. I tried to give him 3 more CDs for his friends and the rest in change. He was having none of it. He wanted me to have the money and that was that. After a long friendly argument he returned to his fancy yacht with 4 EPs, 2 splits, a t-shirt and a tote bag all to himself. After packing up and watching the drunkest man in Ireland drive home, I crashed out for the night. Woke up, drove out to the abandoned army joint, sat down for 3 hours and wrote a song called ‘Lawerence’. It came together so quickly, I couldn’t believe it.
Everyone I met from the island was clearly extremely proud of where they were from, for better or for worse. My home-town has a bad reputation, and some people that leave tend to forget that they’re from here and sometimes look down on it, but I’m extremely proud of our city and seeing that in those islanders compelled me to write a song about that. Everyone’s home-town can be crappy and you want to get out, which is fair enough but regardless, it shapes who we are and you can’t avoid or forget that.
Week 2 – Inis Mór – Aran Islands – Galway
This was the most populated and most touristy Island I was going to be going to. In the middle of Galway Bay, the biggest of three Aran Islands, Inis Mór has 1000 locals and receives up to 2000 visitors a day. The gig had been promoted really well in the build up to it and I had 3 friends along with me this time so spirits were really high. It felt like we were all going a holiday together. This was just a passenger ferry so loading the gear on was super stressful for me as the workers passed the guitars over the open water, arms fully stretched trying to reach. I could just see the gear landing in water before we even left. These guys do this multiple times a day so there was no real worry but that didn’t stop my heart skip a couple of beats.
We got talking to one of those workers, Enda, who told us about living on the island and how it’s tough when his girlfriend lives really far away on the mainland. The ferry was about an hour and the boat was swaying from side to side. I couldn’t see where any of the gear was so I just hoped it was in a safe place. We arrived safe and sound, loaded off the ferry and P.J, the lovely man that owned the bar I was playing in (Tí Joe Watty’s) was waiting for us. We dropped the gear off at the pub and he gave us lunch.
Immediately, himself and the workers in the bar were the friendliest people I had ever met while touring. PJ used to play in a rock band that sang in Irish, the first/only of its kind. Apparently they were really popular due to the novelty of it and were always on TV. I knew by this stage that tonight was going to be a great one. He’s been an original musician himself and knows what you look for on tour, and he was going above and beyond to make sure I got it which felt like a triumph before it began.
With that out of the way, we all rented bicycles and explored the island. We saw some seals on the way to Dun Aonghasa, a prehistoric fort that soars over a 11m high cliff. After a polite German failed to take a picture of us together we headed to the Wormhole. It’s a naturally rectangular shaped pool cut into the coast. It was the location of a redbull diving competition a few years ago. It was super difficult to climb down to, but once we were there, despite it being a cold day, had to jump in and go for a dip! It was so fucking cold. A few American’s had arrived shortly after to watch the stupid Irish kid get pneumonia.
Sightseeing out of the way, we cruised our bikes back to the venue where I needed to set up for the night. First time I’ve ever cycled to sound check! The bar was already busy at this stage, sound was lovely and the people were just so friendly. As it started to get dark, before playing, I went down to the pier. You could see all the lights from Galway city, about 14km away. Again the silence was something that struck me, but this time it felt a lot different, more relaxing and inviting.
Back to the hustle and bustle of the pub, the set went down a storm; packed house, loads of American tourists that seemed to enjoy it. Sold a couple of CDs and talked to those on vacation while my friends got hammered! We got talking to some interesting people until all hours, including this guy that’s been sailing around the world and almost got killed in a freak storm in Tonga recently. Myself and my friend Goof went back to our accommodation for the night which was the cosiest old cottage, that just so happened to have the lowest roof in the world.
The next morning we all met up for breakfast, since I don’t drink, I reminded the gang of everything that happened last night. We relaxed on the beach for the whole day until the ferry came. Again getting the gear on the ferry was tough because it was packed with these groups on a holiday tour. Leaving Inis Mór, I felt like the weekend was a real victory, I had gone off the beaten track to some place that people from our scene/genre would never go and got rewarded for it!
The song I wrote was through Enda, the ferry workers eyes, of his significant other missing out on the proudest parts of his life and seeing everything they’ve built. It is impressive how great of a setup the island in general has made for itself but it’s so tough not being able to share that with your loved one. I didn’t know what to call the song. I thought ‘St. Enda’ sounded kinda cool and I googled it. Turns out St. Enda is actually St.Enda of Aran and built a monastery out on Inis Mór! What are the odds? I returned back to record the song with my friend Mike Gavin of Windings, who is doing all of the songs. I’m so happy with how it turned out and the production work Mike did on the track.
Check back in two weeks for more from Anna’s Anchor.