The Summit

I’ve always enjoyed singing. I remember returning home after spending three weeks in the Gaeltacht without English music when I was fourteen and one of the first songs I heard was ‘Killing me Softly’ by the Fugees. After hearing Lauryn Hill for the first time I made it my business to learn how to imitate every note of her voice. For many years I sat an learned to imitate singers I enjoyed but I was ever reluctant to be trained.

In 2006 I began a six month long session of singing training with Honor Heffernan in Dun Laoghaire. I loved her home, it was the perfect environment for music with loads of dogs and fairies. I was now being taught how to utilise my skills and improve them. An opportunity was offered for me to send her some of my songs for an upcoming rock album she was to record. I complied three songs I had that I knew she would like and I set about writing one for her specifically – more or less just to see if I could do it. But it had to be designed for her and yet still had to relate to me. I had three days.

I wanted to express a mood of empowerment and fulfilment that produced a rhythm that flowed and swayed in a tidal movement. After all, we were two similar women with only experience in difference. So it was to be progressive blues rock. The music had to expand with each part into a repeated conclusion to reinforce its aim. Each word and syllable meandered with the meter of the melody. I was so delighted that I had achieved my goal. The song was chosen, but wasn’t used in the final selection. I was relieved, it had been suitable, but I could still keep it as my own.

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