The Nation Mourns is the musical brain child of Irish songwriter Neil O’Shea. Growing up with a wide range of blues and rock influence, it was the haunting timbre of artists such as Tom Waits, Nick Drake, Jackson C Frank, and Damien Jurado that drew him to songwriting. This has led him to lyrics of landscapes and leaving for home; while subtle, melancholic melodies draw you ever further into the music.
In 2021 The Nation Mourns was selected as a showcasing artist at Ireland Music Week 2021. He is currently based in Berlin, recording his debut album Remember/Leaving with producer and Universal Music Publishing artist Cameron James Laing.
O’Shea’s latest single, “Laura,” is a jaunty tune that at first glance seems to be a wistful love song. But there’s a deeper meaning.
“Laura is a song about finding yourself and being true to the person inside,” O’Shea explains. “Usually when the song is performed live it is interpreted as a love song, and the question ‘so, who is Laura?’ is always asked with a cheeky grin. Although there is no ‘Laura,’ there is certainly a person inside everyone we are looking to bring to the surface.”
Who are some of your musical influences?
I suppose when it comes to the most recent single “Laura,” I took a lot of inspiration from folk singers like Dave Van Rock, Happy Traum, Gregory Alan Isakov and the likes for that old school acoustic folk arrangement.
I’ve always been a big fan of the Irish blues musician Rory Gallagher so I think his influence always creeps in. But when it comes to the album and bigger productions more modern Alternative and Americana artists such as The National, Lord Huron, Tom Waits, The War on Drugs, and Jason Isbell are always main stays in the record collection so I think their influence can be found on the album.
Do you have any songwriting tips you can share?
I think just always be writing. Whether its just taking notes on your phone while you’re out and hear an interesting phrase or down a random Wikipedia rabbit hole and discover an interesting story. I always try to keep that writer hat on so its easier to get into the rhythm of writing when you actually sit down to do it.
Do you start off with the music or lyrics first? Why?
I think it changes all of the time. Right now I have a couple of new songs that definitely started as music and I wrote lyrics around those guitar parts. But for example one of my other singles, “Ogre,” was pretty much fully written on my phone while I was walking home after a night out and I wrote music around that afterwards.
Do you play covers at your shows? Why or Why not?
Yeah I always try to include a few covers of artists that have influenced me at shows. I think it helps bring the audience into your world and see what has inspired you to do what you do.
What’s the best way a fan can support you?
I think buying merch or CD/Vinyls, or coming to shows and of course sharing the content online and with their friends are all great ways to support an artist. With the way streaming as decimated a pretty large portion of a musician’s income — streaming has its good points, too — I think it’s more important than ever to actually contribute to the artist for the art they are producing and try to bypass these multibillion dollar corporations and directly contribute to the artist where possible.