Like Snoop Dogg, Bowie and Jesus H Christ, Jill O’Sullivan goes by many names and guises.
First breaking onto the music scene fronting Sparrow And The Workshop, she has also appeared as one half of bdy_prts with Jenny Reeve, worked with John Knox Sex Club’s Sean Cumming, and appeared as one of Three Queens in Mourning alongside Alasdair Roberts, Alex Neilson, and Bonnie “Prince” Billy (which is actually either just one queen or four depending on how you look at it, but we’ll let that pass).
Now, she’s back to being herself, in part – in her new trio, with Andy Monaghan (Frightened Rabbit) and drummer Peter Kelly, under the moniker Jill Lorean. Betty Mayonnaise decided to find out more…
Jill – you are originally from Chicago, USA – what brought you to these shores?
I grew up in Chicago but I was born in Belfast. Most of my family are from Dublin. So I suppose I was pulled in this direction. I have EU citizenship so I came over to work and study in my early 20s and I somehow found myself sticking around.
What are your earliest experience of music, heard or played?
That’s an interesting question. My earliest experience probably has to be my dad singing to me. I couldn’t have been any older than 2 but the winters in Chicago are freezing so to distract me from the cold he’d make up songs and we’d sing them. I never really acknowledged it before, but maybe that is where I got my first sense, hazy as it may be, of writing music.
You are proficient on several instruments – what is your favourite?
Ooh, a tough question again. I am going to say my voice. I feel the most comfortable using that instrument, I think in some ways I can do the most with it and feel very happy when I sing.
BM is currently listening to ‘Black Dog’, which you played solo a few times when BM was in attendance – how did you go about building this track up to the now epic experience that it now is?
Ah, yes, it’s definitely more of an odyssey with Andy and Pete. The idea was to start with that violin loop you’d heard me do live, and I had (roughly) the lyrics and vocal melody laid out too. But we wanted to explore the loop and see how far we could push it with our other instruments. So that it becomes a sort of hypnotic constant around which everything else moves. That was the aim anyhow. As we went along it made sense to drop the loop halfway through to open up the song more so it evolved as the tune went on.
What about management and agents – for someone with obvious raw talent, have there been any takers and how have you handled this?
It’s interesting you should ask this. I am going to be honest and say I haven’t pursued either for Jill Lorean. In other bands I’ve had agents, managers etc but as I’ve gotten older I’ve learned I don’t really need a manager. I do a lot myself. I like it that way. Perhaps if a nice agent came along who was happy to work with a band that don’t want to tour all the time and have multiple commitments then I’d change my tune but for now I’m happy to keep things simple.
The voice, is incredible – do you do vocal exercises or have any health regimes because my God… it is unique!
That’s very kind of you to say. When I listen back to old stuff (like Sparrow) I hear a voice that was not very controlled. Everyone use to say I had a powerhouse voice but I think I knew how to sing loud or sing quiet, I hadn’t quite learned how to control it so that I could move from one volume to another with subtlety and control. Over the years I’ve learned that I don’t need to shout, I can be “quietly powerful”. haha. That’s what I tell myself anyway.
I haven’t done any particular regimes but I think stopping singing MEGA LOUD helped me because I felt I became more attuned to what my body was doing when I sang, you know? The muscles in my lungs and ribcage, my diaphragm. I also think maybe the longer you sing the stronger your diaphragm becomes. So in an accidental way I think I was sort of strengthening my voice by actually calming down a bit.
I don’t have any special health regimens but I try to avoid talking loudly or whispering before a gig as a rule and I don’t booze the night before a gig. I basically treat my voice more like an instrument than I used to.
Gigs – do you have a booker, because BM thinks you could fucking slay it in any Scottish or UK festival in 2022…
That’s very kind of you. No booker as of yet. But like I mentioned before, I haven’t actively pursued that so maybe I should pull the finger out and try, haha. But I don’t want to tour just for the sake of it.
In Sparrow we were always on the road and often playing to half empty rooms, it can take a toll on your mental health if you do it again and again. It’s also hella expensive. Money is not in abundance so going out on a long support tour or even a tour without guaranteed people turning up and buying tickets is very risky.
BM knows you have offspring, which you mention during gigs – can relate to this – how do you reconcile your rock and roll life with being a parent?
Well… I’m not very rock and roll so it’s not that hard. Even in my 20s when I toured I’d read books on the road and stay away from the partying. Not always but more than some folk, ha! I’m actually a bit introverted (I’ve been told) so I get exhausted if I socialise a lot.
My daughter is really into music and art so I try and include her in Jill Lorean, she listens to mixes, helps with artwork. It’s quite nice. I don’t want to completely separate my musical life from my home life, it feels a bit weird to me to do that because my music is partly inspired by the things that happen around me day-to-day. Obviously she can’t come to late night gigs but when I can include her I do.
What can we expect from Jill Lorean this year – an LP release, but what else?
So there will be an album launch May 28th in Glasgow at the Hug and Pint and also currently working on lining up some gigs in autumn. More announcements soon! Also…more writing. Maybe another EP next year or an album if the writing flows and we’re not too broke. Anyone reading this with some spare cash, please order the new album so we can afford to make another one. And if you already have, thank you thank you thank you. X
Ok , it’s the Smash Hits question – not asking the colour of your knickers or socks – but what was the first gig you attended, and the first record you bought…
This is the “show your age” question, HA! First gig was Smashing Pumpkins at the Riviera in Chicago. First record bought would have been Weezer ‘Blue Album’. I was about 12 or 13. I used my babysitting money.
‘This Rock’ is out now on the Monohands label. More at www.jilllorean.net / www.facebook.com/JillLorean.