Eagle-Eye Cherry on being mistaken for Neneh’s sister and why he’ll always play Save Tonight as he gears up for first Irish show in 19 years
Eagle-Eye last graced these shores almost 20 years ago, on the support bill for Bryan Adams at Slane Castle in the summer of 2000 and plays Whelan's at the end of the month
“Who the hell wrote that? Fire them,” laughs Eagle-Eye Cherry.
Something For The Weekend has just read the Swedish songwriter a review of his last gig in Ireland, where he was described as ‘the sister of Neneh Cherry.’
He, and Eagle-Eye is a he, last graced these shores almost 20 years ago, on the support bill for Bryan Adams at Slane Castle in the summer of 2000.
Also on the bill with your mam’s favourite Canadian rocker were Macy Gray, Moby, Spice Girl Mel C and Irish acts Dara and Screaming Orphans.
Cherry had just released his second album, Living in the Present Future, the follow-up to the smash Desireless.
His 1997 debut single Save Tonight reached number three in Ireland and went platinum in Britain, while follow-up Falling in Love Again also proved a success.
Slane proved to be something of a zenith for the Swede, who released one more album before retreating from writing and performing for much of the following 15 years.
“Slane Castle I remember was such a cool place. Lord Mountbatten was driving around in his four-wheeler and he gave me my pass,” Cherry tells SFTW.
“Showing up on stage, I don’t care if it’s 50 people or 50,000 people, I love playing music. Clubs are the ideal setting. I want more contact with the audience.
“Gigwise, I was always comfortable with [success]. I loved getting up on stage. That part of it was the best part, and that’s the reason I came back.
“The kind of fame factor, and recognition factor and all that, I was never really comfortable. I like being anonymous. That part was a big adjustment.”
FEET ON THE GROUND
Cherry was never fully comfortable with the trappings of fame but he did at least have a role model in his older sister, who became a worldwide success a decade earlier.
Watching the way Neneh handled herself gave him a model for how to act, as did the grounding of his parents, jazzman Don Cherry and painter Monika Karlsson.
“I guess, in a way. One thing I think definitely about my sister — I’m the BROTHER — I don’t know if it’s our parents influence but we were quite good at keeping our feet on the ground.
“Around the time of Raw Like Sushi and Buffalo Stance, I was really impressed by how she kept her feet on the ground.
“I kept that in mind when it got crazy on my side. That’s a weird balance, to try and stay rooted. It’s a tricky balance.”
There’s a certain amount of symmetry that Cherry should return to Ireland just five days after Mel C and the Spice Girls take their reunion tour to Dublin. The similarities end there.
Schoolgirls the length and breadth of Ireland will pound the yard next Monday and tell their friends about the gaudy karaoke show their mothers dragged them to over the weekend.
Those who make it to Whelan’s two days later will find an act only too happy to play the hits but, unlike at the 3Arena, the hits won’t be all Eagle-Eye Cherry has to offer.
His new record, Streets of You, was released late last year to relatively little fanfare — unsurprising for an act who has hardly toured in 15 years. Fans of Desireless and its successors will find little to grumble about with album number five — in his own words: “I haven’t reinvented myself.”
What they will find are the same qualities that made Save Tonight one of the enduring hits of the 90s — bright, shimmering guitars, strong melodies and tight, engaging songwriting.
TIME TO MOVE ON
The title track is like a modern-day reimagining of Burt Bacharach’s classic ‘Always Something There to Remind Me.’
It’s the semi-autobiographical story of a man who finds himself at the end of a long relationship and decides to move on rather than walk the same streets over and again. It’s most probably that she ended it with him. He didn’t choose to end the relationship.
“I’ve been there, where you share a life for a long time with someone and wherever you go, shops, restaurants, everything, is a reminder of her.
“It’s trying to start over again with a clean slate, and quite often you’ve got to move and find a new place.
“The song is really about breaking free and moving on, that moment where you’re like ‘I’m ready to go, I’m ready to start over and stop wallowing in my despair.’
“I like getting the visual in there. I did it on Save Tonight as well, like ‘go ahead and close the curtains, all we need is candlelight,’ trying to get a visual image of what’s going on.”
Room to Breathe captures the breathless moments at the beginning of what could be a relationship, while Rise Above is an uplifting, foot-stomping blues rocker.
SINGING THE BLUES
“Remember to Breathe is about that moment when you’ve met someone and you’re hoping something is going to happen.
“You’re heading home to her apartment and there’s that moment where you’re like ‘oh, I guess it’s time to go home’. And you’re hoping she says ‘no, please stay.’
“The whole song is about that moment where your heart is popping and you’re trying to keep it cool. That’s one of my favourite songs.
“I’ve always said when people ask me what kind of music I make that it’s rock/pop with a little bit of blues.
“It’s subliminally there throughout my music but I’ve never really taken that big step straight in there.
“I’ve always seen myself, when I become an old man, I’d be sitting playing blues in some little pub somewhere. This is the first step in that direction.”
MOST READ IN SHOWBIZ
As far as Save Tonight goes, Cherry is privileged to have written a song that everybody knows and doesn’t see himself ever getting tired of playing it.
“I actually think it’s a really good song. I’ve had friends who have had gigs and they don’t play their hits and I’m like, ‘what the f*** — why didn’t you play it?’ There’s a lot of people who’ve made albums that haven’t got that, so I’d never not play that song.”
EAGLE-EYE Cherry plays Whelan’s, Dublin on Wednesday, May 29.
