The importance of seeing Ernest
Hailing from sunny Melbourne Australia, award-winning indie-folk songwriter Ernest Aines is kicking off his first ever Irish tour in Cork early next month.
By all rights, Aines should be soaking up the sun on a beach back home, but instead he is hunkered down in a Dundalk hotel looking out at frost-covered cars and white fields.
But he’s thrilled to be in Ireland for many reasons. For starters, he’s in Dundalk to take part in Your Roots are Showing, a five-day music industry conference which could lead to all sorts of big things in his already bright future.
After that he jets off to the UK for a short tour before returning to Ireland to perform at iconic Leeside venue Coughlan’s on 2 February where he will be joined by the incredible up and coming Irish folk artist Lorraine Nash. Nash will perform with him for the majority of his Irish run bar his show in Ballincollig on 9 February.
The show features songs from his spellbinding 10 track debut album, ‘Spiral Bound’, which dropped in September last year and bagged him a nomination in the Australian Folk Artist of the Year Award 2023.
“For a long time, I've wanted to come here to experience the depth of artistic storytelling and poetry,” he tells the Cork Indepenendent.
“It's great to come to where folklore almost began and a place where storytelling is still valued to such a high degree. I relish in the fact that it does really feel like I've stepped into a mystical land.”
Aines draws inspiration from many places, with nature being one of them as is evident in his song and beautiful accompanying video ‘Yellowstone’, a growing, stomping tune oozing with irresistible American gothic country soul. This being his first time seeing the Irish countryside, the obvious question is, will he be inspired by and write about our beautiful land?
“Being here is kind of surreal, it's the furthest I've ever been from home, as Samwise Gamgee once said,” laughs Aines, whose manager’s brother lives in Cork.
“Landscapes and nature definitely inspire a few of my songs. I think that nature in particular is one of those things that, if you really take it in, how can you not be inspired by it?
“I'm sure I'll be incredibly inspired to write. Maybe not on tour because I'll be playing nearly every night, but I definitely feel that I'll be writing a lot when I get home as a way to preserve my memories.”
Ernest’s fascination with Ireland and the art of storytelling runs deep. He is currently reading a book called, ‘The White Goddess’, an historical exploration of poetic mythmaking which speaks of Ireland as a hub of ancient learning. He says: “There's a theory that the mystics of ancient Greece passed poetry through to Ireland and Ireland was the only place that made colleges that were dedicated to storytelling and poetry and the mystical retelling of stories, and a degree, if you will, in poetry took 12 years to attain.
“In Ireland, learning about all of the history of minstrels and bards and the timeline in why Ireland has such rich traditions in performing art, it's really developed in me inspiration to try to write with more intention. There's so much attention to detail in Irish traditioned folk and poetry,” he adds.
It’s no secret that Ireland’s folk scene is thriving these days and growing stronger and more popular by the minute, but what about Australia?
The Land Down Under doesn’t necessarily scream folk. We Europeans think of Australian music and we think of AC/DC, the Bee Gees, Nick Cave, Kyle Minogue. Some of us might even think of Savage Garden – not many, but some. But Aines says, though a relatively small family of artists for now, the folk scene is strong in Australia and the standard is dizzyingly high.
“We have much fewer folk artists than you would here or in Canada or America,” he explains.
“It's nowhere near the dominant genre. That said, I think we have a very high quality of people who do folk over there. We have our own Folk Alliance which is a group dedicated to promoting folk and putting on shows. It's a subsidiary of Folk Alliance International. They have their own awards and it's not without attention. There is a depth there and it's emerging but at the moment it's still quite tightknit,” adds Aines.
Touring Ireland is one thing for an up-and-coming artist. You can check off most top spots in a solid fortnight, but the continent of Australia is another, far more daunting affair. However, with world-renowned folk festivals such as the annual Woodford Folk Festival near Brisbane or the Fort Fairy Folk Festival in Victoria, the tightknit Australian folk family have plenty of reasons to journey across their vast and beautiful land to celebrate the art the love.
“It's definitely a lot of driving, if you chose that route,” admits Aines.
“It's a lot of plugging together small rural towns and trying to put as many dates as you can onto the one slate. The east is such a beautiful route for a lot of musicians.
They go all the way up to Cairns and back down to Melbourne and there’s just a great big road trip that goes all the way up. I've heard it's a beautiful journey and one I'm looking forward to doing in the next couple of years.”
The future is bright for young Ernest Aines who, once finished his Irish tour, head’s back to Australia to play a festival in Perth before beginning plans for his next highly anticipated album. There’s also talks of a tour in Canada later this year. For now, Aines is enjoying his time on the road and is sure to make a lasting impression on Leeside and beyond.
“Yeah, just looking forward to more experiences because, you know, if you don't live you can't write about it,” he says.
Ernest Aines plays Coughlan’s in Cork city on 2 February, the School Yard Theatre Charleville, county Cork on 4 February, and The White Horse in Ballincollig, Cork city, on 9 February. For ticket information, visit ernestaines.com.