Anna Mieke teams up with Crash Ensemble in The National Concert Hall on Sunday June 15th for a once off collab for Dublin’s Musictown Festival. Our man in the stalls, Adhamh O’Caoimh, caught up with Anna as she prepped for the show in Portugal.
Anna Mieke’s incredible sound cascades upon a flurry of delicately fingerpicked notes and dizzying arrangements, a push pull of sound that brings to mind a murmuration of starlings, or an autumn whirlwind catching leaves.
This year’s MusicTown, Foggy Notions annual showcase of the greatest talents this country has to offer, locked together in collaboration and creation, will see her with Crash Ensemble for what is sure to be the show of the year.
With other collaborations on the bill including the enigmatic, polymathic Róis, the venerable Bren Berry of Revolino and experimental electronic luminary Natalia Beylis, this year looks to continue the tradition of showcasing the greatest music imaginable.
We caught up with Anna Mieke for a few words on her collaboration with Crash, unexpectedly tearing her away from Sally, a year old Collie pup.
How are you?
I’m good. I’m sitting in my van looking out at… my geography is terrible. I think I might be looking at the north bit of the Evora Peninsula.
I’m so sorry for interrupting your holiday.
No, not at all. The dog is being exercised on the beach as we speak.
So please, tell me about this magnificent set you have planned for this year’s Musictown. I know you’re working with the mighty Crash Ensemble.
Well, I’ve worked with Crash before in that I was commissioned by them to write a piece, so that was very involved with the actual arrangement.
Whereas this time, Barry O’Halpin is totally taking the lead in the arrangements. So I’m in as much I’m in the dark as you are. We haven’t actually had a playthrough yet. Barry and I have done lots of back and forth and communicated ideas with each other. So I have some ideas of how it’s going to go. But, for me, that’s the beauty of it, it’s still being a bit of a mystery until quite close to the show. Amazing. So, yeah, he’s doing it all, as he did with Rachael Lavelle last year.
One of the best shows I have ever seen.
That was my first experience of hearing his arrangements, and that was totally mind blowing. I’m really excited..For me anyway, I get kind of stuck in the thinking that if I write a song, that’s the only way it can exist. When, of course, that’s absolutely not true and there’s infinite ways that a piece of music can exist. I guess a lot of people have that.
Absolutely. I’m looking forward to seeing how he approaches your work.
I’m curious because I feel there’s not so much space in some of my songs. So, in a way, I do hope that he manages to pull things apart a bit. I’d love it if he broke things down quite a lot and made me relearn the songs in a new way.
What material have you decided to reinterpret?
A lot of what we’re going to be doing is from ‘Theater’. They’ve been around for a while, so it’ll be like breathing fresh air into the songs again, not having played them for a long time. I haven’t performed in a while actually. It’s a mad thing to come back and perform in the National Concert Hall after what feels like a break away.
I didn’t know you were on a hiatus.
It wasn’t planned, like one day, I was like, right. I’m gonna take a break from music. It’s just life and things happening in life. Stopping for a while, and not feeling like writing a whole lot, or performing or touring a whole lot.
I’ve been working on music in a different way. I guess, maybe I got tired of the way I was writing. So I took a step back. I’ve been learning a lot, taking a lot of joy from practicing things. I’ve taken cello back up, and been doing quite a lot of learning in production and Ableton. And, actually what I’m finding so motivating is collaborating with other people.
Obviously, I have collaborated before, and I play with Matthew and Ryan, and that is a form of collaboration. But collaboration from scratch as in writing from the very get go together. From total improvisation and then making a piece making pieces from that. That shared responsibility is so nice. I’m doing a lot of that with different people, and that feels really good.
Is there anything that you’re nervous or particularly excited about?
There’s definitely certain songs I’m wondering what they’ll feel like with Crash. I guess ‘Red Sun’ will feel pretty big. That’ll be fun. And, then Kate Ellis is very keen that we involve the giant pipe organ out of the Concert Hall. So yes. Time will tell.
I’ll see you there. Please give Sally the Collie a wee pet from me.
I will. I’ll pass it on.
Thank you.
You’re welcome.
Anna Mieke X Crash Ensemble perform at The National Concert Hall on Sunday, June 15th at 8pm as part of MusicTown 2025. Tickets available from NCH.ie.
Words: Adhamh O’Caoimh
Feature Image: Anna Meike by Celine Martins
