Interview With Mike Bernard – Mater Hospital Radio, Dublin – 22nd June 2001
Interview Recorded 22nd June 2001. On-air 1st July 2001.
TRANSCRIPT To read
Initially Mike played the title track of Ruth’s album ‘As I Breathe’ and introduced the pre-recorded interview.
SONG / Ruth Nina Welsh – As I Breathe (Track 5 from ‘As I Breathe’)
MIKE: I have with me now Ruth Nina Welsh a new singer/songwriter who is at present in Ireland to promote her debut album which is called ‘As I Breathe.’ Her mother was a trained singer so I first asked Ruth if this influenced her choice of career.
Ruth: Well I did sing a lot, but as you said, my mum was a trained singer and so she pointed me in the right direction with my singing…
MIKE: Yes, your mother was an oratorio singer. I mean, what sort of music was usually played in your home during your childhood, was it mainly more serious music or did you hear any of the popular music?
Ruth: All sorts of music. I mean, we had Kathleen Ferrier and then there would be some opera, some Joan Sutherland, Maria Callas. Then on the other side we’d have Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Elvis – the whole range.
MIKE: So your listening at home wasn’t just the more serious classical side. Your mother and father had a very wide taste as well?
Ruth: Yes. It was my mum really with the music – it was her. I would play her LPs and listen to all different kinds of music and that is what has given me such a love, I think, for so many kinds of music. The music that moves people. The singers, you know, the use of the voice to really move people.
MIKE: When you first left school did you have any other sort of work or did you go straight on to pursuing your university course, you started your university course quite late didn’t you?
Ruth: Well I started doing some piano teaching. Then I became ill and I wasn’t actually able to do too much for quite a while. Then I started to do some studying with the Open University and I carried on and I have done a Masters degree. I am still actually studying doing a research degree but I have taken some time off to put the music out. I started writing songs during those years while I was studying at the same time. Then I started to put together the album that you have got in front of you.
MIKE: I understand that all the songs that you have written are taken from personal experience?
Ruth: They are. I mean, some are about, it’s about things that move me really. And they can be direct experiences, sometimes they can be from friends and their experiences. But it has to really affect me to want to write about it, its something that I actually want to write about.
MIKE: I mean how many songs would you say that you would write a year?
Ruth: It has been different over different years. Sometimes I will have a spell and I will write quite a few songs and then another time I won’t write for quite a while. It just depends how I’m feeling and what else there is that I am doing at the time. As I have being doing the promotion and the business side of the album, you haven’t got as much time to do the creative work of actually writing songs and your mind gets taken up with business things. So you’ve obviously got to try to limit that so that you can still keep the creative work going.
MIKE: I have in my hand the cover of your album which was issued in 1999 and that has 14 songs on it and I understand you are planning to put out another album shortly. Would you say that you have got a lot more albums already available from the material you have already written or would you have to write more?
Ruth: No I have got a lot of material that I have got written but it is just a question of the way that I want to present it, as I graduate. This, as you say, is the debut album and it is an acoustic album with voice, guitar and piano – just myself doing those things. The next album, hopefully, will be towards the end of next year and I have been preparing quite a lot of the material for that one. So, I have got a lot of it written, but that is not to say that I won’t write something else and think ‘that must be on the next one’, because that often happens.
MIKE: I understand Ruth that you have your own website and I want to tell everyone what it is: it’s www.rnwmusic.com which is your own personal website. This is also linked to the company which you’ve formed to promote your own music. Or, in fact as you said, to record your own music and have your own label which is RNW Music. Did you actually contact any other record companies to try to get your music released prior to setting up your own system shall I say? (Note update on Website. I’m now at – https://ruthninawelsh.com)
Ruth: I didn’t. I decided I wanted to do it as my own project and I just wanted to have control of what songs were chosen and to actually create the album itself. But I am looking to try to get some kind of licensing or distribution for the album as it is. That is the stage that I am looking at at the moment and trying to get some people interested in it…
MIKE: Yes, because distribution is the most important thing when selling records. I can remember back in the late 60s and a young man called Marty Wilde – who appeared to be very popular – could have had another big hit but the reason he didn’t have it was purely because of distribution. His record didn’t get into the shops and so people didn’t buy it. And although it made inroads into the charts it dropped out because it wasn’t available in the shops for people to buy it and of course once that happens it goes out of the shops and nobody plays it.
Ruth: And do you feel that when people actually play it on the radio it must be in the shops or do you feel that it is best to have it on the radio first before it goes into the shops?
MIKE: I see you are interviewing me now! Fair enough, I’ll answer that question for you. Personally I think that it is a good thing for it to be played on the radio before it goes into the shops. It gives people a chance to hear it providing it gets enough promotion before it reaches the shops. So then when it does reach the shops there are a number of people out there waiting to buy it and that gives it an initial impetus on sales. Rather than just selling one or two straight away, you might sell hundreds first – if enough people have heard it beforehand.
Ruth: It is available in a few shops over here…
MIKE: Do you want to mention the names of those, so people will know where to buy it?
Ruth: Clondalkin shopping centre – it is available there, that’s here in Dublin and it is available over in Limerick. It’s the Blacktrack outlets in Limerick and then in Cork and over in Galway in Mulligan’s. And of course on the internet, on the website.
MIKE: How long are you actually over here in Dublin for?
Ruth: Well actually in Ireland I am here until about the second week in July… But I will be going back to Cork and travelling around a little bit more. I should be going back tomorrow – so this is my last day in Dublin…
MIKE: One other quick question relating to you having your own label. I would have thought it would be relatively expensive to set this up yourself. I mean did you manage to get finance from somewhere or is there somebody backing you in this?
Ruth: There has been some investment from different areas. From myself and from family and banks are very good on these things! I think it is one of those things that if you really believe in something there is a time when you have to actually say ‘I am going to have a go at this’ and see what happens and just believe really and keep trying.
MIKE: Well I think that is the right attitude to have, because if you don’t try you don’t get anywhere do you?
Ruth: Exactly. Well when it is a dream as well, and if you love it, then it is just a joy – most of it!
MIKE: Right, well, I think you already told us what your plans are for the future. One other thing though, I don’t think you have done any live performances, have you?
Ruth: I haven’t done any over here in Ireland… someone else was asking me about that and that is something I would really like to do.
MIKE: Now would that be something you would need to promote yourself or would you be able to find a promoter fairly easily? Because once your music is heard it won’t be so difficult, it will be a lot easier.
Ruth: Will it, I don’t know?
MIKE: Well I think so, and our listeners will of course have heard some of your music so they obviously can now decide themselves whether they feel that you deserve the promotion. I do myself.
Ruth: Thank you. I appreciate that. Like you said there are so many avenues to go. To either get some promotion, or set something else up, or join up with somebody else. And they are all the things that I will be looking at so that when I come back I can actually do something live. I would like to do that very much.
MIKE: Well I did notice one more thing, Daniel O’Donnell reviewed your album, maybe if you contacted him he might be able to arrange something for you and perhaps you could have a spot on one of his shows.
Ruth: That would be perfect wouldn’t it.
MIKE: Perhaps it might be worthwhile writing to him?
Ruth: I have written to thank him for the review he did which was just wonderful when I actually got that through. And I will keep him in touch with what is happening.
MIKE: So, hopefully we will see you actually performing in Dublin in the not too distant future Ruth.
Ruth: I hope so.
MIKE: Well, once again, thank you very much for coming in to talk to me. It has been very enjoyable and very interesting and I look forward to seeing your name up in lights.
Ruth: Thanks very much Mike.
MIKE: As I say, it was a pleasure.
SONG / Ruth Nina Welsh – Like I Do (Track 11 from ‘As I Breathe’).
Recorded 22nd June 2001. On-air 1st July 2001.