Let’s go right back to the beginning. What was the moment you knew music was going to be your thing?

It was the TV show Fame. I was eleven, watching it one evening, and this kid got up and sang a song, and I was just completely mesmerised. I didn’t know what the song was, but I tracked it down on the sheet music the next day. It turned out to be Penny Lane. I didn’t even know it was the Beatles at that point. I just knew there was something about that song.
On the way home from school the next day I spotted a Beatles compilation outside a little music shop, Rock and Roll Music Volume 2, for about £2. I went home, asked my mum for the money, went back and bought it, and spent the whole summer listening to it. Every song was just brilliant. That was really the moment where music meant something to me on a deeper level. From there, I wanted to understand how they did it. I started with piano lessons, tried the drums and finally picked up the guitar, and started writing my own songs. And eventually, I had a band called Cisco. That’s really how it all started.

Your solo journey has now taken you to six albums. That’s quite a body of work. How has your approach to releasing music changed over time?

Recording is so much more accessible now. I have a lot more control over things at home, and I don’t have to wait for a studio to be free on a day when I might not even be in the mood. With this album I released several tracks individually in the lead-up to the full release, which was partly deliberate and partly just “these songs are ready, they need to go out”. I also think, honestly, that not everyone listens to a full album anymore. Releasing individual tracks gives you more exposure, more touchpoints. It also keeps you focused, finishing one song completely rather than trying to get everything done at once. There’s also always that anxiety about timing. I remember reading that Simon Le Bon felt they might have lost the moment when ‘Ordinary World’ was delayed for six months. That feeling of, will this still connect? I relate to that. So getting things out feels important.

The album title ‘That’s When the Earth Becomes a Star’ is extraordinary. Where did it come from?

I’m quite interested in philosophy, and particularly the work of Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher behind the Steiner schools, among many other things. He lectured on everything from agriculture to architecture to medicine, and his ideas have been put into practice in all kinds of ways. One of his central ideas is that we are spiritual beings, and that even the earth itself will be spiritualised at some point, it will essentially become like a star. That concept really resonated with me. A lot of my lyrics come from that place, the idea that we are more than just material beings. I think more and more people are waking up to that. It’s there throughout the album.

The album closes with ‘Goodbye’, was that always going to be the final track, and what were you trying to say with it?

Well, it’s called ‘Goodbye’, so it felt like the right place for it, rather than the opening song. But beyond that, there’s more to it than just the sequencing. Part of my PhD work was exploring different tuning systems, moving away from the conventions of how we tune music in Western culture. ‘Goodbye’ felt like a farewell to some of the older ways of working. And I think there’s something in it about people moving towards a new way of thinking and receiving things. When you go through a real transition, there’s sadness in it, but there’s also excitement and reinvigoration.
There’s something else too. My mum died around that time. I didn’t consciously write the song with that in mind, but these things find their way in, don’t they? When you’re writing lyrics, the words come from somewhere, almost displaced from your normal consciousness. There are layers of things that get in there, whether you plan it or not.

Does living in the west of Ireland influence your music, consciously or otherwise?

I grew up in Dublin, which was very Anglicised, with American music, English music, Levi’s jeans, so I don’t feel a particularly traditional Irish influence in what I make. But something interesting happened when I moved west. My productivity seemed to increase significantly. One night I came home from a songwriting event and wrote two songs in about half an hour, they just flowed out. Maybe a city sometimes feels like there’s too much intensity, too much noise for the creative flow to get through. Out here, something in the atmosphere seems to open things up. I can’t fully explain it. Maybe it’s the Shannon River. Maybe it’s just something in the air. I’m not sure, but I notice the difference.

If you had to pick one track that really captures who you are as an artist right now, which would it be?

Honestly? I think they all do. They’re all parts of things I’m interested in, things I feel I need to say, they come out of me, so they are parts of me. It’s a bit like being asked which of your children is your favourite. I’m sure people have preferences, but I’d find it very hard to say. The only tracks I ever feel uncomfortable with are the ones where I tried to do something I thought sounded like a good idea, and then realised it didn’t feel authentically me; I’d manufactured it a little. Even if other people like those, I just can’t fully get behind them. Everything has to come from a real place.

So, what’s next for Sean MacLeod?

I’ve actually just finished another album called ‘Magic’, it just needs mastering. It came together more cohesively than this one, everything seemed to flow. I’ll be releasing tracks from that in the coming months. And I’ve just finished a demo for something called ‘Confusion’, which has a bit more of a New Wave feel to it, I’ve been listening to a lot of music from that era and exploring where that leads. I also teach music production at a college, so the summer will give me real time to create and develop things further. I just keep going, really. Whether it makes money or not, it has a purpose. That’s enough.

‘That’s When the Earth Becomes a Star’ is out now via Bandcamp.

Find Sean MacLeod on Bandcamp and across social platforms.

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