Singer- songwriter Etaoin spoke to David Hennessy about her biggest headline show to date, her new music and the impact of the loss of her father.
Ealing- Irish singer- songwriter Etaoin is getting ready to play her biggest headline show to date at St Pancras Old Church.
It has been a busy year for Etaoin. She has supported names like The Ting Tings and Alexander Nate and toured Europe with the Australian band, The Dreggs.
She is also now a brand ambassador for Ibanez guitars.
However it has also been a year of devastating loss.
It was in May last year that Etaoin lost her father who was also her best friend and a massive supporter of her music, to illness.
Since then she has released the single Jet Plane, a single that holds special memories of her father.
Etaoin would follow this with her most recent single, So Lucky.
Since she released her debut single Bedroom Walls in 2021, Etaoin has been championed by Amazon, Hot Press and RTÉ among others.
Etaoin grew up between England and Ireland with a mother coming from Kilmacthomas in Waterford and her late father from Roscarberry in West Cork and Killinick in Wexford.
Growing up in west London, Etaoin Rowe was a ‘Fleadh baby’ and, taught by the revered Brendan Mulkere, won many All-Ireland titles in many different categories.
She has headlined Whelan’s in Dublin, toured Ireland with Beoga and supported Gavin James.
Etaoin also works with Jimmy Rainsford from Picture This who often produces her stuff.
Etaoin took time to chat to the Irish World about her forthcoming show and new music.
Etaoin told The Irish World: “I’m so buzzing for St Pancras Old Church.
“That’s a venue I’ve always wanted to do.”
It was in May last year that The Irish World saw Etaoin play her sold out headline show at 21 Soho. Few in the crowd would have known that night that her father was slipping away.
Remembering it recently Etaoin told The Irish World: “It (the show) was good.
“But then daddy died a week after: Rough time because my dad was my best friend.
“Even days before he passed he was like, ‘You’re the love of my life’ and I was like, ‘You’re the love of my life too’.
“We were best friends and we are best friends, he’s just in a different accommodation right now.
“That happened but the amount of good things that followed my dad’s dying just felt like little pieces of magic thrown to me from him, little lifeboats to keep me afloat.
“I released Jet Plane which was a song about my dad.
“Actually daddy heard it and he really loved it.
“He got emotional.
“Before he got really sick, he heard it.
“I wrote it maybe about a year before he passed but it was a work in progress until the moment he did pass.
“I’ve just hit 18.5 million streams between streaming partners.
“That’s a number I can’t even get my brain around.
“I just love how many good things have happened since my dad’s passing and I feel like they’re little gifts from him being like, ‘Keep going’.
“There was something really emotional, something that is really close to my heart that happened before Jet Plane.
“Me and my dad always had this pact.
“This pact was solid: That if he ever passed away, he would give me a sign.
“When I got home after the night my dad passed I suddenly got the urge to look in this random box in the storage room that I hadn’t looked at for ages.
“I just randomly got the urge and then I went to open the box and the first thing I saw was a little handwritten note from him that I hadn’t seen since I was about 13 or 14.
“I’d forgotten it existed and it said, ‘Etaoin, remember take one day at a time. Also remember how much I and we all love you so much. Love from Daddy’.
“And it just felt like, ‘You upheld your pact. I’ll never doubt you again’.”
I’m sure Jet Plane is an emotional one to sing but isn’t it also one you kind of have to sing when doing a show now?
“I think, honestly, it’s something not that I have to do but that I want to do because when I’m on stage, I feel so connected to my dad now.
“I always feel my dad right there.
“But I always feel him everywhere and I talk to him all the time.
“I feel him in the littlest moments.
“And Jet Plane, for sure, would be hard to sing.
“I haven’t sang it live yet.
“It’s still really fresh.
“He was such an integral part of my life.
“I know everyone says it about their dad but he was the best dad in the world.
“It (grief)’s such a such a funny journey.
“You’ll feel fine and then suddenly it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m crying over a mince pie’, because he loved mince pies.
“The other night I was a bit upset about him, just missing him.
“But then I got a call from Benjamin Francis Leftwich.
“He’s a really, really successful artist.
“He writes with Holly Humberstone, the 1975.
“He knew my dad because I write with Ben a lot and we’re really good friends.
“He called me and he was like, ‘Hey, I just want to check in, see how you’re doing’.
“Then I was like, ‘Oh my God. I don’t know if you know. My dad died’.
“And then we wrote a song about it on the phone which is something I’d never done before but it was just really beautiful.
“My dad listened to Ben.
“Me and my dad it was our thing that we listened to Ben’s music.
“I was always a fan of Ben before I even knew him or wrote with him.
“I listened to his music all the time growing up.
“I always put him on in the car when my dad was driving and my dad loved his music too and we’d always play him on late night drives.
“Jet Plane is hard to sing, for sure.
“I think that when somebody dies it’s such a whirlwind of these waves that crash at 100 miles per hour and then they die down and they come back and eventually I think you come to appreciate the waves and you wouldn’t want it any other way.
“If grief is a direct reflection of how much you love somebody, then I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I remember when he passed, two tears came out and I blessed myself with them.
“It was moving but he’s still here.
“He’s just in a different accommodation right now. He just moved house to heaven and that’s okay because he’s happy there.”
How did you like touring with The Dreggs?
“Just the best.
“We went so many places.
“We went to Munich, Zurich, all the different places which is crazy.
“I’d never done an EU tour like that before.
“It just felt like living the dream a little bit.
“I loved it and I loved how at home it made me feel.
“Honestly I feel like it healed something inside of me.
“I remember one of the first things they said was, ‘We’re so sorry about your dad. No matter what you feel, just talk to us’.
“They were just amazing.
“At one point I had a wobble before one of the shows and they were just looking after me.
“We did Electric Ballroom which was kind of surreal.
“I had my own little backstage area but I was so used to sharing a backstage room with the boys and I felt really lonely.
“I just knocked on the door and I was like, ‘All my stuff is in the other room but can I come in?’
“It was my first time away since my dad had passed and it was a bit nerve racking in the beginning but it was like being with your big brothers.
“Even one evening, we couldn’t get to my hotel and the boys got out of the car and just walked me a mile to the hotel.
“They were like, ‘No, we’re not having that’.
“It was just so nice.
“Just amazing, amazing people.
“We went to Ireland.
“We played in Dublin which was amazing.
“It was just so nice to be home.
“And there’s something about the Irish air.
“I think it’s clearer.
“We got the ferry over and it was nice because we always used to get the ferry as kids with my parents. It was just so nice.
“It was so nice just being around the Irish countryside again and just hearing the accent.
“That was amazing.
“We’re looking at doing an Ireland show at some point this year.
“I honestly just can’t wait to go back.
“Ireland is literally my home and my favourite place in the world and I love it.
“That’s what I love about Irish crowds.
“They’re so attentive but they’re so lively.
“They’re so quick to get involved.
“If I make some slightly unhinged comment, someone gives it back which I love so much.
“They’re really involved.
“I love that.”
Where did the recent single So Lucky come from?
“People can look at someone and think, ‘You are so lucky’ but you never know what’s going on behind closed doors.
“There was girl who went to my school and she was the most beautiful girl and every guy was obsessed with her.
“(But) she was having a really rough time and she was kind of sad and a bit broken.
“I think it’s a common feature of living in the world that we live in that people can look like they’re fine and people can think, ‘Oh my God, they’re so lucky. They’re having such a great time’, but you mightn’t be having a great time.
“The last show nobody would have known that my dad was dying.
“You never know.
“I think it’s just kind of an ode to how important it is to practice being kind and gentle and soft with people because you never know what’s happening behind closed doors.”
You have a new single on the way..
“I’ve got this one that Jimmy from Picture This produced.
“He’s just great.
“His sense of melody, his production is so cool.
“He’s just such an amazing person to work with.
“I’ve always felt at home when Jimmy produces my stuff.
“There’s nothing Jimmy’s ever produced that I thought, ‘I don’t like that’.
“I always love it just because I feel like musically, we get on.
“This one is called What Did You Want From Me?
“I co-wrote it with a guy called Dustin Dooley.
“I’d had a small blip in a friendship which is fine now.
“Someone ended a friendship with me suddenly.
“I’d been friends with the girl for two years at that point.
“I used to see her every weekend.
“Then suddenly she said she didn’t want to be friends with me anymore.
“She literally sent me a message being like, ‘I need to take a step back from this friendship’.
“And I was like, ‘That’s fine, wishing you love and light’, but then obviously had to yap about it in a song.
“It’s got that kind of intimate feel to it and Jimmy’s production is amazing.
“I wouldn’t say it’s vindictive or vicious, that much.
“Sometimes when something like that happens, your nervous system goes kind of in shock, and you’re like, ‘What do I do to cope with the shock?’ And, as always, straight to the guitar.
“I honestly feel like my guitar must be sitting there, ‘Can’t this woman get a break?’
“There’s loads of new music in the works.”
Etaoin is now the face of Ibanez acoustic guitars.
“It happened really naturally and we just started working together.
“For me because I self taught guitar-“
Did you really teach yourself?
“Yeah, I never had a lesson my life.
“Santa Claus one Christmas gave me a guitar.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is amazing. I don’t play guitar though..’
“And then I remember I kind of fell in love with it and I started teaching myself.
“My mum always played guitar and she has a beautiful singing voice and that’s the reason I finger pick, because my mum taught me how to finger pick and she taught me my first three or four chords and that’s how writing songs started really.
“I’ve never had a lesson and that’s insane for me because being on a guitar brand deal, having never had a lesson, feels kind of fulfilling.
“For me playing guitar was almost like an outlet and then it’s kind of like your outlet and your musical therapy being seen as something worthy and having value by people who are guitarists which is crazy.”
Is the plan still to do an album?
“We’re in the middle of writing and recording at the moment.
“Everything’s kind of in the works really but there’s going to be so much music coming this year which I’m just so buzzing for.
“There’s another song after What Did You Want From Me called I Won’t Go Into It which Jimmy again produced.
“I wrote it actually quite a few years ago and at the time, I felt bad because I think somebody liked me more than I liked them.
“That’s going to be coming out too.
“I might be doing a festival run too.
“There’s so many fun things in the works I’m just buzzing for.
“I’m really wanting to release stuff that feels really honest and true to me.
“Jimmy has such a way of translating things that I write or co-write or even because I’ve written with him before to be how I pictured it in my mind even if I haven’t articulated it very well.
“It’s such a privilege to be in the position where you can articulate an emotion and then somebody else relates.
“It feels like a privilege and when people come up to you and relate to their own experience and then the song becomes theirs.
“It’s funny because I do feel so lucky even despite the whole past year.
“It’s been a challenge but I still believe in magic and miracles and it hasn’t stamped the faith out of me, my faith in the world or the faith in happiness or anything like that.
“I still believe in magic.”
Etaoin plays St Pancras Old Church on Thursday 21 May.
What Did You Want From Me? is out on Friday 15 May.
For more information, click here.
