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The Irish Times - January 4 1997
It's not every junior infants class that has the playing of Beatles' songs as part of its curriculum. In Naimee Coleman's case, it was a forward-thinking teacher who gave her a grounding in the merits of pop music as a possible future career option. Or at least she thinks it was. She was only five years old at the time, so she can't fully remember the exact details.
"The Beatles and the Sound Of Music soundtrack were the two main things in my life then," recalls Naimee. "I suppose I was lucky in that I seemed to be surrounded by musical people all of the time. When you're so young, it doesn't occur to you to try and be modest about whatever talent you have. You just do whatever makes you happy. That's why I was always singing."
Going through school as a veritable songbird helped Naimee to receive both approval and encouragement from teachers, a confidence booster that certainly helped with her current combination of self-assurance and perfectly measured ego. "In a way, singing Beatles' tunes charmed most of them - that a young girl actually knew some of the music that was close to their hearts."
Naimee Coleman is the latest in a long line of intelligent and assertive female singer/songwriters who have emerged over the past few years to effectively challenge the laddish end of the pop market. At almost 20, she is also one of the youngest, one of the most attractive, and Irish - three factors that have heaped considerable, occasionally unwanted attention onto her shoulders. She began writing songs at 14, initially with a friend, and then solo. She wrote her first "real" song at 15, the same age that she began to keep a diary. These therapeutic pastimes, she claims quite innocently, just happened to coincide with the break-up of her parents' marriage.
"It made me re-assess the fact that people have problems when they're grown-ups. It certainly shatters the illusion of parental perfection and infallibility. The combination of that, and other things that were happening in my life then made me think a lot. The break-up also made me look at things more objectively, and focused me as a person. Ultimately, it made me realise that you've got to have a balance in life, that there are as many bad things as good."
Her first stage appearance was at the Baggot Inn in 1993. Naimee had been visiting the Dublin rock venue to see a band, and had been asked offhandedly by a promoter if she was a musician. She said yes. Three days later she was singing in front of her first paying audience.
"I don't know where my answer came from," she says somewhat ingenuously. "I'm usually the kind of person who doesn't force things."
Shortly after, in February 1994, while in a Dublin band called the Wilde Oscars, she won the 2FM Yoplait Song Contest. Cue attention from record companies, whose attempts at wooing her into signing a record contract met with firm refusals. On leaving the group, however, Naimee inevitably had second thoughts, and contacted a spurned EMI in a feverish bid to renege on her stubbornness. "I begged, basically!" The corporate giant, surprised but not stupid, relented.
After what seemed like an interminable wait for Naimee, her debut album, Silver Wrists, has just been released. Part serious and pretty in a non-superficial way, the album highlights a potentially excellent songwriter. The songs were written within the past four years, and as such represent a lyrical diary of someone who takes life with no small amount of salt. Does Naimee grow weary of the disdainful thirty and fortysomethings who have forgotten their own emotionally turbulent teenage years?
"I get that a lot - how could I have experienced all that I write about? I write songs about things that have happened to me, and not hypothetical situations," she says, at pains to dispel the notion that the sentiments contained within her songs are insincere. "My lyrics are very important to me, with most of them being written when I'm overcome by some feeling or another. Being heartbroken at 16, or any age for that matter, is the biggest deal in the whole world.
"In that sense, a lot of my songs could be considered serious instead of light-hearted. I find I write a lot more when I'm thinking and focused. They're all quite honest. The conflict is that I don't want my songs to be interpreted as sad, because I'm a not a sad person. Generally speaking, I'm quite happy. New material will concentrate on the more positive aspects of my life."
And with that, Naimee leaves a trail of hair wisps and surreptitious backwards glances from a number of males strolling down Grafton Street. Her mission? She is going to present a copy of Silver Wrists to her secondary-school music teacher. To thank same for all the encouragement and guidance afforded to Naimee throughout those frustrating uniformed years, perhaps?
"Er, not really," she replies, with just a hint of intractability. "I was told I'd get nowhere with all this pop stuff."
All Ireland Now - Naimee Coleman
"I'd love to do something with Massive Attack. That's all part of my cunning plan to get in with those guys."
Biog: 23-year old Naimee Coleman, a native of Dundrum in Dublin, has only recently become known to the public eye, despite being in the music industry for four years. She rose to stardom when her Duran Duran cover of 'Ordinary World' made it to the number five chart spot in the UK in 2000. The rendition was mixed by British dance duo, Aurora (aka Sacha Collison and Simon Greenway) who originally heard her voice when she asked them to mix a track from her debut album 'Silver Wrists', and they instantaneously invited her to sing on the track. With a live appearance on Europe's most successful pop show, Top of The Pops, the eager singer won over a significant fan-base in quite a short period. She also attracted a mass of positive attention from some music celeb's such as Posh Spice, who she met at a BBC Radio 1 show, and Duran Duran frontman, Simon Le Bon who was hugely impressed with her version and the pair are rumoured to be working together in the future. Naimee has formerly collaborated with songwriting sensation Paul Brady and ex-Police drummer Stewart Copeland. She has also played with acclaimed Irish singer Sinead O'Connor. Silver Wrists was released in '97, and made it into the Top 20 in Ireland, with even greater success in Japan and Germany. Signed to EMI, Naimee's debut LP, 'Bring Down The Moon' was well received, although 'Ordinary World' was the only significant hit. Born into a creative background (her father is an actor), her childhood was spent listening to artists like The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Joni Mitchell. Nowadays, she lists Bjork and Massive Attack as major influences.
Did you know?: · Her first gig was in Dublin's famed pub the Baggot Inn.
Local Ireland - August 2000
"No Ordinary Girl!"
She's back, but where has she been? Naimee Coleman explains, and talks about her collaboration with Aurora on their re-working of Duran Duran's 'Ordinary World'.
For the better part of three years there was a 'missing in action' sign hanging over the name Naimee Coleman. Rumours circulated, but nobody was certain of what happened to the girl who brought songs like 'Ruthless Affection' to the airwaves.
After finishing the recording of her second album, she re-appeared last month collaborating with UK dance duo Aurora. Setting their sights high, they went about re-working Duran Duran's 1993 hit 'Ordinary World'.
"I can't take any credit for the track, all that I did was record the vocals," she explains. "It's these guys Aurora who put this thing together, so it's their thing. They'd been brought in to do a remix of one of the tracks on my new album, because they're on Positiva, which is EMI's dance label.
"At that stage they'd already recorded the track, but were looking for a singer. So, then they heard my voice and thought it would be right for the track. They gave me a call and asked me if I'd be interested and I thought 'ah sure I'll do it' and it happened."
While her debut album 'Silver Wrists' did relatively well in Ireland, it was in Asia and that things really happened for Naimee. Much of 1996/97 was spent touring in there, but what was she doing in the years between?
"For the guts of 2/3 years I was writing, because I used up all of my songs on the first album. I just took my time and wanted to get it right, so I started co-writing, which I'd never done before. I went to places like Nashville and all over the States and did the whole co-writing thing, which was really good fun."
'Bring Down The Moon' is the title to her forthcoming album, due out in October following its first single, a cover of The Cure's 'Lovesong'.
"The album was produced by a guy called Ian Stanley, who did most of Tori Amos' stuff, so I'd like to think that it's kookier than 'Ordinary World'. There's a lot of programming on it, but more in the vein of Massive Attack.
"I think that I've learned a lot about music in the last three years. I was 18 when I recorded the first album and I could have ended up with something I hated, but luckily the producer that I used was really cool and made sure everything sounded the way I wanted."
Does the current musical climate worry you?
"When I signed my deal originally, there were no female singer/songwriters around, it was all stuff like Pearl Jam and Grunge guitar stuff. Then when I released my album the Alanis Morissette thing started to happen.
"Now there are millions of female singers around, so I'm very aware that when my album's released it will be competing with 12/13 singers who are doing something similar. The thing is, I know my album has that little bit of originality, so hopefully people will hear that."
by Daniel Hegarty |
