While I’ve never met the man, I’ve been following the work of Myles O’Reilly as a Dublin filmmaker for many years. His work is unmistakable; the look, feel, and mood, even his choice of artists, seemed, to my mind, an extension somehow of his personality.
Let me sidetrack briefly.
Philip Perkis, one of my favourite photographers, once spoke of how a photo captures two worlds. When he sees something, it corresponds to something in his mind, and a connection happens; “so I pick the box up [camera] and place it between this [me] and that [the subject]; and I take a picture…so maybe I’m taking a picture of the correspondence rather than the object itself. So the photograph is about the relationship between what’s inside a person and what’s outside a person.” That’s something I’ve always felt strongly about, not just with film and photography but also with music. In that sense, it feels like Myles has finally thrown the doors wide open, and his latest project, Cocooning Heart, is probably the most revealing reflection of his inner world through which are scattered sonic artefacts that make it all the more personal and real.
He began filming in 2010 and has filmed, directed and edited over 100 music video promos and 20+ music documentaries of Irish musicians at home and abroad, some of which include Glen Hansard, Villagers, Imelda May, Lisa O’Neill, Ye Vagabonds, Sinead O’Connor and Lisa Hannigan, alongside other international artists such as Hollywood soundtrack virtuoso Ernst Reijseger, Icelandic artists Soléy, Múm, and Amiina, US soul phenomenon Janelle Monae, and UK folk trio The Staves. We’ve shared many of them on Folk Radio over the years.
He has spent a long time behind the lens, looking and listening, but there is another creative heart wanting to express itself, to make music. I first realised his desire to make music via his Indistinct Chatter project. He began sharing videos of him experimenting with a Moog synthesiser, accompanying interviews or archive footage of Irish Travellers and the Travelling community.
In 2020, induced by the lockdown, Myles revealed a new path that could potentially fulfil both of his desires – to film and make music. The seed was sown when he began to create ambient drones in his music documentaries to lead the audience in and out of the music performances he was filming. As he said with his first release, Cabin Lights Off, an album inspired by the inward turning thoughts felt while travelling by air, “Once I began to compose even longer pieces to sit under the dialogue of interviews, I realised I was unintentionally creating a collection of ambient songs.”
Then, last year, his second release, My Mother’s Star, saw him processing memories of his late parent with impressionistic ambient pieces.
He has now announced a new collection under his own name of ambient folk songs titled ‘Cocooning Heart’.
The first taster from the album is out now, ‘The Most Colourful Thread in the Loom’. Speaking of the song, Myles says:
“The Most Colourful Thread In The Loom is a song directly inspired by my love for my wife Aideen, the life we have weaved together, and are yet to weave. Having experienced a difficult loss that put a strain on our marriage, even in the depths of despair she remained the most beautiful and loving person I know.”
The accompanying press release expands on the background to the album and Myles’ path here, one which hasn’t been without its battles.
Always evident in O’Reilly’s music documentary film work has been his deep adoration and passion for music but most important to note, having once been a working musician himself for over a decade, his willingness to prioritise his subject’s love for performing music above his own is perhaps what is most poignant about this long-overdue role reversal. “It took a pandemic lockdown for me to have nobody to cast a lens on but myself”.
“At ten years old, I was pretty much the same person I am today. Watching my Dad make bad television, thinking I knew how to do it better. Impersonating my favourite pop singers”. Myles’ mother, Monika championed his creativity, perhaps to a fault, especially his singing, “I got away with murder in school. My teachers told mum I showed no interest in any subject and was certain to fail my leaving cert, but it didn’t matter to her, as long as I kept singing”. Most parents regularly check on their children to make sure they’re applying themselves to homework, “Mum would pass my bedroom door, and if she heard me belting out a song, I was left alone”.
Signed to a major label in his mid 20’s, the reality of the music business hit Myles hard in 2008 in a global economic crisis. His label, V2 Records, home to his favourite band Elbow, suddenly and without warning, liquidated. “My album was due to be released the day I read about their bankruptcy in the paper”. It was the catalyst for Myles turning to his second love, photography and film, but he would persist with music, only as subject matter for his inquisitive lens.
“Mum died from cancer in 2013. I made a promise at her deathbed that I would sing again,” but no sooner had the tragedy of her loss occurred than he himself suffered a life-changing near-death accident. “It took me over a year to learn how to speak again without slurring every word”. In a collision with an extremely violent bacteria, Myles lost the use of half his tongue. “The doctors told me I would eventually regain my speech but articulating certain words would be a permanent difficulty for me. So that was it really. I had no more hopes for singing”.
The pandemic of 2020 had its challenges for everyone, but with Myles working specifically in music, several evolving projects weren’t just put on hold but cancelled outright. “The first two weeks on the sofa staring at the ceiling were the longest two weeks of my life. I was completely grief-stricken”. Given that his previous dice with mortality was compounded by a battle with his immunity, in lockdown, he was ‘Cocooning’ and not taking any chances. “I went from being constantly on the road to suddenly being exiled at home.
“My wife Aideen took to drawing and painting, but I didn’t know what to do with myself”. In a moment of inspiration, he thought to text his neighbour Rod to ask if he had any instruments lying around that he could borrow. “Moments later, Rod knocked on my door wielding a Moog synthesiser. It had a hundred buttons. I thought to myself; this is perfect. It’ll take me ages to figure out what each knob does. A perfect time filler”.
The album title track Cocooning Heart was written and recorded that night. “Flood gates opened. I was in my attic, whispering into a mic so my wife couldn’t hear me. There were moments when I cried profusely. I was reunited with the act of writing music, and nothing else mattered. Every lyric of that song is exactly what was on my mind that night, in that reunion”.
Indeed every track on Cocooning Heart does carry a feeling as though it was recorded in the intimacy of a home, late at night. The gentle whirr of a laptop is accompanied by a whistling wind noise from outside, where cats can be heard fighting. A kettle is warming up. The dull racket of a shower from next door. In listening, the listener is very much transported into Myles’ attic. It’s an ode to life within those walls and to living there with his wife.
‘Cocooning Heart’ will be out on June 30th. Pre-order on digital or CD via Bandcamp:
https://mylesoreilly.bandcamp.com/album/cocooning-heart
LIVE DATES:
25th June – The Burren College of Art
30th July – All Together Now Festival
+ more to be announced.