New talent

Talking about singing, surfing, song writing and You're a Star!

Aine O’Doherty

Famous for her musical skills, originality and her achievements on the You’re a Star rock chick Aine was actually an Irish Surf Champ long before she became a musician.

 

How would you describe your music Aine?

Acoustic modern folk with a blend of melodic rock… if that makes sense! Basically I’m a singer-songwriter but I concentrate a lot on my lyrics and I try to write from angles that are different from the norm some of the tunes are really rocky like “Pass the Bottle” and others like “Frozen” are easy going, chilling out type tunes.

How did you first get into surfing?

My brother was big into surfing. He tried to get me to do stand-up surfing but I kind of just got bored on the inside on my own on a swell board, so I decided I’d get out into the big waves and that’s why I got into bodyboarding. It was more craic out the back on the big waves.

What do you enjoy most about being a musician?

The men! Haha… no. I could be in the pub; just a normal person and the next thing stand up on stage with my guitar. When people hear you singing, they take a total different approach on you. Just being called a musician. Over the last few years when people asked what do you do, it used to be “I play music and work in a pub” but now I can say “I’m a musician”. It’s brilliant to be able to say that.

How do you like performing on TV?

I did not like playing on TV. When I watched the recordings of You’re a Star, I thought I looked like a statue. I never thought I did on TV exactly what I can do on stage. I suppose the time limit of having to sing within a minute and a half had a lot to do with it. It takes a couple of minutes just to warm up usually. I didn’t like the fact that millions of people were looking at me and I couldn’t see them. I like to be able to see an audience to know if they’re reacting well or not.

What advice would you give to up and coming musicians?

Travel and practice a lot. If you’re song writing, don’t stick around in the one place for too long, you have to travel and see stuff. A lot of my early ideas came from being in Brazil and Portugal with the Irish Surf team. Even though I didn’t play guitar all that well, I still kept diaries of everything that was going on. Just dedicate yourself if you want to do it.

Who are your musical influences?

I love music from the 60’s and 70’s so rock chick Janice Joplin stands out most for me but I started to listen to Jack Johnson a few years ago because of the musical/ surfing relationship and also because his music is amazing… so Jack if you ever need a Surf Chick support act, here I am!

What’s in the future?

At the moment I’m busy touring Ireland, the U.S. and Europe so I haven’t time to record in the next couple of months but hopefully in September I’m going to put a CD together. If you cant wait for that you can hear some of my tunes on my website www.aineonline.com and I’ll let everyone know when the CD is ready.

Interview by: Shauna Ward

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