Digital Cover Story 7: Sinead Harnett

If you are a fan of good music then you’ve probably already heard of Sinead Harnett, the rising R&B star who cannot be missed on your playlists. Born to a Thai mother and an Irish father, the singer-songwriter first got into music when she started performing at talent shows organised by a local University – her outstanding voice luckily didn’t get unnoticed for a long time, and swiftly after, Sinead took the leap towards a career in music. From uploading amateur demos on YouTube to founding bands with a group of friends and performing small gigs at University – the songstress put in hard work to reach her goals. Fast forward, and Sinead Harnett is one of the biggest acclaimed R&B singers in the scene. She’s got collaborations with the likes of Disclosure, Rudimental, Gallant and Kaytranada under her belt, has sold-out venues and accumulated over 370 million streams. Now, after a highly successful debut album release in 2019, Sinead Harnett finally returns with her sophomore project ‘Ready Is Always Too Late’ – and what can we say? It’s a masterpiece. So naturally, I had to ask the talented singer all about it.

Words by Antonia Kuenzel

Just before the pandemic hit, she relocated all the way to Los Angeles from London, and ultimately stayed in the US city until now. When we connect on Zoom however, I learn that she is currently staying in hot and sunny Mexico, whilst I’m tuning in from a rainy London. But she goes on to explain to me that she’s heading to Los Angeles again in a few days and only stopped over after a brief visit to her family in London. “I went to LA to do my album last year and then basically got stuck because if I had left I wouldn’t have gotten into the country anymore and I hadn’t finished it yet, so I stayed there. I’ve just returned from the UK again and stopped over in Mexico”, she tells me. But judging from what she continues to tell me, this experience certainly turned out for the best.

With Sinead’s intention of feeling comfortable with being alone and nourishing her journey to self-love – topics, which she’s addressed closely in her previous singles - being away from home strengthened the ride in many ways. “I felt really lucky to be away from home because we weren’t really allowed to travel unless it was for work. So I went to the US and it was almost like a Uni gap year that I never got to have.”, she says. “I was alone just so much of the time walking into a room to new groups of people, new producers, new friends and I was alone in terms of being single and didn’t get to see any of my family for so long. So it was a good time to focus just on myself and my music because there was no ‘Sorry I can’t come because I don’t feel well’, there was more like a ‘Sorry guys, I’m in America and can’t leave here’. So it was good to concentrate on just writing for the first time in my life, I feel like when I’m in London I hate not being there for my family and I always want to say yes and end up doing too much. It was a good getting to know myself period and becoming comfortable with being who I am.”

“It was good to concentrate on just writing for the first time in my life, I feel like when I’m in London I hate not being there for my family and I always want to say yes and end up doing too much. It was a good getting to know myself period and becoming comfortable with being who I am.”

Whilst the R&B scene in the UK is ever-growing and boasting with an incredible pool of talent – including Sinead herself, the genre is still more niche than many other genres industry, whereas the US already represents a huge community within the R&B space. “There’s such an appetite for soul and R&B music”, Sinead admits. “There are lots of artists there who do the genre and who are huge. Whereas at home it’s quite a niche, so being there definitely opened my eyes to the hope of where my soul music can go.”

But not only that particular spirit in her home away from home influenced her – also sonically, she gained access to a distinct array of sounds. “I got introduced to a world filled with live instrumentation. The first album was with a bit more beat vibes, made more on the computer. Whereas for this one I’ve got real horns, guitars, keys, drums going on. And it was such a great musicianship that I just couldn’t wait to do. I think often people don’t do that because it costs more and requires a lot more people to get involved. Luckily it was just coming to me and I was like yes, I take that!”
The live instrumentation is unmistakably noticeable in ‘Ready Is Always Too Late’, and turns what is already a beautiful project into a sonically phenomenal gem.

Lyrically however, the album communicates the continuous struggle of not being ready for things such as relationships – an ongoing battle in our generation. Fascinated by the album title – a simple phrase which is such a powerful statement at the same time, in my opinion, I ask Sinead about the inspiration it: “It was sparked from the album title track, which is the first song. It’s about being in situations where people said I’m not ready to be with you, and how many times can you hear ready as an excuse? Outside of romance, I’ve put so many things off because I haven’t felt ready. From stuff like learning to love myself to going for things I’ve always dreamed of but being too shy - so it’s about owning it and taking ownership of your glory. Whether that is love or career, that’s the notion.”

Whilst her debut ‘Lessons In Love’ has indeed kicked off her journey to self-love and discussing patterns in her relationship introspectively, ‘Ready Is Always To Late’ is a gracefully remarkable continuation and brilliantly portrays Sinead’s growth, both as an artist and a person. “The tone of this album compared to the first one is way more celebratory. The first one I was trying to figure so much out and trying to love myself and now this one is the continuation and maintenance of that self-love, and it has more like a sure-of-my-self tone.”, she explains.

But what we cannot forget is that the album was partly recorded and produced in-midst of a global pandemic – when a lockdown got announced all across the globe, the world stood still for a second. It almost felt like helpless situation, and it has inevitably put a strain on our mental and physical health, as well as caused a creative blockade for many. Furthermore, it has further increased discrimination towards other ethnicities, in particular the Asian community. Being both Thai and Irish, Sinead proudly represents both heritages, with her Irish side reflecting her personable and attentive personality and her Thai roots depicting her discipline and goal orientation. “I grew up just with my mum and felt like music wasn’t an expectation of her. I think the influences definitely gave me a hard work ethic, and taking ownership of my roots has also been part of my journey”, she tells me, and continues to explain to me why she thinks that representation is the key. And she is so right - whilst the music industry, and many other industries, still have a long way to go in terms of appropriate inclusion and diversity, the songstress is an advocate for actively using her platform to speak up about those crucial topics. “I feel like representation is so important.”, she continues, “and strangely it coincided with this year and last year being such a bad year for Asian hate. And I’m so happy to be proud to be Thai and talking about it. If people with platforms speak about it will encourage people who look like my mum or like me can feel that they can go for everything they want. When I was growing up, I didn’t see many, or any at all, Asian singers in mainstream, so the way it has influenced me is to wear my heritage on my sleeve because it’s not just me being proud, it was more a responsibility to show more of East Asian women than just the stereotype”.

But, despite the ignorance of so many, Sinead describes to me that lockdown has actually allowed her to slow down for once in her life. Being on the other side of the pond, separated from her family, she quickly got used to a ‘no-rules’ attitude. “I think I started to work smarter rather than just working hard”, she starts. “The first few weeks it’d get to 4pm and I wondered why I hadn’t even had a shower yet. I was doing stuff that inspired me, like watching documentaries. I was just living alone in my flat and when I felt inspired I would write and when I wanted to get informed about what was going on in the world I’d do research. And it was just the first time in my life where I could stop and had time to relax and look at the world.”

When I ask her about whether her creativity has been lacking in any way, Sinead points out that she actually found creativity to rather be an escape from everyday life. “Creativity was usually more like part of my job which can get tiresome, there is no on and off with creativity. So it was a positive spin on a really strange and scary year. All the world’s problems were so close in front of us and it made creativity more fun because it was an escape from everything.”

Whilst the album grants us the pleasure of listening to Sinead’s heartfelt, velvety vocals and profound lyrics alongside the aforementioned live music elements in her production, I was also thrilled to find out about the collaborations on this album. Superstars such as Lucky Daye, VanJess, Masego and Earthgang are all represented on ‘Ready Is Always Too Late’, and, with me still reminiscing about Harnetts mind-blowing collaboration with Gallant from a few years ago, again prove that Sinead chooses the perfect fits for her singles. Speaking of this album in particular, she claims: “I think the pandemic actually made that happen. Because now, if I wanted to work with someone it wouldn’t be like I would bump into them in the studio. I think that a lot of artists really connected. At some point so many people were doing Instagram lives and so many people were live at the same time and I ended up speaking to so many people organically, like Johnny Venus from Earthgang was a fan of me and I of him. I always loved VanJess and Masego. That was all very organic. I have only met Johnny and Masego personally, the others not yet. So I think it was good for me for collaborations because I probably wouldn’t have had the guts to do all that because I didn’t have the time before.”

Before wrapping up our truly insightful conversation, I ask her eagerly whether we can expect her to go on tour again soon, if and when the current situation allows it. I won’t reveal more - but we both spoke it into existence.

Sinead Harnett’s second album ‘Ready Is Always Too Late’ is officially out today via The Orchard, and it is undoubtedly an extraordinary body of work – the lyrics, the beats and the track-listing are all thoughtfully curated and candidly invite you to join Sinead on her musical and personal journey.

Youtube/ Sinead Harnett

Stream ‘Ready Is Always Too Late’ HERE

Follow Sinead Harnett on socials:

Instagram: @sineadharnett

Twitter: @sineadharnett

Credits:

Words – Antonia Kuenzel

Photographer – Ana Tanaka/ Ricky Alvarez

Hair - Terezka Fras

Styling - Ana Tanaka

Make-Up - Jose Corella

Art Design – Baris Ozdemir