Pillars of Influence: The essentials that inspire Rosie Carney
While certain creatives would like to have you believe that they’re in direct and constant conversation with some higher power above, art doesn’t come from nowhere. Art doesn’t just land in people’s laps like a perfect gift-wrapped parcel, instead, it takes work. Mostly, it takes inspiration.
Music isn’t an island; neither is film, art, fashion, or literature. Every form of creativity intersects, all pouring into one pool along with random day-to-day things that can strike us at our heart and influence the making of something new. The joy of an artist is to stay open to those moments, but also go looking for things that call it in, seeking out pieces of inspiration wherever they might be found.
Rosie Carney knows that well. Art doesn’t come from nowhere, but especially a fourth album definitely doesn’t. By the time you’re that established, the process of going looking for, or remaining open to, different sources of inspiration that strike the imagination becomes essential. On Doomsday… Don’t Leave Me Here, Carney cast her net wider than ever.
Ahead of the record’s release, the artist has shared four influences that feel truly essential to both her creativity and especially to the world of this record. It goes well beyond just music, stretching out into other art forms and other little things the artist simply notices and finds herself returning to when she needs to jump-start her creative mind.
From books to films to hill tops through a window, here are the essential pillars of Rosie Carney’s creativity.
Rosie Carney’s Pillars of Influence:
‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ – Guillermo del Toro
Overwhelmingly, Carney’s art comes from her deep inner world, filled with creatures and characters picked up along the way that sparked her imagination. “Fantasy and horror have played a huge part in my life growing up. My imagination was, and still is, my main source of inspiration. The ability to escape and delve deep into places that exist only outside the bounds of reality has helped me tap into my deepest and darkest creative thoughts,” Carney said.
Some of the longest-serving residents of that place come from del Toro’s eerily beautiful 2006 film, as she recalled, “I first watched Pan’s Labyrinth cut into eight parts on YouTube on my mum and dad’s computer when I was 11 years old. I had just moved from England to Ireland and had no friends, so I turned to fantasy to help me escape the feelings of isolation.”
Between the odd creatures and the way it helped her in her childhood, the film impacted her deeply. “It really moved me, I remember crying for hours after watching it, but I couldn’t quite articulate why at the time. Watching back as an adult now, I understand I saw a lot of myself in the main character, Ofelia – she also felt trapped and isolated and turned to the outer realms to escape,” she said. Years and years and years on, it still comes back around as an influence, as she added, “The impact it left on me still bleeds into my writing and played a big source of inspiration while making this album.”
‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ – Cocteau Twins
While Pan’s Labyrinth is an influence that has stuck with her for a long time, the impact of the Cocteau Twins is relatively new, as she shared, “I hadn’t really heard of the Cocteau Twins until I had my first session with Ed Thomas back in 2019. He put on ‘Cherry Coloured Funk’, and it immediately blew my mind.”
In particular, it was Elizabeth Fraser’s emotional gobbledigook that inspired her. “I tried to search for the lyrics but learned that Liz Fraser had intentionally written them in a language that only made sense to her so the listener could capture their own feeling and meaning of the song instead,” she said, “This blew my mind even further and I ended up listening to every single Cocteau Twins album/anything Liz Fraser had written.”
So often, a musician’s influences in music come down to words and storytelling, but for Carney on this album, the biggest influence was arguably wordlessness, as she said, “It really inspired me to use my voice in ways I hadn’t before and to explore the way I wrote the lyrics and melodies in this album.”
<strong><em>Tales from Earthsea</em> – Ursula K Le Guin</strong>
From a fantasy theme to a made-up language, there is a theme emerging as Carney also picks a fantasy book. “I read a few books while writing this album, but this particular series really helped me tap into that creative space where anything felt possible,” she said, shouting out this series of fantasy stories which uses magical tales to deal with the topic of sexism.
Providing a perfect example of how to tackle real-world topics without needing to be completely tethered to reality, Carney explained, “It allowed me to process the emotions I was experiencing at the time – grief, loss, and isolation, all of which are the main themes, with a childlike curiosity that felt safe and protected within the softness of fantasy.”
<strong>The hill behind her family home</strong>
On the exact opposite side of the spectrum, though, Carney picks out something so beautifully real and so beautifully human, sharing a reflection on the man-made marks carved into nature.
“Behind my family home in Ireland, there is this large hill. It’s barren, covered in heather and juniper and exposed to all the elements. We have four dogs in Ireland, and my dad started to take them up the hill every day a few years back,” she shared. Slowly but surely, the landscape started to change as she recalled, “He started to carve all these little routes and paths into the hill and began building these little standing stone monuments. There’s one for each of my sisters and for my new nephew Finn. He also planted around 1000 trees on this same hill, so now there are all these little baby oak and hazel trees growing up there.”
Suddenly, the hill looks different. “Watching the way this hill has transformed from being barren and untouched to this almost dreamlike world with all these little paths and spots that hold great significance has been nothing short of inspiring. Any time I step foot on that hill, it’s like stepping into a magical realm,” she said, bringing the fantasy influence back as she added poetically, “It’s like looking at the sky and feeling it looking back at you.”
