HOT PRESS, August 30
Phil Coulter

Handed by Ken

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You produced Universal Mother - how highly do you rate Sinead O'Connor?

Sinead is a very complex woman.  And the way our album came about also shows
she's a women who acts on impluse.
When Van and I were working on the No Prima Donna album we decided to pick
the songs for whoever was involved.  I said, "If we don't, we're going to
have twelve versions of 'Moondance'!"
So I was given the job of phoning Sinead, whom I'd never met, and telling her
what song she'd be singing.  She wasn't comfortable about that because she
didn't know the song.  Then she arrived at Windmill Lane and there's the
likes of Marianne faithfull, Van, Michelle Rocca and I just thought 'this may
be Sinead O'Connor, full of lip and all that, but she's walked into the
studio and she's bound to be intimided by all this'.  So I gave her a hug,
said "I'm Phil, nice to meet you".  Then I told the rest of them to
disappear.Van said, 'No, I want to hear what she can do." I said "Van, you
gotta fucking leave.  Take everyone, go to the pub, have a bottle of wine,
I'll call you in a few hours and let you know how we're getting on."  So they
went and we began to work together without that added pressure.
I was a sprotective, even fatherly, as I could be. talking Sinead through it
till we got a great peerformance.  Then, the following morning, there was a
fax, saying"I swore I'd never work in the studio again, I can't get over how
chilled out you are.  Would you like to produce my new album?"  That's how we
got to do Universal Mother.

What's your unbiased opinion of the album itself?

It was a challenging album to make!  Sinead is volatile, with very clear
ideas of what she wants to do, very opinionated. (no way not Sinead!! :o) )
But there's also also a great vulnerability about her.  And I was aware of
both of those sides.
So my role in producing that album was as much to read those moods and
respond to them as they happened.  Or anticipate them.
At one point, we were talking about how the album was evolving into a look at
the relationship between the mother and child and 'Scorn not his Simplicity'
came up and Sinead didn't realize I'd written it!  When I told her, she was
blown away!  She said, "let's do it!"  And when we ran through it a few times
we just dimmed the lights in the studio and got it in no more than two takes!
 Just me at the piano and her singing.  Very highly charged.
There were moments of tension recording the album but you could forgive her
everything when she opens her mouth and sings.  And I remember feeling
emotionally drained when she'd finished "Scorn not his Simplicity".  And she
did.  When the tape stopped we both stayed in our positions for what seemed
like an eternity.  Savouring the moment.

Moments like that must compensate for the critical mauling your music often
receives?

Absolutely.  And when you realise "I am part of having just created that!'
you also remember 'this is why I got into music!'  And Sinead was so proud of
that recording.  There are some songs on that album better than others.  But
as a project, I, too, am proud of it.  And Sinead has a God-given voice.
Luke Kelly had the same gift.  And as I've often said about Richard Harris,
though he might not be a singer in the orthodox sense, by Jesus, if you're
talking about making a song reach out and touch you, when he get a hold of a
lyric, you believe every word he's singing.

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