My Career: ‘I couldn’t imagine a life without songs’

Name: Mary Greene

Lives: Near Macroom

Job title: Songwriter, Singer, Musician, Producer with GREENSHINE and GREENE AND SHINE. Part-time health shop tender.

Salary bracket: Hard to quantify and variable, but 0-€20,000 would cover it. In the creative field, you are working for love as well as money and it would be difficult to manage without a job on the side.

Education background: I went to primary school in Ballygunner NS. Secondary school was Presentation Convent, Waterford, and I did French and Business in WIT, or Waterford Regional Technical College as it was then known. Afterwards, I did a weaving course in Anco, Bishopstown, Cork. I had aspirations of getting into the craft industry, but music took over.

Hobbies: Music, music, music. I also like to doodle. I find it very relaxing, and I walk in nature every chance I get. I am very interested in the natural world with a particular interest in healing plants. I enjoy taking pictures and we tend to use our own shots as album covers which I enjoy deg. I send examples to the family for approval and suggestions before we sign off. In secondary school, I had intended to go to art college, but I lacked the confidence to apply. As my hearing has been poor all my life, I am a visual person and people have told me that my songs are cinematic. I use quite a lot of imagery in my writing.

Describe your job in five words: Bringing music to the people.

Describe yourself in five words: Creative, conscientious, funny, serious, busy.

Personality needed for this kind of work? Being an independent artist calls for a variety of personality traits. You start with being creative and sensitive to inspiration, so for that you need to be able to relax and be open to ideas. For the business side of things, which takes up a HUGE amount of time, you need to be creative and open to opportunities. There is a crossover, and I think it’s important to be creative in any field you’re in. If you want to go into any of the arts, it is important to be resilient and persistent and it’s very important not to take rejection personally because there will be quite a bit of that to deal with. Do your best work. Stand over it. Send it out and see what happens. You need to communicate with people and not just have an eye on the opportunity all the time. Be personable and it isn’t all about you. Connect with people and keep in mind they have their own tastes, ambitions and interests. Look for common ground.

In any of the arts, your aim is to communicate. So... communicate! You must also be prepared to ride out the lean times, keeping the thought in your mind that things will get better and the pendulum will swing back in your direction. 

You also need to learn how to budget and keep a little aside for those lean times. That’s where resilience comes in. People who see artists as dreamers are only seeing half the picture. It’s a LOT of hard, practical work and you need to be dedicated.

How long are you doing this job?

I’m singing all my life.

How did you get this job? My family had a music bar called The Anchor in Dunmore East when I was in my teens. It taught me how to work quickly, efficiently and hard, and how to chat to people. It was a doorway into singing in public and how to do it even when you were bricking it! It showed me first-hand how the music business works from the venue’s point of view. I hired Noel Shine to come and play sessions in the bar having met him when I went busking to Cork. At the end of that summer, I went to do a job placement in for the school year as part of the French and Business course. Even though I never went on to work with my qualifications, I never regretted following my interest in French and I have loved the language ever since. The business side of the course has also been very useful to me.

I moved to Cork in the ’80s to be with Noel. There followed many part-time bartending jobs over the years, always in music bars. Everything was a stepping stone to my life as a songwriter.

I have never really pushed for anything, just followed opportunities that seemed interesting. My confidence in the early days wasn’t the best (and can still be wobbly at times, as is the case with many artists!) but I got huge encouragement from very ive people in the Cork music scene.

I was a late starter as a songwriter. I was such a music fan and I really knew my music from a very early age, so I knew what a great song was. It felt like something magical and out of reach. Jimmy MacCarthy was a huge friend of ours and every time he’d come to see us he’d ask me where my song was. He did that so often that I wrote a song just to get him off my back! It started the ball rolling and I’ve been writing ever since.

Donagh Long was another songwriter that really encouraged me and put me in the way of opportunities. He suggested I submit a project to IMRO for funding, so I proposed a fortnightly Songwriting Showcase which I did for several years. That was wonderful. I also travelled to Nashville as part of a songwriting exchange with Nashville songwriters. What an amazing opportunity.

Another huge opportunity was when I was invited by flute player Conal Ó Gráda to perform as part of an initiative instigated by Jean Kennedy Smith to unite people across borders through Irish music.

We had tremendous fun playing for schoolkids in a variety of settings, including on both sides of the political divide as it existed then in the North of Ireland. In the US we played at Steiner middle school and a high school for gifted jazz musicians in Washington D.C The visit culminated in a concert at The Kennedy Centre and what an honour it was to sing a newly-composed song there (When We Went Over To Washington) along with some traditional songs and tunes.

These days, I’m delighted to have my part time job of 10 years+ in Nature’s Corner, Macroom. I have a great interest in alternative health and I have a really lovely and understanding boss who is flexible with my hours when I need to travel for music.

I continue to write and record material along with Noel in our home studio. We invested in a little recording set-up years ago and never looked back. We have fun in there and because we aren’t paying for the time, we can afford to experiment. We recorded lots of material there like The Girl In The Lavender Dress which was No.1 in the RTÉ Radio 1 Airplay Chart for weeks on end (what a boost and major surprise to us!). I have also had the honour to work as a studio session singer on several projects with producer Declan Sinnott, on albums by Christy Moore, John Spillane, s Black and Mick Hanly, and I’ve done studio work for Dr Strangely Strange, Paddy Keenan, Hank Wedel, PJ Murrihy and Skylark amongst others. I love studio work. It’s so interesting to work with a producer on vocal arrangements. Every opportunity adds to your experience.

Describe a day at work:

My job as an independent musician and songwriter can be very varied depending on what stage a project is at. A typical day could entail attending to social media/PR/emails, putting in pitches for live performances to various concert venues and festivals. If we have concerts coming up, I spend some time promoting them. I might have to phone various people regarding projects. There may be CDs to mail, queries to answer - a myriad of tasks, and that’s before I write a line, fingerpick a string, record a note, or sing for an audience.

If we are midstream on a recording, for example at the moment Noel and I are recording an album, it might mean heading up to the studio to spend a few hours on a track - singing, playing, mixing, making decisions on the instrumentation and sound, or if the recording end is finished we might be moving on to the mastering and design stage and all the decisions that brings. The work that goes on behind the scenes of a song you hear on the radio is gargantuan.

In the evening, we may have a concert to perform and that could be in Cork or it could be in Mayo. Our day will be built around how far we have to travel. Some years ago we were ed on the road by our daughter Ellie and that’s when we became Greenshine. Now, as Ellie takes a sabbatical to travel, Noel and I are back (for the moment) to being a duo. It’s a change we look forward to with anticipation and excitement tinged with sadness at losing our lovely Ellie, but she will return from time to time to play her favourite concerts with us.

Is your job stressful? How? Rate it on a scale of 1-10:

If I’m in my happy place writing, it would be 1. On stage it would be maybe a 4 or 5 before the gig and sink to 1 or 2 once we have a few songs under our belt. If I’m promoting to a deadline it can be up to 7 or 8. If the calendar is showing too many blank spaces it can be up to 6 or 7 depending on how the coffers are looking! Stress levels vary according to where we’re at in proceedings.

Do you work with others or on your own?

I usually write alone and record alone, but I sometimes co-write and I really like that. It’s interesting to see things from someone else’s perspective and it gives you an extra bite of the cherry. It has resulted in songs being recorded by us or a co-writer. For example, Cormac O Caoimh and I wrote together a few times and one song (Brother) ended up on a Greenshine album, and one song (Desire Lines) ended up on one of Cormac’s albums.

When do you plan to retire or give up working?

I have no plans to retire. I couldn’t imagine a life without singing or writing songs.

Best bits:

The best bit is getting to live a creative life doing something I love. It’s a great release to have something that engages your mind completely and takes you out of the humdrum slog. It’s definitely good for the head, heart and spirit to have an outlet and I have written and sung songs that have gotten me through my darkest days, helped me let off steam when I’m angry, or have celebrated my happiest times. Apart from my family, music is a true constant in my life, no matter if it’s our own or that of my favourite artists.

Worst bits:

The worst bit is the financial uncertainty. Sometimes you need nerves of steel to lead a life like mine!

Advice to those who want your job?

Work hard on your craft. Keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities. Communicate in a meaningful way with the people with whom you want to connect. Don’t just see ‘them’ and ‘us’. Keep humility in your dealings no matter how successful you become, and lend some help where you can as a rising tide lifts all boats. Lots of the breaks I’ve had have come through other artists and kind people who believed in me. Approach every performance with professionalism and heart.

Even if the crowd is sparse or noisy, you’d never know who is listening and some of our best breaks have come about from that one person in the audience that’s blown away by what you are doing.