Aoife and the Dark Feminine Ex
Dublin singer-songwriter Aoife understands what it means to be yourself: even if the different sides may seem contradictory, they can still be there. She explores this in her introduction to the musical world with her debut single, Handled with a Crowbar, which is described as both ethereal and villainous in the most addicting way.
“This song started as an exploration of the Madonna/Whore complex, a Freudian concept in which men dichotomize women, not seeing the coexistence of our multitudes.”
The artist speaks about exploring Jungian archetypes within the writing of the track due to having experienced the same dismissive comment of “my ex was crazy” from prospective dates, leading to inspiration of a song that explored the Dark feminine archetype of the psyche and the wrath of a woman scorned. “If I'm going to be written off as just another crazy ex-girlfriend I might as well lean into this alleged craziness within my writing and explore this.”
Revenge is seen as mainly a female enactment, and Aoife uses a musical style of Dark pop to create a cinematic tale of this through a fictitious night of a woman taking a crowbar to her boyfriend's car.
Aoife collaborated with producer Cian Sweeney (@cian_birdsofparadise) to create an ethereal production that features ordinary sounds like the mechanical windscreen wipers of a car in the rain or police sirens alongside the Portobello canal.
We were delighted to further discuss what inspired Aoife’s musical journey and how her work transcends musical boundaries with her emotional lyricism.
What was behind the decision to go by Aoife as your stage name, does it add something to the image you're putting out (as opposed to a stage name as your full name or a fictional name)?
Aoife: I was contemplating and toying with the idea of taking on a stage name [...] my birth name, but there’s already an artist under that name and I knew that pretty early on. [...] And I looked at different names and kind of wanted something to shape the music [...] and nothing came to me, so I just landed on going with my first name, which is what people who are close to me just call me by, and it felt fitting as well, and it felt like choosing my own name again.
And did you have in mind the spelling and Irish origins when going on international stages or environments that people won’t be able to spell or pronounce Aoife?
Aoife: Once I left school and I traveled, a lot of people were confused. Like, I was like, yeah, I know it doesn’t look how it sounds. It’s confusing and I was in Cyprus and people thought it was a masculine name or something like that [...] but I think, you know, people are well, well capable of pronouncing it [...] yeah, I’m just staying true to it.
Who are your singer/songwriter inspirations? Any artists that you feel your music is connected to?
Aoife: Lana Del Rey was like the soundtrack to my, like, secondary school experience. I remember the first time hearing her music and it changed so much for me. Like in the 2010s, when it was Katy Perry, Kesha, it was like a lot of really you know, upbeat pop music, that I didn’t connect to and [Lana Del Rey’s] music came and it just kind of cut through all the noise and I was like, this is finally something that feels like me. Marina Abramovic, she’s a huge inspiration of mine. She’s a performance artist and she challenges just everything, like social norms, our own human capacity for performance and endurance and she’s incredible [...] she talked about how she thinks music is the highest art form as it’s so immaterial.
Was singing always a part of your life internally or was it something you grew into?
Aoife: I used music [...] definitely, growing up as an escapism and I love people who create thick worlds that we can disappear into and like that really just when you listen to their music, you get a visceral reaction and it’s transported somewhere else. I really think music is almost like a form of magic in a lot of ways. I grew up singing. Like, everyone said that I sang before I could talk. So, I knew that I loved to sing and I performed as a kid in theatre schools and ballet and Irish dancing. So it was always a part of my life. Yeah, it hasn’t been until recently that I feel ready to share my music. I always move at my own pace and it’s good.
And everyone’s been supportive of it, in terms of you pursuing music?
Aoife: Yeah, no, people have been so supportive. It is so lovely and it’s been I mean, I was just most scared about how I would feel I think. It was a real vulnerable thing, but it hasn’t been that way at all. It’s been really like a release, like putting things and allowing yourself to be seen and show up and take up space.
Where do you see your music going in the future? Within Dublin? Internationally?
Aoife: Yeah, I mean, it’s hard to say I'm excited to see how far it will go and how many people it will reach because it’s kind of, it’s been surprising and exciting - the people that have come, like in contact with me, that have reached out [...] It’s so amazing how music can kind of connect people.
What was your favourite part of the songwriting to release process?
Aoife: In the entire process of the songwriting to the recording - So the best part is the creation [...] the best part is when I come up with the idea when I get the melody, when the lyrics come and then a lot of the time it just kind of like pours out, which is really nice. I know it’s not the most sustainable way of creating and it’s lucky when you get those little moments where something is like, it feels like channeling or something.
If you could describe your sound in three words what would they be?
Aoife: I think ethereal would definitely be. It somehow seeps into every, like, song. I think there’s like a little ethereal aspect to all my songs. I grew up listening to a lot of Enya as well [and] it’s so otherworldly, magical. Stevie Nix has a lot of mysticism in her music and I feel like I incorporate some of that. It’s just quite reflective. It's ethereal, reflective, and inquisitive.
What was the process of collaborating with Cian Sweeney, how did you know he was the producer for the job? Was it an instant click or ‘build up’ on ideas?
Aoife: It was so effortless and so easy with Cian, I mean, it was the first song that I went to a producer with and was like, I want to have this like built up. But I knew that I wanted it elevated and Cian was able to do that with me and we brought in samples of like windscreen wipers for the beat of the song [...] in the rain and I used a sample of a siren, a police siren when I was on a walk along the canal that I was like, this could be perfect. Even the first mix that he sent me, I was so excited to hear it, and I’ve been able to work with him again. He lives in Cork, so it’s so nice to go down to his studio in Cork.
Handled with a Crowbar theme heavily focuses on the dark feminine ex out for revenge. Do you feel the ‘crazy ex’ is misunderstood or shameless, or possibly both?
Aoife: Well, this song, that I just released, came about three years ago [...] I was going on dates and [...] I heard the same thing from a lot of dates, like my ex was crazy. And I was like, ‘that is interesting. So many people have a crazy ex? Like, I was like, that's doubtful to me. I just kind of ran with that idea, but, you know, the crazy ex-girlfriend wanted to explore it and I was wondering if I was being referred to as such and it just got me thinking. I’ve always been really passionate about sexism. I kind of did my own investigation into the Madonna War Complex, which is a Sigmund Freud theory about how women are dichotomized and we are only seen as good or bad.
Yeah, because it’s always the woman that’s crazy, you know.
Aoife: Yeah, always, yeah. There’s a lot of those kinds of themes in my music because it’s something I think about so much and I have from such a young age. It’s just always something that I’ve seen really starkly and I just want to figure it out because it's how the world works, how every interaction is. Like an ex boyfriend of mine being, like, you can’t blame everything on patriarchy, but then later on, he was like, ‘you know what, you might be right.’ And I was like, ‘you think so?’ And I do see this song is like a prelude to being more of an embodied woman and stepping into my power more and feeling.
What do you want your female listeners to feel when they’re listening to Handled with a Crowbar? Any message that you want them to really grasp when they’re watching the music video?
Feeling like they’re full capacity can be held and expressed without being deemed as crazy, without being deemed as over emotional, hysterical or anything like that. That’s definitely what I want for other girls to hear and when they hear the song, ‘cause I definitely got it [...] they make me feel confident when I listen to them. There's a duality like women can be so many things all at once and it’s just about allowing ourselves to be seen that way, and yeah.
The freedom that music provides both the artist and the fans allow for the evaluation of parts of themselves that may be unseen, and even if they are contradictory to one another, they still hold importance. By pushing this boundary, Aoife strives to do this, and more.
If you’re looking to follow Aoife on her musical journey, you can find her at @aoifeodonovann.
Written By: Sophia Arceo, @sophiearceo
Edited By: Kirsten Baldwin, @teddys_bookshelf
