TPOE 397: Ae Mak

Ae Mak released their long-awaited debut album Folk Songs for Mama and Papa on May 29. The songs were written in the winter during a time of deep emotional pain and self-questioning. Living alone in a Berlin apartment, Ae Mak began writing at a friend’s piano, singing poems formed over a year of heartbreak, anxiety, low self-worth and self-reckoning directly into melody. The music came quickly, not as an idea to be shaped but as something that already felt there. The recorded demos were later brought to Brían Mac Gloinn (Ye Vagabonds), who tenderly co-produced and engineered the record with Aoife. Together with Cian Hanley (drums) and Kevin Corcoran (piano, bass) and Fennel the cat, parts of the album were re-recorded in a friend’s farmhouse in Ravensdale forest under the mantelpiece in their kitchen, with other elements captured in her family home in the Cooley Mountains. The recordings hold onto their beginnings - the production remains close and human, drawing from the warmth of ‘60s and ‘70s folk and baroque pop, gospel-leaning organ, reverberant orange guitar textures, and layered harmony, the voice at the centre. On this episode of the TPOE podcast, Aoife talks about the journey to get to Ae Mak's debut album, the story of heartbreak behind it, and finding her voice. Buy Folk Songs for Mama and Papa: https://aemak.bandcamp.com/album/folk-songs-for-mama-papa Ae Mak tour dates: June 8: The Lower Third, London June 12-14: Beyond the Pale July 23: Workman’s Club, Dublin