NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ KOCH Records) -
Sinead O'Connor will be performing songs from her new album, "Theology," as well as her greatest hits, many of which she has not performed in years, during her upcoming world tour (full itinerary TBA). Prior to the tour, Sinead will premiere songs from "Theology" to stateside audiences during two intimate acoustic concerts in New York City and Los Angeles in late June. O'Connor last performed in the U.S. in November 2005 when she toured with legendary Jamaican musicians Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare in support of her reggae-influenced "Throw Down Your Arms" album.
O'Connor recently finished rehearsals in London with her band which includes long-time collaborator and producer John Reynolds (Brian Eno, Bjork) on drums, Clare Kenny (Shakespears Sister, Edwyn Collins) on bass guitar, symphonic concert cellist Caroline Dale (David Gray) on electric cello, multi-instrumentalist Kieran Kiely (The Corrs) on keyboards, accordion, flute and veteran guitarist Kevin Armstrong (David Bowie, Thomas Dolby, Iggy Pop). Sinead said, "It's totally exciting to be looking at touring the world with such a killer band and doing many of my favorite songs along with ones from my new album, 'Theology.'" The world tour kicked off with a triumphant homecoming at Dublin Castle on May 6 to a capacity crowd of more than 4,500 ecstatic fans.
Influenced by a wide variety of musical and literary sources which have helped shape her aesthetic consciousness since childhood, O'Connor composed the majority of the songs on "Theology," a special double-album set which was recorded as an acoustic album in Dublin and an electric album in London. It will be released on Tuesday, June 26 via KOCH Records. This is the first album with mainly her own material since her fifth full-length album, "Faith and Courage," which was released in 2000.
"Theology" premieres eight new songs written by O'Connor as well as three covers: Curtis Mayfield's soul-searching "We People Who Are Darker Than Blue," a ferocious interpretation of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's "I Don't Know How To Love" (from "Jesus Christ Superstar"), and the traditional reggae spiritual, "Rivers of Babylon," with new lyrics written by Sinead.
'Theology' is an attempt to create a place of peace in a time of war," said Sinead. "It is my own personal response to what has taken place and is affecting everyone around the world since September 11, 2001. I simply wanted to make a beautiful thing which inspires me."
Each disc of "Theology" presents Sinead's new songs in different forms. The minimalist acoustic "Dublin Sessions" disc was produced by traditional Irish musician Steve Cooney (In Tua Nua, The Chieftains, Mary Black), who, along with Sinead, plays guitar on the stripped-down recordings. The "Dublin Sessions" were co-produced by Sinead O'Connor & Graham Bolger and feature a "hidden track": Sinead's haunting rendition of "Hosanna Filio David."
"Originally there was only gonna be the acoustic version," Sinead says of her "Dublin Sessions." "Over the years of doing shows I used to do an encore with just an acoustic guitar and that was often the audience's favorite part of the show. So I'd been thinking for years I would love to do an acoustic album. I wanted it to just be acoustic guitar and one voice, really bare and not give in to the temptation to make it pretty."
The second disc of "Theology," dubbed the "London Sessions," showcases the songs in electrifying full band arrangements produced by cutting edge UK DJ/producer Ron Tom. Instrumentation on the "London Sessions" includes drums, bass, guitar, piano, harp, violins, celli, French horn, flute, backing vocals, percussion and programming. Guest artists include reggae bass master Robbie Shakespeare.
"Ron and I had met a year before I started recording the acoustic sessions and we had done some demos just to see how we got on working together. Ron really wanted to produce the album. I explained I had already committed to the acoustic one and again he literally begged me to do it. So in the end I said I would do both versions, because I wasn't going to abandon the acoustic one as I loved it and I equally loved what Ron was doing with the songs. Then I liked how the two records came to symbolize the different slants that can get put on theology. I love that the acoustic one feels like a show and achieves very much the alone quality. I love the London studio version because it has a big power. Where the Dublin one is soft, the London one is the testosterone version. I played a minute amount of guitar on the Dublin sessions and the same on the London sessions. I like the differences. I was getting off all the time on how both records differed and loved all the arrangements consequently."
"Theology" will be released via KOCH Records on That's Why There's Chocolate and Vanilla, Sinead's own label imprint.
