When Click Here organised a meet-up with Leanne Harte, I immediately thought to myself, “self, I know that name. She was a singer years ago, I wonder what she’s been up to?”. Little did I know that the singer-songwriter had been on a journey that would impress Odysseus. From 16 year-old on the cusp of hitting the big time, to dealing with a manager who didn’t do all he should, coming out and then burning out; it’s been one hell of a ride. And she wants to do it all again. Only this time, Leanne is a young woman comfortable in her own skin, in her own abilities and living her own life.

When I was 16, I was trying to memorise French verbs. When Leanne Harte was 16 she launched an EP of her own music. A talented singer, an excellent guitarist and none-too-shabby on the writing front, she was on her way. Well, that’s what her manager told her.

He’d promised a lot of things and his head was in the clouds, basically. But I believed him, so when things didn’t start to happen, I became disheartened. I was very young and it was overwhelming.

As much as his head was in the clouds (he’d be the first to admit it) he did help me put myself out there, and definitely helped in getting me such a good name, and although he couldn’t take me to the next level, (which was as much to do with myself and my own issues at the time) he definitely helped build the foundation which is something I’ll always be thankful for.

Fighting with yourself over your sexuality is never easy, but dumped on top of working her arse off and the pressure she was feeling it’s no wonder that Leanne crashed.

[my coming out story is]the same story that you hear a lot. I knew that I was gay since I was like, seven, or something. I had an EP out when I was 16, and I wrote a lot of stuff about some boy that I thought I liked. But I was trying to convince myself that I liked him. Then in between the EP and the first album, I wrote this song called Maybe and I didn’t want to use the word ‘he’ in it. So I was obviously sub-conciously dealing with it, but didn’t want to name it or say what it was.

Then I finished school, and it was coming to the surface. It was starting to affect me; I lost confidence and went inside myself. I became very isolated, not going out with friends. It was a bad thing not to go straight to college, as it may have forced me to get out there.
All my friends went to college and I was doing some gigs but nothing huge. That was a really dark time. I was quite depressed. I knew I had to wake up. All of the songs on the album were written during that period so they’re quite depressing.
The music wasn’t working either. I was writing all of this stuff and we sent it to different producers to see if they wanted to work with it. They all kept coming back saying “really like her, really like that she plays guitar, but the songs just aren’t good enough, we’d have to get a writer in.” i just didn’t want that, I was never into that. I really want to write.

Then when I was 19, I had to come to terms it. I just had this epiphany. One day just sitting there I thought “why am I fighting this?”, and one I accepted being gay, everything changed. I can literally see it, it’s so obvious that once I made that decision everything changed.

Listening to Leanne, who is obviously very shy, chat openly about this cathartic part of her life is, to be honest, quite moving. She’s not moaning, not complaining she’s over it and sees it as something to examine, no shame is felt and rightly so. Like any writer, she recognises a fountain of inspiration when she sees one. She’s proud of having survived it, and proud of the scars she earned along the way.

After climbing out of that dark place, Leanne signed up for a PLC course, “even though I had the points for college, I just wanted to get out there”. Then it was college and a qualification in computers of all things. “I’m a total geek,” she admits adorably.

I took a break from music to go to college and sort my head out. I’ve kept it [the music] going over time, trying to do a gig every couple of months or so. Just to keep myself out there. They were all acoustic sets, singer-songwriter type things. Acoustic performance is quite lonely, so with my two friends singing with me now, it’s more fun. The worst part is waiting to go on so if you can share that with someone it’s much better. I like knowing that they’ll be onstage with me. Also, when you’re playing electric guitar, that’s another loud person on the stage with you, it’s like a protection, a barrier.

The two friends onstage with her are Claire O’Kennedy and Bob Gallagher.

Claire is just so talented and Bob has a really deep voice kinda like Nick Drake and it works so well. We all just jammed together one day and thought “this is good” so we’ve been doing stuff since. It’s brought the fun back into it for me.

She certainly seems to be having lots of fun. Not alone doing her own stuff, but also as guitarist for the burlesque group Midnight Burlectro. I’m sorry but I can’t see this shy young thing prowling around in a bustier; although some of you may want to.

I know! It’s crazy. The girls are so great, I was so nervous when I first went for it. The girls, who are dancers, asked me “what’s your costume?” I didn’t have one, I was there in my jeans. So they did my hair and makeup. This crazy makeup.
I felt like a different person, and thought “I can really let go now”. It was amazing. You just lose it and rock out. We got Electric Picnic, so I’m delighted. That’s really, really cool.

All this and things are looking pretty sweet for Leanne Harte, the singer/songwriter. It’s not a bit glamorous, the music biz is hard work, more hard work and then hoping for some luck. But you get the feeling that Leanne isn’t chasing stardom, she just wants to do her own thing. She’s dealt with the crap, so now it’s time for the craic.

Right now, I’m working for the summer, doing jobs here and there and I’m gigging too so I’m starting to get into it again. I have a load of new songs so I want to get recording. It’s exciting again.

At the moment I’m working on the new stuff, talking to a couple of guys in a studio in Germany. I was always quite inspired by Wallis Byrd and the way she did it; get out of Ireland and meet new people with new ideas. I played around Paris a little bit and I’ve heard that the audiences in Germany are like that; they actually listen to you. It’s incredible, you can hear a pin drop.

In Ireland it’s so tough to play an acoustic gig, unless it’s somewhere like the Ruby Sessions because Conor who runs it tells everyone to shut up. In most places, people just want to go out for a drink and they talk over the person there with the guitar.

So hopefully I’ll get to play in Germany, then depending on how things go, record over there in Autumn or Winter. I’m going to shop my stuff to independent labels too and see what happens.

Now that she’s looking at the future, does she ignore the past?

I look back at the old albums and videos and think about what I did actually achieve I’m proud of that. I don’t regret anything I did, nothing major. I feel quite lucky that I have all of that behind me and am getting another shot. It’s great to be able to go into things with that knowledge. I feel more capable of dealing with things.
I feel like I’m in a new place with everything, I’m freer.

She’s only 24 and she’s starting all over again, you have to admire not just Leanne’s honesty but her strength of character. Here’s hoping the rest of the world catch up.

We’ll keep you up to date with Leanne’s gigging calendar, but here are a few dates to keep you going:

27th July – The Ruby Sessions in Doyle’s on College Green, Dublin

28th July – The Brownbread Mixedtapes in The Stag’s Head on Dame Court (in the lane across the road from The George), Dublin

4th August – New Music Club, Brazil’s Cafe Bar, Clonmel Co Tipperary

14th August – MILK Music Festival, Ballinlough Castle

3rd Sept – Midnight Burlectro, Electric Picnic Poptopia Stage

Check out her website if you wish, although she admits herself that it’s crap and needs to be updated.

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