Off The Record: Limerick's Anna’s Anchor talks ‘merries’, memories and music education

Ahead of his new single release and the announcement of a new album, Marty Ryan of Anna’s Anchor caught up with the Limerick Leader/Limerick Live.

Created in the summer of 2014, Anna’s Anchor is the moniker of Marty Ryan. Hailing from Limerick, the alt-rock band released three albums. This Wednesday, they announced their fourth album, The Merries, which is a collection of important memories. As part of the announcement, they have released the single, ‘Function Room Floor.’

Originally from Annacotty, Marty Ryan moved to the States to do a PhD in music education. “I got offered a scholarship a couple of years ago, amidst the pandemic. With everything going on, I just thought f*** it, I’ll just give it a go.”

After working with the Limerick branch of Music Generation, a programme which aims to inspire children and young people through music, Marty wanted to progress his career in music education.

“The pandemic changed my perspective on what I want to do long term when it comes to music. I never envisioned myself living away from Limerick. When I first said that I'd be spending time over in America, it shocked people, because Limerick's been just so central to everything to do with the band,” he explains.

After his experience with Music Generation, he wanted to continue to teach children to be creative and express themselves. “The type of music education that I’m involved in is considered popular music, which teaches kids to be creative, and the instrumentation ultimately doesn’t matter.”

Marty believes it’s essential for music to be accessible to all. “When I was learning music, my dad was trying to teach me guitar, and it was not going well at all because I was just too impatient, and he was trying to teach me trad ballads, which as a 12-year-old I did not want to learn.”

After Marty asked for music lessons, his dad called a music school in Limerick. “I can tell you it was a very short conversation because the price was just more than we could afford. And I was very fortunate that around that same time we got the internet in my house, and I was able to teach myself online. But, that's not going to work for everyone. To think that there is a financial barrier to some kids learning music, it absolutely breaks my heart,” he says.

An accident inspired Marty to work on a fourth album. “A couple of months after moving to America, I had an accident, and suffered a head injury,” he confides. “At the time, it was really scary, and it was unclear what the long term impact of that injury might be.”

In an attempt to recall his memories, he wrote down a list of things that were “near and dear” to him.

“It was kind of a test to see if I could actually remember those things. And, also out of fear that if I was to forget certain things because of the injury, I’d have some of them stored,” he explains.

“Despite us having released so much, I had never written about the things on my list. Each song on the new album is about something from that list.”

Not about a specific moment, the song ‘Function Room Floor’ is about the awkwardness of attending social gatherings. “Like a function for the GAA club or something to do with school, a friend's birthday party, and just feeling awkward and uncertain.”

Marty reveals the first song on the album features audio clips taken from videos he captured when he was younger. “Videos of me and my friends being eejits at parties and hanging around, I'm really happy that I was able to include those moments,” he notes.

As Marty’s best friend, Kevin Hayes, passed away in 2017, having his voice on a song is “precious” for the musician.

“That's something really important and precious to me. Because one of our friends isn't here with us anymore, I wasn't sure how my friends would feel about it. But when I sent it on, they were so happy about it - and that’s exactly the kind of emotion that I was trying to evoke,” Marty says.

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The title of his new album, The Merries, is inspired by an amusement park he used to go to as a child. “For a lot of young people in Ireland, going to the amusements, if you compare them to parks around the world, they’re absolutely terrible. But there's just something special about going there with your family and your friends,” he smiles.

If there’s one thing that inspires Marty, it’s his Treaty City. As he saw Limerick change over the years, it inspired his music. “It’s very difficult to describe to anyone that's not from Limerick or hasn't spent a significant amount of time in Limerick, but there is a different mentality in Limerick.”

According to him, people see things differently here. “People perceive themselves and the world just a little bit differently. Because of the negative perception people had of the city, I think it really shaped their resilience, and we developed our own sense of humour,” he concludes.

You can now listen to ‘Function Room Floor’ on all platforms. Anna’s Anchor’s fourth album, The Merries, will be released on July 7.