Start Listening To: Æ MAK

Dundalk artist Æ MAK returns with “nursery rhymes for adults” in a more stripped-back, alt-folk direction on ‘We Came From Stars,’ pairing baroque harmonies with raw sound.

Hailing from Dundalk, Ireland, Æ MAK, or Aoife McCann, has spent nearly a decade crafting what she calls “nursery rhymes for adults.” With her latest album, she shifts gears from electronic sounds to a more intimate alt-folk vibe, showcasing baroque harmonies and a touch of the cosmic. Her recent single, ‘We Came From Stars,’ reflects a deeply personal journey through loneliness and self-discovery, all captured in a raw, honest sound. In our conversation, she opens up about the creative process that brought this work to life, revealing how teaching and vulnerability have shaped her artistic voice. It's a candid exploration of the intersection between music, emotion, and the messy beauty of being human.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

Hi! I’m AE MAK (Aoife McCann). I’m a singer/songwriter, producer, performer from Dundalk, Co. Louth, Ireland. I’ve been making art - pop music for nearly 10 years now - “nursery rhymes for adults” is how my friends describe it. I would put my work under art pop / avant garde if I have to put it somewhere because each project feels different to me at least, in feeling and sound aesthetic. But who knows what it actually sounds like outside of my head. I’ve heard people call it joyous and sincere - and that’s really nice. I’ve just finished making an alt - folk - cosmical - great music hall feeling of a record with piano, baroque vocal harmony stacks, bass, guitar, drums and hammer dulcimer - so a move away from the electronic worlds I’ve been playing with on ableton. Artists always say “this is my most honest work yet, yeah, yep yep”, and I do believe this is the best work I've made yet. I know this because I didn’t make decisions or preconceptualise it, I - near - blanked out, eyes back in the head, it spilling out around me through pain and uncertainty into letting go and succumbing to it all. It was created through spirit.

What inspired the shift towards a more stripped-back and intimate sound in your latest single, 'We Came From Stars'?

I think the arrangement choices were known from the get - go, I wrote it on piano and sang the vocal melody line out over a few exhalations and didn’t want too much else on it but I did want it to have a 60/70’s romance about it in the sound aesthetic, that felt clear too, maybe knowing that that was an era that felt natural and real - the organ throughout is patting some feeling of gospel into it - when i was finished writing it and the rest of the songs I knew they were meant to be close to what they already were

How was the single produced?

I recorded the piano and vocals in the apartment I was staying in in Berlin while my then partner was on tour - so I had the whole apartment to myself for a while, our housemate Timothy has a very beautiful grand piano, and you know those old classic berlin apartments with the high ceilings and smoke covered cherubs - I made the drums and organ on ableton and then in the Summer I worked with Brían Mac Gloinn and we recorded Cian Hanley my long - time drummer and friend in the fireplace of my pals Mark and Claire’s kitchen in ravensdale forest, we rerecorded Kevin Corcoran on my folks piano in my home house in the Cooley mountains, Brían made a piano fort with blankets in the centre of the room and took all the panelling off, he mixed the record too. I wanted the production to sound human and natural, I was imagining the visuals for it and a 70s folk and psych rock era aesthetic kept coming to mind - in movement too and how I would physically and visually perform it - so I wanted the vocal processing and organ sound to feel from that time. The sparklin’ shimmer there in the mid - high sides sizzlin’ in the mix. Brían is a nurturing and close-listening beamer of a human maker and he really understood the heart of the record and how it should feel.

Can you share a bit about the emotional journey you experienced while writing this new body of work during your time in Berlin?

I was all over the place. I was lonely, I felt stuck, like I was living someone else’s life - like I was in a play or something. I wasn’t receiving love and care back from where I was pouring it, I was questioning my purpose and was full of the fear that I wasn’t worth having one. Moving through all that comes with so much chaos and pain in the mind and body. So this body of work illuminated spirit for me again. It was a guide and brought me to a knowing that gave me comfort and hope again, I still cry to it, hallelujah for music and creativity.

How did teaching vocals at a college in Berlin impact your approach to music and your personal artistic expression?

Teaching vocal technique and artistic intent through voice to a group of 20 year olds who were passionate and open to vulnerability was an important experience for me - one of the modules was interpretive vocal skills - using diverse vocal and stylistic techniques to discover and embody your own authentic voice. Through them as individuals and their discoveries - from a soft and dynamic jazz singer to a young Swedish woman wailing and shrieking primal gutteral sounds from the core of her being; it was hard not be inspired and self-questioning and self-realising my own voice and authenticity at the same time - what have I got to say and how does it sound directly from my body and soul without any preconceived ideas of a particular shaped vocal sound aesthetic. I grew up in theatre shows and musicals, and received classical training from my teens into my early 20s. I am also a master mimic. I love creating character, tone, and colour inflection of different feelings and energies and intentions. So a lot of my work is that - make believe characters and sounds through play and wanting to be something, anything other than myself. So through these students and through the teaching practice - it really aligned with where I was at and the purpose and making of this work - a return to voice - a return to the truth. You can still hear stylistic dynamic inflection and technique throughout the work of course - it is how I learned to sing and it’s what comes naturally to me as a baseline - but it is unbridled and raw - emotionally resonant in the body this time around and that is what the songs and the conceiving of the songs called for - my experience teaching allowed me to understand that and be open to that approach, an honest approach. It’s funny how the universe works. I was sad that I was spending the years teaching - I want to be a full-time artist, a luxury for the soul that would be! so I didn’t want to be teaching. But I wasn’t ready. I needed to grow and learn and find some truth and meaning and I’m so grateful that I can teach and share and inspire and be inspired by others who are on similar paths.

What role does visual storytelling play in your music videos, and how do you collaborate with directors to achieve your vision?

In the past I put so much heart and play into visual storytelling, it was all quite abstract and gas, focussed on movement and dance and Tim, my collaborator, he’s one of my best friends, we’ve known each other since we were 16 and we laugh a LOT together, silly silly silliness - but some of the videos made for this work have more of a stillness to them. We left space for emotion and in the moment expression. I wanted them shot in the space I created the songs in so he flew over to Berlin and we made them in a couple days. As I’m writing this and being honest with myself I know I wanted to feel like I was a superstar - starlet from the 60s in them and I wanted to create an aesthetic of that in the space that had held such pain and purging, it’s interesting thinking of the ego and the mask there and how I want to present it, it’s funny wanting to dress pain into something palatable and attractive. Anyway, rambling away on - the videos don’t come across like that at all - there’s a rawness and a capturing of the space and emotion with a lil hazy grain and sparkle from the old video camera that we put clingfilm and vaseline on the lens of. And I look like a hobbit, so the vanity is at bay, and I love Lord of The Rings. And hobbits.

What do you love right now?

My friends and family, more than ever. Time by myself on the beach by my folks house. A daily necessity. Walking.

What do you hate right now?

The fear, the destruction, the pain and the loss caused by murderous, bigoted unintelligent, and soulless dictators. Change is coming. We have really peaked in rupture.

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?

One of my favourite albums is Vampire Weekend’s debut record - “Vampire Weekend”. It was released in 2008, I was 14 and I was so obsessed with the vocal lines, I remember loving the harmonies and belting them out and being so excited by the bright sound and the high energy of it all. Sounds like pastels and youth. It’s a record I always go back to - it’s the perfect blend of indie pop with some african rhythms and sounds - I love it.

When someone hears your music for the first time, what do you hope sticks with them?

I hope they laugh and some joy sticks and maybe tears and a good cry if there’s a cry to be had. I hope they feel inspired in some way that connects them back to themselves and to the world around them. I hope for that.