Singer-songwriter Roisin Murphy has said that the music industry “deserves” help after “it saved our lives during the pandemic”.
Murphy was speaking to the Sky News Daily podcast, where host Niall Paterson asked her and a series of other special guests for their “Three Wishes” for 2023.
The singer has released music since the mid-90s, at first as part of the duo Moloko, before going on to have a successful solo career.
She told the podcast: “In my industry, we’ve had some really hard times, obviously, over the pandemic. Music is always a hard one to pull off because, once you get out on the road, everybody’s got to get paid. .. you’ve got all these expenses.
“And now, after the pandemic and the energy crisis that we’re having, cost of living crisis that we’re having, it’s more expensive on top of that.”
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Murphy has released five solo albums, with 2015’s Hairless Toys being nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. Her most recent record, Roisin Machine (2020), received critical acclaim. Last year, she made her acting debut in Netflix’s The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself.
Speaking from her home in Ibiza, Murphy said that “glamour” has gone from most nightclubs, and that government support is needed to help bring the music and night-time industries back to life.
“We deserve to be helped in times of crisis,” she told the Daily podcast. “[Music] saved our lives during the pandemic. Maybe that’s a bit too much, but I think it’s true.”
‘A generation with a lost shared sense of culture’
Figures released last year by the Night Time Industries Association suggested that 20% of nightclubs have closed since the first lockdown in March 2020.
“Going out clubbing, going out to see bands, and not just always being on the internet is so healthy for kids,” Murphy said.
“I really worry about that generation of young people who have gone through three years of their life without having that shared experience.”
Another of Murphy’s wishes was that she wants to see more children spending less time on phone and computer screens. The mother of two says she worries their generation has lost a shared sense of culture.
“They’re speaking a different language to me. I suppose we were into things that our parents didn’t understand as well. But I think this is on another level, we shared culture growing up.
“I mean, we were talking about dancing all together. Hopefully my children will go out and dance together with other people and then have this shared sense of universality.”
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Producers: David Chipakupaku and Alys Bowen
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Additional writing: Soila Apparicio
Editors: Paul Stanworth and Philly Beaumont