RuthAnne is ready to use her voice.
This year, she is acting as an ambassador for Darkness into Light, hoping to get more people talking about mental health. She has also been using her music to discuss her own endometriosis diagnosis and hoping that other women feel less alone with their own journey with the illness.
She’s one of the driving forces behind Irish Women in Harmony, hoping to raise the profile of Irish women in the music industry.
We sat down with the Grammy winner to chat about her advocacy and what we can all do to make the world a bit of a better place.
Hi RuthAnne, how are you? Tell us a bit about getting involved with Darkness into Light this year.
When Electric Ireland asked me to be one of the ambassadors I jumped at the chance because I have suffered with my own mental health struggles in the past and I’ve lost some loved ones to suicide. I love the work that Pieta do. So I just really wanted to be involved, anything I can do to help and get people to sign up to do the walk I think I would like to do.
It feels very hard right now to stay positive and take care of our mental health. But Darkness into Light and the work Pieta does is incredible. Do you think we’re more open to talk about these sort of things now?
I think it’s great that we’re getting more people talking about these things. There is so much over stimulation from the internet and terrible things happening; it’s even more important that we bring these types of events and these types of causes to the forefront so that people have somewhere to go, have someone to call, they have somewhere to go for their support. It’s just really important to show these types of positive things being done in the world. People can see whatever on the news or on the internet, but they also can see the community of people coming together, so that’s why it’s so important to get involved and do your part.
You’re not afraid to use your voice for so many topics. You’ve been very open about endometriosis; you’ve written a song and even a book about your journey with it. Tell us about that.
I’ve been battling it for eight years, and the minute that I could finally get a diagnosis, I knew that it was a new purpose for me. I have to show what I can about this because there are too many women suffering and too many women being gaslit into thinking that they’re crazy or that it’s just bad periods, that they’re making it up. I knew there was something not right the whole time that I was trying to find the answers, and I just want to raise awareness and be there for other women who are suffering because there are too many of us. There needs to be more funding, more research, and more awareness. We need to do more educating about our bodies in school from when we are having periods, we should be educated about these conditions so we can look out for specific signs because the earlier you get the treatment the better the outcome. So I wrote the song when I was going through my own flare-up up cancelling on work again, cancelling on plans again. It’s really just about you know really saying, “I’m so sick of being so sick and tired, but I need people to understand what that looks like”. I knew releasing it I was quite exposed but I feel like sometimes you have to be vulnerable in order for people to kind of break the ice and have people open up about what they’re going through. Since I’ve released it, I’ve seen a huge, an overwhelming reaction of people who are going through what I’ve been going through and also other chronic illnesses. I think that song helps me raise awareness, and it’s a song you can send to someone when you don’t have the words. It’s ridiculous that there’s nowhere for women to go we need more specialists in this country to help; a lot of the women are having to travel abroad for health. They should be able to get medical care in the country there from so you know there’s a lot that needs to be changed, there’s a lot that needs to be done for women’s health and we just need to do what we can to raise awareness and get on the government priority list.
Writing these songs must be a great release for you.
Yeah, it’s my way of therapy and like healing and getting out what I feel in songwriting. If I can help someone or like connect with someone to make them feel less alone through my music or make them happy or whatever feeling, people need to feel or feel connected. That’s what I’m trying to do as an artist, just make them feel something, make them connect, and the human condition is what I write about I write about motherhood and womanhood and all those things, so it’s always how I would express myself.
What is it like when you see your songs being used for people’s milestone moments, like engagements and weddings?
It’s crazy because I guess when I’m writing, it’s a very clear experience for getting out a feeling that I want to get out! So when I put it out in the world and people take it and use it walking down the aisle to it or you know singing it to their kids or if it helps someone through their day, it’s just something I would have never expected to have that much of an impact. When I get videos of people having those big moments to my song it just reminds me that I need to keep thriving and keep connecting with people.
You don’t write just songs for yourself. In fact, you’ve written, probably, some of the biggest pop songs ever! Work B*tch by Britney, Too Little, Too Late by JoJo and No Control by One Direction. What do people say when they realise you’ve written them?
A lot of people don’t really believe it! But I don’t really ever say, “Oh I wrote that” it’s more my friends. They’d be like, “She wrote that” or if I’m in a spin class and the Britney song comes on or if I’m somewhere and the songs come on my friends will be like, “Oh Ruth wrote this”. And they’ll be like, “Oh yeah sure sure” so I find it funny. People will be like, “No way! Did you?!” So I always thinks it’s like a nice drive, people don’t expect that, especially because I’m Irish as well. It always makes me kind of want to fly the flag for Irish women even more because, you know I’m just out here trying to write the best songs that I can so for someone else to be so recognised but not globally it’s just another crazy thing that I never would have expected to happen.
You’re an artist in your own right and you’re part of Irish Women in Harmony. Have you seen a change in how Irish women in music are being talked about?
I think there’s still a way to go, I think that it’s great to see, definitely see more women since we started Irish Women Harmony a lot more TV slots are going to women artists which wasn’t the case before and there’s more women. But I still feel we’ve a way to go. I still feel we’re general in Ireland we don’t champion our own enough. I think across the board of all Irish artists that we sometimes forget that the Taylor Swifts and the Ariana Grandes have all the radio play they’ll ever need and the Irish artists need the radio play cause when we champion for our own and amazing thing will start to happen around the world. When someone’s own country lifts them up and champions for them and then watch what will happen around the world. I think we sometimes do it backwards where Irish artists have to leave, become successful in other territories for then Ireland to pay attention and go, “Oh actually she is good’. It’s almost like we need the validation from outside of Ireland. We love to claim everyone as our own you know when Dermot Kennedy started popping off all around the world it was like, “Oh he’s ours” or Paul Mescal, “He’s ours”. But how amazing if we could break the Irish from inside Ireland first that would be a real success story. I think we have the power to do that it’s just people really paying attention and listening and watching what’s going on! Like, Orla Gartland is playing Glastonbury, she’s doing world tours you know and she still struggles to get Irish radio, I don’t understand what else she has to do to be getting you know what I mean. She should be all over the radios here because she’s a huge success story so its stuff like that I think if everyone just takes a second or pays attention more to what’s going on with some of the artists, we’d be breaking them in our own country and maybe be able to come here and tour instead of having to go to other countries.
