IвЂ™ll be honest, I was never altogether too worried about the balance. How important was it for you to strike that balance? These songs do a great job of capturing modern influences while still incorporating traditional Irish elements as well. The process of purging made it real, but it also took a lot of the hurt out of a lot of things that I held onto for so long. But I had to write it all down to get to where I am now with it all. Though I may not be proud of some of the situations I put myself in or things that IвЂ™ve done in my past, IвЂ™ve made my peace with them now.

I often asked myself the question вЂњIf IвЂ™m a good person, why have I done so many bad things?вЂќ. How difficult was it to revisit some of these life events where you might not have been your best self? It was also very liberating being able to play with words in the book because IвЂ™d never had so much room to convey my thoughts as IвЂ™m usually confined to the verses of a song. I loved playing with phrases that sounded innocent on the surface but knowing they held a deeper meaning. But like I said, it was fun for that exact reason. I would have difficulty articulating what IвЂ™d done in my past whilst writing the book, but then I had struggles with getting the right metaphors or clever wordplay in the songs. Put another way, it was fun to have such a difficult project to work on! The book challenges were very different from the music. It was in equal measure fun yet difficult. Did you find that to be an interesting dichotomy as you took this on? Obviously, the book has to be a bit more linear in its storytelling while the songs could be more metaphorical about the issues you were facing. So it always just ended up feeling like a therapy session mixed with an English literature exam! Usually I had an idea as to what type of track I wanted to write вЂ“ mostly because I knew what I needed and what was missing on the album so far. Then after settling on a subject, IвЂ™d fill them in on the nitty-gritty details. I wanted to make sure there was a choice because you would never know whether someone youвЂ™re working with may have been affected by a particular topic. IвЂ™d pick the three that I would be comfortable writing about that day, then IвЂ™d run them past the person writing the song with me. I would bring my list of topics and ideas into the studio session. There were just never enough hours in the day.ДЄs a songwriter, how did you approach trying to capture what you had written about in the book, and how did you bring your collaborators into that process? When IвЂ™d have a good month on the book, the music would fall behind and vice versa. It was much more of a task than I thought it would be! Luckily, I donвЂ™t have too much of a personal life anyways, so I was able to dedicate a lot of my time to this project! The juggling was the hardest part. I could write my story without limitations but also allow myself to have an album that was still relatable.Дid you realize what a massive undertaking this was going to be to do these projects simultaneously? This led to the idea of writing the book. So I took a more metaphorical approach to the writing but in doing so, realised I wasnвЂ™t being as honest as I wanted to be. When I started writing though, I realised that the songs were sounding very self-indulgent. I wanted to share the experiences that IвЂ™ve been through and be the most honest version of myself. Which came first in this process: the idea to write the book or the album that is based on it? Devlin spoke to American Songwriter via e-mail to tell us about how she juggled the new projects, the process of revealing so much of her personal life to the world, and what lessons she hopes others might learn from her experience. And in the process she has delivered her finest album to date, as she lays bare her emotions with soul-searching lyrics and stirring music. In both cases, her courage in digging so deeply into raw wounds is notable. And, to put an even finer point on that past, her memoir My Confessional offers a more detailed blow-by-blow.

DevlinвЂ™s new album Confessional ( order) powerfully evokes some of the difficult times sheвЂ™s faced in the past decade, including her mental health and addiction issues. The fruits of those labors have finally arrived.

But when you consider that she has written a book to go along with that album in that time, her work ethic actually seems awful impressive. Since itвЂ™s been five years since her last full-length album, fans might be under the impression that Irish singer-songwriter Janet Devlin has been taking her sweet time with her art.

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