ENYA - The Ghost That Sold 80 Million Records

Enya - Eighty Million Whispers

 Hey everybody, it is The Trout once again here on The Trout Show. Welcome to The Trout Show with another episode of Vinyl to Viral. The year was 1991.

I was sitting in a theater, watching a movie starring Steve Martin, it was called L.A. Story. It was kind of a funky comedy thing, he was a weatherman and all that stuff with Sarah Jessica Parker. Don't remember much about the movie, but I remember one thing, and that was the music that was in that movie.

It was by an artist that I'd never heard of before, but fell in love with her when I heard the music in that movie, and ever since then, I've kept track of what she's been doing. But this podcast is about this artist that's sold over 80 to 90 million records, has never toured, rarely seen in the public, but is phenomenally famous for all her wonderfully talented music that she writes. And the story about Enya is next on The Trout Show.

Retired or getting ready to retire? David Smith, your Edward Jones financial advisor, is passionate about helping you craft the retirement you've always dreamed of. With over 20 years of experience, David creates personalized financial strategies to secure your nest egg, fund that dream vacation, or build a lasting legacy for your family. At Edward Jones, it's not just about wealth, it's about living your rich life.

Whether you're enjoying more time with grandkids or exploring new adventures, David's here to guide you every step of the way. Proud sponsor of The Trout Show, he's committed to making your retirement vibrant and worry-free. Connect with David Smith today.

Call 469-372-1587 to start planning your retirement now. And oh, by the way, David can assist anybody located in 48 continental United States. Call David today at 469-372-1587.

Just a few months later, that song, Caribbean Blue, was released in the fall of 1991. It became a gigantic hit and put Enya on the map of musical stardom. But unlike a lot of musical stars, here's a few things about Enya that you may find fascinating.

She's never toured or performed solo live concerts. Despite massive global sales and hits, Enya has never gone on tour as a solo artist and rarely performs live at all. She's Ireland's second highest selling solo artist, only next to U2.

Like I said earlier, 80-90 million records, her music still is streamed hundreds of millions of times. Her urethral sound, that's what I can call it, was invented by her by using layers upon layers of synthesizer sounds in her voices. She's a trained classical pianist and used her ability to understand music to write some of these wonderfully catchy, I hate to say catchy, but great tunes that when you listen to just make you feel wonderfully positive.

It's said that her one track called Angeles, as in Los Angeles, reportedly has 500 layers of vocals alone. I don't know if that's true or not, but I can tell you she doesn't use choirs, she doesn't use singers, it's just her building symphonic walls of sound in the studio. She's never taken her fame to the streets, as they say.

In fact, she lives in a castle in Ireland that she bought back in 1997, actually it's outside of Dublin or somewhere around Dublin. She lives there reclusively, never married, no children, some say she has up to a dozen cats. It's kind of what I would say a fairytale fit for a mystical image which Enya has always portrayed.

She's always defied industry norms, her massive success without the usual fame chasing, and she builds a mysterious, almost mythical aura. I kind of think she likes it that way, but she probably likes the fact that she likes to be private. In today's world where everybody wants paparazzi and everything, I understand why she keeps her privacy private.

Now you might want to know, how did she get discovered? Well, she wasn't discovered in the classic talent scout sense, like she was never spotted in a coffee shop or doing a local gig. Her path into music was more organic and was rooted in her family, evolving through connections and bold choices rather than a sudden break. Now I'm not going to even try to pronounce her name in Gaelic, let's just say we know her as Enya.

She was born in 1961 in County Donegal in Ireland. Her family was very musical, her father ran a local pub, and he taught music. Several of her siblings put together a band, a Celtic folk band, blending traditional Irish sounds with pop elements.

Enya entered the professional realm in 1980, she was about 19, and after a year of college she said, I've had enough of this, and she accepted an invitation from Nicky Ryan, who was then the manager of the Celtic band, he was the manager and producer and sound engineer. Nicky wanted to expand the band's sound by adding keyboards and another vocalist, and he specifically asked Enya to join on those roles. She played keyboards and provided backing vocals on several albums.

The real pivot into professional music, and she set her path to solo stardom, was around 1982, when Nicky Ryan left the band, the Celtic band, and Enya chose to leave with him rather than stay with her siblings. She felt limited in what she wanted to do in this band, and wanted to explore her own ideas. She moved in with Nicky and Roma, Ryan's wife, in a Dublin suburb, where they formed a tight, creative partnership, and Enya started composing and performing, and Nicky would produce and arrange, focusing on what we call the multi-layer, in fact, you know where she had all the layers of vocals going on.

And Roma would write lyrics, often invented or ancient-feeling languages, they had their own language going on. So for a few years they wrote some music for smaller projects like film and TV projects. They did some music for the 1987 BBC documentary called The Celts, which also became her self-titled debut album in some markets across the world.

But her true breakthrough discovery, which everybody recognizes, if you're an Enya fan, you'll recognize, is a 1988 album called Watermark. And she had the global hit, Orokinoflow, which was shown on MTV all the time. And her Aretha style introduced her to millions of music lovers.

Enya's story is less about being scouted by a label exec, and more about a quiet, determined exit from a family band. She teamed up with visionary collaborators that believed in what she did, and it took years of experimentation in a relatively obscurity before the world caught on to her music. That slow burn, self-made accent fits perfectly with her reclusive mystique.

What can I say? She's always been an interesting person to listen to and know about, which we literally don't know much about her. Her songwriting and composition process is all done at her home. She's deeply involved with her home studio.

Initially she worked with Nicky and Rome Orion, later in her castle, where she primarily works alone, like I do, with synthesizers and keyboards. As I said earlier, she's classically trained on the piano. So she'll start maybe with, this is what people think she does, with an acoustic or electric piano to start things with a bass line for, you know, get a melody.

But it takes a long time for her, I assume, to make that sound that she has, that Aretha-al sound that she has. Enya composes by experimenting with sounds and then layers everything on a multitrack style. Nicky Orion handles much of the engineering and production, but Enya plays nearly all the instruments you hear when you're listening to music.

She hasn't done anything and released anything, as far as for the public, since 2015. So updates are scarce. She keeps her life private, I can't say that enough, can I? But she brought it out in 2015 called Dark Sky Island.

As far as her past albums and how they've been successful, her Watermark album was sold close to 21 million units. A Day Without Rain sold almost 15 million. Shepard Moons, which I have a copy of, by the way, over 13 million.

That was in 1991. Memory of Trees was 1995, around 10 million. She's never been one to put out a lot of albums, which probably adds to the mystique of her musical abilities.

As I said earlier, she's right up there. She's just second behind U2, the band, and if you think about U2 and all their money, put Enya right up there with them. So she makes a lot of money.

She's still making a lot of money. She has licensing and sync deals. Sync deals is when you sell your music to movies and TVs and commercials.

She's bought into real estate, it's what they say. I don't know who they are, but that's what they estimate. Somebody's saying she's bought real estate.

And Enya's exclusive lifestyle means she doesn't splash cash publicly. She keeps her life private and she hasn't released a major release, as I said, since 2015. So her fortune is largely catalog-driven and stable rather than from active touring or endorsements.

It's just completely opposite of what everybody else does now in the music business. So there you have Enya, a phenomenally talented artist who's sold millions of records, has millions and millions of streams, but never does a tour. Doesn't sign autographs.

And nobody really knows what she does all the time, except probably sits in her castle and writes music that hopefully, hopefully, one day, one day, she'll release another album so we get to hear this phenomenally talented artist that puts music together that is nothing like anybody else. That is Enya. Well, that's it for this episode of Vinyl and Viral here at the Trout Show.

Hope you enjoyed it. If you want to know more about the great artist Enya, just go to her website, enya.com. E-N-Y-A dot com. Follow her right there and get all the information about all the music.

And as I said, maybe one day she'll have another album out. Who knows? But we can enjoy what she's done so far. If you're a first-time listener, thank you so much for coming along.

I hope you enjoyed this information about Enya. And for more information about me or if you want to hear more podcasts or watch more videos I've interviewed over 200 musicians worldwide. Just go to my website, thetroutshow.com or you can find us on your favorite streaming source for podcasts.

Thanks so much to everybody out there. I am now heard in over 2,120 countries and over 3,500 cities worldwide. From me to you, thanks so much.

And so till next time, people, you know what I always say. It's only rock and roll. But you know what? I love it.

See ya!

 For more information, visit www.TheTroutShow.com