Aghagallon singer to launch new album

Ciaran, who lives in Aghagallon, is gearing up for the launch of his follow up album, entitled ‘Let Bad In’, which will be released on May 27.

Ahead of the official release, however, local fans will have the chance to hear some of the tracks up close and personal when Ciaran performs at St George’s Church in Belfast on May 7.

After playing with a seven-piece indie-folk collective Captain Kennedy for many years, Ciaran broke out on his own and released ‘Not Nearly Dark’ in 2013.

Even though that was three years ago, Ciaran certainly hasn’t been taking it easy. As well as performing and writing new material, in 2014 he released an EP entitled ‘Kosher’ and in 2015 he released ‘Sea Legs’, a mini-album on which he collaborated with electronica artist Ryan Vail.

Ciaran loves working in the isolation of his Aghagallon home and believes it has a real impact on his music, drawing from family and life experiences for his new material.

“It’s a great space for writing,” explained Ciaran. “It is so secluded and very old school. It gives me a nice separation from the busy times. Things can get hectic so to have some downtime and separate myself from that world is a great thing.

“For the last year, bubbling away underneath everything, I was writing for this album.

“The album is a culmination of where I started, with elements of the first album, and also experimental stuff that I started to tap into in the EP. It strikes a balance,

“The album is a moment in time that existed then and its hard to be objective about it but I’ve been told it is a bit darker than I thought it was.”

Despite having an album that is just days away from release, Ciaran is already thinking about his next project and looking forward to a summer of gigs and festivals.

“I am doing some festivals over the summer and I will be spending a bit of time in Europe touring some festivals there,” continued Ciaran. “Europe has been good for me and the people are very kind and very receptive to my music.

“However, it was really important to me to do my first show for this album at home in Belfast because it is where it started.

“I will definitely keep myself busy over the summer. Sometime over the summer there will also be a window to do some writing for the next album as well.”

Tickets for Ciaran’s Belfast show on May 7 at St George’s Church are on sale from all usual outlets.