Maria Kelly Talks About her Recent Successs

If completing your final year of college isn’t busy enough, Maria Kelly has been adding to it with an amazing tour with Paul Noonan.  Maria has also been selected by RTE 2fm listeners to play at Other Voices in Dingle in December. We caught up with her…

Can you give us a little overview of what you’ve been up to recently?

The last few months have been really exciting – Electric Picnic & Hard Working Class Heroes made up the bulk of September, along with Sounds From A Safe Harbour in Cork. They were all so enjoyable to play but most of my time recently has been preparing for the release of my next single. I spent some time in Berlin recording and arranging it, as well as gathering other assets for the release. The song is called Hollow and will be out in the world on November 17th!

Were you excited about supporting Paul Noonan on his Irish tour?

Yes! I hadn’t been on tour since May so I was itching to get out on the road again. We went to Dundalk, Newbridge, Galway, Limerick and Cork, including some venues that I hadn’t played in before.

What have been your highlights in music/performing over the past year?

Oh god, there’s quite a few as this year I’ve been incredibly lucky with opportunities. Playing in Cork Opera House with James Vincent McMorrow will always be a highlight (I still can’t quite believe that actually happened). Getting to do my own headline tour in May was pretty surreal, and in summer I got the chance to do some UK dates – it was really exciting to play outside Ireland for the first time! Especially getting the chance to play the Great Escape & 2000 Trees with BIMM – it was kind of crazy to get to do those shows through my college.

How do you feel BIMM has prepared you for these events?

Massively. This year was one of the busiest for me so far and one where I was being asked to do quite big, important shows.  For someone who experiences a lot of anxiety it was invaluable for me to have the support system of BIMM around me e.g. with the Cork Opera House gigs, I spoke to a vocal tutor beforehand about my nerves and she completely prepared me for the show – in terms of technique and my mindset towards the whole thing.

What are your plans for the coming year?

After my single release in November, I’ll be laying low for a bit so I can really get stuck into the final year at BIMM but before the academic year is over, I’ll be releasing something else that I’m quite excited about, along with some Irish and UK dates.

Photo by http://www.deborahsheedy.com/