Eimear McCarthy is sharing her secret songs to prove that you can too
“I’m going to do a gig.”
Eimear McCarthy can barely believe it herself.
The well-known Cork finance manager is the business brains behind local brands such as Kinsale Spirit Company, Electric, and Sober Lane, but this week she’s teetering on the edge of taking a giant leap out of her comfort zone.
Eimear’s just written and recorded her debut album, Dropping Dolls. The first single, Something New will be released today, Friday.
‘It was part of my healing process’
Incredibly, the intention was never to share a note of it. The bones of the album were written on the advice of a therapist who worked with Eimear on unboxing a lifetime of ‘stuff’ that had started affecting her mental health.
“My therapist, Niamh Lee, encouraged me to start writing songs again. I hadn’t written in 15 years and the first song I wrote, which is named after Niamh, is the first one on the album. When I wrote all this music, it was just for me. It was part of my healing process and I wasn’t going to share it with anyone. ”
The only people who heard the songs were Eimear’s wife Aoife and their two daughters.
“Then my therapist suggested sharing them with people. She highlighted that if one person got from them what I got, it’s such a good thing to be able to give someone that push they need to get through a tough time.
“It’s all about healing and progression and coming out of yourself.”
Songs in the bag, Eimear created her own little step-by-step plan to build up the chutzpah to share them with the world.
She met producer Aaron O’Sullivan early in 2023 and they began the recording process in The Lab Studio on Cork’s Monahan Road. With help from Voiceworks Studio and Ian Gubbins, Something New is brought to life visually with a pretty epic live performance video, which will be released with the single this weekend.
Here’s a peek:
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“It was always a dream of mine to make an album anyway so I decided to start with that for step one. It is very overwhelming to release it, which I’m doing as step two.
And then, as step three… I’m going to do a gig. It’s a very cool journey to be on and it’s something I’m really proud of.”
Something New will go live on Spotify and Apple Music at midnight Friday, May 26th, under the artist name Eimear Mac. Eimear will be performing her first gig live at The Fish Basket in Long Strand on Sunday, July 9th, 2023.
