Mum instilled self-belief to defy my critics
Lyra pays tribute to her mother – the subject of her new single – and tells how she managed to survive being bullied at school
2019
has been a fantastic year for Lyra. Her powerful, sometimes haunting music has featured in the shows Love Island, The Only Way Is Essex and Made In Chelsea as well as hit US TV adaptations of Teen Wolf and Four Weddings And A Funeral. Many who saw her performance in the Little Big Tent at this year’s Electric Picnic gushed that it was one of the best of the weekend.
Her dramatic voice and song structures have drawn comparison with Florence & The Machine and Kate Bush, but it is Enya to whom the Cork musician looks to for inspiration in all aspects of her career.
‘I love Enya so much. She is cool, she is timeless,’ she says.
‘She has her own personal life that virtually no one knows anything about. She is loved for her music and nothing else.’
Although we know that Lyra, pronounced ‘Lie-ra’ was raised in Rochestown on the southside of Cork city. She doesn’t want her surname in print and doesn’t favour questions about her background in general. She didn’t dip her toes in the southern capital’s vibrant live music scene. That is not to say that Lyra is some aloof ice maiden. In person, she laughs a lot and is warm and funny.
‘I don’t know why people want to know personal stuff like where I went to school or my name. Why would people give a s*** about that, like?’ she wonders.
‘Sometimes, when people ask me my age, I say, “Why does that matter? Do you like my music or don’tcha?” When people ask me, “Where did you go to school and what did you do there...” I’m like, “No-one cares about that.” I’m not going to talk about that.
Everything gets out anyway… I think if people persisted in asking, I’d start crying.’
She will finally admit after gentle cajoling that she is 24. She is much more open to talking about the inspiration for her current single, the very personal Mother.
‘It was my mum who gave me confidence in my voice,’ she says.
‘She told me not to listen to people when they said, “Ah you sound like a fish wife!” I said I’ve written this song for you because you’ve influenced me so much and it was just as well that she liked it. My dad was, like, “When’s Father coming out?”’
That distinctive voice and love of music was her escape from a degree of taunting and teasing at school that actually seems tantamount to bullying.
‘Maybe bullying is too strong a word; people go through a lot worse than I did,’ Lyra contends.
‘If I came into school with my hair a certain way, some of the other girls would go, “Who do you think you are with your hair like that?” I remember going in with a matching red jacket and jeans one day. The girls started saying, “You think you’re above everyone else.” I wasn’t doing anything to anyone. They were just not being very nice to me for no reason.
‘That made me a bit selfconscious about standing out and in music, obviously, you have to stand out or you’re not going to get noticed. My mum helped me with that too. She instilled the belief in me that I was good enough to give music my best shot.’
Lyra recorded her first song, Emeralds, at home and when she put it on social media, it got an immediate reaction.
‘I wanted to see if people thought it was any good. Then it went big, it got loads of likes and shares.
‘I got a lot of contact from record labels and I thought, “OK, I’m on the right track,” and threw myself into writing more songs.’
She moved to London and struck up a working relationship with Phil Cook, who has worked with Ellie Goulding, Little Mix and Jess Glynne. Her songs have by now received hundreds of thousands of social media hits. She says she hopes to release her debut album next year and has a headline show teed up in Dublin’s Academy for March.
‘I’ve been very lucky to work with a producer like Phil,’ says Lyra.
‘He respected me as an artist straight away; anything I don’t like, he changes it. There is no ego in him. I know I’ve got to stand my ground to get what’s best for me. What I like more is people who develop what I have and suggest things that I might not have thought of. I’m not some “snooty my way or the highway” person. I will always need a producer. I can’t add that, oh what could you call it? That special jiggly juice that they can!’
■ Mother by Lyra is out now
‘I don’t know why people want to know personal stuff like where I went to school or my name’