‘Say’ is first single from La Gracia’s upcoming EP
An R’n’B act based in Sligo have released a new single – ahead of their first EP launch later this year. Alan Finn spoke to Kevin and Gráinne of La Gracia about their origins, their musical style and producing an EP during lockdown
A SLIGO-BASED R’n’B group released their first single from an upcoming EP last Friday.
La Gracia – headed up by the duo of Gráinne McCarthy from Maugherow and Kevin Healy from Ballyfarnon – are the act behind the EP which is the culmination of almost a decade of hard work since the group was originally formed.
The group also consists of Tom McGlynn – a Boyle native known locally for playing with The Antics and Swagjammers – as well as Denis Cassidy and Gar Fagan.
Before there were five, there were two – Kevin and Gráinne – who explained La Gracia’s origin.
“We came together as a couple first and then very quickly starting playing and writing music together. When we moved to Dublin in 2012 we got on the music scene up there, met other musicians and La Gracia became what it is,” Gráinne said.
“When we met in 2009 I was working with a band called The Antics based down in Boyle,” Kevin said.
“We got our start in Furey’s and Paul O’Donnell looked after us very well whenever we were in Sligo. We also toured around the county doing different large bars and nightclubs on weekends.”
The EP has been a project in the works for some time – with an original recording of their new single, Say, being done as early as 2015.
“It had been in the pipeline for a while,” Gráinne confirmed.
“We started working on it a few years ago and recording it but moved away from it for several reasons until deciding to finish it during lockdown.” Kevin further elaborated on where their EP stood when they decided to revisit it after a number of years pre- dominantly performing live.
“Before Covid we were very active. We were busy doing covers and weddings so we didn’t focus too much on our original music. The pandemic took the choice out of our hands and created a space to focus on original music.
We started recording a few years ago but just never got to finish it.”
“We had the bare bones of band recordings done and some vocal guide tracks. When we came back to it we decided to redo the vocals and then tidy it up with production and pack- aged it as an EP.”
“It shows there was still development in our sound at that point. We also hadn’t a core group of band members which would influence our final sound so we pulled a band together who we knew to be really good session players and that quickly developed into a new sound.”
On the difference between Say in 2015 and now, Gráinne said: “The year we released our first single, we were recording Say in a completely different style.
“I had written it and we recorded a decent demo version but listening back I felt I wasn’t feeling it anymore so we reworked it and it sounds completely different now.”
Bringing an EP to frutition in lockdown isn’t without its challenges as Gráinne spoke about working with a Leitrim-based studio from home.
“We worked with Leo Logan in Vibe Studios up in Drumshanbo who also worked with Staring Down Comets, another Sligo band. We threw a few ideas back and forth and when we were allowed back in studio we got a lot of work done and when we couldn’t be in studio there was a lot of calls, a lot of sending mixed sounds over and back to listen to.”
With a background in cover bands, Kevin is familiar with a wide array of musical genres. He explained, however, that settling on R’n’B and soul was a decision made in order to play to the strength of the singer.
“We had a cover act called Soul Jam and we decided to focus on Motown and 90s R’n’B and that grounded us into those styles. You always play to your singer’s strengths.”
This happened to be very much the sweet spot for vocalist Gráinne who grew up with this style of music.
“My big influence is soul and R’n’B. My parents listened to a lot of folk and soul from the 60s and 70s and for my sister and peers it was Lauryn Hill and The Fugees and the obsession with the genre really came from there.” In addition to releasing singles and promoting their work, Kevin and Gráinne are also involved in a local fundraiser which got under way earlier this month.
“We are involved in the Virtual Superstar event for North West Hospice with all Sligo acts. We are two of the mentors for it. It’s a bit of craic and good fun.”
Say is available on all online music platforms.
La Gracia will release a second single in June, followed by the EP release in August.