People were in pens but at least I could see them
For Sorcha Richardson, live gigs – EVEN with strict rules – are a thing of joy compared to playing online
S‘Played online gigs down a camera with no audience for a year and a half ’
inger songwriter Sorcha Richardson is steadily building a reputation as one of Ireland’s most impressive emerging artists. The Dubliner’s second album Smiling Like An Idiot surpasses that of her Choice Music Prize-nominated debut album First Prize Bravery.
After an acclaimed Electric Picnic gig, the 32 year old from Dalkey embarks on an Irish tour that includes her biggest headline show yet at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre.
‘I think everybody has a bucket list of venues in their hometown to headline and the Olympia is really No.1 for me,’ she says of the hallowed venue.
‘I’ve played with some brilliant artists there like [Japanese singer] Mitski and James Vincent McMorrow.’
She was also the opening act for McMorrow at the pilot event in Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens in June 2021 which meant she was the first artist to play in front of a live audience when restrictions were first eased during the Covid pandemic. If that was a somewhat clinical affair with people watching in ‘pens’, it meant the world to Sorcha.
‘At least I could see people in front of me,’ she sighs.
‘Having played online gigs down a camera with no audience for a year and a half, I would have taken the gigs with people in pens every day of the week.’
Sorcha took her first musical steps at 10 years of age. She formed a ‘band’ with friends from around Dalkey including Bono’s daughter Eve Hewson. Although the south Dublin suburb is often thought of as home to some of Ireland’s most affluent people, she says she grew up in an ‘ordinary middle class’ house.
‘My dad is a glazer and my mother is a teacher in further education,’ she says.
‘I went to Newpark [Comp rehensive School near Blackrock].
‘It was brilliant there. I had a great music teacher. Music wasn’t taught like it was secondary to maths or other subjects, it was viewed as just as important.’
Encouraged by a career guidance counsellor at Newpark, she applied for and secured a scholarship to The New School, a prestigious liberal arts university in New York. She spent eight years in the Big Apple and her time there had a transformative effect on her ambitions.
‘For four years my homework was to write short stories but I have to say that I found it much easier to write songs than short stories,’ she says.
‘Feedback was the most useful thing. Everybody in the class read your story and you weren’t allowed talk for a half an hour while the rest of the class discussed it. You had to be prepared for someone saying, “Sorcha, this is not good” and not have a crisis of confidence.’
She cut her teeth performing at open mic nights around Greenwich Village but concluded that she might further her ambitions more effectively back in Dublin.
‘It was a dilemma but I think you always know when it is time for a change,’ she says. ‘America is tough if you don’t have a lot of money. Sometimes it’s better to be in a smaller scene. You can get further quicker.’
She began writing the songs that would feature on First Prize Bravery in her last months in New York knowing that she was returning to Ireland.
‘It was written in my last year there and my first six months back at home. I knew there were people who had been such a big part of my life who I might never see again,’ she says.
‘In the songs Red Lion and High In The Garden I tried to capture those feelings before they were gone.’
She initially found coming home a challenge in late 2017 after such a lengthy time away, but soon made friends in the Dublin music scene and rapid progress.
Appearances on Other Voices and a tour with Imelda May increased her profile. First Prize Bravery was released a little over 18 months after she returned to Ireland. Tracks such as the delightful Archie reference her time in New York but Smiling Like An Idiot is more like a love letter to Dublin.
‘This album is in part about falling back in love with Dublin after I came home,’ she says.
‘I really like artists like Phoebe Bridgers and also Adrianne Lenker from Big Thief.
‘They write with such specificity and are so grounded in detail. I find the more specific I can be the more that people can find their way into it. I can feel my feet on the ground in the songs when I am anchored in time and place.’
Smiling Like An Idiot is out now. See sorcharichardson.com for tour dates.