Music in the soul of Killarney’s Grace

Fergus Dennehy talks to Killarney native Grace Foley about the upcoming launch of her brand new album ‘Unleashed’, her first forays into music at a young age, her on and off relationship with her passion, her future goals and how she finally discovered to

FOR Killarney native, Grace Foley, the journey toward a second professional album has been fraught with as many lows as there has been highs - but thankfully, the talented Kerry singer has come out on top all the stronger.

From falling in and out of music and even going so far as to consider an entire career change, Grace tells us that now, she has finally reached a point in her career where she has re-discovered her passion for her craft and she now knows ‘who she is’ musically.

Grace is now just a few days out from the release of the new album entitled ‘Unleashed’ at the INEC Acoustic Club on Sunday December 9 and speaking to The Kerryman last week, she said that she could not be prouder of the album she has produced.

“I’m incredibly proud of it. It finally feels like that I can look at something that I have done and listen back on it and know that it is 100% me,” she said, speaking on Thursday.

“Because it’s the second album, I can feel a lot more comfortable with the process because there was a lot of nerves the first time around because I wasn’t certain that the first album reflected who I was, but this one, I know that I am happy with it,” she continued.

From belting out songs at the top of her voice as a child at home to fully realising her potential thanks to the fantastic support network at her secondary school, music has been a part of Grace’s life since a very early age.

“There is no music in my direct family and honestly I don’t remember exactly when I started but I know that I was singing before I even started school. I was always singing, I was always drawn to movies that would have had music and I was absolutely obsessed with John Travolta,” she laughed.

“Grease was one of the first musical films that I was mad about, but I think that my first ‘hit song’ that I had was Cliff Richard’s ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ when I was about two years old. I’m still obsessed with Christmas to this day as well so at least that hasn’t changed,” she said.

It’s been a long road from that day to this and speaking to Grace - who says she was a very shy student at school and thus never pushed forward at singing in school - she gives huge credit to her former teachers Sheila Bennett, Sister Carmel and Áine McGowan at St Brigid’s Secondary School in Killarney for helping to bring her out of her shell.

“The school started doing singing lessons at lunch breaks and so I started attending these and this is where it all became real for me, where I really started to believe this was something I could pursue. They really, really pushed me to sing as a career” she continued.

A stint with James Nelson of the Celtic Irish Tenors and music at third level education in the Royal Academy of Music followed.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing from here on out though because to quote Grace: “as much as you can get bitten by the music bug, I think that music bit me back.”

“Music can be very all-consuming and there were definitely some aspects that I found quite difficult personally and so I took some time, about five years, away from it. I couldn’t even bring myself to sing at the time,” she continued.

“I tried a few other things and I even thought about getting another job or do a new course or something, but every single time, I knew that the only thing I was interested in was music,” she said.

Grace quickly found her feet as a music teacher and through the passion of helping her young students, she soon herself found her love of music once more and the wheels were in motion on this new second album.

Whereas her first album was very much a classical album, Grace has taken a much more modern and contemporary approach to this new album.

In the run up to planning the album, Grace ran a series of concerts where she began to experiment with her singing by adding in songs by U2, Snow Patrol, Damian Rice and Glen Hansard; she soon found her audience responding to this and asking her where they could by her cover songs.

“Most audience members loved that part of my new singing and this is what I tried to bring to the new album. ‘Unleashed’ is a mixture of Lana Del Rey, Gary Jules, Simon and Garfunkel. There are seven tracks on the record and there is a real mixture in there that I think everyone will enjoy,” she continued.

8pm on Sunday December 9 at the INEC Acoustic Club is the launch date for the album and everyone is invited to attend on the evening.

There will be support on the night by Kerry musicians Tom Lucey and Liam O’Connor while former Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh will be the MC on the night.

The album will be on sale on the night.