Darren Kiely: 'All these things are hard to believe they're happening'
Hailing from a small town in Cork, Kiely, who fuses traditional Irish roots with modern folk-pop influences, began singing in 2019 and quickly drew attention for his powerful vocals and heartfelt songwriting.
A gifted multi-instrumentalist from a young age, the star recently dropped his newest single, Married on My Phone.
'I guess, living away now, you lose touch with people,' Darren Kiely told the Irish Mirror ahead of his massive Bulmers Live at Leopardstown show.
'I'm kind of running into people that I would have known when I was back in school. And I feel like people are living kind of completely different lives to what I remember it as.
'I just wanted to write something about how jarring that could be and how that situation could pop up. I've seen kind of crazy life events for people I kind of used to know online.
'I think it's just kind of a mad thing how maybe 20 or 30 years ago, people just kind of went out of their lives and never, never saw or heard of them again.
'And now it's just very different, and it's kind of something you can't really escape. I just thought it was just really interesting to me.
'I think it's kind of really jarring, and that's why I kind of wanted to make a song about it.' The folk-pop star released his newest single recently
The songwriter has gone from strength to strength over his career, playing shows at Electric Picnic, the Olympia and more. Darren said through all the 'mad moments' he sometimes feels an 'imposter syndrome'.
'I think of some of the shows I've played at home,' Darren explained.
'I think of Electric Picnic last summer. We got to play in the Electric Arena there, and some of the shows in March, I definitely remember the Olympia being special.
'And playing in Cork, all those ones were just, I don't know if it was pivotal, but it was just, such a kind of a mad moment. They were all mad moments.
'And then, trying to put on shows in different different countries and for people to be there for all those moments feels like, it feels like someone else is doing it... so there's definitely like an imposter syndrome.
'But it's just trying to do it again and trying to go back and hopefully get those moments again.
'I feel like, if I can do it one more time around, maybe I'll be feeling the exact same way as I am right now, but I feel like I'll be more confident that it'll be something that might go on for as long as I wanted to go on.' A view of the crowd at Leopardstown Racecourse for the Bulmers Live Festival series in Dublin
Kiely will be headlining night four of the Bulmers Live at Leopardstown series this Thursday, July 24, closing out the event with a bang.
'It's very exciting,' the folk star said of the upcoming performance.
'Playing shows at home is probably the most excited you could be for any shows.
'It's just always fun, having new music thrown into it is exciting... all these things are hard to believe they're happening. And then you're there.
'Even we were in Ottawa the other day, and you're like, 'This is mad'. My brain doesn't even look ahead to be like, 'Is there going to be people there?' And then there is! That's amazing. I feel massively inspired and excited now after having done that.
'I guess when you kind of plod along and you write songs, and you don't really see people, or you're just kind of watching a phone or stuff is going online. It's so nice to get out and play in front of people. It's a serious buzz.'
Darren Kiely plays Bulmers Live at Leopardstown on Thursday, 24 July. Tickets from just €30 are on sale now here.
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