Country singer Lauren McCrory told David Hennessy about her new music, winning Glór Tíre and taking a step back after announcing herself at such a young age.
Tyrone country singer Lauren McCrory (28) recently released the single, Good Ol’ Girls.
It follows her previous offerings Next To You Next To Me, You Can Have Him Jolene and A Whole Lotta Little.
Earlier this year Lauren, from Galbally, also won Best Female Newcomer Award at the Northern Ireland Country Music Awards.
However, it is strange to refer to Lauren as a newcomer.
She won TG4’s country singing talent competition Glór Tíre back in 2017 and she has toured all over Ireland and the UK with the musical, Blood Upon the Rose.
But just 19 when she achieved her Glór Tíre success, she found what followed ‘overwhelming’ and took a step back knowing it would mean starting again ‘from scratch’.
Tell us about the track Good Ol’ Girls, it’s certainly a fun one..
“I actually had heard the song back a good number of years ago.
“As an artist, you’re always on the hunt for that song and I kept gravitating back to it so I was like, ‘Right, I keep going back to it. Clearly I like it. Let’s go for it’.”
I also like the fun video which was all your idea, wasn’t it?
“Yeah.
“I’m trained in theatre and acting so whenever it comes to music videos, I love taking control of the storyboard.
“One thing a lot of people always say to me is that my videos are very detailed and I’m like, ‘Yes, I know, believe you me, that’s not lost’.
“I suppose for this one, because obviously the nature of the song, Good Ol’ Girls, I wanted as many girls to be involved as possible.
“I have about 30,000 followers on TikTok and I just threw out a wee bit of an open casting call and the amount of people who then responded saying that they wanted to be involved was amazing, so that’s kind of where the fun element came from.
“I got as many girls as possible involved.
“I’m a singing teacher and I’m a musical director for a youth theatre school and that’s how I got some of the younger girls to feature in it so It was fun and it was a bit of craic and it was just something to add more of a visual element to the song.”
They say never work with children but that clearly didn’t bother you..
“I’m in theatre and I work with kids on a regular basis.
“I wanted to incorporate the young kids into it as well because I feel like recently going to dances and performing at different gigs, the age is a lot younger.
“When I was around 14, 15 there was that so called boom in Ireland with the country music and I kind of feel like that’s kind of coming back a wee bit.
“Any dance or gig I go to, it’s very young people going and all the jiving classes there seems to be quite a lot of young teenagers.
“That, for me as an artist, shows that the future of country music is very bright.”
You started young yourself when it came to singing, isn’t that right?
“Absolutely.
“I did talent competitions and whatnot throughout my whole childhood years.
“I didn’t actually win anything growing up.
“I was always involved but it was never the success at the end and I suppose when you’re younger, that does have a bit of a knock on your confidence levels because you’re constantly going, ‘Well, I’m not good enough. I’m not good enough. Maybe I’m not meant to be in this’.
“But they do give you the experience and the stamina required for this game because it is difficult.”
How would you describe your style, is it very influenced by American country but mixed with Irish country?
“Yeah, I do like to combine the two because my own roots, my love for country music came from visiting Nashville when I was a young girl but also it needs to work over here.
“The American country music scene is very different.
“American country music has got very popular over here but the Irish country music scene is a complete niche and world on its own.
“As much as the American country music’s amazing and it’s great, it just sometimes doesn’t work in this scene because it’s a dancing scene so you need that beat.
“That’s why I like to incorporate both sounds.
“I like to take elements of the American country and add the Irish country twist into it to create that beat and that sound that’s going to work within the Irish country music scene. A
“That’s what I was reared on.
“I was reared on all the Irish country artists.
“Philomena Begley is my next door neighbour.
“You have Big Tom, Susan McCann, all of those artists influenced me so much in my music so that’s why I tend to combine the two.”
What was it like having Philomena, someone who is so well known, just a friend of the family?
“I don’t like saying this light heartedly because obviously she is the queen of Irish country music and, as you say, she’s legendary but I’ve just known Philomena growing up my whole life as a neighbour so despite her being one of the most famous ladies within Ireland, I just look at her as a friend rather than this big idolised star.
“I’ve learned a lot from her because she’s so real, she’s so honest, she just gets on with it.
“I tend to do the same because I look at her and I’m like, ‘Well, if she can still live a normal lifestyle and also be possibly the most famous lady in Ireland regarding country music, then why can’t I?’”
You say you never won any of the competitions growing up so what was your mindset going into Glór Tíre? Were you not even thinking of winning, were you in it for the experience?
“I had originally applied to be on the show the year before and I didn’t get accepted so there was already a bit of a knock there because I was like, ‘Oh, okay, clearly I’m not good enough. It’s not my time. That’s okay’.
“I sent a video through the following year to Glór Tíre and was accepted.
“Barry Kirwan was my mentor but never, never did I think I was going to win that.
“And that is the God’s honest truth.
“I did go on for the experience and the exposure.
“I was 19 when I was doing it and I was like, ‘Look. Okay, this is going to be great’.
“I was up against great musicians.
“Our year was brilliant, serious talent.
“But I never expected it and it wasn’t until I got to the semi-final- I can remember coming down the stairs.
“My parents were there and I said to my mummy, ‘I’m gone’.
“I was like, ‘This is it. There’s no way in hell I’m getting to the final, it’s just not happening. I’m delighted. Had a great time. It’s been brilliant’.
“And then the second name that was called out was mine.
“I couldn’t believe it and that was me through to the final.
“And I genuinely was completely blown away.
“I genuinely couldn’t believe it.
“And then obviously went into the final and I just enjoyed it.
“And then when my name was called out, it was just a complete shock.
“I genuinely couldn’t believe it.
“It was unreal.”
Wasn’t it after that win that things got a bit much? You were still only 19, 20 and still had to find yourself before you could compete with singers like Lisa McHugh or Cliona Hagan..
“I definitely had growing up to do.
“As much of an amazing success as it was and I did feel very grateful and that catapulted me into the world of work.
“I was getting phone calls left, right and centre.
“I was getting bookings and it was brilliant and they were good gigs but they were traveling gigs so they were far away from me or just a lot was entailed.
“I was very far out of my depth, I just didn’t have that maturity to be able to handle the difficulties that come with being in the scene: Traveling, doing your own admin, keeping everything organised.
“It just got very overwhelming and I knew that I needed to mature as a person in order to be able to then know who I was as an artist, which is why then I did have to take the step back.
“I’m glad I took that step back because it has allowed me to actually prepare myself and know what’s required in order to make it sustainable.
“I feel like back then if I kept going, I would have crashed and burned and would have just threw the towel in whereas now I’m like, ‘Okay, can we get the towel back please?’”
You toured, as far as London, with the musical show Blood Upon the Rose, was that a welcome break then?
“It was theatre, it was what I was used to. I knew it.
“It was familiar.
“I was comfortable with it.
“I knew I was good at that and I could handle it, and I knew it was only for a short period of time, the show would happen and then you would move on.
“I went to uni and all then after that as well, tried uni three times and still don’t have a degree to show for it.
“I mean if there was a degree for partying, I would have that one.
“I got work with a theatre company and I was like, ‘Well, look, there’s no point me doing a degree if I’m already getting work’.
“And then COVID hit, obviously then all entertainment was stripped away from us so I had to look into something else and at that point, I was working in a special needs school.
“My brothers are both special needs so I worked as a classroom assistant, went on to do social work and then did a course in social work and then ended up working with a children’s disability team up until last year and that’s when I decided, ‘Okay, I might really want to give Music a go here again. Let’s give this a go again’.”
You made your comeback with the track, Whole Lotta Little..
“I knew that if I was to come back, I wanted to come back with a good song, a new me, a new mindset.
“I came back with that and I needed a plan so it wasn’t a case of just releasing a Whole Lotta Little and then hoping for the best.
“I knew once I had Whole Lotta Little done, my next single was going to be out five months after, that was You Can Have Him Jolene.
“I needed to make sure that I had something in place for at least a good year, otherwise I was just going to fall.
“You need to be consistent in this scene in order to build yourself up.
“A Whole Lotta Little actually went down really well.
“I think it got people talking and I suppose it was that song where people were like, ‘Oh gosh, she’s back’.
“But it was actually Next to You Next to Me that got people really engaged.
“It’s still doing really well actually, it’s brilliant.”
I’d say these songs get huge reactions when they are in y our set..
“They do.
“It’s so lovely whenever you actually hear people singing the songs back to you or requesting your own song.
“It’s lovely.
“It kind of makes it all worthwhile.”
You won the award for Best Female Newcomer at the Northern Irish Country Music Awards earlier this year. Does it feel strange to be referred to as a newcomer when you have been around so long?
“No, it’s about eight years ago I was on Glór Tíre but I’ve taken time to go away and I knew that going away, I was going to have to come back and start from scratch and that’s what I’m doing. I’m happy to do that because I’m a completely different person as to what I was back then.
“That was all my experience and my homework, I suppose but now coming back, I do feel like a newcomer and I want to start from scratch.
“Receiving that award was lovely.
“It’s just nice to get the recognition.
“It was just lovely to receive that and to get that acknowledgement.”
I’m sure that was a great moment, as was winning Glór Tíre. What else stands out among what you have done?
“Blood Upon the Rose.
“My dream as a very young girl was, ‘I want to be an actress on the West End’ which is why my background is in theatre.
“I performed on London’s Hammersmith Apollo stage.
“It’s a big deal.
“And all other venues that we’ve done, Blood upon the Rose, we’ve done the Armadillo in Glasgow three or four different times.
“We’ve done the Olympia down in Dublin, Grand Opera House Belfast, all these big venues which are not lost on me because a lot of people don’t get to perform in them.
“But one of my other moments, from most recently, which has been a complete highlight, is performing on Opry Le Daniel.
“It was amazing.
“I got to do that last July and it was down in the INEC down in Killarney and it was just such an experience.
“It’s a big deal to get onto that show within the Irish country music scene and so many different artists have been involved and to be involved in their footsteps and to get that insight into that world was just great, brilliant. Loved it.”
Was it always going to be music for you or did you ever think of anything else?
“It was just always music.
“From a very young age it was, ‘I want to be a singer’.
“And then I was introduced into the world of acting and theatre and then I was like, ‘No, I want to be an actress. I want to be on TV’.
“And then I started to struggle.
“I was like, ‘Well, I can’t do both. What am I going to do?’
“And then I realised a theatre actress combines the two so I was like, ‘I’ll do that’.
“But never did I ever have any other notion other than music.
“Whenever I got into secondary school my careers advisors were very sensible and responsible and they were like, ‘Music’s just maybe not the best career path to go down financially for sustainability. You may want to look into something different’.
“They were sending me down the route of teaching and I suppose then I started to think, ‘Right, well, I’d love to be a teacher but I also still want to sing’.”
What’s next? Are there plans for an album further down the line?
“We- I always say we and talk as if I have a team.
“I have nobody helping me here.
“I’m very much independent and so that can be hard because I don’t really have anyone steering the ship, I’m trying to figure it all out by myself and as much as I’d love to have help, there just doesn’t seem to be anyone there at the moment who can help, but that’s okay.
“I’m sure it will come in time.
“But we’re working towards an album with each release.
“My next single is going to be an original piece so it’s one that I have written myself. I want to delve into that world. We’ll just see how it goes.”
Good ‘Ol Girls is out now.
For more information, click here.
