Seán Feeny's first album was made on ‘budget of not only money but time and responsibility’

 “I’m getting asked the question a lot - ‘Were you always interested in music?’”

The release of Seán Feeny’s first album may have taken some that know him by surprise, but it has been an ambition he has harboured for a very long time.

Music was  “always my earliest passion,” he says, but life seemed to get in the way.  “Finishing studies, getting a proper job, working full-time, getting married, having kids.”

“I would have dabbled in music and done bits for charity here and there. But that’s so far removed that people even wouldn't remember that anymore.”

A week after the release of the ten-track Galactic Tides, he is overwhelmed by the initial reaction, both personally and in reviews and media coverage.

It has been a week that  has seen a song of his featured in Hotpress  for a fourth time, coverage in national newspapers, his  first ever US airplay and an interview with a newspaper in Germany, where he  lived when he was younger.“We’re still only at the start of it, literally, a week on. It takes a while for something, for the news to spread.”

Taking the time to bring something to fruition almost sums up the story of the making of the album. In some way, it has taken decades.

The love of music was something that was always there and never left him, he says. At one point he decided it had to come out and he made a commitment to himself.

“That urge to be creative and, you know, create something original myself, just for the love of it, was always there.

“And so some years ago I decided, right, I'm just going to be disciplined and put my head down and keep writing.”

The thoughts and the ideas for songs were with him “probably for decades”. It was around 10 years ago he started writing “until I had a bunch of songs together”.

“It was all in view of quietly putting an album together and just literally getting it out of my system.” 

Pursuing a music career had to come alongside working fulltime as a  journalist and in not-for-profit communications, getting married and starting a family. 

“I was on a budget of not only money but time and responsibility. So I would only have time to do things here and there, whenever the time allowed. I had to be very disciplined during that time. There was no messing around. But I was also patient. I knew I probably would only do this once in my lifetime. So I was patient. I did not tell anybody. Not even my own family.”

The  songs on the album can be largely classified as folk but there are departures into electronica, pop and rock.

“I could have recorded most of these songs in a very traditional folk arrangement. They could have gone a certain direction, depending on the producer, the person recording.  But I knew that while I loved those old folk singers of days gone by - the Dubliners, the Furys, Christy Moore - I wanted to do something new and was more inspired by the likes of Paul Brady, who went from traditional to folk to delving into the pop world and merging them together and trying to do something new.”

The son of parents from Belfast and County Derry, Feeny spent most of his childhood in Germany. Donegal has been his home for the best part of three decades.

To bring the album into the world, he was able to pull on a network of musicians and friends he has established since settling in Donegal. 

It was produced by his friend Orri McBrearty and has input and performances from a host of Donegal talent, including Ruairí Friel, Sarah Cullen, Tommy Callaghan and Laura McFadden. 

“I’m very grateful to have had some collaborators on some of the songs too, which was very daunting. Never mind putting myself out there, but chatting to somebody about potentially collaborating and doing something together and then putting their faith and trust in me.”

The album, he says, explores how people carry stories across oceans, borders, and eras, and how those stories shape who we become. Themes include departure and return, diaspora, nature and migration and times of change. 

 While the recording process, which often began with an early-morning swim at Marble Hill,  was very fun and productive, it had followed the “very emotional” experience  of writing the songs.

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“The first phase would have been quite an emotional one and would have involved early mornings or late evenings, when it’s quiet, sitting down with pen and paper and writing some of my thoughts down.”

And inevitably, an almost life-long project involved elements of self-doubt.

“Many, many times over the years I’d be listening to recordings, looking at writings, looking at schedules; and I would say to myself - ‘why am I even bothering?’ But I kept at it and I’m glad and I’m relieved that I have it out into the world.”

Whatever happens now, there is already a sense of achievement.

“I keep saying to people, that’s it out of my system. So I’ve already won and  everything else is a bonus. That bonus has been incredible so far, but I'm just glad it’s out.”