The follow-up to 2022’s ‘Permission To Exhale’, ironically, perhaps, ‘Finding Me’ owes its existence to a period of creative doubt on Ciaran McAuley’s behalf. After years of forward momentum, the Irish artist found himself questioning not only his own direction, but his relationship with music itself. At that crossroads, rather than forcing (what now only had the appearance of) progress, he chose to pause and fully acknowledge the rift. Then he turned into the headwind and harnessed that turbulence as the start-point for his recalibration.
And that became the core of the album.
That type of reset often requires a little help from your friends and he found a wealth of that through a cast of collaborators. Amongst that cadre are studio mainstays like Paul van Dyk, Roger
Shah, Ferry Tayle, and Sean Tyas, and singer-songwriters like Audrey Gallagher, Christian Burns, Sue McLaren, Zara Taylor, Sarah Howells, Clara Yates, Deirdre McLaughlin and Shelby
Merry.
Ciaran McAuley: “‘Finding Me”’s ‘false start’ came at a time when I felt lost in many areas of my life, foremost amongst them music and my relationships. As they say, “to be
found, one must first be lost”, and I certainly related more to the latter around that time.
“I was at a fork in the road, and I knew I needed to look inward for the answers. So, I set out to ‘find me’, by exercising, getting outdoors more, and surrounding myself only with those who
lift me. That, over time, allowed me to rediscover my ‘good old self’; the sounds I love, and the arrangements that’ll forever pull at my heartstrings.”
That inner reset also created space for him and his singer-songwriters to address some of their more personal fractures. Rather than arriving with fixed concepts out of the gate, they went back
and forth, sharing their own experiences and allowing those exchanges to inform the lyrics that followed.
‘Finding Me’ is out now on Black Hole Recordings.
© justaweemusicblog.com
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