Honesty and humour are winning mix for Stephanie

Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@gmail.com

Having clocked up a few million plays on streaming sites, rising Cork songwriter Stephanie Rainey comes to Galway City’s Róisín Dubh on Saturday, March 10.  Her latest single is Question Mark, a toe-tapping song that marks a change in tempo from the slower songs she’s released so far.

“It seemed like the right time of year to bring it out, it’s getting a bit sunnier,” Stephanie says of its timing.

“The song is a little bit different to my previous tracks, it keeps things interesting,” she adds. “When I wrote it, I really liked it and I was excited to get it recorded properly.”

It was written and recorded in London last September. Stephanie has made a few trips to the English capital, and she explains why.

“There’s a bit more of an industry of songwriting over there,” she says. “We have it over here, but there aren’t as many people just being a songwriter for a living in Ireland. Over there, you meet people who are, literally, writing songs nine to five. That’s their job. It’s just different, but I think Ireland is beginning to catch up.”

Such a scene might make her feel under pressure to deliver a hit but that’s not how Stephanie, a performer who offers a refreshing blend of honesty and humour, views it.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of pressure.  People who are writing songs every day are so used to it that they put you at ease. You don’t really feel any pressure. Also, by its nature, it’s very creative. Nobody’s particularly stressed out, they just see what happens on the day.”

In 2015, Stephanie posted her song Please Don’t Go on Facebook. Within 24 hours, it had clocked up one million plays. That would eventually climb to over five million. Stephanie credits this, in part, to the fact that the song’s video featured Cork comedian Cian Twomey who has a sizeable following on the site and who shared it online.  But it’s also down to the fact that people connected with the song’s theme of loss – it was triggered by death of her one-year-old nephew, Fionn, from meningitis some years previously. The theme and its memorable melody struck a chord.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.