This year has been without doubt, the busiest year of Fearghal McGlinchey’s life so far. But we managed to spare a moment of his time to have a catch up with him and find about more about the new album and everything that comes long with it. Not only has he just released his new album ‘7’ but that’s his second, yes second album of the year with ‘Lost’ being his first.
When asked about the year as a whole, he simply laughed at us and asked "Is this real life?" and told us he asks himself that question everyday. Most would find the year hard and not enjoy it much till the end result. But Fearghal insists there was not one moment this year that he didn’t enjoy, embrace or learn something from. "It only the beginning" he said, speaking of his career so he is still learning so at this moment in time he’s just appreciating having the opportunity to persue a dream career and potentially become a world wide success.
"I’ve been to many places and seen many things, my favourite place was LA. It was everything I expected and more. It’s a place I’ve always wanted to go ever since I was a little kid watching all the movies and TV programmes on disney set in America and how good it looked. And of course all the huge stars that have come out of LA and inspired me"
"I lived in Miami for 3 months, here I recorded most of my first album. However some songs were unreleased ones which I had wrote and made years ago when I was unknown in the music industry. After Miami I came back home to London to release the album. This was a really new experience for me, loads of radio interviews, magazine interviews and tv interviews. I barely slept for months."
"After finishing everything for the first album and it being released, I had time to relax and just recover from the craziness of the past 6 months. However strangely I had inastantly fallen inlove with the whole idea of being on the road, travelling the world and creating music. So I made the decesion to start on my second album. I figuered that if I wanted to reach my dream this would be the best way. From there on, the work began. Day in day out, constantly in the studio trying to perfect my work. I loved America so much that I just had to go back, but this time somewhere new, LA. I took my little brother who had just finished sixth form as he is a musician, he can play the guitar and piano extremely well. So I figured it would be a great experience for him to come out with me and my team and become one of us and get experience. So we headed to LA for what was meant to be 2 months but ended up being 4!"
We wanted to know whether or not there is a women in his life, or should I say young lady. Instantly there was a smirk on his face. And even a little giggle. He responded with "Erm... I suppose you could say so. Its complicated" He says whilst laughing. "I partied a lot in America and met a lot of girls but nothing major, nothing worth losing sleep over. I’m still young and I don’t feel as if i’m ready to take that step yet, I just want to focusa on my career at the moment"
In April Fearghal appeared on the Ellen show, a huge talk show in America watched by millions of people. We asked him about his experience and meeting the one and only Ellen DeGeneres.
"I can Honestly say it was one of the best experiences of my life. As a teeneager I always use to watch her youtube channel which showed clips from the shows as you couldn’t watch it in the UK. She is one of the funniest women I know and it seemed odd being on the show as its usually huge hollywood actors or big artists like Justin Bieber or someone. Then theres me a 21 year old from a small town called Eastcote just outside of London, it just doesn’t seem right"
"However she was so kind and welcoming and said how she’d listened to my music and really enjoyed it. Performing live on her show was an extremely weird for me. I’d not had much experience performing live prior to this so I was very nervous. However it was so fun and the audience were great."
We wanted to know what it was that made Fearghal fall in love with music so much and what inspired him to then go on to creating music and singing, and how he discovered he could sing in the first place.
"My Grandad taught me how to play my first song when I was just 6, in the guitar. Well I say song but it was only twinkle twinkle little star or something like that ahaha. But I just fell inlove with the idea of being able to play music through at the time was such a huge instrument and it seemed awesome. From there I took on lessons, partly with my Grandad at home then some at school. When I was 12 I discovered the internet and different websites like youtube where I searched videos and started teaching myself how to play different songs and it just came naturally"
"As for the singing when I was 14 or 15 and I believe it was my mum who discovered I had a decent singing voice. I think I was just playing a song on my guitar and decided to sing along to the lyrics and she embarrasingly walked into my room and caught me singing. However it was not the reaction I expected as she asked me to sing again and did not have the reaction i though, laughing at me or something. So I sang again and she was genuinly shocked, and said that inseat of just playing the guitar I should start singing as well and writing songs. I didnt believe her at first but she wouldnt lie about something like that, so I took up her advice and started singing more."
"I would film videos of my self singing and put them on youtube, videos of me covering songs and sometimes even songs of my own. It proved successful as within 3 months I had received 10,000 subscribers and I was getting around that mark in views as well."
Its not everyday you see an artist come up the ranks from making youtube videos and being discovered by different record companies. Most people go on competitions or just happen to have good links with people. However with Fearghal it was different, and in some what a surprise and it was not his goal from doing youtube, am I right in saying that?
"100%, I never expected what happened to come from making videos of myself singing and I certaintly didnt have it as a goal. Of course I always wanted to beome a well known artist and be where I am today but never did I expect it to happen so early or through what I was doing. But yes, a day before my 17th birthday I got a call from virgin records who asked if I would like to come in and discuss a potential record deal. It was the best birthday present I could ever receive, something money cant buy, my shot to make my dream come true. So I grabbed it with both hands and went."
