Julie Feeney released her third self-produced album Clocks in Ireland in November 2012 and the album went straight into the Independent Irish Album Charts at No. 1 and was voted ‘Best Album’ 2012 in The Irish Times ‘Album of the Year’ category for The Ticket Awards as voted by The Irish Times readers.
Clocks is Julie’s third release which has been nominated for the Choice Music Prize ‘Irish Album of The Year’. Her 2005 debut album, 13 Songs, won the Choice Music Prize in 2006, which was followed by Pages in 2010 which was also shortlisted for the Irish Album Of The Year prize.
Hailed by the New York Times as “charming, urbane and dreamy…theatrical on the shell, intricate at the core”, Julie’s sound is unquestionably original, rooted in classical whilst comfortably straddling pop and theatre. Clocks was written in Ballinahinch Castle and Lough Inagh Cottages in Galway and recorded at Kylemore Abbey Gothic Church, a return to home ground for Julie.
Taking an avant-garde approach to her live performances, Julie toured Ireland around Clock’s release in November by scoring music for ten different choirs to part accompany her at each concert over 10 different consecutive nights in 10 different towns in Ireland. Her sell-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic have received rave reviews with Hot Press citing her “mesmeric stage presence and eccentric pop genius”.
For her recent sell-out 10 show run in New York City, the New York Times said of Julie, “…intricate, articulate…draws on sources across centuries…Ms. Feeney’s songs don’t shout. They tease, ponder, reminisce, philosophize and invent parables, and she sings them in a plush, changeable mezzo-soprano that usually holds a kindly twinkle”. The New York Times concluded, “…a brainy adventurous songwriter lives within the flamboyant theatricality…with songs that set character studies and philosophical musings in elaborate musical confections, often with long, internally rhymed lines… Theatrical on the shell, intricate at the core”. Sharp witted, unpretentious and fiercely passionate, Julie Feeney is a genuine artist and a hugely enjoyable performer.
Julie will return to Ireland to perform at this year’s Choice Music Prize before going back to New York, where she is preparing to preview ‘Clocks’ live in the U.S. this Spring.
Julie is also currently composing her first opera, ‘BIRD’ and the first developmental stage was shown in 2012 at Dublin Theatre Festival. It is a co-commission by Dublin Theatre Festival, Galway Arts Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival and Kilkenny Arts Festival. She is a true artist with immense vision.