Ciarán Moran Talks Music, Writing and 'It's OK'
In this week's episode, we sat down with musician Ciarán Moran. Let's dive in!
Ciarán Moran is a rising star on the Irish music scene, and a native of North Inner City Dublin. His 2023 single ‘It’s OK’ hit #1 on the Irish iTunes charts.
We’ve been big fans of Ciarán’s, and were so happy that we go a chance to chat with him in person, as he made his sold-out New York City debut. ‘It’s OK’ has been on repeat for Alan for a while.
We were also lucky enough to see his live performance - which elevated his music to a whole other level.
The singer-songwriter is known for his intimate writing style, that he began honing at a young age at Bradóg Youth Service, a local youth center in Dublin.
Ciarán began performing at a young age, and at age 13 opened for Damien Dempsey, one of Alan’s all-time favorite musicians.
Damien is from Donaghmede in Dublin, where Alan grew up.
Ciarán spoke to us about worrying that his songs hit too close to home as a young songwriter.
In the era of Justin Bieber, Ciarán was writing about the issues he saw around him in North Inner City Dublin.
Much like we discussed in our episode with Emmet Brennan, who took a break from boxing, Ciarán also took a break from solo performing for a few years.
When he came back, he performed at every Open Mic he could find in Dublin, getting used to being on stage and rebuilding his confidence.
Ciarán and Alan discussed in detail life as a musician, and how Ciarán makes it work. It reminded us of our episode with comedian Katie Boyle - the amount of hard work that goes into sustaining what they do.
Real Recommendations:
From now on, we’ll be sharing what we’re reading, watching and listening to each week.
What we’re listening to:
Alan and Mary Kate: ‘It’s OK’ by guest Ciarán Moran
What we’re watching:
Alan and Mary Kate: The Traitors. We’re simply obsessed. We’ve now moved on to Traitors New Zealand.
What we’re reading:
Alan: Truth be told, some weeks are a bit too busy for reading!
Mary Kate: Tyler Knotts’s Signal Fire newsletter
What we’re scrolling:
Alan and Mary Kate: It’s been this kind of week -
Thanks for reading and listening - and a massive thank you to Ciarán for his warmth and candor. You can listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts!
We appreciated this conversation so much. We’ll be back next week!
-Alan and MK