Offaly woman releases new single in collaboration with Dublin producer
Briana aka Brí Horan from Tullamore recently released her new single 'Iluminate', a collaboration with Dublin singer/songwriter and music producer Ben Hogan, known as BENJAMYN.
Ben first started producing the beat for the track last October and posted a clip from it on his Instagram story which Brí replied to saying she liked the track and they decided to work together on the Indie-pop/Electronic track, 'Iluminate.' The new song can be streamed now on Soundcloud and Spotify.
Speaking about working on the song, Brí said: “I wanted to have a song that if you're nervous or you weren't feeling confident about something, that you could listen to it and you'd feel I can do this and that was how I was really feeling like kind of empowered at the time.”
"I heard the early beginnings of Ben's beat on Instagram. I was so compelled to write a song to it that I messaged him straight away; luckily he was up for a co-write. Both of us were going through our own 'uphill battle' at the time. Illuminate fuelled us to overcome those struggles."
Ben explained: “I had quite an intense year last year and around September/October was quite a tumultuous time for me and there was a lot of change and I didn't really know what was happening next. When we were working on the song I was definitely just channeling my subconscious around all of that and it was actually really liberating to come home after maybe a long day and just work on that song."
Brí previously played support for Ben at a gig a number of years ago. She said that the pair have been following each other's music on Instagram since then. “When I heard that beat, it's the first time I ever wanted to write a song in that way before because usually I would just pick up a guitar or a keyboard and then I'd write a song so it was really unusual for me to have such a need to write a song to something that I hadn't written myself.”
Brí and Ben recorded the track remotely which Brí was accustomed to after recording her debut album 'Hide' remotely during the pandemic. “I was only in the studio for two songs out of ten on my album so the rest of the songs I recorded remotely.”
Ben and Brí will perform the single for the first time at an upcoming live gig in Whelan's in Dublin on July 14. Both Ben and Brí will perform solo material at the cvoncernt.
Brí said: “It's just going to be myself and Aidan Molloy from my band and Eanna Harrison on the keyword so it'll be a bit more stripped back and I'm going to play a lot of new songs.”
“I haven't played an original gig in three and a half years, so Covid just totally slowed me down. I'm really excited to get to play my own stuff again and have an original show.”
The Tullamore native describes her writing style as “typical singer-songwriter” but said that when she records in the studio it sounds more indie pop. “I'm usually just sitting at the keyboard or the guitar and I kind of just write. I usually start off with a feeling about something and then I just play the melody and then the words follow that.”
Brí has loved music from a young age and spoke of her first memories of music. “My earliest memory is walking around with this pink heart-shaped Barbie cassette player and I'd have pop music; Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Destiny Child all in my Barbie cassette and I always would sing along and try to learn the lyrics to songs.”
Bri's aunt passed away when she was 16 years old which first gave her the inspiration to write music. “I lost my auntie who at the time would've been the closest person to me who had passed away and that drove me to try writing a song. Ever since I wrote that first song I was so addicted. It was like therapy anytime anything negative would happen, I could write a song and then I'd feel like I could regain control over the situation or at least release a little bit of the feeling and turn something negative into something beautiful.”
Although Brí started writing lyrics when she was 16 years old, it wasn't until she moved to Dublin, aged 21, that her friends pushed her to go to open mic nights. “I had a lot of nerves at the start so it took me quite a while to start releasing music. It was 2019 before I released my first single so I was a little bit late to actually get in front of people with my songs.”
Brí explained that grief and loss drove her to write lyrics and explore music more seriously. She said: “It's just such a great way to release some of that energy and I always feel like some of those feelings can be so big and hard to contain within yourself so when you get to pour a little bit out into a song, you can just kind of revisit that song anytime you want to feel those things.”
The former Sacred Heart Secondary School student said she went about creating an album in a roundabout way. “I had written probably over a hundred songs over the years so I was kind of picking and choosing which ones I wanted to release first.”
Brí recorded two songs from her debut album with Darren Nolan of Asta Kalapa Studios in Wexford and recorded the remaining eight remotely. “There was a lot of themes of grief and loss and overcoming as well,” the young singer said.
“I'm naturally kind of an introverted person, so it's quite unnatural to stand in a room full of people and do this extroverted kind of thing, where you share your most vulnerable parts of yourself to the whole room. I was having to face all of those themes as I was recording and releasing the album as well so I called the album Hide because that was the title track and it was kind of a note to myself from now on I won't hide.”
Speaking about the highlights of her career to date, Brí stated: “I think for me, probably my very first headline show was the the most memorable moment on stage. She added that seeing friends and family and people she didn't know in Whelan's singing the lyrics that she wrote alone in her room was part of that.@
“It give you goosebumps and encourages you to just keep going and it's such a great feeling to see people dancing and enjoying themselves because of the music that you've created.”
To purchase tickets to see BENJAMYN X Brí perform at the launch party for 'Iluminate' on Friday, July 24 at 8pm upstairs in Whelan's visit whelanslive.com/ticket/benjamyn-x-bri/
Tickets cost €15 and the show will feature special guest Larabel.