Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Artiste Profile - When Rik Met Megan O'Neill


It was a delight at the British Country Music Festival to not only hear Megan O’Neill play a full band set on Sunday, but to catch up with her backstage for a chat and a bit of a reunion.


We were both a it shocked to work out that having last caught up at the Belnash concert and Jenn Bostic’s album launch it has been over a year…


So what has Megan been up to in that time?  Well, it seems like she has been a little bit busy…


Firstly – she’s moved!  After 5 happy years living in London she’s returned to Ireland, although she spends half her time in London, half in Ireland – and far too much on Ryanair!  Whilst her writing and recording was in London and Leeds, Ireland has proved to be

Massively inspirational and creative for me. I think its just to do with the area. I’m surrounded by rolling green hills and I have dogs and I have horses and its stunning and when I feel like I need a bit of headspace I just go for a hike



But never fear, Megan still has a certain fondness for London

I love London a lot but it’s chaos and I never realised how stressed I was, all the time, it’s like an underlying base layer of stress you have… but then I go back to Ireland and I can just be at peace and I find writing music a lot easier



So will we see a Celtic influence in future music?

There’s definitely a Celtic influence, if you listen to modern Irish music there’s a Celtic influence underlying and there’s something in the writing and the melody – and there’s a song on the new Album called Ireland



Megan has also been touring – with Jake Morell just ahead of the Blackpool festival, and almost solidly before that across the UK and Europe since February and in July Megan was supporting the legendary Sir Tom Jones at three outdoor arena shows to 15,000 people.  How was that?


Nuts and amazing



You have to ask what was more nuts? 15,000 people, or supporting Tom Jones?


I think both are equally nuts. I mean maybe “Tom Jones” is more nuts because he’s such an icon. This was one of those moments where I thought “18 year old Megan would FREAK OUT right now”



Megan also expressed how happy she was that there was a production crew, catering, a dressing room and fancy portaloos! 


On top of all of this there is another tour coming – “Now That’s What I Call Country” across Ireland to support a new covers album that Megan has performed all the female parts on – the album sounds amazing!


You’d think that Megan would be stopping for a rest, maybe some sleep…but no!  With her new album due out in early 2020 new singles will be dropping at intervals with the first of these being “Rootless” (which did cause some accent issues!) due out on 25 October and debuted in her set at The British Country Music Festival.


So Megan has no intentions of slowing down.  She’s happy with this as she is doing what she loves – and as she pointed out “if you find a job you love you’ll never work a day in your life”


So its good news for Megan, good news for fans of her music and great news for Ryanair!


Megan O’Neill’s new single Rootless will be available on all platforms on 
25 October. 


Find Megan on Facebook, online and in airport departure lounges, with a big smile on her face

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