My Weekend: 'Fridays are usually slow after the eventful Thursday nights'

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work:

I’m a singer-songwriter from Cork, but with a very French name, which comes from my dad who was born in Paris and raised in the Loire region in France. Despite a French dad and Galway girl mom, me and my two sisters are Cork through and through.

I’m studying popular music in Cork School of Music at the moment, as well as a busking in town, and of course gigging around Cork, so currently my entire life essentially revolves around Cork’s amazing music scene, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What is your ideal way to spend a Friday night?

As a college student, Fridays are usually slow after the eventful Thursday nights that tend to come before them.

On a Thursday night you will find me at whatever bar has a jam session on, and later in The Bróg with my friends for a dance and a drink. On Fridays I can be found sleeping in as long as my college timetable allows it (or sometimes unfortunately longer than it allows) and I will most definitely have my feet up at home Friday night.

Lie ins or up with the lark.. which is it for you?

Lie-ins all the way. I have to set my alarms to the most irritating, annoying sounds and have my phone too far away to hit snooze or I’ll never get up. If the alarm music is too good I lie in bed listening, and if the phone is too close, the endless cycle of snoozing again and again ensues. I could sleep in until 12 if nobody woke me.

Does work creep into your weekend at all?

My life tends to revolve around music, to the point where I can’t separate work from play, because I suppose they’re all the same for me.

Between rehearsals or songwriting for fun in the day, humming to myself constantly and ending up in whatever bar has a gig or a jam every night out without fail (when I’m not gigging myself that is), my weekends, much like every other day of the week, are spent doing what I love, which currently happens to be what I do for work.

If money was no object, where would you head to on a weekend city break? And who would you bring with you?

I’d love to go to Hanoi, Vietnam, with my boyfriend. We have both wanted to see Vietnam for a while now, plus Vietnamese food is absolutely delicious and it would be nice to explore somewhere so culturally and geographically far from home.

My boyfriend is the perfect candidate as we both have never been relaxing beach and book holiday kind of people, especially when there’s a big city to explore.

Closer to home, is there some place you like to head to recharge the batteries?

A walk by The Marina is always good to clear the head. It’s lovely to sit on the benches facing the water and watch the rowers pass by. Weirdly enough I also love a long bus or train ride like the one to Cobh. It’s a great opportunity to completely switch off and throw on some headphones.

You can’t exactly rush the driver, so regardless of time constraints, you are forced to sit back, relax and just look out the window.

Do you like to catch up with family/friends at the weekend?

I live with my immediate family, and so I get to see them almost every day, but on weekends I occasionally get the chance to head up to Galway to see some of the rest of the family in Barna or Spiddal.

When I’m in Cork it’s always nice to catch up with friends I don’t see in college over a coffee, or have a movie night in with my boyfriend.

Do you get to indulge any hobbies? Even as a spectator?

I do love a good craft of any kind. Most recently, I’ve been building moth wings in my spare time from wire and bedsheets for Halloween. I’m always working away at something, whether it be painting, sewing, or upcycling. I also am a self-proclaimed Vinted addict and have a love of second-hand fashion. North Main Street charity shops have supplied about half my wardrobe at this stage!

Entertain or be entertained? If it’s the latter, do you have a signature dish?

Entertain, even though it can stress me out to the max. I seem to keep coming back to it, and I do love to cook. I’ve always been someone who loves to cook my way, so everyone else is ordered to stay out of the kitchen while I take way too long to produce something needlessly complicated, and I will of course ask everyone if they like it about a hundred times.

We have so many places to eat out in Cork – where are your go to spots for coffee/lunch/special meal?

I love a Soma coffee; there’s one right by me actually. Whoever thought of the banana bread latte is in fact a genius. I love a Joe’s and Bros sandwich too, and the dip that comes with them is just so so good. It can’t be beat.

Sunday night comes around too fast.. how do you normally spend it?

Always with lots of tea in front of the telly, sometimes forcing my boyfriend to watch the masterpiece that is Glee, and other times getting sucked into it with my family.

What time does your alarm clock go off on Monday morning?

7.30am, for the dreaded 9am lecture (although not all bad, as I love what I study), but it is nearly impossible to get me up for that time, and so I usually procrastinate, actually not getting up until about 8am.

Anything else you are up to right now..?

I’ll be opening for the wonderful Muireann Bradley Live in St Luke’s on October 24 for Guinness Cork Jazz Festival, and I couldn’t be more excited. It’s been a while since I’ve done a set without a band, just me and the guitar. Aside from that, I’ve been in the studio in Wavefield down in Clonakilty this summer and am so excited to share what I’ve been working on with the amazing Brian Casey. Hopefully you will start to hear some snippets soon on my socials, so keep an eye out!

See: https://guinnesscorkjazzfestival.com/