Songwriting UK — Winter 2017

CONOR MALEYCONOR MALEY

Having not even released a single

yet, we’re introducing Irish pop-

folk singer-songwriter Conor

Maley at a very early stage, but

the 22-year-old’s fledgling career

has come a long way in a short

space of time. This year has been

particularly exciting, as he won

the 2017 JBL EON ONE Take

songwriting competition and

• as one of the prizes – got the

opportunity to record his song,

Lost Boy, with Grammy winning

producer Steve Levine. However,

before reaching this high point,

Conor has had to come though

some desperate lows.

Raised in Donegal, with a music

teaching father, it wasn’t a huge

surprise that Conor would pick

up an instrument as a child and,

by the age of 13 he had strummed

the chords of his first song on an

old nylon-string guitar. But life

was about to turn upside down

and songwriting would become

an important, cathartic process

for the teenager. As Conor recalls:

“When I was 16, my parents split

up and I went to Belfast. I studied

music for two years and was in a

few bands there. I was writing a lot

songs, to get over things.”

Those ‘things’ would become

much harder and even led to him

contemplating taking his own life.

“I had really bad depression for

years,” admits Conor. “It got to the

point where I was standing on a

bridge going, ‘Should I or shouldn’t

I?’ But while I was in that state, I

was writing and writing, and that

was the only thing that would take

away what I was feeling... The more

I wrote, the better I felt.”

Thankfully, Conor’s recovery

continued when he moved back

to Donegal, and kept songwriting.

“Once people heard my songs,

they’d tell me, ‘They’re fantastic,

thanks!’ That’s why I write: people

go through things and I feel my

songs give them a way to explain

how they’re feeling.”

INTRODUCING...

“I had really bad depression

for years... The more I wrote,

the better I felt”

Name: Conor Maley

Age: 22

Location: Donegal, Ireland

Style: “make you think” pop-folk

Look out for: his debut EP that

should be released in early 2018

Web: fb.com/conormaleymusic

The Irish musician, who won JBL’s songwriting competition, is on the up

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