Spiddal singer-songwriter tuning up for success

But it has taken nearly two decades for the Spiddal woman to make those songs a reality.

Riona has made Valencia, Spain her home for seven years, moving over to the traditional home of paella to teach English after finishing her arts degree in Irish and English and completing a TEFL course in Galway.

While she loves teaching, music has always been niggling at her in the background.

“I’m a bit of a strange case,” she reflects over the phone.

“I can’t read or write music, which I’m told is very unusual for a songwriter. I can hear the music in my head and sing it into a little recorder my mum bought me when I was young.”

She describes the process of getting her imagined creation into an actual song as akin to doing a puzzle.

“I sit down beside a musician and I sing how the music should go, I say I want the chords to sound like this, I put harmony over the music, I say I want the violin here, the guitar there. The musician will say where it will work or not – it’s about finding someone who will listen to me and understand how I work to transcribe and transfer what I hear in my head.”

After the song has been digitally recorded, she then goes into a recording studio to have the track remastered with a sound technician.

So far she has released three tracks – Cannot Give Me; My Destiny; Crying Tonight – with plans to produce another shortly and complete her debut album. Two of those tracks were written when she was just 15.

“I have a truckload of songs – at least 20 – waiting to be produced. Because I’m working full-time and composing at night, I don’t have a lot of time left to get them into production, which can take up to three months. I also do all the videos myself, star in them, record them and mix them.”

She has contacted dozens of radio stations around Ireland in a bid to get her music played. She recently got a major boost when Dunkdalk FM picked up several of her tracks for a show highlighting up-and-coming artists.

She is keeping her fingers crossed that her music will be broadcast nearer to home.

“I always used to listen to Galway Bay FM as a kid so hopefully one day they will put my music on air. For me it’s not just about singing – I’m obsessed about the songs and writing.”

She describes her songs as R&B and soul, citing influences as diverse as Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Alicia Keyes in latter years and more recently Emeli Sandé, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Bruno Mars, Usher and David Guetta.

“It depends on my mood, when I was younger I used to listen to Eva Cassidy, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey and Whitney and I adored Walt Disney music. I used to spend as much time as I could singing in my room and composing songs. That’s the great thing about music, it speaks a language that we all understand and helps us feel the moment, very often I play a song that I like over and over. If you are sad it can be the remedy to help take you somewhere else,” she reflects.

“I always get ideas when I go running. I’ll get a clearer idea about the chords. I always sit down in silence when I’m composing.”

The daughter of psychotherapist Breda Moore, who practices in Health and Herbs on Sea Road in Galway City as well as NUI Galway, Riona decided to apply for jobs as an English teacher in Spain after getting on so well with her Spanish students in Galway.

Valencia is now home – and she thoroughly enjoys teaching both children and adults – but that doesn’t stop her harbouring an ambition to become a full-time singer-songwriter.

“Ah, that would be the dream,” she exclaims.

“I have been offered gigs in certain venues. I bought a microphone and a good set of speakers, so I hope to do some live performing. I’m hoping somebody will discover me.”

■ Check out Riona’s tracks through her Facebook page