Galway singer’s debut mirrors her life journey

Dunmore native Reylta is a folk singer-songwriter with a gift for melody and storytelling. Having honed her skills at college in Dublin and grown as a consistent performer over the last few years, she is now set to release a debut album that she describes as a macabre lullaby.

Rich with strings, harmonies and narrative lyrics, Everything Unsaved Will Be Lost arrives on October 11.

On the LP’s track list are songs Reylta wrote during her transition from life in rural Galway to Dublin 8, from an uncertain period of her life spent in Cambridge and from the wake of her late grandfather.

It is a deliberate and meditative record offering a series of glimpses at a songwriting career that began at the age of eleven.

“Some of the songs are very deeply personal and I think you’ll figure that out quite quickly,” Reylta explains.

“I like to take stories from my friends or things that I’ve heard about and then make it into its own thing as well. It’s a big reaction to where I am and where I’ve been and what I’ve been through, but some of it is fiction and overdramatising.

“You can’t go halfway with songwriting – you have to give it everything and if I can’t give it everything from my perspective, I’m happy to put on someone else’s shoes and write from theirs.”

“I love writing any kind of song,” she continues.

“I can write two or three songs a week – it’s something I’ve been naturally blessed with. I’ve tried out a lot of genres and a lot of different ways of writing. These were just the ones that I was really proud of that also weren’t too scary for me to share.

Pictured: Reylta...debut album out in October. Photo: Mollie McKay.