Julie Feeney is a singer-songwriter, composer, actress, and record producer from Galway, Ireland. She produces and orchestrates her own work, composing both instrumental and electronic music, with full orchestrations. A three-time nominee for the Meteor Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year. She won the award in 2006 for debut album 13 songs. She has released three studio albums on her own label 'Mittens': 13 songs (2005), pages (2009), and Clocks (2012). Clocks entered at No.1 on the Irish Independent Albums Chart and No. 7 on the Main Irish albums charts making it her highest-charting album to date. Earlier in her career, she worked as a professional choral singer and educator.
Live shows Feeney has performed her own show in Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, America, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and China including performing to a capacity audience of 1200 at Ireland's National Concert Hall in Dublin to a 10-minute standing ovation in 2010 and in 2013. In The New York Times in 2012 during her 10-night run at the Irish Arts Center in New York, Jon Pareles said, "A brainy, adventurous Irish songwriter lives within the flamboyant theatricality of Julie Feeney ... intricate, articulate ... Ms. Feeney's songs don't shout. They tease, ponder, reminisce, philosophize and invent parables, and she sings them in a plush, changeable mezzo-soprano that usually holds a kindly twinkle". Jon Pareles also described her songs as "songs that set character studies and philosophical musings in elaborate musical confections, often with long, internally rhymed lines." He continued, "Ms. Feeney's music draws on sources across centuries. Her ensemble, including strings, trumpet and sometimes a recorder, often sounds like a Baroque consort, spinning contrapuntal arpeggios; it also hints at folk-pop, Minimalism and the metrical gamesmanship of progressive rock. 'One More Tune' used syncopated handclaps reminiscent of Steve Reich and a trumpet line hinting at a village brass band, while a new song, 'If I Lose You Tonight,' which she sang accompanied only by a few notes from a mandolin, had the melodic purity of a traditional Irish ballad. Her best-known song, 'Impossibly Beautiful' could almost be a pop motet, with vocal harmonies from her band members". About her theatricality he commented "transforming her face from otherworldly composure to private mourning to nutty intensity, song by song. But the showmanship was a bonus; her songs easily stood on their own ... Theatrical on the Shell, Intricate at the Core". One of Feeney's performances in London in 2007 received a five-star London Evening Standard review and stated that she "captivated the crowd from the moment she stepped on stage".
Hot Press stated that she had "mesmerising stage presence and eccentric pop genius". The Huffington Post in a live review in 2012 described Feeney as, "a Weird and Wonderful Irish Import". The Huffington Post commented, "Feeney presents an entrancing and startling evening of poetic imagery, well crafted stories, delicate emotions, unexpected cadences, sudden silences, coy humor and tightly-wound tunes with hit-caliber hooks, sometimes delivered with cool detachment, at other times with a riveting directness ... It's high-wire performance art in a well-crafted show–blocked, lighted and rehearsed like a theater piece–that flows and eddies on shifts in tempo, mood, dynamics and instrumentation". In relation to other performers it continued, "Vocally, she's been compared to Sinéad O'Connor and Björk (a fellow traveler in extreme fashion) and to musicians ranging from Laurie Anderson to Elvis Costello, from David Bowie to Tori Amos. Other iconic musical performers came to mind–Leonard Cohen, Paolo Conte, Tom Waits—singers and songwriters with their own original hard-to-categorize, highly original styles. I also heard echoes of French film soundtracks, Pachelbel's Canon, Nino Rota (known for his Fellini and The Godfather scores) Philip Glass and a long forgotten carousel ride." It further commented, "And her technique in using the microphone almost as a musical instrument reminded me of jazz legend Betty Carter".
13 songs (2005) The self-produced debut album won the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year in 2006 and garnered glowing four and five stars in all major UK and Irish press.
A multi-instrumentalist, Feeney plays eleven instruments on 13 songs, including keyboards, alto recorder, treble recorder, harmonium, accordion, violin, harmonica, melodica, xylophone and a clock. However, according to The Irish Times of 16 September 2005, "the most impressive sound is Julie's sustained vocal note on Aching, which clocks in at a lung-bursting 28 seconds" and also declared, "Julie Feeney represents a new eclecticism ... Lyrically sage, musically taut, 13 songs is a wonderful, wistful collection". The Irish Independent called it "a rare gem".
The New York Times called it "a charming, urbane and dreamy record" while The Observer said "this album marks the blossoming of a major talent". The Evening StandardEvening Standard Album Review said it was "2007's first delight ... a beguiling mix of the baroque ... and the hypnotic avant-garde" and The Guardian said "the world will listen".
The RTÉ Guide stated that 13 songs is "surely one of the greatest debut records ever made in this country ... sophisticated stuff" and The Tuam Herald described it as "adult contemporary ... highly sophisticated, European music ... Julie's clear, high vocals paint abstract pictures of love, life and friendship from a twenty-something perspective". The Dubliner said "this album is startling ... a fascinating record", and Q said "she certainly won't be confused for anyone else".
Hot Press stated, "With this debut album Julie Feeney announces herself as the most intriguing female voice ... to come out of Ireland since Sinead O'Connor ... for sheer originality, courage and raw talent, Feeney deserves to soar above and beyond even the merely excellent". The Sligo Weekender said, "the most impressive aspect of Feeney's musical spectrum is her voice. With little rivalry for purity, it ranges from infant-like wonder ("Judas") to quite sexy and sultry (Under My Skin) ... Julie sings 'I'm aching for you', just three times on the single, but each one weighs in at 20 to 28 seconds long, a phenomenal achievement for any voice". The Sunday Times called '13 songs' "a refreshingly original distillation".
13 songs was self-funded through a series of bank loans and was self-released. She also funded and produced her first music video before being signed for two years (2006–2008) to Sony BMG (U.K.) (which shut in 2008) for the song 'Fictitious Richard' from 13 songs and it was directed by young Irish director Vittoria Colonna. It featured Feeney's favourite car, the Volkswagen Beetle. Her second music video was directed by Maria Mozchnacz for the song 'Aching'. and it was the only music video funded by Sony BMG.
The artwork for 13 songs was all done by Feeney and characterised by her own distinctive hand-writing and hand-drawn patterns. The same artwork is used on her official website. The self-styled album-cover photo was taken by Eoin Wright. They did five shoots before Feeney settled the right photo.see official website for album cover credits
Pages (2009) Feeney's second self-produced album, pages was released in Ireland through Mittens in June 2009, and was widely highly critically acclaimed. It entered at number 26 in the Irish charts. In December 2009 it featured in the "Hot Press Top 250 Irish Albums of All Time" poll only 6 months after its Irish release at number 55, making it the highest placed 2009 release on the poll. The album also featured highly on numerous other end of year polls and has been nominated for the Choice Music Prize Irish Album of the Year 2009. It was also listed in "101 Irish Records (You Must Hear Before You Die) – Tony Clayton-Lea".
Feeney first composed the songs and all of the orchestral parts, and then she conducted the orchestra in the recording. The orchestra, which included woodwinds, brass, strings, vibraphone and glockenspiel (among others), was recorded over two sessions in one day at the Irish Chamber Orchestra Studio in Limerick. Unusual about this album is that all of the instrumental music is played by the orchestra with no additional instruments or MIDI instruments. She later recorded all of the singing at home in her own studio, where she produced the album, which was mixed in her studio by Ger McDonnell. Feeney also did a small amount of re-mixing of the vocals on the album.
The Irish Times on 29 May 9 proclaimed, "She is an innovator, an original; incomparable with any of her contemporaries and she has created what might just be the Irish album of the year". The Sunday Tribune, METRO and the RTÉ Guide also gave it CD of the Week while Hot Press proclaimed that "pages ... is a wee masterpiece". The Washington Posts Express described Feeney as "The Emerald Isle's Original". The artwork for the digi-pack cover with booklet included photographs of Feeney wearing a hand-stitched dress sculpted from the pages of the composer's orchestral score by the artist Sharon Costello Desmond. The dress was worn by Feeney on the RTÉ television programme The View, hosted by John Kelly on 9 June 2009.
Clocks (2012) Feeney's third self-produced album, Clocks, was winner of 'Best Album 2012' in 'Album of the Year' in the international section of The Irish Times 'The Ticket Awards 2012' as voted by The Irish Times readers. Clocks was released in Ireland on her own 'mittens' label and it was widely highly critically acclaimed. It entered at number one on the Irish Independent Album Charts and number 7 on the Main Irish charts. It was also nominated for the Meteor Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year 2012.
The Irish Times said of Clocks, "Feeney's stately pomp and charged intimacy that sums up Clocks best: both warm and weird, but incontestably individual". Hot Press proclaimed that Feeney's Clocks was a "superb third album from Ireland's national treasure". The Sunday Business Post said that, "Clocks is the best of her hugely impressive body of work. Evocative, full with subtly enticing key changes and telling story after story, this is sparse, reverent and varied stuff, but still accessible enough to fall under the genre heading of pop. Feeney has elements of trad, or at least thoughtful traditionalism, in her sound and lyrics: opener Dear John offers a moving take of her grandparents' simple courtship. At its best, Clocks is nearly flawless". Clocks was crowd-funded by 204 funders on Irish website Fundit and it is so far the most successful music project on the website.
A 2012 live performance from her 10-night run in New York City received a stellar review in The New York Times from chief pop music critic Jon Pareles.
Compositional work