Rising star Sorcha Richardson on moving back to Dublin and writing a hit album in her parents’ kitchen

"There are days where it's hard to see the finish line and get it to a place you feel good about."

Sorcha Richardson is talking about the process of making her debut album. First Prize Bravery was released in last November and received rave reviews from critics. However, the humble 29-year-old says she was just happy to have gotten it over the finish line.

"I made the album and I knew I was happy with it. I was excited and proud of myself and the people who I made it with, because it's not an easy thing to do at all. It takes a lot of work and time, so to have people write good things about it is a bonus."

The next challenge for Sorcha is one of her biggest shows yet, at Dublin's Button Factory on Friday, 17 April 2020. Given that her music has reached over 22million streams on Spotify alone, she will certainly have an eager audience. [caption id="attachment_500912" align="alignnone" width="1600"] Credit: Cáit Fahey[/caption] Sorcha lived in New York for eight years before deciding to make the move back to Dublin, a move that  inspired her to take stock of where she was in life.

"I moved back to Ireland about two years ago, but I left a couple of times after that. When I moved back, I left most of my stuff in New York, because I wasn't planning on staying in Dublin. I thought: 'I'll go back to Dublin and get a change of scenery.' Then certain gigs came up, and things that just seemed like they were worth staying for."

And so, she finished the album here, writing the likes of False Alarm and title track First Prize Bravery on the piano in her parents' kitchen.

“It took me a while to settle back in Dublin. A lot of my friends don’t live here any more, so it took me a minute to settle back down, but I started working on the album really seriously when I came back. "I just felt like I had a bit more space being back home to dedicate myself to writing and lock myself away a bit. A change of pace really helps me creatively. I wrote a lot of the album basically in the kitchen at my parents' house."

Constructing the tracks, Sorcha wanted people to feel immersed in her personal stories and to offer listeners an escape from their own lives.

"I wanted it to feel like a collection of stories, or like mini-movies almost. I gravitate towards the type of songs that make me feel very vivid, that I can just step into another world for however many minutes you listen to the album."

Tickets for Sorcha Richardson's gig at  The Button Factory in Dublin on Friday, 17 April 2020 are on sale now from ticketmaster.ie.