JULIE FEENEY
COUNTY GALWAY
You would be hard pushed to find a modern artist who better matches the profile of Bob Dylan’s celebrated lyric; "She’s got everything she needs, she’s an artist, she don’t look back." than Julie Feeney. Not only did 2009 see the Galwegian self-release a spellbinding second album ‘pages’ to huge critical acclaim but it saw her mesmirise audiences all over the country with her unique sell out shows. Julie is a true artist with immense vision.
Producer, composer, orchestrator, singer, conductor, performer and instrumentalist; she first made her mark on the international music scene by winning the Choice Music Prize (Ireland’s equivalent of the Mercury Prize) with her debut album ‘13 songs’. This album she self produced and self released, having played 11 of the instruments. She later orchestrated the album for 65 piece Ulster Orchestra with whom she performed, and premiereded other concert commissions as a composer and conductor in the U.K. and Ireland.
2009 heard Julie’s extraordinary second album ‘pages’, regularly across the wide spectrum of Irish radio. She sang, composed and produced the songs in their entirety and conducted the Irish Chamber Orchestra on all of the instrumental music. The result is a collection of songs performed with stirring, spellbinding elegance, yet delivered with a strange, almost whimsical sense of fun. Amid swirling yet delicate orchestral backdrops, Julie sings in a haunting, lilting voice of truths distilled from deep thoughts and also in contrasting moods of transcendental calm and emotional enlightenment.
The album artwork that she designed herself incorporated her unique hand-stitched ‘pages’ dress sculpted from the actual pages of the album’s orchestral score; and a tree house which she had painted in specific colours reflecting the tone of the album. Her award winning video for ‘Impossibly Beautiful’ features 18 different head dresses designed by Piers Atkinson, and is one of 3 videos she made in 2009. Julie puts on a stunning show that combining her songs with elements of theatre and performance art, wearing a head piece which represents her artwork in the form of a house.
