HAVING spent a number of years as a session musician playing and touring with the likes of Pa Sheehy, Stephanie Rainey and Grammy winner Cian Ducrot, London-based Fionn Hennessy-Hayes has made the leap into releasing his own music under the name Culture Kid.
It’s a nod to his upbringing, having lived in a number of places – including in various places around West Cork – as a child. ‘I was born in London and had moved to West Cork, then to Donegal, then to Spain all before I was fourteen,’ Fionn said.
‘There’s a term – third culture kid – that refers to people who have grown up in a culture outside of where they or their parents were born. It really resonated with me and those formative years moving around.’
While the years spent working with other talented musicians has given him a lot of experience, the decision to release his own songs has been a big relief. ‘It’s something I’ve always said I would do and something that I always wanted to do,’ he said.
‘All these songs that I’ve been working on for so long are finally getting out there.
‘I feel blessed that I’ve kind of gone through it so many times from a different perspective because I feel like I’m coming at it with that bit of knowledge and that bit of experience. A lot of the people I have worked with and continued to work with have also been a great help for me.’
Culture Kid’s first single, New Found Evil – a nostalgic, melody-filled track – was released in 2024 and is a sign of what’s to come: Introspective songs with dreamy, atmospheric sounds.
Like many people, the various Covid lockdowns provided the time for Fionn to explore song-writing in a way he hadn’t before.
‘I was in a band called Rowan and the guitarist was in Donegal, I was in Longford and the singer was in Cork – so we used to have zoom calls and we’d write a song a day each,’ he remembers.
‘And a lot of that stuff kind of went by the wayside because we had so much material, and I had so many ideas that I had worked on and didn’t end up sharing with the lads so I kind of held them close to my chest and then I thought I’ll record some of these just for myself.
‘I never really thought anything more than that. I thought I’d record these with Brian Casey at Wavefield in Clonakilty just for the enjoyment.
‘As soon as I recorded the first track, I just fell in love with the process, fell in love with working with Brian and with the idea of having a go at it and releasing my own music.’
Culture Kid’s next single, I Wanna Live in New York (And Die in Your Arms) is out on Friday, February 14th, with his debut album coming later this year.
