Kildare-born country singer Megan O'Neill is taking the music world by storm-brand new album out tomorrow!

By Kim O'Leary As more Irish people than ever are listening to country music due to a recent reawakening, Kildare-born Americana/ alt-country artist Megan O’Neill is determined to leave her mark on the country music scene both in Ireland and abroad with her debut solo album out this Friday, 8 June.   Talented Megan O’Neill, 28, is originally from Co Kildare and she has recorded and performed with local musicians in Nashville, as well as performing with Irish singer Gavin James at JJ Abram’s Oscar Wilde party in LA.   Megan was raised in Ballymore Eustace with her three brothers and one sister, and she credits her family with encouraging her love of music.   Speaking to KildareNow ahead of the release of her new album, Megan explained: “I loved growing up in Ballymore. It’s a great community and I had (and still have) such great friends and family there. I was big into horses growing up – so Kildare is pretty perfect for that. I have three brothers and one sister and yes, a very musical family. I am so grateful that I grew up with an appreciation for music. It has completely moulded my life – clearly!”   Last year, Megan performed alongside Irish singer Gavin James at Hollywood director JJ Abaram's Oscar Wilde party. "Gavin is such a wonderful person and we had a lot of fun at that Oscar’s event. It was definitely surreal – and my first time on a red carpet. I had no idea what to do! Meeting stars that night like Stephen Fry, KT Tunstall, JJ Abrams and Carrie Fisher was pretty crazy. I felt like I was having an outer body experience!" said Megan. [caption id="attachment_229934" align="alignnone" width="300"] Megan O'Neill performed alongside Irish singer Gavin James at JJ Abram's Oscars Party[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_229935" align="alignnone" width="300"] Megan O'Neill perfroming with Will Looms, Megan Amy, Ross Sheppard, Lewis Warne, Talentbanq and 229 Venue[/caption] [caption id="attachment_229931" align="alignnone" width="287"] Megan O'Neill is bringing back Americana/alt country music to Irish shores[/caption] Megan went to secondary school at Cross and Passion in Kilcullen before attending university at UCD studying psychology, before deciding to embrace her great love of song-writing and performing on stage. “I’ve definitely been comfortable on stage since a very young age. I loved musical theatre growing up and always got involved in everything I could. The writing came later – when I was about 14 I started writing songs and I’ve never stopped,” said Megan.   After university, Megan moved to Nashville in the U.S. to further her singing career and she describes living and working in the city as “an incredible experience but it definitely came with its struggles.”   Speaking of her time spent writing songs and performing in the state of country music, Megan said: “Nashville is a mecca for songwriters and I learned so much from living there and working on my song-writing there. The songwriters and artists I know are amongst the hardest working people on the planet – because you have to be in the top 3% to stand out. I was lucky in Nashville in that I got to work with some of the top writers out there and essentially built myself a little Nashville family.”   Indeed, the city of Nashville has a very special place in Megan’s heart as she also had her original song ‘Don’t You’ featured in the series finale of the acclaimed television show ‘Nashville’ in 2014. Speaking about the experience, Megan said: “I was ecstatic! ‘Nashville’ is a huge show and they’re super supportive of the song-writing community. I was really lucky to get my song on the show and it’s definitely helped to boost my profile as a writer over the years.”   However, in terms of having an actual ‘big-break’ into the industry, Megan feels that a series of little breaks has led her to where she is now. “I feel that those little breaks can lead to longevity in your career. Whereas sometimes when artists just have one ‘big break’ it’s 15 minutes of fame and then tumbleweed!”   Megan’s career has gone from strength to strength since the release of her debut EP ‘Coming Home’ in 2015 which reached #1 in the Irish country charts as well as winning her the ‘UK EP of the Year’ (W12 Music). In September 2017, Megan was back in the studio writing and recording her debut solo album in Nashville with producer/songwriter Zak Lloyd.   The first single from the album ‘Why I Need You’ was a hit with over 100,000 video views in under a month when it came out in October 2017, while her second single ‘Ghost Of You’ has also done very well in the charts.   So what inspires Megan when she’s writing new songs? “I think as songwriters we pull inspiration from all sorts of experiences in our lives. That was the case with this album too. ‘Why I Need You’ is a straight-up love song, ‘Ghost of You’ is more about love, loss and shedding layers. I thought long and hard about each track on the album as we had to select these twelve tracks from over one hundred originally, so they all mean something to me.”   Outside of her music career, Megan also enjoys running and she has done 2 full marathons. Next up for Ballymore Eustace’s shining star Megan is is a tour of Ireland, UK, Germany and the U.S. which she is very much looking forward to. “I’m actually already in the process of planning for the next album which we’re hoping to record in October too,” Megan said.   Megan O’Neill’s debut solo album ‘Ghost of You’ is out on Friday June 8 and it is also available on iTunes and all online platforms. Megan is also very active on social media and for all the latest updates check out: http://megan-oneill.com/ https://www.facebook.com/meganoneillmusic https://twitter.com/meganoneill http://instagram.com/meganoneillmusic