When you Laoise-pon a star...

It's a grey, rainy October morning in Cork and local jazz singer Laoise Leahy is sitting in traffic as it meanders its way slowly towards the city centre. I'm sorry, but it doesn't get much more 'jazz' than that.

Like most early motorists, she's on her way to work, which for Laoise is lecturing in pop and jazz vocal performance at the MTU Cork School of Music.

As she waits in the stop-start gridlock, her mind drifts to thoughts of space and stars and preparations for her big two-night candlelit show Starlight this Jazz Weekend at the Granary Theatre.

The show is presented by Cork Opera House where Laoise is the jazz artist in residence this year.

“It's important to take yourself away from it (everyday life),” she tells the Cork Independent. “It's a tonic, you sort of get drawn into the word of jazz, it really is a language of the human experience.”

Laoise, who has 30 years’ experience as a professional singer and recently started her solo career, has been building up to this show for years, even decades.

It’s clear from the way she speaks about it and the many themes she has curated into its structure, that this 70 minute show means the world to her, as does the experience of the audience.

“It's all intertwined, it's soundscaped, and I've had voiceovers done by the legendary Ciaran Bermingham,” explains Laoise.

“We worked on a little bit of scripting but mostly soundscaping, just creating this atmosphere of journeying through the human experience, starting in space and then moving through dreams, into time, the illusion of beauty and power, social media and the effect it has on people, young girls especially, then moving through loss and that side of things, and then bringing it back to a sense of hope and community and togetherness.”

Through her residence at Cork Opera House, Laoise has worked with numerous musicians and has performed a monthly gig in the Green Room on Half Moon Street, all the while piecing together all the moving parts for her upcoming show.

“I've brought in new musicians and new songs, while formulating these little sections, little areas of exploration.

“To have a little black box theatre by candlelight, I think it's just going to be gorgeous, I'm so excited about it,” she says.

Having trained in London and Ireland, the Carrigaline native has now settled in Cork to raise her young family and says the balance between family life and her professional life has been challenging at times.

However, surrounded by supporting family and pushed by a ferocious drive to sing, Laoise and her loved ones have made it work and now she says her kids, 5 and 7, finally think she’s cool.

“It has definitely been a challenge,” she says. “I remember bringing my five week old baby into an orchestral rehearsal in a sling, she was fast asleep with little headphones, and you're negotiating breastfeeding breaks and you're trying to figure it all out.

“For me, it's part of who I am, it's the essence of who I am. I feel like I've always been a singer, I've never been anything else.

“My husband is a musician, we write together, so the whole traveling thing came organically.

“It was very challenging at the beginning to figure out how it can be managed but I think the drive in me was so strong to not lose that part of myself,” she adds.

When it comes to her career, Laoise says she’s lucky in that both the teaching and the artistic/performance aspects of her work tend to feed off one another, one often filling her with passion for the other.

It’s worth noting that at this point in the interview (hands-free of course) she has successfully navigated the traffic and has made it safely to work.

“I'm parked here outside the Cork School of Music,” laughs Laoise.

“I'm going in now to teach the next generation of gorgeous, gorgeous singers. They are just so exuberant.

“I adore working with them, they inspire me all the time, they keep me challenged.

“A lot of my colleagues would be on the lecturing staff. I'd be meeting my accompanists and arrangers and band leaders in the corridors and in the bistro for a coffee, it's all music, so it all works together.

“But interestingly, I've found that if I'm active in the industry and I'm working and I'm challenging myself artistically and musically, I've so much more to give to them (her students), I'm bringing them into that world and showing them the challenges,” says Laoise.

With this all said, there are occasional moments when the hardworking mum of two has been immersed in music all day to a point that, when she finally gets home, the last things she wants to hear is more bloody music!!

“My husband is a project manager, and he works at his computer, so he has a swivel chair,” explains Laoise.

“So, he puts down a call and he swivels the chair and he just picks up the guitar because for him, music is like the refresher. I come home and maybe I've been learning music between classes for a gig, I've been rehearsing, I've been teaching classes, I've been preparing classes, and organising the logistics of all the stuff, and then I come home and I'm like, 'Oh my God, if I hear one more note...'.”

Looking ahead, and with a shiny new solo career to look forward too, Laoise says she is focused and excited to make her own mark on the world of music in the years to come, starting with a new single she’s releasing on 28 October, the first day of her two day Jazz Fest run. The single is also called 'Starlight'.

“I suppose my challenge now is building on the foundation of all of the work I've been involved in and actually creating my own music and my own career as a solo artist,” says Laoise.

She continues: “That has really been the challenge of the last year and a half.

The last year has been very intense in terms of just bringing my own music in, just having the confidence to work on my own music and have that sense of drive with my own stuff. I don't think there's any turning back for me.”

Laoise Leahy, accompanied by the Johnny Taylor Trio, will perform her new candlelit show ‘Starlight’ on 28 and 29 October at the Granary Theatre on Dyke Parade in Cork city. Doors are at 5pm on both days and tickets cost €15.

For booking and more information, visit corkoperahouse.ie.