Cork superstar Lyra on new music, self-love and learning to trust herself

It’s taken time, but Cork superstar Lyra has learned to stop doubting herself and trust her instincts

Bandon singer Lyra poses at The Olympia theatre. Pic: Ruth Medjber

On stage at Electric Picnic recently, singer Lyra felt the presence of her late grandmother.

“There was a butterfly everywhere I went. That’s what symbolises my Nan,” says the Bandon artist, who has just departed the EP site at Stradbally.

“I was singing ‘New Day’ [her single from 2020]. And a butterfly was literally flying into the mic while I was doing it. And I was like, ‘don’t start crying, don’t start crying’.”

Playing the main stage at Ireland’s largest multi-day rock festival was a big moment for Lyra. 

She’s been a name to watch in pop music for several years, and with a new single, ‘Lovers’, just released and a long-awaited debut album due in the new year, she can feel the wind at her back.

Nothing is being taken for granted: she’s had knock-backs in the past. Still, she feels in a good place and full of confidence as she looks to the future.

Lyra rocking the main stage at Electric Picnic. Picture: Glen Bollard

Music is her way of processing her daily experiences, she says. Her lyrics reference old loves, new hopes, broken hearts and healed hurts.

“A lot of people don’t know that I’ve been writing songs for ages,” she says. 

“I started songwriting before I ever knew I was going to become an artist. A lot of my songs are from different stages of my life. Different ages in my life. Different relationships. The sound for every song has to be different, because it tells a specific story at that moment in time.”

Female artists are often compared to other female artists. And so it was with Lyra, real name Laura McNamara, early on when she was lazily described as a Celtic Florence and the Machine. In fact, she’s always been a distinct voice. 

That point is underscored by the wonderful ‘Lovers’, where her powerful vocals combine with noir-ish nightclub beats. Both brooding and grooving, it’s a fantastic showcase.

She says she wanted to write a song that would succeed in different contexts. One that made as much sense at 3pm as at 3am.

“You can hear it in the club because you might find love in the club. You can play it in your sitting room, where you might hear it on the radio. I wanted it to be a song everyone can hear in a different environment.”

Lyra signed her first record deal in 2017. It’s been a tumultuous six years. She initially worked with a major label in London and was overwhelmed by the many voices chiming in. 

She was young, she wanted to learn. So she listened — for a while. 

However, she has come to understand advice shouldn’t always be taken to heart. Part of growing into music, she feels, has been learning to go with her gut.

“When you’re starting out and you’re learning and developing — I was naive [about] a lot of things at the start. You do take people’s opinions into consideration. Maybe you start doubting yourself and what you believe in,” she says.

“It’s like, ‘Oh well, they probably know best. Maybe I should try this or try that’. I got a bit confused as to who I was, who I wanted to be. I lost myself for a while. It was only when I took myself out and lived a bit of my life …. life is short. You can’t be something you’re not. You need to put out music you love and that represents you.”

Lyra at the Olympia: “We all need to get a bit more self-love. I’m still on the self-love journey. I’m really, really trying.”

There was also an obsession among (the largely male) executives around her appearance. In one of her first meetings, she was advised to lose weight.

“We all need to get a bit more self-love. I’m still on the self-love journey. I’m really, really trying,” she says. “I want to speak out about stuff like body confidence. 

When I started out I was told I had to lose a lot of weight. I did and I was very unhappy.

“Now I have lumps and bumps and cellulite and stretch marks. Before I’d be embarrassed to have them, embarrassed to show them off. I’d hide them. In the past year, I’ve let myself say, ‘you have to love yourself Lyra’. If you’re miserable it will come out in everything. I shouldn’t be hiding anything. I need to be happy — in love with myself, I suppose. I’m actively on that journey. I feel everybody needs to try to do it. It’s easier saying it than doing it.”

She’s in a much better place today. Last Christmas, she toured with Westlife and over the summer, played at the British Summer Time pop festival at London’s Hyde Park, curated by Pink. 

Meanwhile, she is signed to Rubyworks, the Irish label that has helped turn Hozier into a global superstar while giving him the room to be his own artist. Her relationship with the label is similar: Rubyworks is there for her, but she gets to be the person she wants to be.

“She is such a commanding personality on stage, with an amazing, powerful voice, we were delighted for the opportunity to work with her,” says Niall Muckian, the founder and CEO of Rubyworks, who runs the label alongside A&R manager Roger Quail.

“She writes from personal experience. She’s a keen-eyed observer of the highs and lows of being a woman out in the world in the 21st century,” he says. “A lot of what she writes, be it about failed relationships or the pitfalls of social media, resonates with her fans. She’s a really interesting combination of spotlight-loving diva and self-deprecating everywoman. She’s every inch the star when she steps out on stage but is refreshingly down-to-earth otherwise.”

Lyra is likewise confident she is working with the best team.

“What I love about Rubyworks — and I didn’t get this before — you can get an extremely personable relationship with them. Myself, Roger and Niall can go to a cafe and talk for hours about the album. I can tell them my ideas about artwork. They’ll listen, and they’ll understand. They’ve taken the time to understand me as a person and as an artist.

“You really don’t get that [with majors]. I’m lucky I’m in a relationship with them where I can come to them with ideas and everyone wants the best for the album or the single. I trust their expertise when they’re like, ‘you know what … this next song would be great for your next single’.

“They always have reasons behind it. I need to have reasons behind everything. I trust their opinion. On the other side, they let me artistically express myself in the way I want to. That keeps the fun in it. It keeps the artistic vibe going. It doesn’t just become a machine churning out
artists and songs. Me and Hozier now are in a whole nest together with [manager] Caroline [Downey], the label … it makes a nice community.”

She can’t wait for her album to come out in 2024. Right now, however, she is looking forward to returning to Bandon and reconnecting with family. She recalls how, early in her journey in music, she took time out to care for her grandmother, whose health was declining. She told her team in London she would be gone for the foreseeable future. She knew she had done the right thing in going home. She was reminded of that again at Electric Picnic, where she sang as butterflies fluttered.

“It was before the pandemic — a good few years ago now. She fell ill. Me and my sister decided to move into her house to look after her. I was supposed to be going back over to England. There were a lot of labels around. I was doing a few things with a few major labels. I decided she’s more important right now. 

"I’ll always have my voice. I won’t always have my Nan. I cancelled the flight. I said, ‘I’ll be back when I’m back’. I’m not coming right now. It’s the best decision I ever made.”

• Lyra’s latest single, 'Lovers', is out now