Interview with Kim Hayden

Interview with Kim Hayden

Kim Hayden has certainly done quite a lot in her music career to date - performing as a solo artist, competing on The Voice of Ireland, working on an EP with new band Liir and competing to represent her country in the Eurovision Song Contest with the same band. 

I recently caught up with Kim to talk about, well, all of the above really!

"I was a strange enough child, instead of playing in my room I use to run around the garden singing to myself like a little leprechaun, my first public performance was my school confirmation , I was 12 that was my first taste of the stage, then I just wanted more &more it's all I ever wanted to do, it didn't matter whether where I was singing just once I was singing I was happy, I start writing at a young age also and it's my other passion. I get such a buzz when I finish writing a song and then when you see people actually like what you've written that's the prize. My influences growing up was and still is Christina Aguilera, Elvis, Justin Timberlake, Alanis Morissette, now I am in love with Lana Del Rey, Ed Sheeran, & Hozier the list goes on I love all genres of music."

Hayden made it to the last 8 of the Voice of Ireland back in 2012 with some incredible performances but she admits that a lot has changed since then.

"The Voice was an interesting experience, it was great to be able to perform in front of a large audience live each week. My performances on the show wouldn't of shown how I see myself as an artist now, it was 4 years ago and a lot has changed since then."

One of the things that has certainly changed since then is the fact that she has joined a new three piece girl group called Liir, originally just to compete for a place to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest Live Finals last year. However, the girls seemed to have clicked as artists and have a lot more planned for the future.

"We were disappointed we didn't get to represent Ireland in 2015 who wouldn't love to represent their country, We had a great song I'd like to think we could of done really well in it. However when we got together we clicked instantly and we were really happy and comfortable singing together we all have a very similar vision of what we wanted for the group we then decided we needed to get in studio write rehearse and record which haven't stopped doing since,  We worked with an exceptional producer called Eberhart on Liirs EP he got the sound straight away and we cannot wait to start sharing some original music with you. It's exciting."  

So it all seems to be happening quite fast for the band! What exactly have they been getting up to in the last while?

"It has been nonstop in and out of studio, rehearsing, writing and performing, we recently recorded our first video for our version of Nirvana's Smells like Teen Spirit and Britney Spears' Toxic which were both uploaded on our social media recently so can people can get a flavor of how we sound before we release any of our original material."

I have always said that there is a huge niche in Ireland for girl groups so I feel as though these girls could be on to something if they release good quality music. And that appears to be what their main focus is for the time being.

"For the moment we are continuing to work hard on our music and hopefully you will be hearing a lot more from Liir in 2016. We will be doing a number of live performances in the coming months check out our Facebook page for details , Liir Music on Facebook, Twitter @liirmusic / Instagram @liirmusic."

EOIN!