Husband and wife duo Kirwan told David Hennessy why they decided to form a musical partnership after having successful solo careers, and their new album.
The duo Kirwan have just released their self-titled debut album.
Based close to Nashville, Kirwan is made up of Colm Kirwan, son of Irish country star Dominic Kirwan and whose brother Barry is also well known as a singer, and his wife Caitriona who has shared the stage with some of music’s biggest names performing under the moniker Triona. Both are from Northern Ireland.
Colm has toured with country music legend Don Williams while Caitriona has opened up for big names such as Joan Armatrading, Nathan Carter and Van Morrison.
The new album is the married couple’s first as a duo.
It has clearly been a labour of love and they say having it out in the world is like giving birth in a way.
They would know all about that. Married since 2020, the album has been in the works since 2021 but the couple has also been busy parenting with their first child coming along in 2022 and their second arriving just in July this year.
How does it feel to have the album out?
Caitriona: “It feels like a relief. It feels like it’s been such a long process.
“It’s almost like being pregnant with a baby for two years.
“We’re proud of it.”
Colm: “It took way longer than we thought or hoped purely because we’re independent artists and you’re kind of doing everything. We wrote all the songs and we recorded it all live, and we were involved in the mixing, we were involved in mastering. We were involved in every part of it.
“As Caitriona says, we’re relieved because it just felt like it took so long.
“Initially the album was birthed out of a Kickstarter campaign.
“We did that 2021 so it’s crazy how much time went by.”
It feels a bit funny to be talking to either one of you about a debut album being so accomplished.
Colm, I know you grew up in a very musical family. Was it always going to be music for you?
Colm: “Really, yes.
“Actually, it’s funny because mam and dad never really wanted us in the music industry. My dad was always like, ‘Stay away from it’ which is probably great advice in some ways, but I didn’t take it. They always wanted us to go to college so I got accepted into theatre school in London. That felt like a good compromise because it was a performance- based degree.
“Then I ended up working in the musical theatre world in London for a couple of years, up until I was maybe 25, 26 but there was always this kind of scratch to be in music.
“I wanted to do it.
“That really did then become my career.
“I went out on the road with my dad for a lot of years and then got introduced to Nashville and really delved into the songwriting community here, so it’s always been the career that I’ve done.
“And then when Caitriona and I met, we met as songwriters so we really met through music.
“So music truly has been the theme throughout.”
What about you, Caitriona? You obviously got started very young but did you have the similarly musical house?
Caitriona: “I never really grew up in a musical family or anything like that.
“I think I always had it in my head.
“But then my dad and my aunt had me enter a local football club competition for singing, the Scór na nÓg.
“I didn’t want to do it and they coaxed me into it, so I learned one song to sing.
“(Then) I think somebody had reached out to the football club. They needed a performer at a local hotel and they asked would I do it.
“My mum and dad thought I would say no because I only knew one song and the gig was the following week and it was for a full hour.
“And I actually said yes, they were both shocked.
“I learned ten songs that week and really from that gig, the hotel started booking me on a regular basis.
“Then somebody from the hotel told somebody in Belfast about me in that venue.
“So I kind of really fell into music professionally and then I was always writing little songs on the guitar probably from a young age, like 12, 13, and then won a songwriting competition when I was 17 or 18, got flown out to Nashville, and that was my first introduction to Nashville, to the songwriting community over here.
“And then I had the opportunity to open for Joan Armatrading, Van Morrison, Brian McFadden, I toured a little bit around Scotland and England with Nathan Carter.
“It was just me and an acoustic guitar.
“I had some cool opportunities like that pop along.
“When I met Colm, we started songwriting together and fell in love and got married, and then I moved here to Tennessee.
“We were kind of on the fence about whether to continue doing solo careers, especially just being married and then COVID happened. It shut down the industry and we started to have a lot of conversations.
“People had suggested to us would we ever become a duo, and I think initially both of us were a little bit hesitant because we’d been used to doing the solo thing for so long but we started to allow ourselves to dream about it and just communicate more about it.
“It seemed to make sense especially with our desires to want to have a family and not have two different touring schedules.
“It just made a lot of sense.
“We knew we could write together really well.”
You mention COVID there, it came to mind listening to the song Stop on this album which does have a message of stopping to smell the roses and spending time with loved ones while they are there..
Colm: “We often say that we had written that song just before COVID and we say we felt like it was prophetic or something because suddenly the whole world did stop.
“Caitriona has slightly different takes on it but, in many ways, I loved COVID because after being over here for 14 years, we went back to Ireland during COVID and I actually loved being home with my family.
“Certainly there were things that weren’t so fun about it but it really was a season for us to stop and enjoy and really lean into gratitude.
“There were a lot of uncertainties in our lives at that stage.
“What that song was about was, so much of our world is so fast and the pace of it is so crazy.
“And before you know it, whether you want to or not, you get caught up in it. You’re full of anxiety and you’re rushing around and you really lose perspective of what’s truly important.
“That was really what that song was about.”
Yeah and it must have been great for you both to be back home again…
Colm: “The bittersweet part was we were newly married. We got married that January, and then we were back in Ireland in March.
Colm: “Caitriona had just come here and then suddenly, it was COVID so everything shut down. We were living with my mum.
“Newly married, Caitriona was living with her mother in law.
Colm: “That’s why I say we have slightly different perspectives.
“I loved it in many ways because I hadn’t been home in years and years and years.”
Caitriona: “I had just moved. I was ready to be making our own little home but then I was straight back to Ireland.”
Colm: “It was a strange time of life.”
There may have been no performing going on but didn’t you take jobs in Dunnes Stores during that time at home?
Colm: “We were working as cleaners in Dunnes stores, Omagh.
“My brother Barry says, ‘Would you be interested in doing it?’
“I said, ‘Honestly, Barry, I would just to get out of the house’.
“I genuinely loved it.”
Caitriona: “And then I was so bored of staring at the four walls, ‘Colm, can you get me a job too?’”
Colm: “I was seeing all these friends that I hadn’t seen in years and years and years.
“It was a time in life that we really we did not know if we were ever going to go back to America, if we were ever going to do music again.
“There was really such unknowns but we thought about it a lot and prayed about it a lot and various things opened up.
“One of the coolest things that happened during that time was Caitriona had been reached out to by the producers of American Idol.
“Initially Caitriona was like, ‘No, I don’t want to do that’.
“And I was like, ‘Caitriona, we’ve literally been praying about how to get back to America and I know it’s not something you’d want to do but at the same time, this could be an opportunity’.
“So via Tijuana, Mexico, for two weeks quarantine, we ended up back and we flew to California.
“She went through all that process and she hated every second of it but it got us back here.
“Caitriona had gotten down to Hollywood stages and didn’t go through but she was about to leave anyway because she didn’t enjoy it.
“But when we came back to Nashville, then Caitriona said to me, ‘One of the biggest things I learned in this is I really don’t know that I actually want to be a solo artist’.
“Although we talked about the duo thing, that was the first time that we were really like, ‘Alright, let’s just commit to a duo. This is the way we’re going to do it’.
“And not a whole lot after that, we did a Kickstarter and this is kind of the fruit of all of that.”
Tell us about the American Idol experience, Caitriona. How did you enjoy being part of something like that?
Caitriona: “I definitely enjoyed the first round of the auditions. They were fun.
“I think mostly because Colm was there, I really enjoyed it.
“When we went back to Hollywood to do the Hollywood rounds, no contestants were allowed to bring any like significant others or support people or anything like that because of COVID.”
Colm: “I was Face Timing and Caitriona was like, ‘I hate this’.”
Caitriona: “Yeah, the Hollywood rounds just kind of solidified to me that I had no interest in doing it as a solo artist anymore.
“I really appreciated having Colm there with me in the first rounds and I think the more we had been writing together, dreaming together to do music together, my heart was more there than wanting to pursue a solo career or American Idol.
“So in that sense, yes, there were lots of beautiful moments but overall, the experience made me realise I just didn’t have the heart to do it a solo career anymore.”
The album is a mix of different genres including country, Americana etc. It is also very true to yourselves, isn’t it?
Colm: “Throughout your whole life and career, there’s always a million opinions of what you could or couldn’t do, or what you should or you shouldn’t do, or the mistakes you’ve made, and all of these things.
“We really had a sense in this record.
“We were like, ‘Let’s make a record that we’re actually really proud of and if it does nothing, at least we can say we made something that we’re really proud of’.
“That was mostly what we aimed to do.”
You say you may not make another record but hopefully that is not the case. The plan is to do another…
Catriona- “Yeah, the hope and the desire is that this record truly would just open up more opportunities and open more doors just to start doing more within music as a duo and eventually start recording and writing for our second album.”
And it would be great to come back and play Ireland as well, wouldn’t it?
Caitriona: “Yeah, that’s what we would love ideally, because it also gives us a good excuse to go back home and get to visit family while doing the thing that we love to do.
“We’re trying to dream big, maybe to do something like CMA, Country to Country back home.
“That would be a big dream for us to even start getting involved in things like that.”
Colm: “We both miss Ireland terribly.
“When you’re living over here, there’s just always this pull in the heartstrings of like, ‘Should we be here? Should we be there? Should we be here?’ And honestly, it never really goes away.
“We do love our lives here.
“We do love the community.
“We love being so close to Nashville for the songwriting community and the music community, but we miss home and our families at home a lot.
“So the real dream for us is to have a base back home in Ireland and then spend a good chunk of time between both.
“That would be the ultimate goal which I don’t think is an impossibility.”
You’ve mentioned prayer a couple of times. Faith is very important to you, isn’t it?
Colm: “Over the years, faith has become more and more and more a really important part of our lives.
“We’ve definitely both grown in our faith and we definitely wear that on our hearts and our sleeves.
“We feel called to continue to do that and hopefully to lift up that faith in God is a beautiful thing.
“So to be some kind of light in the darkness, I think, is a good thing.
“It’s important.”
Caitriona: “I would say we definitely feel called.
“Music is like a ministry really, a ministry to lift up marriage, lift up family, to lift it all up and, especially when it’s centred on faith, it just gives what we’re doing just so much more purpose.
“Even when I did do the solo career, I didn’t really have that sense of purpose.
“I think when Colm and I do it together, it just gives more meaning to it all to do it this way.”
Colm: “Especially in these times, there’s a lot of sadness out there. There’s a lot of despair.
“There’s a lot of mental health issues.
“And the only thing that we’re anchored in that gives us any kind of hope and peace and direction for the future is our faith.
“It mostly saddens me for those that don’t have any.
“I think life can start looking very bleak if it’s only me, there’s nothing bigger and I’m just trying to trudge along and make sense of all this.
“That could get very bleak.
“It’s definitely been faith that keeps us pushing forward and is what we’re anchored in.
“I think that belief in something bigger is very important in life, very important.”
We spoke briefly about the sort of names you have got to open for, what have been particular highlights of the great things you have got to do?
Caitriona: “For me definitely the 3 Arena for Van Morrison.
“That was a definite pinch me moment playing to an arena full of people.”
Colm: “I would say the years that I toured with Don.
“I played a lot of very famous American theatres because I was opening for him.
“For me, coming from Omagh in Co. Tyrone, to be over here and on a tour bus with this big American legend, and playing all these theatres, there was just so many great memories.”
Caitriona: “Recently we actually got to open up for a big country artist here, Clay Walker.
“He’s been such a champion for us over here.
“He loves our music, loves us and I know he would really love to get over to Ireland actually to do a tour.
“He’s even said if that happens that he would bring us with him on the road, there’s cool things like that kind of in the pipeline that we would love to see come to fruition.”
The album Kirwan is out now.
For more information, click here.
