Rachael O’Connor from Drumsurn in Derry told David Hennessy about her new music, being mentored by Kylie on The Voice, giving up school to sing with Lord of the Dance in the West End and touring with Duran Duran.
Rachael O’Connor from Co. Derry has come a long way since she first came to prominence as a contestant on The Voice.
Rachael was only 16 when she auditioned for the show. Not only did she have the Aussie queen of pop Kylie turn her chair for her but also Welsh singing great Tom Jones and Ricky Wilson of The Kaiser Chiefs, meaning she had three judges to choose from although it would be Kylie she chose to go with.
Since then she has toured with Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance and for years now has been touring with Duran Duran as a backing singer.
Rachael continues to do her own thing as a solo performer with the London- based singer recently releasing her current track Tell Her which draws on her own experiences of imposter syndrome.
Rachael told The Irish World: “Working with Duran Duran, I just couldn’t work out why I was chosen out of all these amazing singers for the job.
“I’d never done backing vocals stuff before and then I was just kind of thrown in at the deep end.
“I was on stage in front of 20,000 people and I just constantly had this imposter syndrome and didn’t ever feel good enough.
“I think everyone in life struggles with it but it was getting a bit overwhelming.
“I wrote this song Tell Her and I just kind of wrote it as if I was talking to myself or a friend and telling them everything they needed to hear.”
Is that imposter syndrome something you’ve always had? “Yeah.
“I’m the worst for comparing myself to everyone else in the industry around me.
“Comparison is just the thief of joy.
“Once you start doing that, then you’re never going to be happy because it always seems that everyone’s doing better, especially on social media but everyone has their own struggles.”
Are you able to silence that little voice though? Because if singing with Duran Duran doesn’t convince you you’re good enough, I don’t know what would..
“I know. I think it’s just learning to back yourself and be confident and be secure within yourself which is obviously a process.
“You go through phases.
“There are times where I feel confident.
“I mean the last tour I did with Duran Duran was the first time in a really long time that I was on stage and felt confident and that I deserved to be there so at the minute I’m feeling alright. I’m feeling I do deserve to be here, I’m good enough to be here but it’s just life different emotions at different times.”
It is ten years since your time on The Voice, can you believe it?
“I know. It’s a long, long time.
“That’s what kick started everything really.
“That’s what started my whole career.
“If I didn’t go on The Voice, I wouldn’t be doing any of this now.”
What are your memories of that time, being just 16 and singing in front of Kylie, Tom Jones, Will.i.am, Ricky Wilson and all those cameras?
“They came to my school actually and they scouted me through school.
“They actually told me that day ‘we weren’t going to come here because this was our last call of the day’.
“But they did, thankfully, and then I got through and it just kind of went from there.
“I always dreamed of going on The X Factor.
“I remember when Eoghan Quigg was on The X Factor and I was really young.
“I remember watching it thinking, ‘Oh, I want to do that. I want to go on The X Factor’.
“And then The Voice came about.
“I remember I was so nervous at every point.
“I’m a nervous person when it comes to performing, I just overthink things a lot.
“Stage fright is a thing weirdly even though it’s my job, and I do get nervous.
“I think it’s just the fear of messing up as I’m a perfectionist, so I don’t like to do things wrong.
“I remember on The Voice I was so nervous, I was terrified actually but I was also so excited. It was just a whole bunch of adrenaline.
“I was 16.
“But yeah, meeting Kylie Minogue and working with Kylie Minogue is still a highlight of my life, never mind career.”
You had three judges turn for you. What did that feel like to see them turning or did you not even register it because you were so focused on singing?
“No, I registered it because it was the very last part of the song.
“I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t going to happen’.
“I remember there was one part of the song that was quite powerful and a big note, and it got to that part and they still hadn’t turned around.
“I was like, ‘If they don’t turn here, they’re not turning’. And they didn’t turn.
“Then I think I just got really desperate at the end.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, just turn around. Turn around’.
“So then when they did I remember being like, ‘Oh my god’, I just couldn’t believe it. I could not believe it.
“But I remember every minute of that.”
You chose Kylie turning down both Tom Jones and Ricky Wilson but then Kylie did turn first, did that mean anything?
“To me, it wasn’t who turned first. I wasn’t thinking that.
“It was the pitch of who I believed could mentor me. That’s what I wanted.
“I wanted to learn and I wanted to grow.
“I knew nothing about the industry at that point and it was hard to choose because all the coaches are so amazing and have such successful careers and different things to teach me.
“But I think there was just something with Kylie that I instantly connected with, instantly believed that she was the right one for me, and she could teach me things.
“And she did, she did teach me things.
“Also looking at Kylie, that’s the career I want so kind of a no brainer.”
You say she taught you things, what was she like to work with Kylie in the room?
“Great, she did teach me a lot.
“I remember her telling me, ‘This is just the start. You’re going to get a lot of no’s but you will get a yes, and it’ll make it all worthwhile’.
“She was great and then she introduced me to her management company after that and I was signed to them for years.
“She was very supportive.”
So the relationship extended beyond just your time on the show. What came after the show, was it back home to Drumsurn?
“Yeah, back home to school. I had to do my AS levels.
“Then, because I was signed with that management company, they also looked after Nadine Coyle.
“Nadine, at the time, was doing Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance.
“The show was opening in the West End and Nadine was the singing role so she needed an understudy.
“She was doing three or four shows a week and the understudy had to do the rest of the shows so they put me forward for it and I got that.
“So I came back to school after the show and I had a couple months left, had to do my exams and then I was meant to go into my last year of school.
“And then I got this job opportunity to go into the West End which was everything I had dreamed of as a young child.
“I had to beg my mum and dad to let me drop out of school early and do this job.
“Obviously they want me to do well, they want me to pursue my dreams but they did want me to finish school.
“But eventually they were like, ‘Okay, well, this is what you want to do so do it’.
“So at 17 I moved to London for a few months, and then I went on tour with Lord of the Dance for about five years on and off.”
What was the Lord of the Dance experience like? “I met a lot of friends. It was a tough show. It was a tough gig.
“It’s a tough touring schedule.
“It was a bit hectic but I met some of my best friends through the show who I’m still friends with now, and I learned a lot.
“I learned a lot about the industry: Some good, some bad.
“And I learned a lot about myself in that show as well.”
What was Nadine like? Was she encouraging?
“She’s great, she’s very supportive.
“I would still chat to her now. She’s very supportive and just such a lovely, genuine person which is what you need in the industry because they’re not everywhere.”
Let’s talk about Duran Duran. It is a few years you are singing with them now, what has that been like?
“It’s been crazy.
“It’s been just a completely different world I was thrown into.
“You always dream of it being this jet setting life going around arenas, but until you’re in it, you don’t actually believe that it’s real.
“Straight after Covid, I was working for my dad in his estate agent in Derry and then I got an email from an old friend in the industry who worked with me in Lord of the Dance.
“I auditioned, it was a really chill process.
“It was just like, ‘Yeah, sing a few songs. Okay, cool. You’re coming on tour’.
“So I started with them and I think one of my first gigs was Isle of Wight Festival which was, I would say, 40 to 50,000 people.
“I remember being like, ‘Holy sh*t. This is crazy. This is crazy’.
“It’s almost been three years and the shows I’ve done: Jimmy Kimmel, The Graham Norton Show and the ball drop on New Year’s Eve (in Time Square, New York), the Jubilee. That was crazy.
“But it’s amazing working with the band.
“They’re so supportive, they’re so friendly.
“It feels like a real family.
“Their wives are there, their children are my age and they’re just so lovely and a really nice atmosphere which is so great.
“I’m really grateful for that because I know that not everyone’s like that in the industry.
“I’m really grateful that I’ve been put into this family.”
I bet you take a lot and learn a lot from those experiences for your own solo work..
“Definitely. Watching Simon Le Bon as a front man, you can’t get anyone better to learn from because he’s just so charismatic, funny and endearing, but he’s so professional, and he’s really on it, and he’s so talented.
“When I was doing Stendhal, I definitely channelled a bit of Simon Le Bon when I had to speak in the mic because you don’t do that as a backing singer.
“You don’t conduct the crowd, you don’t control the atmosphere so I definitely took a lot of Simon into my own stuff, and then also writing my own stuff.
“I hear synths when I’m with Duran Duran so I’m like, ‘I want to put synths somewhere’.
“I’m definitely learning a lot.”
I think you can hear that evolution in Tell Her as well as the previous singles My Birthday and Start of Something. Do you think you are finding your sound?
“I am. I don’t think I’ve found it yet.
“It’s definitely a journey.
“I was very overwhelmed with it last year and the start of this year, I was overthinking it more.
“I was like, ‘What makes me different?’
“I changed my mind so much.
“But at the minute, I’m back in the studio and I’ve kind of gone back to basics and I don’t want to be thinking of production.
“I don’t want to go in and think, ‘Okay, let’s write a dance song. Let’s write a song that’s for tik tok. Let’s write this’.
“I just want to write good songs that mean a lot to me and are personal to me, so we’ve stripped it all back now.
“When I go into the studio, I just want a guitar or a piano and I want to start from scratch the way I used to write when I was a teenager.
“I just don’t want to be distracted by all these fancy production sounds at the minute.”
What is it like to tour with Duran Duran and guys who have been there and done it..
“I mean, the stories they tell are just different world. They have stories for days but they are all great. They’re a great bunch.
“It’s just great craic.”
Was it always singing for you? “I always dreamed of being an actress which I still would like to pursue at some point if the right job came around.
“But it just kind of changed.
“We were doing acting classes with musical theatre songs.
“We were acting through song and then it slowly just came that I knew, ‘I want to just sing as me, I don’t want to be a character and sing’.
“So then it was just singing.”
Was your family musicial growing up?
“My dad’s side of the family is very musical.
“Growing up my grandad would always bring out the banjo and then my dad would bring out the guitar and we’d have a sing song.
“Funnily enough, I was always too shy. I would never sing in front of them.
“The very odd time I would.
“I guess they’ve always been musical (but) no one’s pursued it.”
You moved to London two years ago although you obviously came here for work before that, what is it you enjoy about the city?
“I love the hustle and bustle of it and I love that every day, there’s opportunity.
“I just love that there’s opportunity and every day is different.
“You could be sitting with no plans one day and then the next thing, you’re out doing backing vocals for some band or you’re heading away on a tour or you’re doing a gig.
“I just love that there’s constantly opportunity there.
“I’ve been back and forth a lot and I haven’t really been settled.
“I feel I’m only getting settled into London now but I would like to be involved more in the Irish music community and stuff like that.
“I would like to get to know more people.”
You enjoy your trips home as well, it’s not that long ago you travelled home to play Stendhal festival which is very near to where you’re from.
“That’s down the road from me. Stendhal was great.
“That was my first gig doing my own solo music for a full set in eight years.
“I loved it. It was so good.
“I got such a good response from the crowd.
“I was really surprised people turned up.
“I didn’t expect people to come other than my family, so I was delighted.
“I just want to do it again. I want to do another gig and just keep going.”
Tell Her is out now.
For more information, click here.
