Meet Aaron Rowe, the Irish songwriter loved by Lewis Capaldi and Ed Sheeran
With a rich voice only matched by his own knack for vivid storytelling, Aaron Rowe is on the path to the big time.
By Nick Reilly
Aaron Rowe‘s origin story feels like the kind of tale that any discernible screenwriter would dismiss as unbelievable, and yet it’s entirely true. He was playing a regular gig at a Dublin pub last year when Lewis Capaldi walked in while on a stag do and saw him performing. Like fate, their paths would cross at an open mic night in Nashville just weeks later – where Lewis would introduce him to his best mate, who now happens to be Aaron’s manager.
On the surface it may seem like a serendipidious break, but it came at a time when Aaron had been gigging multiple nights a week and showing off his voice – a velvety rasp of a thing – to barflies across Dublin.
That voice can be heard in his debut single ‘Hey Ma’, which is both an emotional and vivid reflection of his own upbringing on the south side of the city and, more prominently, a reflection on his own guilt at leaving home.
It’s a thread that runs through Aaron’s upcoming music too, defined by rich stories of the characters who defined his childhood, each packed with a huge amount of affection towards their subject.
Rowe’s sound may be rooted in Irish trad (see the subtle fiddle on ‘Hey Ma’) but the stories he tells and his own distinctive vocals are truly universal. With friends like Capaldi, Ed Sheeran and Fontaines D.C. firmly in his corner, it’s only a matter of time before they reach the audience they truly deserve.
Read our Play Next interview and listen to ‘Hey Ma’ as part of our Play Next playlist on Spotify below.
Why did you want ‘Hey Ma’ to be the first official taste of Aaron Rowe?
It’s interesting because it’s not really about my mum, but it was about me learning to live vicariously through my mum and it summed up what I was going through – the idea of homesickness and cracking up. London’s become sort of a second home and I’ve spent more time here the last year than I have in Ireland. It was tough, but every time I go or come back it doesn’t feel as bad. I’m loving my time in London.
What was your first foray into music and what was that moment like?
I always felt embarrassed about the fact that I was into music because where I’m from you’re either playing football or you’re boxing. I did a lot of boxing when I was younger and I didn’t want to be known as that guy who sang because I felt like it might put a tag on my back. But I remember a bloke who I went to school with started playing and I just thought, you know what, that’s fucking cool man. It made me realise I wasn’t going to get rinsed and allowed me to think, do you know what, this is what I’m doing forever.
For the uninitiated, the story of you meeting Lewis Capaldi is like something from a film. Tell us about it…
Yeah, if you stop and think about it, it’s actually a bit much, you know, because I was so fortunate. I feel so blessed to have met a great friend in music and a brother for life. He walked into a bar where I was playing in Dublin on a stag do and then I bumped into him again when I was playing in Nashville at an open mic just a few weeks later.
And one of his best mates is now your manager?
Yeah! Lewis is great. He’s one of my best mates but we’re just normal lads and we play music. I love that actually we just get on outside of all that. We don’t even talk about music when we’re hanging out, man, honestly, we just take the piss.
I’ve felt really blessed in music over the last few months but honestly, and I don’t want to be cringy here, the best thing from all of this is gaining new mates. That’s been the biggest thing to me out of all of this.
Both ‘Hey Ma’ and your other upcoming songs are united in the way they offer rich and vivid portraits of individual people. Why did you want to tell those stories and what do they mean to you?
Originally I felt a bit uncomfortable talking about specific people and I didn’t want to use the people around me as means to write a tune. But I wrote ‘Hey Ma’ with Iain Archer [and] he said, ‘No, you have to leave that in there’. It’s important, because when are specific people, you’ll find that other people have their own version of that personality in their own life. It’s definitely something I’m trying to get better at, but it still it still does make me uncomfortable.
Who are your musical touch points and who did you listen to growing up?
In the past, I was a huge soul fan and I was mad into Otis Redding and Sam Cooke and I love Paolo Nutini. When you’re younger in Ireland, you think Irish music is maybe for old people or whatever, but when I grew I just saw the love that people had for that music and what it did to people and I developed a respect for it then over time. Modern Irish music too, I listen to Fontaines D.C. all the time.
You’re firm friends with Fontaines D.C aren’t you?
Yeah, Grian, man. We all look up to him and it feels like a moment in time, you know? There’s such artistry and it feels like a thing to behold and we’re blessed to see that firsthand. Grian’s lyrics too, it’s a joke how good they are.
And what’s the plan for the rest of the year?
I would just like to get as many songs out between now and the end of the year as possible. I spent a lot of time hesitating about releasing music, because I was just afraid of failing, man, to be honest. I just want to get all these songs off my chest and just put them out, you know.