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ing distance to a beach. “It was a total escape f
rom everything that was going on. It was also the first time I had a proper studio space for myself. I kind of got to do the runaway to a cabin and write loads of songs fantasy!” It was in this house where Kelly wrote her debut, emailing tracks to her long-term collaborator and producer, Matt Harris. This long-distance process of collaboration with Harris is one Kelly has been used to since they began working together in 2015. Over the course of eight months of being tucked away in the isolated setting of the cottage, Maria brought recordings of songs to the nearby beach, endlessly treading the sandy terrain before sending takes over to Harris. One can suggest that close listening to the music through headphones serves the overall mood of the thirteen songs best. From the offset, an enveloping intimacy emanates from the interplay between the arrangements and Kelly’s vocal performances. Musically, the quickened melodies plucked on acoustic guitar on good enough evoke Big Thief, while Soccer Mommy feels like a guiding light on nobody but me. Elsewhere, the luminous burst of synth in the final moments of like I used to draw heavily from Sufjan Steven’s wheelhouse of stirring emotion in his audience. All of these acts and artists use their gently textured compositions to surreptitiously submerge their audience into similar experiences or emotions detailed in the world of the song. Maria Kelly effectively enacts that special quality in this record. Arriving at a time where many people’s worlds were turned upside-down, many of the lines mapping The Sum of the In-between’s trajectory will undoubtedly provide guidance to anyone listening in need of support. How does it feel for Maria to revisit the thoughts and feelings that consumed her and spilled into her songwriting? “It’s mostly nice to know I’m somewhere else. Also, when you capture talking to yourself, talking in a certain way that’s negative, it reminds you that that never helps. We struggle with so much as human beings and we have an inherent layer of guilt where we often think, “Why don’t I feel like this? Or, I shouldn’t feel like this.” It’s nice to see the progression through the album and know I’m in a different place. And to know that if I do get in that place again, I have the perspective of the things that don’t work and the things that maybe do.” The Sum of the In-between is out October 15 on VETA Music. Maria plays The Workman’s Club on Friday November 12, €15. She also appears on Seconds Away, a LPSS enabled showcase of new Irish music which is available to stream on Nialler9’s You Tube channel. patreon.com/mariakellymusic 53