Ciarán
On Ninja Tune
BIOGRAPHY
Ciarán grew up in Belfast, where his school didn’t offer much in the way of music education. “They only had performing arts... so I’d press play on the stereo for the music for plays and that was literally my job. They were like, ‘There you go, that’s music.’” Like so many teenagers before and after him, the first band he got really obsessive over was Nirvana, inspiring him to learn guitar (which he picked up at home) and to start experimenting in “wee b...
Ciarán grew up in Belfast, where his school didn’t offer much in the way of music education. “They only had performing arts... so I’d press play on the stereo for the music for plays and that was literally my job. They were like, ‘There you go, that’s music.’” Like so many teenagers before and after him, the first band he got really obsessive over was Nirvana, inspiring him to learn guitar (which he picked up at home) and to start experimenting in “wee bands with my friends”. His dad fed him a steady diet of Irish folk and dad-rock, and his mum would listen to R&B and Björk. A typical kid, he recoiled from his parents’ favourite music until his late teens and now, a decade later, you can hear all those influences in the undercurrents of Róisín.
As he got more confident musically - and between stints of pressing play for school productions - Ciarán started uploading music to Soundcloud and Bandcamp as Bearface. On a trip to New York, he met DJ, producer and founding Brockhampton member Romil Hemnani at a studio session; Ciarán started doing some production for the collective remotely, and before long he was one of the All American Boyband. When the group disbanded in 2022, the Bearface moniker went with it and the musical possibilities suddenly seemed endless.
The problem with endless possibilities is that it’s almost impossible to know which one to choose. That partly explains why it’s been four years without any new music for Bearface fans. Ciarán was in no rush. “I’d rather wait and take my time than just put something out because of any sort of perceived pressures from anyone else.”
He moved back to New York and took a lot of time to experiment and expand his horizons. To push through an artistic block, he and Ryan Yoo (PKA boylife), close friend and New York housemate, set themselves challenges. “We’d be like, ‘You gotta have a song a day or an idea a day, even if you’re not in the mood - just sit down and do something. A lot of those ideas ended up making the album - little production ideas or a melody - just wound up making its way in.”
Ciarán
On Ninja Tune
Singles
Latest News
BIOGRAPHY
Ciarán grew up in Belfast, where his school didn’t offer much in the way of music education. “They only had performing arts... so I’d press play on the stereo for the music for plays and that was literally my job. They were like, ‘There you go, that’s music.’” Like so many teenagers before and after him, the first band he got really obsessive over was Nirvana, inspiring him to learn guitar (which he picked up at home) and to start experimenting in “wee bands with my friends...
Ciarán grew up in Belfast, where his school didn’t offer much in the way of music education. “They only had performing arts... so I’d press play on the stereo for the music for plays and that was literally my job. They were like, ‘There you go, that’s music.’” Like so many teenagers before and after him, the first band he got really obsessive over was Nirvana, inspiring him to learn guitar (which he picked up at home) and to start experimenting in “wee bands with my friends”. His dad fed him a steady diet of Irish folk and dad-rock, and his mum would listen to R&B and Björk. A typical kid, he recoiled from his parents’ favourite music until his late teens and now, a decade later, you can hear all those influences in the undercurrents of Róisín.
As he got more confident musically - and between stints of pressing play for school productions - Ciarán started uploading music to Soundcloud and Bandcamp as Bearface. On a trip to New York, he met DJ, producer and founding Brockhampton member Romil Hemnani at a studio session; Ciarán started doing some production for the collective remotely, and before long he was one of the All American Boyband. When the group disbanded in 2022, the Bearface moniker went with it and the musical possibilities suddenly seemed endless.
The problem with endless possibilities is that it’s almost impossible to know which one to choose. That partly explains why it’s been four years without any new music for Bearface fans. Ciarán was in no rush. “I’d rather wait and take my time than just put something out because of any sort of perceived pressures from anyone else.”
He moved back to New York and took a lot of time to experiment and expand his horizons. To push through an artistic block, he and Ryan Yoo (PKA boylife), close friend and New York housemate, set themselves challenges. “We’d be like, ‘You gotta have a song a day or an idea a day, even if you’re not in the mood - just sit down and do something. A lot of those ideas ended up making the album - little production ideas or a melody - just wound up making its way in.”