HANNAH McPhillimy has supported an impressive array of artists to date, including The Gloaming, Soak, Simone Felice and Foy Vance.
Just last week she opened for jazz singer Dana Masters at The MAC in Belfast, while next month the Co Derry singer-songwriter has her own gig as part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival.
Interestingly, Hannah is the headline act but has decided to put herself second on the three-act bill.
“It’s a lot of pressure headlining,” she laughs. “I have a brilliant support act called Beulah Kim, then I’ll be playing second. I’ll have drums, bass, backing vocals, cello and strings. Then to wrap up the night I have a north coast swing band called The Rhythm Rascals.”
The gig will be staged in the Redeemer Central church on Donegall Street (one of four churches being used during the festival) and Hannah is a fan of playing unconventional venues.
“I think buildings with a history do create their own atmosphere. That building [Redeemer Central] is really beautiful, so church gigs can really work well. And the audiences tend to be a bit more engaged.
“In December I went down to Dingle [in Co Kerry] for Other Voices and that was lovely. I was in a tiny little venue with an open fire and people crammed in.
“It felt like a special thing where people were there for the music and not to be seen or because their friends told them to go along. That was definitely a highlight for me.”
She supports fellow Coleraine native Anthony Toner in Belfast’s No Alibis bookshop on May 19 and 20 and Toner is a big fan of Hannah’s, recently tweeting “I looked up the phrase 'immensely talented' in the dictionary - and there's just a picture of Hannah”.
She does possess a showstopping soulful voice and her CQAF show is the official launch gig for her latest indie/jazz/soul EP Wind Machine.
Hannah plays piano and ukulele and says, with a laugh, “I play the violin but never in public”.
She says her budding music career has been a long time in the making.
“I told my parents when I was six that I wanted to be a songwriter and I did write stuff down but never seriously considered it as a career for a long time.
“My plan was to study International Relations at university. I went to Cambodia in my gap year before and when I came home I wasn’t very well and ended up changing the course I was going to do.
“So I went to Queen’s to do music. I took a module called `performance workshop’ and you’re encouraged to write your own music and perform it in groups.
“Then in my final year I recorded my first EP and that year I got into the `Scratch My Progress’ talent development programme in the Oh Yeah Centre. So it all kind of came together. I suppose secretly it was always what I wanted to do.”
She cites Regina Spektor, Feist, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and Al Green as influences.
“Feist said this thing once that mistakes aren’t always necessarily mistakes and when you make room for them they can sort of develop into other things.
“I think that comes across in her albums; it’s very organic and it’s not all about putting out perfect pop songs, it’s about letting things take their natural course.”
Despite admitting to pre-gig nerves (“A few hours before a gig I’m not really worth talking to; I’m just nervously in the corner being a zombie!”), Hannah says that “the highs [of playing live] are so high that it makes all the rest of it worth it”.
As part of the indie band Go Wolf, she played a run of gigs at South By Southwest in Texas last year.
“I loved it. I met the Cookie Monster and heard a keynote speech from Snoop Dogg and had a lot of Tex-Mex food. It was really fun. And the music was good too, obviously.”
Did she take away any words of advice from the man that Father Ted [Dermot Morgan] famously referred to as Scoopy Scoopy Dog Dog?
“He had zero wisdom. Someone asked him `What is your advice for aspiring musicians?’ and he just said `Ride the funkosphere’. So that was pretty useless advice,” she laughs.
Hannah McPhillimy plays the Redeemer Central church (101 Donegall Street) in Belfast on Friday May 6 at 8pm as part of CQAF. For tickets (£6/£8), visit www.cqaf.com / hannahmcphillimy.com or call 028 9024 6609.
