New To Hot Press: Sive

It’s hard to pinpoint what Sive is about, musically speaking. She’s been labelled a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. At the end of the day, however, she identifies most strongly with songwriting, “because that’s the most important part”.

She describes songwriting as a trial-and-error process: “There’ll be some things that come automatically, but normally I’ll try to see where I can push the melodies.”

Once she has a working melody, she’ll sit back and ask herself, ‘How can I break the rules to make that sound a little bit different?’ Sive builds a peaceful, ephemeral roller coaster in each song. She has been writing since she was 15. She released her debut album, The Roaring Girl, in 2017 and an EP, Sive, this year. She also works with local nursing homes and hospitals to direct choirs and music workshops for people with dementia.

Although it’s not as “rock and roll” as she imagined her life would be when she was 15, Sive believes her former self would be proud of her now. “I think she’d be happy with how things have gone,” she says.

• Sive plays We’ve Only Just Begun in Dublin on August 11, Tea Lane Church in Celbridge on August 23 and Feis Teamhra in Co. Meath on August 25. Her Sive EP is out now