Music from the Heart

Born and raised in Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, Ali Comerford started playing and studying classical music at the age of 4. After obtaining a Masters of Violin Performance from London's Royal College of Music, she relocated to New York, completing a Masters of Music in Viola Performance at the Manhattan School of Music on scholarship. Ali’s journey in music has seen her grace the likes of New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall and Dublin’s National Concert Hall. She has toured the world with Lincoln Center Stage, playing sold out shows around Australia, New Zealand and the United States. After years as a freelance musician for various string ensembles and chamber orchestras in New York, January 2020 saw Ali come home to her native Jenkinstown in Co. Kilkenny. Faced with her biggest stretch of free time in 14 years, Ali used her artistry to process and bring closure to the various ups and downs oflife she experienced during her time traveling the world with her craft.

Ali has spent the last decade of her life playing other people's music and the time has come to share some of her own. The new single Knots, carrying the same title as her debut album (to be released in July), follows her debut single He Knows.

About the single, Comerford says " Knots is a song I wrote about anxiety, something we all struggle with at one time or another. At the time, I was going through a stage of intense anxiety. I worried about the fact that I hadn’t released any music, about whether people would enjoy my songs or not and I also over analyzed every little thing I had ever done wrong. I wasn’t sleeping properly and found I was lying awake at night replaying old conversations and feeling ashamed and embarrassed. Anxiety is an extremely isolating thing because when you’re in it, you believe that you are the only person who feels like this. I think it’s powerful when people can speak about their own struggles and maybe eventually it will help us all feel less alone. Knots is a solo vocal accompanied by soft flowing piano and double bass. The vocal line sits by itself in the mix echoing the lyrics, am I alone."

The gentle melody and simple arrangement force the listener to pay attention to the words and leave a deeper impact that way. Comerford shows her vocal range throughout the song and her abilities to transmit emotions the lyrics are asking for. Her haunting vocal gives the song ethereal feel and lifts up the overall heavy vibe.

"And when the spiral starts at night about the thing I said

8 years ago to someone I don't know

Would it be weird to reach out now nd ask forgiveness

For the wrongs that can't seem to wait till tomorrow"

Artwork: Shane Hatton Photography