Cian Ducrot FAULT Magazine Covershoot and Interview

Delve into the world of fast-rising Irish singer-songwriter Cian Ducrot, as he opens up about his album ‘Victory’ and single ‘Heaven’. Ducrot’s meteoric rise to fame has been fuelled by heartfelt lyrics and a unique ability to connect with his listeners on a personal level. We caught up with Cian to all this and amongst all else, his FAULTs.

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your new single ‘Heaven’ and its significance in relation to your upcoming album ‘Victory’?

Heaven is a song that I wrote for my brother. I wanted to write something that describes our relationship now and also talks about everything that we’ve gone through in our past and I think it’s important to look at how far we’ve come and celebrate that.  It’s significance in relation to the album is probably the fact that it is a victory after everything we’ve been through and then also the album is very much about my family and my life so it was really important to have the song about our relationship with my brother as part of the album.

‘Heaven’ celebrates the bond between siblings. Can you share a specific moment or experience that inspired the song?

When I was a kid, my dad took me and my brother away for about seven weeks away from our mother and my brother was obviously older than me, so for all of that period of time he was extremely protective of me. Every day we just wanted to go home and we were constantly asking when we would be going home and I think it was a huge period of time where my brother had to kind of be that person for me that was protecting me and helping me deal with that entire situation and I think it was really hard for him. He was also the one who was contacting my mum and trying to help her track us down because we didn’t know where we were and she didn’t know where we were so that was kind of like one moment where my brother really stepped in again and was having to protect me as his younger brother.

With your growing success and listeners, does it feel strange to lay so much of you emotion out there for people to review and also critique?

I never had a problem sharing anything about my life growing up..I also think when your listeners and fans grow, it’s so crazy the amount of people that are suddenly listening to your music that you can’t really comprehend how many people you’re opening up to, even if you are. But it’s always felt quite natural and easier, to be honest and truthful about my life rather than hide it or make something up.

Can you tell us the inspiration behind the album title ‘‘Victory’’?

Firstly it comes from the title track which is called ‘Victory’ but it also hopes to sum up of all the victories we’ve achieved – me, my family and my friends, whether it’s every day or long term ones – no matter how big or small I don’t think we spend enough time celebrating our victories. It’s not easy to recognise them sometimes and I wanted to make an album that inspire people to be proud of themselves and to feel accomplished in what they’ve done. I think we all go through a lot in our lives at different points and when you come out the other side, that alone is a victory, so I think this album represents all those things and hopefully can inspire people to step back and assess their victories in their life.

Can you provide some insights into the overall theme and sound of your upcoming album ‘Victory’?

I think the theme and sound is not what people are really expecting. I think every production and story is different. The inspiration behind most of the songs is sonically quite different, I think it’s a real mix of all my influences and music that I like. It’s a melting pot of what I wanted to do and hopefully people like it! 

As you embark on your world headline tour, what are you most excited about, and what can fans expect from your live performances?

I’m most excited about seeing all the fans in different countries and visiting all the different cities. I love being on tour, it’s such an exciting time getting to travel the world!  I think fans can hopefully expect a good time and hear some good songs they enjoy live!  Every tour and show we try to make bigger and better so hopefully it will be something new and an elevated approach to the last tour – with new songs and new ideas. It’s going to be fun, I’m really excited! 

What is your best story from a previous tour? 

I think it has to be when we first went on tour with Ed Sheeran. I was in my dressing room and was told that Ed was going to come and say hello. I’d never met Ed before and I’m a huge fan… all the lads in the band were pranking me, knocking on the door, pretending it was Ed… so I was messing around screaming every time they knocked and then there was a knock and I did a stupid scream thinking it’s my friends and it was actually Ed – then when I realised it was actually Ed, I screamed again even louder. So my first encounter was me screaming loudly in Ed’s face twice in a row. Now I think he thinks I’m a weirdo…. Ha ha .

When you look back on your musical journey, what’s been the hardest creative hurdle you’ve had to climb? 

I think the hardest hurdle was when you go from being unsigned to signed and you feel like you have more resources and more opportunities to create in ways than you would have ever been able to create before. I was used to making productions on my laptop, in my bedroom with £80 speakers and suddenly I could try all these different things. But you can get extremely lost – I think having limits and boundaries helps creativity and when you remove that you can get a bit confused with what you want to do. I had to work out what I wanted my music to sound like, not by what I could use, but by being true to myself and being who I actually was.

What is your FAULT?

How good I am at being sarcastic. Ha ha ha.. I use it 98% of the time and most people don’t understand that I’m being sarcastic. But maybe it’s their fault for not having any sense of humour….! Also, I can get angry when I’m hungry and complain a lot too… !!