This past Friday, Irish prodigy Darren Kiely released his sophomore EP, From the Dark, which is available here via Free Flight Records.
Produced by David Baron and featuring co-writes from Ryan Hurd, Teddy Reimer, Daniel Tashian, Joe Fox, Geoff Warburton, Jon Hume, and Gabe Simon, Kiely takes his craft to new heights as he explores the harsh realities that come with growing up and moving on.
“This collection of songs was written from a darker place—one where there was not a lot of hope and where I was searching for the smallest bit of that hope in different things. It is not as hopeful as some of my previous releases in the sense that I really tried to capture or describe the moments where hope is the very faintest thing in the distance,” says Kiely.
To celebrate the release of the latest EP, Kiely has shared the official music video for the EP’s standout track, “Ocean.” The video captures the essence of the song, which Kiely describe as “one where you come to realize the fear of loving someone so much that there’s nothing you can do but almost surrender to how overwhelming it is, and kind of accepting your fate that you just have to fall and feel that love.”
Watch the Dustin Haney-directed music video below, and follow Kiely as he brings you to the coast of his native country where the symbolization of the ocean’s crashing waves comes to life.
Featuring the previously released tracks “Slow Decay” and “Say I,” the six-song collection evokes quite a range of emotions from the pop/folk singer-songwriter and allows the listeners to experience his inner dialogue first-hand as the EP progresses: “The sequencing was strategic because I wanted to show that there are waves of dark moments—peaks and troughs—in everyone’s life. I thought starting out with darker songs then moving on to brighter or more hopeful ones, and eventually going back to the space of losing hope and feeling dark is representative of how I view the cyclical nature of life,” Kiely describes.
Pulling inspiration from influences like Mumford & Suns, The Lumineers and Noah Kahan, Kiely has mastered his own distinctive sound while drawing in fans worldwide. With a busy start to the year thus far, Kiely continues to capitalize on his momentum with the announcement of plans to join Mat Kearney on the HEADLIGHTS HOME TOUR this fall. For a full list of tour dates and tickets, visit here.
