Hopeless: An Interview with Áine Deane

For those who haven't come across her heartfelt lyrical musings, Áine Deane is a 21 year old singer/songwriter who has just released her first single, Hopeless.

 

The rising star regularly shares her writing to a TikTok fan base of over 230,000 followers and her videos have 5.5 million views on the platform.

 

Hopeless, Áine’s debut single, encapsulates the all too familiar feeling of leaving words unsaid and hopelessly falling for someone. The relatable heartfelt anthem has already had over 130,000 streams in its first few weeks, an incredible debut for the singer.

 

I sat down (albeit virtually) with Áine to discuss the release of Hopeless, her inspirations and feature on Casey Lowry’s tour. Her excitement and enthusiasm for the song and her craft was evident.

 

As we talked, her continued passion for singing and song writing translated across the screen:

 

Q. Tell us about your singing and song writing journey — is this something you have always wanted to do?

 

“Well I’ve always done music ever since I was younger, I’ve been in and out of music lessons, I’ve done loads of musical theatre when I was younger and then I remember I started to get serious about singing and writing when I was like 18.”

 

“I mean I used to write when I was like 14 and no one needs to hear those songs, they are atrocious,” Aine quips, “but I sort of started to get serious about it when I was 18. I did a lot of writing at uni — I sort of used it as a way to navigate my emotions about moving out and everything that came with that.”

 

“It’s always been something that I’ve really wanted to do and it’s great that it’s sort of now happening.”

 

Q. How did it feel to release your first ever single, Hopeless? I imagine it was a really exhilarating and exciting experience?

 

“It was so exciting! I was so nervous about releasing it at the start because it is a really honest song. It’s a really honest write and I think if you write something like that you're always going to be scared about releasing it to the world and just letting it go.”

 

“But I had such a nice reaction to it and everyone was so lovely about it that it has just made me really excited for the next one.”

 

Q. What was it like to go from creating songs on your guitar to seeing a fully produced version of your latest single? What was that process and transition like for you?

 

“I mean it was insane — I always love going into the studio with something I’ve already written and turning it into a song that just doesn’t sound like a voice note on my voice notes app.”

 

“Hopeless we wrote on the day that we sort of recorded the demo and it was so cool to see it go from something we’d just written on Oli’s bed to something that had so much oomph behind it. It’s always really sick.”

 

Q. What was the motivation and reason behind creating Hopeless?

 

“It was a song that I wanted to write for quite a while. I had like the vague concept in my mind and I remember I voicenoted my friend Oli, who co-wrote and produced it, with the concept of it. I was like ‘I really want to write this song and I really want to write it with you, I think we could do it really well’.”

 

“We just got together and had a lot of cups of tea and a lot of chats about love in his room, and just wrote it from there. But, yeah, it was something that I wanted to write for a while.”

 

Q. There are some really poignant lyrics in Hopeless, such as “I’ll be broken over words you never said, and I’ll be open but only ever in my head”. How do these lyrics tie into the overall narrative you wanted to create for Hopeless?

 

“That lyric was I think the first lyric we wrote for the entire song — we started with the chorus — and came directly from a conversation that we’d had about ten minutes beforehand about love and everything. It basically encompasses the whole idea of unsaid words and how people who don’t admit their feelings are probably doing more damage than good, and how that ties into relationships and the formation of them.”

 

Q: Where do you find inspiration from your songs? Is it personal experience or something else entirely?

 

“I’d say all of my songs are written from personal experience in some way or another. I use writing as a way to sort of express my emotions but also as a way to work through them and understand how I am feeling about things. Whether that be an experience or another person or a relationship, turning it into music is really cathartic.”

 

Q: How did you manage creating songs and pursuing your passion whilst studying? Was that difficult?

 

“I started sort of taking it really seriously when I was in third year and obviously balancing writing your dissertation, and doing your finals and everything, alongside navigating coming into the music industry and doing that was tricky to say the least.”

 

“It was a difficult thing to balance but by the end of it, it all worked out in the end. It was sort of quite fun that you could go to the library and do your dissertation all day and then go home and make your TikToks and write your songs. Just having that schedule was useful. By the end, it was all fine.”

 

Q. How does it feel to have amassed a following of over 230,000 followers on TikTok? Do you sometimes feel a pressure to keep creating content and songs for your followers?

 

“I think when you have a following, no matter how big or small, I think there’s always a pressure to create content because that’s what people have followed you for so you kind of want to give them what they’ve followed for. But, the best content doesn’t come from ‘oh I need to post something right now’. It comes from ideas that you’ve thought of and you’ve been like ‘I really want to make this, I really think people will like it. It speaks to me so hopefully it will speak to them’.”

 

“I try to keep everything as natural and organic as possible which is difficult if you have a day when you can’t think of anything but I love creating content so it’s never a chore at the end of the day. I just try and keep it to whatever I want to do that day or that week and just sort of go with the flow of it.”

 

Q. Just days after releasing Hopeless you announced that you are touring with Casey Lowry. How are you feeling about featuring on this tour?

 

“I am SO excited, I cannot tell you. It’s going to be so insane. Casey is such a lovely person so I imagine his fans are lovely fans which is going to be so fun to play in front of.”

 

“Hopeless came out four or five days ago and on Wednesday I am going to start playing it in front of people which is crazy. It’s going to be so exciting and just so fun. I can’t explain how excited I am!”

 

Q. What are you hoping to achieve in this next phase of your career?

 

“I just want to keep writing music and releasing music and connecting with people — that’s sort of all I want to do. I’ve got so many things I want to say so I’m just going to keep writing and hope that people like it but if they don’t, I’m still going to keep doing it!”

 

Áine’s stellar debut single, boundless talent and unwavering passion will take her career to new heights and we can’t wait to see what she does next.