Emerging Irish artist Chris Short recently teamed up with singer-songwriter SJ Talbot for new single ‘Flint & Steel’. I sat down with Chris to chat about his writing process, hidden talents and the best advice he’d give to his younger self.

To anyone new to your music, name 3 words that best describe your sound.

Guitar, vocals, beat

Introduce yourself and your hidden talent!

Hi, Chris here, I’m a singer and songwriter from Dublin, Ireland. I started out on my music performance journey as a New Years resolution in January 2017 that has just kept evolving over the past few years, it’s started out to perform 3 songs at the local open mic, then write an original song, then self release a song, and now a 5 track EP out on 04 June this year

What’s your writing process like? Do you write the music or lyrics first?

The process for writing changes depending on the inspiration for the song, so at the moment I’m working on a new song and it started out as a finger picking melody, and then that melody in my mind sounded like “Why do you look at”, so naturally they became the opening lyrics, I might hear a nice chord progression, and then find a melody in that, or like in my latest single, Flint & Steel (feat. SJ Talbot) the title was the first thing I had and then wrote the lyrics around the title, then from those lyrics in my mind formed the melody. I’m still learning and I don’t think there is one right way to do it, it’s really whatever works for you and the song

Do you prefer performing live or recording, and why?

Well with the whole “COvID” thing, live performances have been off the cards for a while now, so I’m been busy writing and recording so hopefully when things get back to some level of normal the live gigs will start again. For me I find live performances quite stressful, I tend to be very critical of myself and mistakes that I might make, but it’s worth it, when you see somebody in the crowd bopping along to your song, or tapping a foot, or even after saying, I really liked your song, it’s great and such a buzz. I really like the recording process as well, it allows you to perfect what you want others to hear, and also recording allows so many more people hear your songs, my latest single Flint & Steel (feat. SJ Talbot) has over 20,000 streams, I’d never get to play in front of 20,000 people only for the recording..hopefully some day I will!!!!

What’s the best advice you’d give to your younger self?

To my younger self, and to any young musicians starting out, don’t give up, keep going enjoy the journey, enjoy the learning process, allow yourself the time to hone your skill, learn from your mistakes and let them go, and most of all celebrate the little wins

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