An 18-year-old Donegal singer is still coming down from the weekend of a lifetime after he was selected by none other than famous musician Tinie Tempah to play on the main stage in Stradbally.
Only one week after receiving his leaving certificate results, Rian McCauley took to the Three main stage at the Electric Picnic festival to perform to a sea of 30,000 festival goers.
Sitting down with Country Beat, the young artist from Ballyshannon said the experience has been ‘madness’, and that he is still recovering from it all.
“The concert was unbelievable,” he beamed. “The whole experience of it was incredible, and the crowds were mental. I think I’m still coming down from the high.”
Explaining how it all came about, Rian explained that he had been posting videos of himself singing on TikTok, when he was approached by Three Ireland who were gathering a list of young Irish artists to potentially play on the main stage at Electric Picnic.
After making it through the initial selection process, Rian was then personally chosen as one of a final four to perform by the revered English rapper, singer and TV presenter.
“It was mental to get the call from Tinie Tempah himself telling me I had been chosen,” he reflected. “We did one-to-one mentoring sessions with him in Dublin, and we also met him in a recording studio in Camden.
“He gave us feedback on what to do, how to present yourself and all that. He was lovely to work with – he was so down-to-earth.”
Rian McCauley and Tinie Tempah backstage at Electric Picnic.
Rian added that over the four weeks of mentoring, he made great friendships with Mimi Lane, Youngiz and Imani Jade, who were also selected by Tinie Tempah.
“We weren’t competing against each other; it was more like we were bringing each other on which was nice,” he said.
When the weekend of Electric Picnic rolled around, Rian said that he was ‘amazed’ at the crowds who gathered for his performance.
“I thought that maybe people weren’t going to come out of their tents to hear me perform due to the awful weather – it had been raining all day and all night it raining all day,” he said. “Or I wondered if maybe there would be five, or six people just standing about.
“But I was totally wrong… When I went out to perform, I saw this huge, huge crowd!
“It was mental,” he added. “The crowds were also was even engaging back to me, which was cool.”
Back in May this year, Rian released his debut song, ‘Nickname’, which has been streamed more than 116,000 times so far. He has also managed to gather an incredible 13,900 monthly listeners on Spotify.
Rian added that his streams and social media following has grown since his performance at Electric Picnic, and said it was nice to see that both new and familiar faces had followed him.
He is now excited to ‘keep this momentum up’, and get back into the studio with his brother Caolan, who has also grew an impressive TikTok audience of 69,800 followers.
Currently focusing on upcoming gigs in Whelan’s in Dublin, and shows in Belfast along with his brother, Rian has also recently been announced as Highland Radio’s ‘New Local Hero’, after competing over the last few weeks as part of Irish Music Month. But his dream is to get headline show once he releases more original music.
“I want to headline a show; that’s my goal,” he said. “But I want to try and get maybe four or five original songs out by the time I get that going.”
Influenced by modern folks artists like Amble, as wells as Jamie McIntyre and Aaron Rowe, Rian also expressed his sadness at the news of Dolly Parton’s passing, as she was a ‘huge inspiration’ to him growing up.
“Her music was constantly playing around the house,” he said. “Her songs and storytelling have influenced me from a young age and continue to inspire me as an artist today.”
Concluding, Rian explained that he has now deferred his teaching course in Dublin and is ready to use his Electric Picnic high to give his full focus to music, and see where the journey takes him. Good luck Rian!