Darren Kiely’s journey with music has always been driven by something pure. When hepicked up a guitar for the first time as a teenager in a small town in Co. Cork, he did so withthe hopes of simply being able to play along to the songs he loved. As hesharpened hisskills, he started to push himself further, setting himself new challenges–learn a full cover,play a gig, then, eventually, see if he could write his own song. Throughout this years-longprocess, passion and natural curiosity spurred him on. “It was never like, ‘I’m gonna do thisfull time’ or ‘I want to play stadiums’,” he recalls. “It was just one thing led to the nextchallenge or the next step.” It’s that mindset that has led Kiely to his current position–one of the first artists tobe signedto Sony Music Nashville’s non-country imprint, Free Flight Records, and winning legions offans with his emotionally rich,folk-infused music. Putting out his own music, though, wasn’tnecessarily always on the cards for the 28-year-old. In 2022, having gradually built his way up to performing covers gigs at functions andweddings, he was at a point where he could comfortably make a living–an enviableposition, but one that didn’t leave him fully satisfied. “Somewhere along the path, I was like,‘I don’t want to play cover gigs forever, but I do want to see if people will listen to my music’,”he says.He describes writing his own music as something of an emotional awakening. “A lot of thetime, I felt like I was drifting through life, not really thinking about things,” he explains. “Whenyou write it down or make a recording and listen back to it, it really hits you in a way whereit’s almost like you’re discovering things about yourself, but talking to yourself as well.” Making the move into penning his own material wasfueledby a feeling that he not only hadsomething to say, but that there was a value in what he wanted to express, too. “In the music I listened to growing up, there were loads of things I learned about myself and about life,” Kiely says. “But I also thought, ‘There’s some songs that have never talked about this, or myexperiences, or how I view things.” So far, the Irish musician has proved himself right. Across his releases so far, he’s shared afresh perspective on timeless tales of making amends to those you’ve hurt but have stuck by you (‘Mom & Dad’) and self-doubt (‘How Could You Love Me’), and opened up aboutsubjects rarelybroached inmusic.‘Avalon’ is a case in point for the latter–a rousing pieceof folk-rock that explores the musician’s relationship with his home country and why he felthe had to leave. “This will always be my home / I see fields of green,” he sings. “But I can’tfind a place to grow / Or the light.”These days, Kiely is based in Nashville,but first left Ireland for New York in 2019. It wasthere he stumbled into playing gigs–an experience cut short by the pandemic, which senthim back home. Once the borders re-opened, he headed back to NYC to pick up where heleft off, securing a desk job at an accounting firm but his focus firmly on developing hisartistry. “It’s a really tough place and it toughened me up an awful lot,” he says of his time inthe city. “I just got used to grafting and getting beat up a little bit by the place and comingback for more. Music’s like that–there’s a lot of great things, but in between them, there’s alot of times where you’re like, ‘Alright, I have to go again and again’. It’s like you’re trying to write a song and it’s not as good as you want it to be, but you have to go again. As much as New York taught him, though, it also left him yearning for something–acommunity and scene of like-minded musicians to grow and learn with. So, in 2023, heupped sticks to Nashville after hearing about the songwriting scene in the city. What Kielyhas found since making the move is not only keeping him productive and creative, but alsoaligns with his original ethos when he was first learning to play guitar. “I’m a very small fish ina big pond here,” he smiles. “I like that. If I’m around who I think are the best, I can try andlearn a little bit from them and try and get a little bit better.” You can hear that commitment to growth across his catalogue so far, from debut single ‘How Could You Love Me’–which landeda place on Ireland’s top 50 viral charts–to his 2023debut EP, ‘Lost’. The latter depicted its creator’s search for his place in both music and theworld around him, pushing through imposter syndrome and moments of uncertainty. The keyto the record–its successor, 2024’s ‘From The Dark’ EP–isn’t the moments of darkness,though, but the hope that lingers throughout the songs. “There’s probably a few songs that don’t have too much hope, but there’s a tinge of it everywhere because I don’t want towallow in anything or make things overly negative,” he reasons. “For me, there is that little bitof hope in every situation.” Kiely’s upcoming music continues his knack for making distinctive folk-pop with something tosay. ‘Find It In You’, a driving, uplifting song that finds him reassuring a partner who’s notready for a relationship that he’ll wait for them: “Whenever your walls fall down and it’s lovethat you need / I hope you can find it in you to find it in me,” he shares. The contemplative‘ MarriedOn My Phone’ deals with the relatable experience of witnessing someone you usedto know going through big life milestones via your phone screen. “I saw someone I knewfrom years ago had got married via Instagram and I was just thinking, ‘Isn’t it crazy that yousee significant events of people you’ve lost touch with [like this]?’ What happens if, one day,you end up seeing the person in your current relationship get married on Instagram?” ForKiely, that song is so different to anything he’s written before–and intentionally so: “I justwanted to hit the nail on the head of all the modern things I don’t really like.”‘Old And Grey’, meanwhile, harks back to his youth of playing traditional Irish music–experiences that still occasionally peek through inhis music today. Midway through, it surges with a swell of group vocals, intertwining with a melancholy fiddle melody to createsomething poignant and powerful. “I don’t sing Irish folk songs really, but I wanted to have asong that feels like it could beplaying in a pub back home, and I really want to play thatfiddle part live,” he says.These songs are a testament to an artist who has always refused to get complacent or lethis music become stagnant. They expand his sonic tapestry, pushing him into new pocketsof sound while keeping his core DNA intact. “I’m not a band that has the same sound forevery song,” he says. “It can sound like different things. That’s one thing that I think haschanged in how I’m writing music now–it’s me, but there’s a different sound. I think that’simportant.” No matter how much success Kiely has achieved so far–from gaining traction from his earlyself-released singles to a recent sold-out headline tour–he’s remaining true to those pureintentions he started out with. As he continues to push himself forward and give himself newchallenges, his ambitions are staying humble. “I just want to sing songs that I believe in,” he says. “Songs that people can sense that I care about them and what I’m singing is reallyauthentic and honest.