MacD on Music: 'Fever Dream' with Cora Harkin

It’s almost the end of October (don’t ask me how. Time is broken) and November is already shaping up to be a concert goer’s dream. We’ve got gigs from TomCat (November 8th in Bennigan’s), Getner (November 9th in the Casbah), Parker (November 29th in Bennigan’s) and The Suite (November 15th in the Nerve Centre). In the case of the Suite, it’s their biggest headline gig to date and features support from Sombre and Cora Harkin (aka the subject of this week’s column).

Cora has been making waves in the Derry music scene for a few years now, having so far released four singles and played alongside acts such as Parker, Lavengro, Virgins and Susie Blue (more on her later). Cora’s most recent song ‘Fever Dream’ came out just over a week ago and I caught up with her recently to discuss the song.

“I wrote ‘Fever Dream’ in the middle of my GCSEs. I had been reflecting on a friendship that I was upset had fallen apart, then I realised it was never going to work anyway because the friend was so different to when I first met her. During my GCSEs I was going through my Snapchat memories, and I got a bit sad about it so, as any songwriter does, I wrote a song about it.”

“I’ve got a really good reaction so far, especially on TikTok. I’ve already gained about 900 streams so far, last time I checked. People are saying it’s my best song yet. A lot of people really like the way the track is produced. I’ve not played it live yet since I’ve not had any significant band gigs since before I wrote it but I will be doing it in the Nerve Centre on the 15th November.”

Talking about that gig: “I will be supporting The Suite along with Sombre. I’m really excited to be playing that. They’re a really talented band and Sombre’s amazing as well.”

Cora then told me about what she’s up to at the minute: “Right now, I’m primarily doing gigs in the City Hotel and Link47. The Nerve Centre is the only band gig I’ve got coming up, but I would do residency spots for the City Hotel and places throughout the Bentley Group. I love the City Hotel gigs. They’re probably my favourite gigs to do. They’re so laid back and it’s just two hours of music that people listen to and I like to play.”

Next, I asked her about who she’s been into recently: “I’m madly inspired by CHERYM, and I’ve also gotten really into TRAMP. Where artists are concerned, I’ve been listening to a lot of ‘beabadoobee’ and Chappell Roan has been a massive inspiration recently. We’re thinking of playing a Chappell Roan song at the Nerve gig, so if enough people come, we promise we’ll play Chappell Roan, but you have to come to the gig and there has to be a good crowd at it, or we’re not playing it.”

After that, we talked about what makes ‘Fever Dream’ different from her previous releases: “This is the first song I’ve released that’s not about a boy. It’s inspired by a friendship that fell apart. It documents the journey of how I noticed her changing when we were friends and I slowly started to grow a resentment towards her, even though I tried my hardest not to. It’s pretty self-explanatory in the song, but I tried my hardest to still like her and see it as ‘oh, this is just a one-time thing’, ‘this is just a mistake’ when it was reoccurring so many times that it just wasn’t a mistake anymore and eventually the friendship fell apart.”

Finally, Cora told me about her upcoming gigs: “I’m playing the main stage on Halloween and singing at the unveiling of the new Derry City jersey in O’Neill’s. That’s probably one of the most important gigs I’ve been invited to play at. I’m playing in Limavady in Inside Out for a wee Christmas set, just to launch the store’s Christmas vibes.”

READ MORE: MacD on Music

And that’s it from Cora. Her new song ‘Fever Dream’ is out now on all good streaming platforms and, as mentioned above, she’s going to be opening for The Suite on November 15th in the Nerve Centre along with Sombre. Get your tickets now. It’s sure to be a great night and it’ll give you a chance to say you saw these future stars before they were huge.

Now, onto other business. As well as gigs, next month promises to be a good one for new music. November 8th will see the much-anticipated return of Susie Blue (as previously featured in this week’s intro) with her new EP ‘Venite and Me’. The EP will be supported with a launch gig the day before as part of Sound of Belfast.

Finally, social time. Susie Blue can be found on Instagram @susiesusieblue and Cora can be found on Instagram and TikTok @coraharkinmusic (same @ for both).