Londonderry art student, drag artist and acoustic sing/songwriter Cahal O’Connell has achieved a lot at the age of 21.
He is releasing his first single MaryJane today, a music video on June 17, two further singles El Salvador and Mr President, in July and August, and a short film in September.
Over the course of four years, Cahal has worked his way up from Level Three to Level Five of a HND in Fine Art / Art Practice at North West Regional College. He’s now at the completion stage and plans to further his studies at Ulster University, Belfast.
The creative first performed in drag as the age of 16 and it was an epiphany moment for him.
“Drag was never a career that I would have considered,” Cahal says.
“Back then, I was playing acoustically around Derry and I was known a bit as a musician. I was asked to be an extra in a music video by Susie Blue.
“I got a message one night to say they were asking for an extra drag queen and would I be up for filling in that role, they would do the make-up and hair and get me all sorted.
“We went up that day and as soon as I had that first transformation, I just thought there has to be something that I can do with this.
“That’s what led to me merging my live music career and the drag together, because I thought it was something that had never been seen before in Derry and it would be something that could help me to stand out and help me to get noticed.”
Cahal’s journey from that first gig to where is he today career wise, is captured in his debut EP, The Mr President Trilogy.
“The whole concept of the trilogy is to have three original songs with three accompanied music videos,” he explains.
“At the very end of the project we’re going to be compiling the videos together to make a short film. Each song has a common narrative thread that runs through them and links them all together.
“It starts off with chapter one and the song MaryJane. The reason that I wrote it was because we don’t have a drag scene in Derry, so the only performance scene that I could get in through was the acoustic music one that I was already in.
“I thought the best way to introduce the concept and my character, MaryJane, was through music. The song was written in order to give my character a back story and a bit of context so that people would understand why I was dressed the way I was, and why I would carry myself how I did.
“Back then, MaryJane was very different. I really liked the urban, trashy, street glam vibe, so it was a lot of over-the-knee boots and denim shorts. What I wanted with this video and with the song, was to try and capture that chapter in my career.
“With the other two singles, it’s working with the same concept. When you get into the second one, you are relaying back into the middle of my career thus far, where I had more of a vintage aesthetic and I was very influenced by pin up artists like Bettie Page.
“The final chapter is reflecting on MaryJane here and now, where I stand as an artist today and what my aesthetic is.
“Right now, I take a lot of influence from burlesque fashion. I pride myself on being extremely glamorous and very sort of sexually driven, but in a classy and elegant kind of way. It’s just rhinestone central, everything has to sparkle, everything has to be skin-tight and revealing — that’s very me at the moment.
“The EP going to be available on all major platforms; YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon…”
The transition from new to established drag artist was a learning curve for Cahal and honing his makeup skills was necessary.
“The fine art course really did help,” he says.
“It taught me about scale and proportion, and aesthetics as well. In combination with the course, it was a lot of practice and trial and error over the years, it was researching new techniques and various products.
“A lot of local drag queens have helped me with perfecting what I do. I have got really good tips off of the girls in Belfast and from some of the older drag queens who used to based here in Derry a few years ago.
“It took a long time to actually find the MaryJane look.
“For a while it was ever-changing. It was about a year or two ago that it just seemed to click and ever since, that’s the face that I’m going with.”
Cahal describes the Northern Irish drag scene as “bursting with talent and fabulousness”.
“The scene in Northern Ireland is very heavily based in Belfast, which in one sense it’s really good because it’s giving a very rich sense of community up there, but it has resulted in a lot of people having to commute back and forward to get gigs,” the artist explains.
“At the moment, I have a bi-weekly residency in the Maverick. The majority of nights that I’m playing, I have to drive from Derry up to Belfast and then drive back at the end of the night. It can be a wee bit tiring but all in all the scene in Belfast is absolutely bursting at the seams with talent.
“There are so many varieties of artists, there are so many queens that are in the nightclubs and they keep the party going all night long, and there’s so many fantastic comedians and lots of other singers actually as well.
“I think when it comes to acoustic music and original material, I’m the only artist that’s doing that at the moment.”
There’s a saying that drives Cahal forward, overcoming any obstacles that come his way.
“I never used to like the saying ‘fake it until you make it’ but it’s become one of those things that I’ve learned is actually very true and very powerful,” he admits.
“I have to come to learn that, if you want to present yourself, and for people to see you, in a certain way, the way to do that is for you to take the first step and show people that. I want people to see me in a certain way when I’m in drag, interact with me in a certain way, and to have connotations with the character. And over the years through sticking to my aesthetic and working hard to build a reputation and get myself known, it really has worked.
“I feel like I’m quite well known now in Derry especially and in Belfast, and I feel like people know me for what I want to be known for. I haven’t compromised anything or I haven’t changed who I want to be or what I want to do as a performer, and that’s really done the world of good. I know a lot of people nowadays are really into manifestation, I’m not a practitioner of it, but I definitely do believe there is an element of you have to put things out in the universe and work hard, and it it’s meant for you it will come back.”
Commenting on the one thing he couldn’t perform as a drag artist without, Cahal says: “I would like to be very mysterious and wise and say that you couldn’t do it if you didn’t have nerve or determination, but personally I could not do drag if I didn’t have eyeliner.
“If there’s no eyeliner — it’s not happening.”
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