Do what you love, and love what you do.

Monday 20th March 2017 at 12pm 0 Comments Northern Ireland Music

Image: Singer-songwriter Triona Carville is one of Northern Ireland's most talented young musicians with fans including Van Morrison, Brian McFadden and Joan Armatrading.

“DO what you love and LOVE what you DO!”

This is the best advice my parents gave my siblings and I at a young age. I always wanted to be a singer.. a rock star in fact, one who wrote songs. When I was at primary school our principal would put a picture of us on the birthday wall along with a small caption telling everyone what we wanted to be when we grew up. Every year when my birthday came around I would always tell him, “When I grow up I want to be a Rockstar.” At this stage I hadn't even sang publicly, in fact I didn't even know how to play the guitar but something inside told me that this is what I was destined to do.

From a young age I’ve always believed in having a vision and setting goals. On my bedroom wall hangs a big notice board, I call it my vision board. This is where I pin up all my goals and as each one is achieved I tick it off and pin up another.

So here’s the very short version of how my musical career all started…

At the age of 15 I performed one song in a competition called Scór na nÓg. I never got very far in the competition and this left me feeling pretty gutted. However just a couple of weeks after the competition I got a phone call asking if I would perform at a local hotel. At this stage I only knew one song on the guitar so I quickly got to work and taught myself an hours' worth of material and the very next week on St Patrick’s Day 2011, I played my first ever gig.

When I had finished performing, the hotel asked if I would like to play on Mother’s Day and to top it all off, they even wanted to pay me. Getting paid to do something that I LOVE doing! I know, pretty cool right?  

Shortly after I began performing at the hotel on a regular basis. Word spread, and within the same year I was playing many different clubs, pubs, parties,and functions around Northern Ireland.  At the age of 16 I was chosen by British singer songwriter Joan Armatrading to open for her at Vicar Street in Dublin. Over the past few years I’ve had many great opportunities including touring with Brian McFadden and Nathan Carter across the UK and Ireland and opening for Van Morrison at the 3 Arena Dublin.

I was always writing and making up little songs and stories from a young age. I began songwriting in my teenage years using it as a way of releasing and expressing my emotions.  It was around the age of 16/17 that I was first introduced to the Panart’s Belfast Nashville singer-songwriters’ festival. I remember first walking in through the doors and thinking, “WOW! Everyone here is a singer/songwriter, this is amazing!” It was so refreshing to be in a room filled with like-minded people.

In 2014 I was extremely honoured to be selected as one of the four Panart’s singer songwriters to fly to Nashville, Tennessee to showcase my music. This was an amazing experience where I got to play the famous Bluebird Cafe, Music City Roots and Belmont University along with meeting top industry writers, publishers and music managers. Over the past two years I have been flying back and forth to Nashville recording and writing with many extremely talented hit writers and producers. This year I was delighted to be awarded the Panart’s young songwriter of the year. I continue to thank God every day and never take for granted all the opportunities which I have been given and Im extremely excited about all that is still yet to come on the next part of my journey.

As I write this blog one of my favourite quotes comes to mind “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars” - Norman Vincent Peale

I continue to set my goals high and as long as I continue to love what I do, I’ll keep doing it!