{"id":641257,"date":"2026-10-01T04:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T04:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/641257\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T04:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T04:26:10","slug":"im-enjoying-my-sobriety-everything-gets-better-including-your-bank-account-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/641257\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m enjoying my sobriety. Everything gets better \u2013 including your bank account\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever someone tells Foy Vance<\/a> that he ought to be a bigger name than he already is, he has a well-prepared answer ready for them. He has collaborated with, supported and earned the admiration of everyone from Elton John<\/a> to Kacey Musgraves<\/a> and Bonnie Raitt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m, like, \u2018I\u2019m getting away with it. The bills are paid, everyone\u2019s happy, I get to do exactly what I want, release music whenever I want; I don\u2019t have to speak to anyone.\u2019 You know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

The musician, who was born in Bangor in Co Down but spent years in the United States, sighs softly, smiling. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo I guess, in a nutshell, if you want to play a stadium and you\u2019re good enough and you\u2019ve got enough contacts and all that bullshit, it\u2019s just about working twice as hard as the next guy. Whoever\u2019s the hardest-working f**ker out there, work twice as hard as them and then you stand a chance, if all the other stars are in place.\u201d <\/p>\n

He grins, a twinkle in his eye as he shrugs. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut who wants to work that hard?\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance is as self-aware as musicians come, and so impossible to dislike. His outlook has bled into his songwriting, too, with seven fine studio albums under his belt, including The Wake, produced by Ethan Johns, which was released earlier this year. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Foy Vance: Signs of Life \u2013 Acute and denouncing self-awarenessOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A soulful, tender album, it\u2019s the culmination of a cycle that has defined Vance\u2019s creative life, beginning with the death of his father, Hugh Bailie Vance, a pastor with the evangelical Church of Christ, in 1999. It was a soul-rattling experience that ultimately set Vance on the path to becoming a recording artist.<\/p>\n

An accompanying tour, which will take him around the world after it kicks off, in mid-October, includes a string of Irish dates at the end of the month. Vance will also launch a new album cycle, releasing his eighth studio album, If, in three parts, each appearing as an EP between October and April. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point we were looking at maybe getting me checked in somewhere, because I was starting to appear crazy,\u201d he says of his creative purple patch, chuckling. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was writing scripts, books, new songs, painting, making films. I just couldn\u2019t stop. I was barely sleeping. I just had an almighty surge. So I\u2019ve already got more music to go, but I\u2019m glad The Wake\u2019s in the world. It\u2019s one of the only things I\u2019ve ever seen through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to say music and marriage are the only things I\u2019ve ever committed to, but now that I\u2019m three times married I can barely say that one.\u201d He laughs hard. \u201cI said I was going to do something, I set out to do it and I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A number of changes preceded the release of The Wake and If, most notably Vance signing with a new label. His association with Ed Sheeran<\/a>, who signed him to his Gingerbread Man Records and championed him over the years, has been both a blessing and a curse, although Vance has nothing but good things to say about his friend. <\/p>\n

\"FoyFoy Vance: \u2018The only reason I was on Atlantic was because of Ed [Sheeran]. He was spearheading the whole thing. So I think they did their best by me\u2019 <\/p>\n

On the one hand, it brought his music to a wider audience; on the other, being perennially linked to one of the most famous musicians in the world can come with its own pitfalls. The Wake was Vance\u2019s first album since Joy of Nothing, from 2013, not to be released on Sheeran\u2019s label, which was backed by Warner Music<\/a> and distributed by Atlantic Records until recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just, like, \u2018Let\u2019s call it what it is,\u2019\u201d he says, shrugging. \u201cAnd this is not about me being in any way self-effacing, but I was a minor artist on a major label. The only reason I was on Atlantic was because of Ed. He was spearheading the whole thing. So I think they did their best by me. They\u2019re all beautiful people, we\u2019re all still great friends, there\u2019s no bad blood. It was just sort of mutual.\u201d <\/p>\n

He smiles. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can imagine when my name came up in the meetings, they were, like, \u2018Okay, right, that\u2019s Rihanna<\/a> done … so this Foy … who the f**k is this Foy? Is that Ed\u2019s mate? Why do we keep talking about this old bald guy that writes about his dad?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

He chuckles again. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo I kind of went around looking for a viable partner, and I met the team at Rounder Records<\/a> and just loved their vision, their support. They were very excited, and that charged me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance\u2019s new clarity of purpose coincided with his decision to stop drinking alcohol. It hasn\u2019t been a particularly difficult shift, he says. \u201cI wanted to prove to myself that I wasn\u2019t addicted to it. I said, \u2018I\u2019m going to do Dry January,\u2019 and then a friend was, like, \u2018Well, if you want to prove that you can break an addiction, it takes up to three months.\u2019<\/p>\n

[\u00a0R\u00f3is\u00edn Ingle on Dry January: Since giving up alcohol, I\u2019ve developed some strong opinions about itOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cBut quite honestly, three weeks into it, it kind of dawned on me: there\u2019s nothing missing. I thought I was going to be white-knuckling, trying not to drink every day. But I think as soon as you consciously do it because you want to, and if you take stock of what\u2019s going on, you sleep better, you think better, you work better, you communicate better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, just everything gets better \u2013 including your bank account. And the first time you go out with your mates and they\u2019re drinking and you\u2019re not, you realise three pints deep that everyone talks absolute shit,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cSo it\u2019s not a constant fight at all. I\u2019m enjoying my sobriety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the songs on The Wake are testament to his newfound mindfulness. He wrote Call Me Anytime for his three kids, Ella, Sonny and Sol; it\u2019s a track that admits to past failings but reaffirms his devotion to his children. The songs on If come from a collection of more than 100 hundred tracks, both old and new, that he reimagined with the help of the producer Anderson East. <\/p>\n

Vance pauses, blinking back tears, when I ask whether his father factors into the songs that he writes in a more purposeful way these days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been so embarrassed over the years, talking about my dad: \u2018Oh, my dad this, my dad that, my dad\u2019 \u2013 I feel like I whinge on about him. But the truth of the matter is, his death was the greatest gift I ever got. It was the strangest and most heartbreaking gift I ever got, but that\u2019s exactly what it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could hear after that. I mean, I could sort of always hear music, but just not that clearly or that intensely. Something happens in the body after trauma; something changes. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yeah, it\u2019s kind of hard to write about anything and not feel close to my dad. It\u2019s hard to pick up a guitar and not feel close to my dad and not be aware of him. <\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially being a dad now, when I\u2019m going, \u2018Lads, lads, lads!\u2019 I\u2019m thinking, \u2018I\u2019m so like my dad. I just turned into him, lads. Brutal.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

There was another unexpected twist in Vance\u2019s career in early 2024, when he found himself not only attending the Emmy Awards<\/a> but also making his way onstage to accept one. A Beautiful Game, a song Vance had written for the TV series Ted Lasso with Sheeran and the pop Svengali Max Martin, won the award for outstanding original music and lyrics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s on top of my piano. I shouldn\u2019t say this, but sometimes I hang keys from it. I did have it as a toilet-roll holder at first, and then I thought, \u2018If someone takes a picture of that, they will take it off me.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

He grins. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a mad experience. Ed wasn\u2019t there, Max wasn\u2019t there, so I took that as a sign of \u2018We haven\u2019t won this,\u2019 or they would have called them and said, \u2018Get here, we need you here.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy beside me, who was up for the same Emmy, was writing his speech the entire time. So I sat there the whole night with Bonnie [Bishop, his partner, who is also a musician], going, \u2018This is a great night. We got a free hotel, we got flown out here, what more do you want?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI was genuinely surprised when my name was read out \u2013 I really, really didn\u2019t expect it, but it\u2019s a lovely thing. What\u2019s that saying, \u2018Awards only matter if you win them\u2019? They don\u2019t change anything. They don\u2019t change the arc you make. But I guess, in certain worlds, it puts more eyes on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are perhaps more eyes on Vance than at any other point in his career, and he is making the most of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never been less than content for the vast majority of my life,\u201d he says. \u201cMy dad always said, \u2018Foy, son, you could fall in shit and come out smelling of roses,\u2019 and he\u2019s not wrong. I feel like I\u2019ve really lucked out here, by sort of coasting at my own pace. I\u2019ve carved out something for myself that works for me. I feel excited about what\u2019s coming next.\u201d<\/p>\n

If: We is released on Friday, October 30th. Foy Vance<\/a> plays Wexford Spiegeltent Festival<\/a> on Tuesday, October 27th; 3Olympia Theatre<\/a>, Dublin, on Thursday, October 29th; Town Hall Theatre<\/a>, Galway, on Friday, October 30th; and Lime Tree Theatre<\/a>, Limerick, on Saturday, October 31st<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whenever someone tells Foy Vance that he ought to be a bigger name than he already is, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[272256,8720,16915,12432,93,272255,61,60,85094,31272,89510],"class_list":["post-641257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bonnie-rait","tag-ed-sheeran","tag-elton-john","tag-emmy-awards","tag-entertainment","tag-foy-vance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kacey-musgraves","tag-rihanna","tag-warner-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}