Originating in Sligo on the north-west coast of Ireland, Myles Manley is a singer/songwriter who has been releasing music as ‘popstar’ Myles Manley since 2012. With incisive and idiosyncratic songcraft, and a unique vision of the Irish experience, Myles Manley first distinguished himself with critically acclaimed releases Greatest Hits 2012-2013 (2013) and More Songs (2015).
Of mixed Irish and English heritage, Myles was born in York and spent his early life in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and West Kirby before his family settled in Sligo when he was seven years old. While completing a degree in mathematics at Trinity College, Dublin he travelled to New York and became involved in the antifolk music scene centered on the East Village’s Sidewalk Café, where he began writing what would become the music of Myles Manley. An arresting blend of art-rock, outsider folk and pop sensibility, Myles Manley’s songs offer a pleasingly discordant cross of acerbic gloom and Whitmanian jubilance.
Back in Dublin, an ambitious trio of early EPs, a ‘career in a year’, were compiled as his debut album Greatest Hits 2012-2013, which, together with More Songs, earned plenty of critical attention and comparisons to everyone from R Stevie Moore to Anohni. These releases also saw the creation of a distinct persona via fantastical music videos, which has become a central part of Myles Manley’s self-presentation, seen most recently in a new series titled Aaa (2020). In the last number of years, Myles Manley has toured the Irish and UK DIY scenes extensively with his three-piece band, with the aim of building a sustainable practice as a contemporary folk musician. His debut album proper Cometh the Softies was released to critical acclaim in November 2020.
