Inside Conall Cafferty’s Honest Songwriting, Ahead of His Debut Album, ‘Blue and Black’

If you spend enough time with Conall Cafferty's music, it's easy to start filling in the blanks yourself. There’s a restless candor to them; the songs are profoundly introspective and often rooted in the kinds of emotions that can be hard to articulate.

Now based in Nashville, Conall is entering a new chapter with the release of his debut album, Blue And Black, which feels like the clearest representation of his artistry to date. Despite the growing audience and increasingly refined sound, what remains most compelling about his work is his purposeful and radical authenticity. 

Singles like “Too Close” and “On and On” invite listeners inward; the conversation reveals the person beyond them. The songs are thoughtful and sometimes pensive without becoming overly critical. As someone who writes such emotionally rich music, he simultaneously carries himself with lightness.

Ahead of the release of Blue And Black, Off the Record sat down with Conall Cafferty to discuss songwriting and the earnestness that extends beyond his music.

Off the Record: You’re self-taught on the guitar. Did that come before singing? When did your musicianship start?

Conall Cafferty: I did my grade school's musical of Aladdin when I was in fourth grade, and I mean, I was always singing, I would always sing in the shower, but that was like the beginning. One day, I ordered a $50 Amazon guitar online and would just watch YouTube videos. I had one or two lessons sprinkled in, but I would just pay those guys to hang out with me and jam rather than teach me anything.

Do you lean more towards one or the other? Singing or guitar playing? 

Now, I wouldn't have one without the other. I wouldn't sing if I weren't holding a guitar. But typically, the guitar comes first in my songwriting.  I'll come up with a chord progression that I think is compelling enough to throw lyrics to, and that’s pretty much it.

From what I’ve heard of your album so far, there are various production elements in each track. If a lot of your songs start acoustic, how do you decide when to add production? 

I myself am not a producer at all, but being in Nashville, I'm in a couple of sessions a week, and I'll go in with like a song start, and then we'll typically finish writing it in the room and produce it out that day. Or, I've definitely written songs and then demoed them out, and brought them to a producer with the intention of fleshing them out in the room.

Do you feel like it's a quick process for you to understand what you want out of a song when going to production or working with a producer? 

I definitely think it's something that I've had to learn how to articulate the way that I want. How I want certain things to sound, from over the course of the last three to four years, just being in sessions. And I'm still, you know, learning how I wanna sound, what I want for the future. 

How do you know when a song is done? What’s that feeling like for you when a song is done, lyrically or production-wise? Are you actively trying to keep songs very close to the original demo, or are you going in thinking that you’re going to add a lot to a song?

I think I will sometimes become very obsessive over day-one demos. Like after the sessions and depending on just how they live with me for a couple of weeks, I'll gauge whether or not I think lyrics need to be tweaked or, you know, various production elements need to be finished. Typically, a day one demo is not the final product. There's always more that could be added. I think it's just entirely dependent on what the song and the story are calling for, and working with someone that you're comfortable enough with. It’s important to be able to trust their judgment on various creative decisions, while they sort of act as a guiding hand.

Definitely. And speaking about your collaborations, what is that process like? 

I think it varies for sure. I met this guy named Jack Schrepferman almost three years ago, and he's a profusely talented young producer and a great guy, and I really trust his creative vision and his process and the way that he's produced my songs. And I obviously know how I want to sound, but I think it’s also about surrounding yourself with not only the good people, but more importantly, people that like the same stuff, and you listen to the same stuff. 

Your song, “Darker Now,” features mercury’s Maddie Kerr on background vocals, who I’m a huge fan of. I love their alt-rock sound. How was that collaboration process?

I've written a bunch with Maddie before. She actually wrote on one or two of the songs that are about to come out on my album. And the song “Darker Now,” there's just a kind of, like... I don't know if grunge is the word, but there's definitely an edgier sort of indie feel to it. I just instantly thought her voice would sound magical on it. I was grateful that she was down to sing on it.

In an instance like that, do you ever feel tied down to the folk-Americana, potentially indie, genre?

I mean, I couldn't be more proud of the record that’s to come. And it's definitely in the same lane as all the songs that I've released thus far. And it kind of feels like a graduation from them in a way, just 'cause it's a more actualized sound. But I love throwing paint at the wall and experimenting with new vibes, for sure. 

Is there a song on the album that you kinda wanna spotlight that you're most proud of?

I have a song coming out called “Drunk” that I'm really excited for. It just, it feels more mature than a lot of the music I have in terms of my vocal delivery and just the way that it was fleshed out. But the record's called Blue And Black, and one of my favorite songs on the record is the title track. That song is probably what I'm looking forward to the most. 

Is that a goal for you, going forward with music, to kind of move into a more mature sound? What does that mean for you?
I'm 21, so I guess it means just sounding older than I actually am. I just want to explore maybe more mature subject matter. And sometimes not even necessarily more mature, just more introspective.

That's fair, I totally get that. I want to talk about the emotions presented in your songwriting. In your process, do you feel like you're writing to process an emotion, or do you feel you've already processed it, and then you start writing?
I think it really varies. For me, I'll sometimes subconsciously write something in a way that I'm expressing what I'm too scared to say out loud, or I'm not comfortable in my skin to communicate unless it's through music. But also, I'll often sit down with the intention of writing about a certain traumatic experience or something that I have anxiety about or something that I’m just actively dealing with. 
Do you feel like there are things that maybe you’re better at communicating through music? Is there a limit to what kind of honesty you wanna put in a song, or are you just all in?

For sure. It's not uncomfortable when I'm writing about those subjects in the room, but it can be uncomfortable when I'm talking about them, for sure. And I find the way that I promote music to be deeply uncomfortable. I’ll post a video, and then I won't look at it. I can't look at my own Instagram page 'cause I'm like, "Holy shit, I look like such a weirdo right now, this is so weird." 

Well, I don't think you look weird. But I understand, you’re also opening yourself up to other people’s perception of you, your music.  But I was curious about that, how you feel after a song of yours does really well on social media. 

Thank you. I mean, yeah, not necessarily in terms of the recording or the audio of a song on Spotify, but rather the videos of them. I don't know, I'll meet producers before a session, and they'll just look at my socials. I think that they're anticipating me to be this really gloomy, dark, kind of depressed guy, and I don't think that's necessarily reflective of who I am.

That's a really interesting point. There’s so much more to a person than what they're putting on social media; it can really skew people’s perceptions. Do you feel like some of the more personal details that you can put in a song are often maybe more universal than you would ever think? Have you had a situation like that? 

Yeah, for sure. I wrote this song called “Too Close,” and I wrote it after meeting this girl's family, who I was dating for the first time, and I had never been in a relationship. I'd never been brought home, and I kind of grew up moving around a little bit, and I didn't really have the feeling of having a place to go back to and call my home. And so I was sort of overwhelmed with the emotion of meeting her grandparents and everything. 

And then I posted this song talking about it, and I didn't think it was a remarkably unique experience to me, but I didn't realize how many people resonated with that.  And I was getting paragraphs in the comment sections and in my DMs of people talking about how they felt that way when they met their spouse’s families. And I was really moved, but also, I was like, damn, y'all are sad. And I'm sad too. We can be sad together, it's chill. 

Definitely, I feel like that's also the opposite side of the spectrum, the good part of social media, too. There are so many people to be able to connect with. 

Yeah. Absolutely. Completely beneficial.

You mentioned earlier that you can go into the studio and finish a song in a day, but was there a song that was the hardest or took the longest to finish?

I don't know. Some of them can just sort of feel like long days. There's a song called “Dust” that's coming out, and Jack and I had been working together nonstop for like two weeks, and I think we were just super burnt out and exhausted. But that was two years ago, and revisiting the song with a fresh perspective is really exciting and really cool. 

Speaking of your collabs and going back to more of the themes on the album, how do you find it to collaborate with someone when you're talking about something more personal to you? How does that convey when you're collaborating?

I mean, it takes a long time. At least for me, it took a very long time to get comfortable talking about certain things that I find myself afflicted with in sessions with brand-new people. So I worked with Jack, you know, multiple times every week for over a year. And so you just become close with someone, and then you can articulate things in a way that's in a safe space, and it's, it's cathartic, and it's a really beautiful experience for sure. 

Wow, I guess I never really thought about that. You have to go into the studio with people who create a safe space. I really love that. Do you have any other goals in terms of music?

I would love to be on a headline tour in the next year. 

I’m manifesting that for you. 

You can listen to Conall Cafferty’s “Drunk” out now, and Blue and Black out July 17th.