Flower Of The Mountain
With a name like Shaefri, this 18 year-old Mayo lass was hardly destined to be an IT consultant, but, luckily, as her debut EP Venture demonstrates, she’s a perfect fit for the pop charts. words Celina Murphy
Celina Murphy, 08 Feb 2012
Countless artists have rocked the one-word stage name over the years, from Aaliyah to Zorro (admittedly, not the best singer but nifty with a rapier), and with good reason too. After all, it’s a big job trying to fit Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong on a jewel case, and who’s going to remember that Björk’s second name is Buomundsdottir? There’s just one thing for budding pop stars to remember: if you’re going to go by a single name, make it a good one.
“I always thought my name was weird when I was younger,” 18 year-old singer songwriter Shaefri tells me, “but I quite like it now. I was named after the Sheeffry Hills in Mayo, which absolutely no-one seems to know exist, even the people who live there! My parents changed the spelling of it, because I lived in London for the first part of my life and they didn’t want people calling me Sheeffry!”
“We’ve lived pretty much half and half since I was six,” she adds, promptly confessing her love for her part-time home of Co. Mayo. “It’s a beautiful area,” she beams.
Still, I don’t imagine little Shaefri was too thrilled about the idea of spending her summers in a sleepy Irish village.
“I was really excited, actually,” she says. “When you’re so small it’s so, so magical being over there in the wilderness beside the sea and obviously I’d never really had that living in London, so I suppose I got the best of both worlds.”
She can say that again. Shaefri’s musical upbringing consisted of half Irish folk, half mainstream pop, leaving her to sound a bit like a trad-raised Adele. Does she remember her first taste of Irish music?
“I must have been really small. Dad would play Christy Moore for us and Clannad, so I’ve been listening to ‘Ride On’ from the cradle! I guess it stuck!
‘It probably would have been different if we hadn’t moved,” she reflects. “All the old Irish trad songs are kind of winding stories and I tried that out with my own stuff, not the style of playing but the instruments and the melodies that old folk has. I don’t think that would have happened otherwise.”
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