Shadowplay

Magherafelt may not strike you as the best lift-off spot for a career in pop music. But travel back in time to Bryson's Bar in the mid-Noughties and you'll find a crowd of kids forming bands, attending gigs, and dreaming up grand plans. General Fiasco and Duke Special started off there – as did Shauna Tohill's Silhouette.
"We weren't taking things too seriously,” says the singer-songwriter. "We were all in bands and playing in each other's groups. We were young and everything was so much fun. Magherafelt is a great place. There's a big group of rockers in the town – and, with a venue like Bryson's, there's always loads of live music. Then you'd people like Peter Fleming and Paddy Glasgow being really encouraging. It's a real little hub.”
Tohill's youthful front-row presence at most of the gigs taking place in her hometown was entirely predictable in light of her family background. Not only are her parents both respected local musicians, her grandmother, Eileen Donaghy, was a well-known folk singer (credited with having recorded the definitive version of "My Lagan Love') who enjoyed success on both sides of the Atlantic.
Yet while it's no shock to discover she inherited the family's musical gene, it's still a bit of a surprise to find out just how early on it manifested itself.
"I wrote my first song when I was eight,” she laughs. "Alvin and The Chipmunks had a song called "Rock and Roll Chipmunks' and it was all about a Chipmunk forming a band with his brothers. I said to my sisters, "why can't we do that?' and went upstairs and wrote a reply to it. It was actually alright. I might play it even again sometime.”
Thankfully, in recent years, Shauna has drawn inspiration from other less animated sources.
After moving to Belfast following the break-up of her band Angel Fall, she picked up session work with the likes of Joe Echo and Cat Malojian. More significantly, though, her early days on Lagan-side saw her make the first tentative steps in dreaming up a compelling solo persona.
"I didn't really know anyone in Belfast, " she says, " so I spent a lot of time on my own, just trying to decide what to do next. I wanted to experiment, and, much as I loved being in a band, I felt like I wanted to write songs that were personal to me. It all came together slowly. I can remember listening to the Dresden Dolls and not really liking them too much, but then I went to see Amanda Palmer live and she blew me away. She's so much passion, the most amazing voice. That was a big turning point.”
Since then, writing and performing under the Silhouette banner, Shauna has very obviously been on a mission to broaden her ambitions. As evidenced by her debut single, "Volume Destroyed', Silhouette is a consciously pop-tinged enterprise. However, it's pop of the moody, emotionally serious kind. The kind that, for example, you'd find on a Robyn album.
"The reason I've always wanted to do this is to reach out,” she explains, "I want to affect people's moods. Whenever I was younger – even listening to someone like Avril Lavigne – I was going through quite a lot, and it helped me. Music is a big shoulder to lean on. That's always been my ambition – to write songs that people are moved by and can connect with emotionally.”
To this end, Shauna has decided to take an unconventional approach to playing live. The next few weeks will see her perform in a hotel lobby, a train station, and the arrival lounge in Aldergrove – all in an effort to shake up the consensus.
"It can be tough playing in bars,” she says. "I don't mind it and it's good to play songs to people in that environment if you want to spread the word. I'm interested in playing places a bit different – in putting on shows that are a little bit out of the ordinary. I've a champagne and cup cakes show coming up, and I'm thinking of booking a magician. Playing in the Arrivals Lounge or a train station, I think it's a good way of introducing yourself, of brightening up places that can be a wee bit grim.”