With his debut album ‘In the Aftermath, We Bloom’ released this week, Bantry's Shimmer Boy speaks about quitting alcohol for good and the surprise bonus of having his music featured on hit UK reality TV show Made in Chelsea.

It’s one of those pinch-me moments for any music artist when one of their own songs gets to be featured in a popular reality TV show. 

That very moment happened to Bantry native Shimmer Boy (Aaron O’Sullivan) last October when his track ‘Under The Surface’ featured on Season 30 of E4’s ratings hit ‘Made in Chelsea’,  introducing him to a whole new audience worldwide.

The long-running reality series follows the lives and loves of a group of socially-elite 20-somethings who live in some of London’s most exclusive postcodes and affluent areas including Cheslea, Mayfair and Kensington.

‘It turned out an A&R person at Universal discovered the song on Spotify,’ revealed Aaron. ‘They then reached out to me to licence the song. It was so cool to be featured and to be honest I didn’t think it was really happening and thought it was a fake message earlier on.

‘It’s a great stepping stone for me and there was certainly more traffic on Spotify and there were lots of messages from people.’

Now based in Cork city, the 29-year-old learned his craft by playing in several bands and gigged in various venues in West Cork from an early age including De Barra’s in Clonakilty and the Paragon in Skibbereen. However, his musical education really took shape at the age of 19 when he first attended the Cork School of Music.

‘I was there for six years and studied jazz and popular music and song writing and I had a brilliant time studying there. It’s the people you meet when you are there that really makes it so good including the lecturers and fellow students too.’

He now holds a Master in Music Performance and spent a lot of time studying music from the 50s and 60s as well as early jazz.

Never shy to talk about his decision to give up alcohol, he said he fell into a trap of having a couple of pints with gigs.

‘Music and drink are hugely related and I fell into a trap of having a couple of pints at gigs and it became way too much of a regular habit for me. I was waking up not feeling great and my mental health was struggling too. I was just wasting a lot of my time and energy too.’

He said he battled with that for two of three years and noticed it was becoming a problem just before the pandemic and then took breaks from drinking on and off during periods of 2022 and 2023.

‘I stopped drinking in January 2024 and it’s singlehandedly the best thing I’ve ever did because I got control back. I wanted to show up at my gigs and know that I’m giving 100% while when I was drinking I was only giving 90%.’

He attended support groups for a couple of months which he found solace in.

‘It took about six months but there was an awakening and it felt like a veil lifting and some sort of gate opened and I was putting one hundred per cent into every gig and relationship. It’s almost like being broken from a chain.’

Shimmer Boy has been writing his own songs since he was teenager, but he started taking it a bit more seriously in his early 20s. 

‘I kind of committed to the craft of learning music and didn’t really think about releasing anything until about two years ago,’ he said. ‘I had a few ideas for songs and got some inspiration and had some collaborative sessions with people I knew who I played with before.’

He hit Clonakilty’s Wavefield Recording Studios in February of last year to transform the growing collection of demos into a cohesive body of work.

‘Brian Casey from Wavefield is brilliant and he was super to work with. It was a real fun process over the course of four months and it was great to get into the core of my songs.’

‘Hideaway’ is the fourth and final single to be released from his debut album and marks a move away from his previous tracks as he moves forward with a renewed sense of self-confidence and acceptance.

‘Hideaway is about trusting yourself, being yourself and not hiding away from life anymore.’

But it was his previous single ‘Mine Again’ which explored what it means to take ownership of one’s life again.

‘That song is about the moment where you realise you’ve changed and there’s no going back,’ he revealed. ‘It’s about taking responsibility for yourself, your patterns and choosing to evolve. It’s quiet, it’s powerful.

‘The whole album is a sort of like a self-discovery and going through the hurdles of life. The pandemic happened and then everything stopped. I burnt out but the album is looking back at the older version of myself.’

He is delighted that his album will be released on vinyl thanks to a company called Rotator Vinyl who are also produce special booklets which he added has some hidden messages on it too.

‘I designed the cover and booklet and the audio had to re-edited again to go onto the vinyl and there will be limited copies on my website.’

To coincide with the album releases he’s playing a series of gigs around the country including Coughlan’s in Cork city Friday July 3rd and The Music Zone in Togher on Saturday July 4th while he has also been confirmed to play both the Electric Picnic and Clonakilty Guitar Festival late this year.

‘In the Aftermath, We Bloom’ is now on general release and see www.shimmerboy.com for more details and tour dates.