Damian McGinty is all smiles over Zoom from a coffee shop in America. He’s currently on tour with his group, Celtic Symphony and his schedule is jampacked.
So a coffee shop Zoom is the best we ask for. And he’s just so effortlessly charming, even with people yelling in the background.
This tour is the longest he’s been away from seven-month-old Daisy, his daughter who he shares with his American wife, Anna Claire Sneed.
The Glee star and Dancing with the Stars alum may be in a new stage of his life, but music will always be his guiding star. We chat about his new EP, Leaning Into Love, parenting and his grá for Nashville.
Hey Damian! You have new music coming out, tell us a bit about your new EP Leaning Into Love.
Leaning Into Love is a project born this year, it really started in the last quarter of 2023 when me and my wife found out we were having our first baby, our daughter, Daisy. I’ve been writing now for five or six years and when I found out we were having a wee girl I was very inspired by that. I was so inspired by this new chapter in life and was so curious about what it was going to look like. Songwriting is a way for me to process my emotions. It is work of course and it is really challenging to create these things.
It really is like your diary then?
The reason I love songwriting is that it is a way of getting how I feel on paper. I feel like most ordinary people keep a diary, but I create songs, whatever I’m feeling that day and I always leave the songwriting session feeling much better. That’s what I did, I put all my anxieties, my fears and my hopes about what this next chapter of our life was going to look like into the EP. The first song I wrote was ‘A Million and Aways’ which is the last track on the EP and that is very pointed towards Daisy obviously and very specifically about her being born. The title track ‘Leaning to Love’ was born out of fear because it was the day in the studio where I was like all I have ever known is a life of following my career and my ambitions and working hard and balancing my career and life. It is great that my wife is also in the industry so we both get it but I have never known what it is like to exist for someone else and to actually be there and look after someone else. I was having a day when the idea felt quite scary and that is where leaning to love came out of. It is an overview of the whole scenario and realising that typically when you face your fears and do lean into love. You choose love, you choose joy and you choose positive things and things often turn out to be okay.
That’s so beautiful! What’s it like being a dad?
It is incredible, it is like the first three months, as everyone would tell you, are very challenging. I was lucky, I was able to create my work schedule so could plan my work for April and May. I wasn’t going to be on the road, I wasn’t going to be shooting any projects. I actually turned a few things down. I turned down a show back home that I couldn’t do. I wasn’t working during those months because that is all I’ve done since I was 14. I feel like I deserved those three months of just being there every day. We were living in Nashville, so I was able to go into the studio from nine to five every day. The first three months were life-changing but also very challenging. We are very fortunate that Daisy has slept very well since she was two months old. She sleeps 12 hours through the night, she gets that after her ma. [Laughs] When you have that you can face most challenges because you are well rested. I think the really harder struggle is the first few months of trying to keep this human being alive, which you have never done before. If my wife is working. You can’t just leave the house and grab a coffee which I have never thought of. She is so joyful and has added so much to our lives.
It must be tough, being on tour now you’re a dad.
I was on tour in June with my own stuff and now I am with Celtic Thunder in September, and October and I finish November 18th. So, I’m in South Carolina as I talk to you. It is about that balance to be honest of being this is what I do. I’m in the music and entertainment industry and to be quite honest I’m not really that good at anything else. This is my job. This is how I provide for my family and how I’m going to provide for Daisy and her education and her life. It is a balance of not what to be on the road but also if you get the opportunity for work and it is on the road it is challenging to be like no I can’t do that. June was the first time we had Daisy; I did a run of my own original music for a few weeks. I always say in situations like this is that you are only as good as your partner and my wife is absolutely incredible because this is a bigger job for her than it is for me. If I’m missing Daisy and I’m struggling, I can suppress that. I need my wife to be strong back home and she has been unbelievable.
You’re living in Nashville now. Is that a dream come true for you?
I will say that starting out, Nashville was never the long-term plan for me. I had worked in the States since I was 14 and I was coming back to Ireland for half a year because I was still in school and my family. We actually got a place in Ireland which is great for Daisy and us. It was when I met my wife that I got into songwriting. My wife’s family is from Tennessee, so it just made sense. Nashville is a good fit for us. It is a great place. As I said we have a place in Ireland, so we hope to be their four or five months of the year next year.
Is it important to you that Daisy grows up with those Irish values?
1000 per cent! I married very well, and my wife wants that as well. We are very proud about the fact that I am from Ireland and want Daisy to have that in her upbringing. It is vitally important to me. I think as people we aren’t bad. [Laughs] I wouldn’t change the way I was raised at all. Obviously with the American side of things as well, the way my life and career went. I think it is just with the opportunity level here in Ireland, it isn’t as big as it is in the States and that is just the reality of it. For example, you could never go for a two-and-a-half-month tour in Ireland you would be doing 25 laps of the country. The way my life has been my career has always been primarily based out here (U.S.). we have a place now in Ireland, so we are going to spend a lot more time out there. Me and my wife are both up for that, she is a big adventure person, and she loved Dancing With The Stars. She loved living in Dublin for four months. I think initially she thought it would be two weeks because I couldn’t dance, but it went pretty well. She absolutely loved it so we are definitely going to be spending time above. The only time when there is going to be a bigger conversation is when it is time for school, we are not quite there yet.
What is the biggest life lesson you have learned so far?
To definitely chase every dream you want to chase and do it with enthusiasm and a hard work ethic, but also never let a job define you. In this industry, that is often because they let their jobs define their self-worth. I think that is something that has also helped me. Maybe that is why I have been consistent since I was 14 because I have never ever been desperate. If I don’t get this job it is going to be ok. It has been fine to this point, it will continue to be fine. Glee might possibly be in my career the biggest and most famous thing I will ever do because let’s face it, it was one of the astronomically biggest TV shows. Actually, if I was being transparent some of the most difficult times of my career were during that two-year cycle. I was able to come out the end of that and realise that the size of things doesn’t really dictate the contentment or the happiness, or the money doesn’t dictate the contentment or the happiness. Do the projects that you love, obviously we all need to make a living but needless to say the nicer the living you make the better. Money brings comfort not happiness. So, I have just learnt, do not ever let your career define you.
With all the reboot rumours of late, would you go back to Glee?
I’d do it again. I learnt so much it got me to where I am today like it was such a great project. I loved the show. It brought bigger swings in emotions, bigger highs and bigger lows and I think that was the nature of that show. When I am out of professional mode, I’m quite shy so I thought great I’d be famous, because I don’t really want to get recognised because it makes me uncomfortable.
Damian’s new EP Leaning Into Love is out now
