Moncrieff: From Adele’s backing singer to leading man: "Growing up in Ireland, singing was almost seen as gay"

Once a backing singer for one of the best-selling artists of all time in Adele, Moncrieff now finds himself putting out singles where his fans already know the words before release day. This is thanks to him putting the hours in on tour, and his tracks being used all over TikTok. Moncrieff talks to Headliner about his journey from a small town in Ireland, shoutouts from Elton John, overcoming personal tragedy and his 2023 EP, Highways and Hurricanes.

Moncrieff grew up in the small seaport of Waterford in the Irish southeast. He was hit by unimaginable tragedy in his teenage years when he lost both his older brother and sister to cystic fibrosis in the space of a few years, a grief he refers to in his songs many times. At 19, having spent time studying law in the city of Cork, he made the decision to move to London to pursue music.

“Growing up in a small town in Ireland, there was no avenue to properly do music,” he says. “And singing and songwriting was almost seen as gay — some people actually had this homophobic view of it. And like any 14-year-old, I just wanted to keep my head down and blend in with the crowd. 

"It was only when my brother and sister passed away when I was 16 and then 18 that music became essential to me. That really broke down my idea of what people might think of me. It’s hard to care anymore after something like that. You’re no longer the same person.”

On moving away from Ireland and down to London at such a young age, he says “I didn’t really have a clue about how to live in a big city. It was really, really hard at first. I didn’t have the skills as a songwriter or performer yet either. But for the first year or so, I just went to open mics every night and worked at a restaurant during the day for £6.30 an hour. 

"I’d get the bus across town to these open mics, I’d put my name down, and a lot of the time you wouldn’t even get to perform. But when I did get to go up on stage, it didn’t go terribly and that gave me hope and kept me going.”

After this year in the trenches of open mics, a few fairly amazing things happened for Moncrieff that would quickly elevate him above being seen as the scraps at these gigs. He unexpectedly managed to get work as a backing singer for Adele. And a brush with another incredibly famous artist — Elton John played Moncrieff’s debut single Symptoms on his radio show, Rocket Hour.

“I’d only been in London a year and a half,” he says. “I was at this open mic and I’d befriended this drummer. He hit me up the following day and said, ‘I’ve got this session with Adele next week, are you around?’ I thought he must mean some other Adele! 

"It was a BBC TV special, and it was my first ever paid gig in music. I never thought of myself as a session musician. But it was such a treat, I had my in-ears on and I had Adele singing straight into my ears. I was taking notes about all the production and thinking, ‘This will be me one day, hopefully!’”

This year saw the release of five-track EP Highways and Hurricanes, featuring two very big singles for Moncrieff, Perfect and What Am I Here For. The former is a piano-led ballad that wonderfully showcases the power of his voice, which swells over the course of the track with strings and a backing choir. It’s one of his most streamed songs, and by the time you’re reading this, it will have broken one million streams on Spotify alone.

What Am I Here For, on the other hand, is a much bigger pop anthem with accompanying synths, guitar and a higher BPM befitting the epic tale Moncrieff writes about. He explains that it's, “One of the first songs that I wrote that I actually liked five years ago. It’s about a time when I basically lost my mind. 

"There was a very special person who really saved me during the times I was grieving for my brother and just treading water. When I moved to London we ended up splitting up. I later found out they’d started seeing someone new, and it was with the person they always tell you not to worry about!

“I had this mental idea that if I drove home, got the ferry back from London, and turned up at their door that everything would be fine. So I did that, I rocked up, and we went for a drive. I said how I felt and there was a lot of crying. And there was a lot of ‘It’s going to be all right.’ But it was never going to be alright — it didn’t work out, surprise surprise. But I got a good song out of it!”

Since then, he’s dropped a stunning video for the deeply important track from the EP, Young Men, announced another upcoming single and sold out the presale for his UK and central Europe tour in Autumn. A small town lad with huge dreams and ambitions, which we’re seeing materialise in front of our eyes.