Interview: Michael Gallagher

Michael Gallagher has been keeping busy since branching out of Hartlepool and working on his craft: canny, catchy indie tunes that swiftly win over a crowd. With a stint at Glastonbury last year, he’s ever-broadening his horizons and gaining more and more admirers along the way.

Since last year, he’s been releasing singles from his upcoming EP, Soul Food, out this Friday (19th July) starting with Plastic Dreams, Pour Me Another, Wonderstruck, Home, and releasing with a final, title track. Recorded at Kemston Street Studios in Liverpool with producer Alex Quinn, who has worked with the likes of The Zutons and The Royston Club, Gallagher had set himself the challenge to “try and write a song a week”, ensuring they each had a week of focus with some headspace left between them, resulting in clear-cut themes throughout.

Gallagher gives a rundown of the changing messages throughout Soul Food: “Each track is different, Soul Food is the love song and coming up out of the darkness. Then you’ve got Plastic Dreams which is not a romantic song and instead about hating where the music industry is and having to make TikTok videos – I was just having a bit of fun with that one […] and then there’s Home, which is about loving my hometown and moving away and missing my Mam. And then there’s Pour Me Another which is a reference to Peep Show” the latter being hilarious reference to Alan Johnson catching and mocking pretend-sober Mark Corrigan in the hit show.

Is there significance to the uplifting, title track being the final single? The singer-songwriter affirms “Soul Food sounded like a good title for an EP so I thought I’d release that last and make it the title track…” but also admitting, “…It’s a bit of a love song and it did come from the soul, so that’s really why”.

Some of these tracks were recorded back in 2024, he points out as reminisces on his time in the studio, so they’ve been waiting impatiently for an official release whilst Gallagher teased them during his live shows and garnered reactions, including on a support slot with Miles Kane back in February which he declares as, “One of my favourite gigs ever”.

Compared to his previous releases he says that “The new songs are stronger and the songwriting is a lot better”. Putting that claim to the test and looking back at one of his first releases, All Night, from 2018, Gallagher’s songwriting has evidently gotten more multidimensional whilst holding on to the mood-raising vitality rooted in all his music.

Gallagher might be preparing for his next EP but he’s not settling there, just having finished recording his debut album, set for release in 2027. So if you can’t get enough of Soul Food then fear not as more will be coming soon it seems.

It seems he’ll always have a soft spot for his hometown, luckily for Teesside locals, as he’s returning to Hartlepool Town Hall for a special show coming up on 14th November, and tickets are released on Friday, the same day as his new EP – consider it a bundle! Gallagher cheekily adds “I played Hartlepool Town Hall in 2022 and sold it out,” so judging by that, fans eager to see him play ought to get their tickets sooner rather than later.