'WAKE is about gathering together to celebrate the very act of being alive'

Alma Kelliher is a composer, sound designer and musician based in Dublin. She works across a range of media, from large-scale theatre to dance, live art, film, commercials and everything inbetween.

She is the musical brain behind THISISPOPBABY's smash hit show RIOT (2016), and its 'bolshy sibling' WAKE, which returns to Dublin's National Stadium for three weeks this March.

Below, Alma revists her time with her POPBABY family, and celebrates to power of 'gathering together to celebrate the very act of being alive'.

"Find your tribe and love them fiercely"

My tribe and I have been going strong for about 14 years now and I love them. They love me fiercely too. Then again, THISISPOPBABY do everything fiercely. Not a single half measure to be found.

I first met the POPBABIES at Electric Picnic where my deranged pop-vocal/trad mash-up group called Pop Ceili first came into being, created by Megan Riordan, Ruth McGill and me. I had never performed in public before and THISISPOPBABY packed the tent to the door and beyond. I did not have a clue what I was doing, but it was full of heart and raggedy, thumping tunes and the POPBABIES loved it. We struck up a creative friendship and have made countless shows together over the last dozen or so years.

This is the place where WAKE lives - at the crossroads between roaring-trad-kitchen-rave and glittering-music-festival-elation.

We staged a dark and moody musical called Elevator, we toured the world with RIOT (WAKE's brash and bolshy sibling), we scaled the walls of IMMA to sing in siren harmony at WERK and we brought Tara Flynn's Not a Funny Word to life at the height of the Repeal campaign. Each show was made with pure heart and hard work.

And then came WAKE; a slow burn of a show that had been percolating for many years. This show aimed to incorporate lots of live music and delve deeper into traditional Irish culture, so in 2018 they sent me to Willie Clancy Music Week in Clare to meet some trad players and take some whistle lessons. I found myself in the back kitchen of Cleary's bar with a lad sitting on the washing machine, playing the whistle. There was also a man on the accordion playing a polka like a demon with a style so distinctive and so aggressive that he brought the whole room straight to euphoria. People were screaming, myself included. Dishes in the dresser beside me were shaking with all the dancing, alongside the Clearys' wedding photos, quivering to the beat. Tears of joy streamed down my face and I knew, before I'd written a single note that WAKE was going to be special.

You see, this is the place where WAKE lives - at the crossroads between roaring-trad-kitchen-rave and glittering-music-festival-elation. With a live band comprised of incredible session players and trad players, we ride the waves of the poignant and the pulsating with a foot in both musical worlds.

And then there's the heart of the thing: WAKE is about gathering together to celebrate the very act of being alive. It's about being present with all that we've lost and all that we still have and all that we hope for. It's about holding each other tight, about dancing, about raising our voices to the sky and feeling it all fully. It's a glittering, wild, pulsing and irreverent catharsis and a damn good night out. Come join us. Maybe we're your tribe too. And if we are, you can bet we'll love you fiercely.

WAKE returns to the National Stadium, Dublin, from 6th – 23rd March, as part of St Patrick’s Festival 2024 - find out more here.