Beauty Sleep: The Talented Duo on the Rise (Interview)
By We’re not the cherry on top — we’re the whole damn cake
The Derry duo’s second album, The Whole Damn Cake, is a glitter-soaked act of rebellion — a manifesto for joy, queerness, and self-worth. Beauty Sleep invite us into their world of radical happiness, ADHD creativity, and technicolour emotion.
Northern Ireland’s Beauty Sleep — the radical alt-pop partnership of Cheylene Murphy and Ryan McGroarty — have never been ones to blend quietly into the background. Their Second Album The Whole Damn Cake arrives as a bold, maximalist celebration of identity, built from synth-driven dreamscapes, glossy guitars and unapologetic emotion
Written, recorded, and produced in their self-built studio The Dream Factory, the album feels like both a creative homecoming and a joyful rebellion. It’s the sound of two artists reclaiming space, refusing to shrink, and finding freedom in being “too much.”
Kieran: That phrase — “We’re not the cherry on top; we’re the whole damn cake” — has become the album’s defining statement. How did it come about?
Chey and Ryan: We were trying to encapsulate how we felt about ourselves and the journey of discovery we went on – it was messy and big and had many ups and downs, but ultimately at the end of it we felt totally different in such a positive way. How to sum that up in an album title! We were just thinking about how we felt, and that phrase just came from the gut. This album is really about reclaiming space, about living life joyously despite being pushed aside or told you’re too silly, too weird, too much. It’s an empowering album that we hope makes people who feel like us feel seen and celebrated.
Kieran: Radical Happiness is the compass of the record. What does that phrase mean to you now?
Chey and Ryan: When we wrote it, it felt scary and trite, like something we might never achieve and maybe it’s not important anyway. Now, I mean we quote those lyrics to ourselves all the time still – especially “So what if I’ve made mistakes, I’ll embrace them cause I’m in control” because we make mistakes every day! It’s a reminder that we can do anything we put our minds to, and that we are in control, and life is for having FUN, so you better make the most of it.
Kieran: Chey, your ADHD diagnosis clearly shaped the creative process. How did that feed into the record?
Chey and Ryan: It’s woven into a lot of it – we went on a journey to understand ourselves more while we were writing this record and learning that about myself in my late 20s totally shifted my view of myself, my life, my future… both good and bad. Ultimately, it’s helped me make more sense of my brain and that knowledge has helped me to be kinder to myself. Stars is addressing it directly – but in a positive light, because learning about ADHD, I realised although it is my worst traits, it is also my best traits. And a lot of people close to me are also neurodivergent (that’s very common – people who understand you become friends with; it’s been a big shift for a lot of us at once!) and they are my favourite people. So… it’s a song celebrating the goodness of that. I think the restlessness, frustration, executive dysfunction, anxiety, confusion. You can hear that in a lot of the songs. Unfamiliar and No Fever Ever Lasts maybe especially!
Kieran: You recorded the album in your own studio, The Dream Factory. How did that change things this time round?
Chey and Ryan: We recorded the core live instruments in Start Together Studios and started to mix it there too. And the cost and the managing schedules felt too much. We had the opportunity to get a space with Vault Artists Studios and we jumped at it. Building our own studio through this album process was so key, it felt so freeing and helped us experiment more and put the pieces together more… because you could go there, any day, no warning, flick one switch and everything was plugged in and turned on, that gave us so much more time and space to figure it out and made us realise how much we want to create and collaborate with others more as a production duo!
Kieran: The record swings from glittery empowerment to emotional catharsis. How do you balance the sparkle with the substance?
Chey and Ryan: Aah, that’s just who we are! We are like that. We care and think very deeply, but we love and are inspired by the sparkly communal moments of life. People call us the life of the party, and we are, but we also struggle a lot mentally, which I think many described life-of-the-partiers could relate too. Music is a place where we can make sense of our emotions, but it is also our happy place, so the sparkles come out, as do the sads!!
Kieran: Queer joy runs all through The Whole Damn Cake. Was it important to make that part of the story?
Chey and Ryan: Yes, because it was a part of that story. We are both queer people and have been intentionally not that open about that over the years – we didn’t feel it was our place as we are also a married couple and straight presenting, so we didn’t want to take up space. But being more involved in the queer community and just being more open about who we are, casually, has been the most freeing and empowering thing. We’re just not hiding anything; we’re being who we are. And the queer community has brought us such love, joy and support and we are so proud to be a part of it.
Kieran: “Stars” feels like a love letter to neurodivergent connection. How have fans reacted to it?
Chey and Ryan: Don’t know yet!! I can never tell until we play it live. And we start our tour this Thursday (the 20th) in The Empire in Belfast – our biggest show to date! Then we’re off around the UK & Ireland for a 12-date tour. Seen some tags and some messages, but hopefully people connect to it on their own terms, that’s always what I love about songwriting, it’s a mirror more than anything else.
Kieran: You’ve described the record as born from burnout and frustration. How did you turn that into something so hopeful?
Chey and Ryan: Because you have to have hope to move forward. Hope is scary, change is scary, and we were terrified making this record. But we are a lot happier now, on the other side of that journey. It starts with frustration (why change if you’re not frustrated) and then with hope. Then its effort, exploration, celebration and then… to quote a line in Keep Your Eyes Up… Change happens all at once
Kieran: You’ve had major moments — SXSW, Electric Picnic, over a million streams — but this record feels personal. What does success mean to you now?
Chey and Ryan: Success means getting to tour, getting to make another record. Just enough traction to allow us to keep doing this because we love it more than anything. Playing live gigs especially feels like the biggest success – meeting fans, playing shows with them. It’s everything to us!
Kieran: You’ve called yourselves “silly, sexy weirdos” and “intergalactic hotties.” What’s next for Beauty Sleep?
Chey and Ryan: We want to continue to tour, play some festivals, maybe get over to Europe. We want to keep writing music, we hope our next album takes us less time!! We want to meet more people and make more art. We hope you join us for the journey, and like some of the music and shows we create!
Chey and Ryan have built their own world — sticky with sparkle, drenched in emotion, and completely theirs. The Whole Damn Cake is a riot of joy, queerness, and self-love, and listening to it feels like being invited to the best party you didn’t know you needed. Beauty Sleep aren’t the cherry on top, folks — they’re the damn cake, and it’s about time we all dug in. Thank you so much to Chey and Ryan for taking the time to chat with us.
THE ALBUM
The Whole Damn Cake is out now on all streaming platforms.
Stream The Whole Damn Cake
Beauty Sleep are nominated for the 2025 Northern Irish Music Prize.
ARTIST BIO
Beauty Sleep are Derry-based duo Cheylene Murphy and Ryan McGroarty, known for their genre-bending mix of alt-pop, dream-pop, and indie-rock shimmer. Their lush, emotionally charged sound explores themes of queerness, self-discovery, and neurodivergent identity.
The pair have performed at SXSW, Electric Picnic, and Other Voices, earning acclaim from Hot Press, CLASH, and BBC Radio 6 Music. Their latest record, The Whole Damn Cake, was produced entirely in their DIY studio, The Dream Factory — a celebration of radical joy and unapologetic self-expression.