For nearly three decades, Foy Vance has written songs that have traveled with him through the winding roads of his life.
Some found their way onto albums, while others sat untouched for years, waiting for the right moment to be heard.
Now, the Northern Irish singer-songwriter is giving those forgotten songs a second life with “IF,” his forthcoming three-part album exploring identity, belonging and the relationships that shape us.
The first installment, “IF: WE,” just arrived Friday, Oct. 30, ahead of Vance’s two-night stop at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles on Nov. 6 and 7 as part of his 2026 Foy Vance World Tour.
Unlike previous records, Vance said the creative process behind “IF” felt unusually effortless. Rather than entering the studio with a particular vision, he handed longtime friend and producer Anderson East a collection of 119 songs spanning nearly three decades and gave him complete creative freedom.
“There wasn’t a day that went by where he didn’t pick a song that I was surprised he picked out,” Vance shared during a recent phone interview. “In fact, a lot of the songs that I put in that folder and sent to him, I had forgotten about. When I was making that folder, I was just going through listening, and any song that resonated with me is something that I felt I could still engage with and could still maybe find a way to articulate for myself now.”
The process resulted in 16 recordings, including songs Vance had written for his earliest albums but never released. Revisiting them also brought an unexpected sense of tenderness toward the younger songwriter who first put those words to paper.
“During the writing process, I can be quite harsh on myself, or harsh on the songs. You know, they’re not good enough. They’re not strong enough,” he said. “But I think engaging with them now, having been around for a while, I felt, I don’t know, I guess perhaps proud without wanting to sound proud. I think I felt a little bit proud of the guy that wrote them.”
The collection unfolds in three acts: “IF: WE,” centered on family, community and belonging; “IF: YOU,” exploring love, forgiveness and relationships; and “IF: I,” which returns the focus inward.
For Vance, the word “if” also carries a deeply personal connection to his late father, who frequently recited Rudyard Kipling’s poem of the same name. After his father’s death, Vance found comfort in its message of perseverance and balance.
“My dad would recite to me as often as he could the poem by Rudyard Kipling,” he said. “It’s written from a father to a son, you know, a way in which to live your life. It shows you how to be balanced in all things. It’s just such a hopeful word.”
That sense of reflection has followed Vance onto the stage. For the first time in his career, he’s touring with a structured setlist, allowing him to revisit different eras of his music while finding new ways to connect with each song. One of those is “Feel the Cold,” a song written nearly three decades ago about returning to Ireland after spending time in the Canary Islands and confronting personal loss.
“The cold, sober truths of life are different now, but the sentiment is still the same,” Vance said. “I’m really enjoying singing that song, and for it to still feel relevant all these years later.”
As for what he hopes audiences take away from his Los Angeles performances, Vance isn’t interested in prescribing how listeners should interpret his music.
“Hopefully, they’ll leave a bit better than they came in,” he said. “I would say that’s a sign of a good set. If you get taken apart and put back together with a few bits of spare that you never need in the first place, that’s not a bad place.”