Describe your sound in 3 words

Nocturnal anxious vibes.

Is CRISIS MUSIC a personal song? Tell us the main idea behind it.

It’s definitely a very personal song. Through most of 2019 and pretty much the first half of 2020 I was mentally going through an especially tough time. You could definitely say I was having a bit of a crisis, like a quarter-life crisis I guess? I spent a lot of time getting stuck thinking about problems in the future that didn’t even exist yet and being overly anxious about how my life was going to turn out. When I wasn’t overthinking my future, I was stuck thinking about past mistakes and where it went wrong with people that I miss in my life. I wasn’t really present at all for that whole time period and kind of lost touch with where I was going and the pandemic hitting really didn’t help things. I spent so much time thinking about how I could feel like I wasted my time in the future, that I was actually wasting my time in the present.

As bad as the pandemic was/has been, when things were just starting to open up for a little while last summer, I had a nice break from work and things like that and got to spend fun times with some good people, and had some time to think about how I was approaching things. I just had a nice stroke of luck in my life that lifted me out of those bad thoughts and I was able to find ways to stop thinking that way.

It’s funny how some people think artists need to be really depressed or whatever to make art, I’m the opposite, I hadn’t made a good song in like a year at that point, it wasn’t until I felt good that I was able to be creative, and I was able to use those feelings I experienced and explore them musically. CRISIS MUSIC was the first song that really got me back on track with making music I was happy with. It’s worth mentioning that I made CRISIS MUSIC around November 2020 and just took a while to release it, so compared to the stuff I have ready to go now, it seems pretty old and not as good, but because it was the first that really got me going in the direction that I wanted, it just has a special place for me.

You have experience playing in cover bands. How different is it to play your original music in front of the audience?

Unfortunately, I haven’t got the chance yet to play my original music in front of an audience yet. It’s always been a dream of mine, I love performing. Even from a really young age performing in local pantomimes and plays and things like that, I’ve always wanted to be able to put on a show that I have control over that would let me express myself and have fun. Hopefully live music can come back properly soon and I hope that I’ll get the opportunity to experience that soon!

What do you love/hate in Ireland and particularly the place you are based called Kilkee?

Ireland is a great place. I love the culture, the history, the people and so many different beautiful places around the country. I’m not really the type of person to be super patriotic and go really hard for my country for no reason, but I genuinely am proud to say that I’m from Ireland. It’s worth mentioning too how many great artists are coming out of the country at the moment, I can’t wait to see the Irish music scene grow even more.
If I had to pick something I don’t like about the place it would have to be the way the country is ran honestly. Sometimes it feels like we’re just stuck in a cycle where nothing ever changes. It really feels like big corporations and money are the most important things here sometimes. When you have such great culture and people everywhere, it’s just such a shame to see the people in charge just trying to throw that all away in favour of profit, but I suppose that’s kind of how a lot of countries are when I think about it.

I don’t want to leave this on a negative note, you have moments like marriage equality and repeal the 8th that happened which were amazing things (the people that happened to be in charge at the time these happened take a lot of credit for them, it was the people that organised, campaigned and voted that got these done) and I definitely don’t take those achievements for granted.

Kilkee is a small seaside town that I grew up in. It gets a lot of tourists and almost anywhere I go (even other countries) I meet someone who knows Kilkee and has nice memories there. It’s funny, I used to hear so many people talk about how nice of a place it was and I realise I took it for granted for a long time. I think that happens to everyone, you just don’t really think of the place you grew up in the same way as other people because you’re so used to it. After being away in college and working for a while, I got to stay there a bit longer a little while ago and I got to just enjoy my time there with friends and I realised how nice of a place it really is. I really gained a whole new appreciation for it.

Favourite album of the past year?

I’d probably have to go with Call Me If You Get Lost by Tyler, the Creator. He’s so good at everything he does and he’s done it again with this album. I love how gritty it is.
I feel like a lot of people would give that answer so for a more underrated pick I would go with Wrestling by Kučka, she’s a great singer and producer and that album is really good.

What is the most useless talent you have?

Probably being able to eat a chicken wing in one bite. Whenever I’m in a big group and we get wings that’s kind of my party trick. I guess some people would argue that eating wings efficiently isn’t really useless, but that’s the best I’ve got.

When not writing music, how do you spend your time?

Mostly video games in my spare time. I really like sports games (which is actually a curse with how expensive that hobby is) like 2K and FIFA but I usually cycle through them and others every so often. I’m a huge wrestling fan so I’ve been playing the WWE games and watching shows my whole life. I play a lot of Red Dead Online with my friend too. Outside of my spare time I also have work and college.
I like to stay up really late when I can, that’s usually when I make my best music, so it’s not too intrusive with my responsibilities right now, but I’d definitely like to see what it would be like doing music full time in the future if it was possible.

Thank you!

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