Photo credit Barry McCall
Tell us about your tour vehicle.
Well I usually do tour bus rental when I arrive or my agent does tour management too so we travel in his tour van and usually do ground backline rental depending where we are and what we need.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Oh that’s a hard one as I actually do try to eat healthy when at home. I’m probably like everyone else – take what I can get and try to squeeze healthy bits in when I find them along the way. Usually it’s more like the post tour detox and get healthy again afterwards kind of routine with me.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
Not that many actually. A set is like €20/25 in Ireland I think, the last time I bought them.
Where do you rehearse?
I am blessed that I actually have a small home studio / rehearsal space at home as I like in a renovated horse barn on my family’s land so we had plenty of space here.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
‘Here to Stay’ was the title of my first song effort. It wasn’t a great song, but it got me going so I do always remember it. Very rock ballad kind of a thing.
Describe your first gig.
Horrible. I played a gig with my sisters whom I was in a band with when we were younger. A R’n’R version of The Corrs. Except we played rock covers. We were asked to play at a footballers dinner party. They totally hated us, they were not looking for R’n’R let’s say and we died a death.
It was a toughening up first gig experience!
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
Well, I always have tried to make money from music one way or another. But when I was young, I worked in my parents, shop and fuel station. I did like meeting all the characters who came in and out.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
You know that’s a funny one.
Covid was obviously a non-earning time from a live music perspective, then we made a record in California.
We managed to get some nice USA booking and we were busy live again and then we made a record last year again in the USA. We haven’t been as busy with live shows in the last year, as we are working on the new record promotion, etc., before we start up again, I hope. But definitely in the last 6 month the touring economy has really collapsed. It already was a struggle in many ways but last year it became unsustainable.
We kept getting hit with higher costs for everything from fuel, flights, backline hire, accommodation and food… everything. Merchandise keeps changing in terms of what works, where and downloading still such a non-lucrative revenue stream. I hate being negative, but it almost feels like it’s an industry to needs to collapse so we can rebuild it stronger.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
That it is more important to have something to say and know how you want to say it, then trying to sound / play great but without a message.