The Paul Brady Podcast

Legendary singer-songwriter Paul Brady has just released the most challenging album of his career. Andrew Hamilton chats to the Strabane songsmith about changing direction, growing old and the freedom that comes when you just stop caring.

Giving up and not caring are very different things. When you give up and resign yourself to defeat, sooner or later you must entertain the idea that maybe, just maybe, you were wrong all along. And that can be a bitter pill to swallow. But to just stop caring, to decide that the argument is no longer worth having, and retreat - ethical football in hand - to the safety of your own convictions, well, that can be an altogether more fulfilling exercise. Over his long and varied career, Paul Brady has never been afraid to experiment. But somewhere between the dulcet tones of 2005’s Say What You Feel and the re-entering the studio last year, something happened. He stopped caring. The freedom that came from finally telling his critics and those who direct his musical career to take a walk has proved to be the driving force behind his tenth and most experimental record, Hooba Dooba, which was released earlier this month. “I don’t really care anymore which is why I can go out there and make an album like Hooba Dooba. I feel sorry for artists who are still in the clutches of a record company. Once the accounting and marketing men moved into the record business  it was really the end of creative spontaneity and everyone then started looking over their shoulders trying to focus their brand," he said. 

cpiarchive2010a@gmail.com · #122 The Paul Brady Podcast

The Lou McMahon Podcast

Proof at last that it’s not always a bad idea to annoy your parents. When a five-year Lou McMahon taped over her parents beloved Queen tapes, it seemed that only bad things would follow. Andrew Hamilton chats to the Sixmilebridge songstress and discovers the silver lining to her crimes against Freddy Mercury. 

An idea, especially a good idea, can emerge almost effortlessly. Call it inspiration or revelation, but more often than not the seed of something great can flash into existence in an instant, driven - it would seem - by its own invisible engine. Almost as if it was lying there all along, killing time, just waiting to be uncovered. But discovery is just the beginning. A good start, they say, is half the battle - but if all you have is a good start then the battle itself is already lost. Sixmilebridge singer- songwriter Lou McMahon started working on her Delicate Dancer EP way back in 2006. Now, almost four years later, this collection of six songs is finally ready to be heard by the world.  “I think it takes very little time to come up with an idea, but it can take forever to develop that idea. It took all of these years to develop the ideas of these songs to what they are now. I came to the point where  I just had to finish the recording, because it was taking so long. But I suppose that I could easily have carried on with it. They are all still ideas to me, they are still on a bare canvass,” she says.

cpiarchive2010a@gmail.com · #121 The Lou McMahon Podcast

The Adam and Darcie Podcast

In late 2009, Kilmaley music blogger MP3Hugger releases the 21st album in the two- year history of Indiecater Records. To celebrate the milestone, Andrew Hamilton chats to Utah folkster Adam Sanders, one half of Adam and Darcie.

The city of Provo in the state of Utah, population 117,592. Home to Rock Canyon, the Osmonds and Brigham Young University - the largest Mormon finishing school on the planet. Yep, it’s a long, long way from Clare to here. But not so long, it would seem, for Clare music blogger MP3Hugger. His latest release, ‘California Trail’, features Provo’s finest, Adam and Darcie. “It all happened in a really cool way. A few months ago, we were playing a few shows with one of the bands that we really like here in the States, The Very Most. They mentioned that they’d been working with Indiecater Records and it all happened from there,” says Adam. “It’s a really great label. As we learned more about the other bands on Indiecater and got to know the MP3Hugger and his approach to things, we liked it more and more. He’s got a really natural, relaxed way of doing things. We were close to finishing the album and were wondering how to get the music heard outside America - Indiecater was brilliant for doing that for us.” Adam and Darcie features Adam and his partner Darcie, along with an ever-changing collection of band members. It can be a good thing and a bad thing. We have so many friends who are so talented. This is a big university town and a lot of people tend to come and go. So the people we play with are always changing. People might be here for a few months and then they turn up on the west coast or the east coast. Most of the writing for the songs comes from myself and Darcie, but the band adds an awful lot, especially when we start looking at the live side of things. Because the people are always changing, it’s always exciting, there’s always a breath of fresh air being put into the songs,” said Adam. 

cpiarchive2010a@gmail.com · #119 The Adam and Darcie Podcast

The David Hope Podcast

After two years touring Europe, David Hope is back with a new band and a new EP. Andrew Hamilton caught up with the Shannon singer-songwriter and found out what it takes to be big in Germany.

There’s something about the Irish sound that make the Germans stand up and take notice. More than that in fact; there is something about the music of the west, and Clare in particular. From the days when the Russell brothers were as famous in Dusseldorf as they were in Doolin, the Germans have always latched onto something in the music of Clare and taken it for their own. And so it remains. The latest in this long line of musicians is Shannon singer- songwriter David Hope. After releasing his debut album, A Picture, in 2007, things seemed to go a bit quiet for Hope. This perceived quietness in Ireland was brought about by the explosion in his popularity in Europe and in Germany in particular - something which may have had some influence on his latest EP, Daybreak Someplace. “I’m not sure if it has or it hasn’t. It’s hard to know what exactly can sneak in and influence you on a subconscious level. Stylistically, I don’t think it has really influenced me. The new CD is a little bit more rootsie, a more American kind of sound than the first album had - it was more Irish-sounding. I still like that element and I wouldn’t say that I’ve changed things too much since I’ve been touring over in Germany. I guess the reason I’ve been over there so much is that they like what I do and that reinforces it with me. Working as an independent artist, undertaking a record is a big, big responsibility. It’s all well and good to put together recordings and put them out there but unless you have time enough to do it and do it right, then maybe it’s best to wait. It’s not as if I took a break or anything. I was always writing or recording but never found the right group of songs or the right group of musicians to sit down and play with.

CPIArchive2009D · #117 The David hope Podcast

The Lisa Hannigan Podcast

After 12 months on the high seas, Lisa Hannigan is coming home. Andrew Hamilton caught up with the Mercury Prize nominee and got a sneak preview of the new songs on the horizon.

One album, two American tours, three times round the UK and right around Ireland more times than she can count - the last year has been an amazing voyage for Lisa Hannigan. With her debut record Sea Sew capturing the hearts of fans and critics alike, the Meath singer-songwriter has finally found her own place in the sun, far from the reach of Damien Rice’s ever shrinking shadow. But now, after living and breathing the album for more than a year, the temptation to move on to newer pastures grows ever stronger. “It’s exciting. I have a few songs done and we are playing them all live at the moment. I definitely want to play them live for a while before we record. As soon as I write a new song, I want to play it live straight away. So we have been doing a bit of that and I think in January I’ll just hunker down and do some serious writing for the next album. I’ve got a good few done but I have a long way to go yet. Some people are able to keep writing all the time but I wouldn’t put myself in that category at all. I mean, I’m always getting bits of ideas but I tend to write more in bunches. I have a few on the go, you know, a few bits and pieces that might eventually turn into songs but there’s no rhyme nor reason to how I go about it," she said. 

CPIArchive2009D · #116 The Lisa Hannigan Podcast

The Size2Shoes Podcast

What started as a way to make friends with his younger brother has now morphed into a new and exciting musical adventure. Andrew Hamilton chats to Eoin Ó Súilleabháin, son of Mícheál, brother of Moley and one half of Size2Shoes.

It's funny. They say that no news is good news, but in the newspaper business, good news really isn’t news at all. The same, some might say, could be said for the world of art and music. From Cobain to Cohen, Morrissey to Joy Division, the overwhelming majority of musicians have a huge leaning to the darker side of the tracks. The reasons for this are many - some write to confess, others to protest but the single greatest reason (according to page 23 of the rock ‘n’ roll bible) is that it is simply much more difficult to write great happy songs. Limerick band Size2Shoes are looking to re-write this particular piece of music lore. Sons of music legend Mícheál Súilleabháin, Eoin and Moley, have begun a campaign to put a smile back on music’s face. “I guess it was always the voices that we were interested in. The music that we would have listened to growing up was always driven by the music and something that we could sing along to. The two of us are huge fans of Michael Jackson and we just saw the This Is It movie last night. Things like that have always blown us away and it’s always what we wanted to do. It’s something that we really think attracts people and turns people on,” said Eoin. 

CPIArchive2009D · #113 The Size2Shoes Podcast

The Cathy Davey Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: Changing lanes Shy, modest and unassuming - Cathy Davey is the most unlikely of superstars. She chats to Andrew Hamilton about conquering her crowd fears, speaking from the heart and finding a brand new approach to making music.

IT’S NEVER been easy for Cathy Davey. As one of music’s most shy performers she has had to force herself every step of the way - and success, when it came, came only after a fight. Though critically praised, her 2004 debut Something Ilk, never really managed to make the cash registers ring. There were many, even in those early days, who thought that we might have heard the last of Cathy Davey. But those people were wrong, and after Tales of Silversleeve became the Irish album of 2007, there were few who could begrudge it. Mission accomplished, hard work rewarded. So, after waiting five long years to catch the public eye, why then would she choose to suddenly change lanes and take a different tack? The answer, quite simply, is that that’s what artists do. Once one challenge is overcome, the buzz is gone and the time is ripe for something new. Over the next two month Cathy Davey will be playing a number of Bare Bones gigs in tiny venues all over the country. The idea is to challenge herself in stages, to give herself no place to hide, to crank the emotional resonance up a notch or two. And so far at least, it’s working. “There is a lot of material that doesn’t really suit the bigger gigs where people expect a more raucous sort of night, so I’m very much trying to get into the performance side of gigging. I spent so many years not enjoying being on stage and now I’m starting to enjoy it and see what it is to sing these songs and especially in the small venues," she said. 

CPIArchive2008d · The Cathy Davey Podcast

The Andy Irvine Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: From Planxty to Sweeney’s Men, Andy Irvine has done it all. He chats to Andrew Hamilton about Australia, the Paul Brady reunion and his anger with conservative audiences.

CELTIC Connections, well, you can say that again. A small festival, almost lost in the cold hibernation of the Scottish winter, but a breeding ground for memories. There, on a stormy Wednesday evening this January, a tempest of music not heard in a generation was once again to find its voice. It’s incredible to think that Paul Brady and Andy Irvine had gone 30 years without playing a tune together in a meaningful way. But all that changed this year in Glasgow, prompting the re-release of their eponymous 1976 album. “Paul and myself had actually been discussing how we might go about playing together again and this just fit the bill. We rehearsed quite a lot, because there was an awful lot to get done. In the end we played our entire repertoire which is more than two hours of music. So relearning all of that was not a simple task. It was tough, but it was a great success. This was a real fan’s gig - a concert with microscopes on - so we knew that we had to get it exactly right,” he said. 

 

CPIArchive2008d · The Andy Irvine Podcast

The Sean Tyrrell Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: Courting controversy: From a frozen night in Carron back in ‘82 to the great stages of Ireland, Europe and America, Sean Tyrrell’s musical adaptation of The Midnight Court has endured for a generation. As he prepares to hit the road once again, Andrew Hamilton chats to one of north Clare’s favourite adopted sons.

PAIN burned in his chest. The gasps, which only a moment earlier had seemed almost deafening, now slowly turned to silence as the audience held tight to one collective breath. Their disbelief could no longer be suspended. Yet there it stood, the offending missile - thrown over at least 16 rows of cushioned seat - lying motionless (yet somehow deeply alive) on the dark boards of the old Druid Theatre. You have to be angry to react in a theatre, but for a woman to remove a high-heel and launch it at a principle character of the hit show of that year’s Galway Arts Festival, well, the compulsion must have been almost unbearable. Yet in that moment, as he waited for the wind to return to his stinging lungs, Sean Tyrrell knew he had found something special. You see, for theatre to work it must inform as well as entertain. The best theatre however, must do all of this and more. It must excite an audience, shake them from their collective lethargy and impel them to action. Brian Merriman’s Cúirt an Mhean Oíche had been doing exactly that for decades uncounted, and when Tyrrell’s musical version became one of the shows of 1992, that tradition was sure to live on. “We had wanted to segregate the audience - to put the men on one side and the women on the other - so that it would develop into a bit of a confrontation. Somehow our director Maelíosa Stafford managed to pull it off and from there we were set,” remembers Sean.

CPIArchive2008d · The Sean Tyrrell Podcast

The David Acheson Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: Ever wonder about the math that underpins music? Me neither. Well, it's a good things that Professor David Acheson of Jesus College in Oxford is there to do that wondering for us. He spoke with Andrew Hamilton.

HAVE you ever wondered how opera singers can shatter a glass using only the power of voice? Of why some rooms (often bathrooms) are the perfect place for singing? The amazing truth behind this is that every object in the world, humans included, has a special frequency all to its own. Something as inanimate as a chair or even a block of concrete has a very specific musical note at which it cannot help but vibrate and dance. This, is the math of music. The world, when looked upon through these scientific eyes, can resemble an enormous piano, with endless notes that sound for every object, animal or even person. “My view of the world and mathematics is a very personal one really, it’s what I think mathematics is really all about and why it is so exciting. Mathematics, in my view, has a magic all of it’s own. For ex- ample a few years ago I discovered a new theorem; it’s an anti-gravity theory which is very very similar to the famous Indian rope trick. So for me mathematics is very exciting and all about surprises,” said Professor Acheson. 

CPIArchive2008d · The David Acheson Podcast

Mary Coughlan Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: The healing game. Down but nowhere near out, Mary Coughlan has used the public as a psychologist and her music as an open therapy session. She speaks candidly to Andrew Hamilton about working through her marriage break-up and using the shards of that experience to create her most exciting album in years.

A LIFE lived in public is a fragile existence. While all the world has moments of weakness, few have their dirty laundry aired in the pages of the tabloid media for the amusement and entertainment of friends and strangers. Yet so it was for Mary Coughlan on the spring of 2005. The break-up of a 13 year relationship with husband, Frank Bonadio, and his subsequent relationship with Sinead O’Connor had somehow transformed her hardship into media fodder. And as “text-gate” began to take on a life all of its own, Coughlan had reached a breaking point. Confused and alone she knew one thing, she had to get away. She left Ireland quickly, but not to run way. She left to write and to work the heartbreak out of her soul. “Oh Jesus ya, I had to get the whole thing out of my system. It was just after my Ma died and I had left my ex-husband and all of that. I went down to New Zealand and off to Australia. I had a curious affection for New Zealand and I did so well there that they ended up inviting me back to be artist is resident,” she said.

 

CPIArchive2008d · The Mary Coughlan Podcast

The Sanskrit Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: Northern sounds: In music, timing is just about everything. As they prepare for their moment to shine Andrew Hamilton chats to Sanzkrit frontman Dave Marron, the latest offspring of the new northern scene.

FEBRUARY 2006, and the world begins to spin for Sanzkrit. Tipped by Hotpress and others as one of the hopes of the year, the Monaghan four-piece seemed on the very cusp of something. An EP was released and well received, and all seemed just right for take-off. But even then, as the buzz began to gather around them, the band showed that most unusual of characteristics, patience. Still adjusting to life as a four- piece, somewhere deep inside the Sanzkrit psyche they knew that the timing wasn’t right, they just weren’t ready. Their time would come, but just not then. “Yeah, that EP was the first thing that really launched us nationwide and a lot of things started to kick off for us from there. The reviews were positive so we knew that we were moving in the right direction. There was a bit of a buzz in the area with bands like The Flaws starting to get a lot of interest from record labels who were coming to the shows. We were playing at a lot of those shows with The Flaws so instead of splashing out and getting a loan to record an album then, we decided to hold out and see would a deal come through. We held back from doing it all DIY at that stage. I guess we were very young and we didn’t have the fan base. I think it might have been a waste at that time, you know, we didn’t want to record an album that people wouldn’t hear. We want- ed our debut album to be special and the last thing we wanted was for our first real piece of music to be falling on deaf ears,” said Dave. 

CPIArchive2008d · The Sanzkrit Podcast

The Lisa Hannigan Podcast

CPI Archive 2008: Sewing it alone. With a new album and a new musical life, Lisa Hannigan is an artist on the up. Andrew Hamilton chats to the soft spokes songstress and find out about making music as a cottage industry and life after Damien Rice.

LOOKING in from the fringes, all seemed calm. Six years had brought unriveled success; countless gigs in sold-out venues, three million album with all the trimmings. The kingdom was theirs to share. On March 26 last however, all that changed. On that day Damien Rice announced to the world that his professional relationship with Lisa Hannigan had “run its creative course”. Suddenly, and for the first time in her career, Lisa was unemployed. While the exact ins and outs of the ending of this musical pairing remain a mystery, Hannigan’s six years on the road with Rice are times that she remembers fondly. "I never really found it [working with Rice] stifling. I mean, I met wonderful people during that time, a lot of the people that I am still working with. To get to travel and play gigs and see how that works, and then to do recordings and learn how that worked, I learned so much from that and had a lot of fun doing it at the same time,” she said. 

CPIArchive2008d · The Lisa Hannigan Podcast

The Dan Kennedy Podcast

‘I come to bury the music executive, not to praise it.’ Andrew Hamilton chats to American comedian and Atlantic Records insider Dan Kennedy about the demise of the grey-suited music executive.

IF the Mama’s and the Papa’s told nightmares to children of free independent music - the villain of the tale would always look like Dan Kennedy. Picture the grey-suited music executives, full of glorious ambition, back stabbing his way to the top office on the New York skyline. Think greed, cocaine in club bathrooms and champagne in a hundred penthouse hot tubs. Imagine American Psycho or any number of roles played by Tom Cruise throughout the 1980s - meet the music executive. After basking in the very last embers of the surf rock scene in California, Dan Kennedy cut his musical teeth on the streets of Seattle in the 90s. Seattle in the 90’s meant one thing - grunge, and with bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam taking on the world he was an easy convert. But just how does an early 90s Seattle grunge fiend become a late 90s New York music executive? “Ya, I turned on a dime. The second that I realise that all the suits had remodelled kitchens and huge apartments I was ready to sell out. I was like, ‘who do I have to dress like to fit in around here? Where do I get one of those grey v-neck sweaters’,” he said.

CPIArchive2008b · The Dan Kennedy Podcast

The Simon O'Reilly Podcast (2007)

CPI Archive: In late 2007 Andrew Hamilton spoke with Irish artist, Simon O'Reilly, about his album Tribes, written and recorded with Luka Bloom.

IT’S evening time and Simon O’Reilly is in his small studio in Clahane. Outside, the sea is black and the wind is wild. Inside, Simon plays to a mixing desk, to an Apple Mac and pro-tools.
He labours alone. Tribe is a new album featuring a collection of songs written by Simon and Luka Bloom. The unusual thing about Tribe is that the album was written without Luka and Simon ever playing together in the same room. “We started off by sending each other a few different bits and pieces. I would start writing the music and send it up to him, and then he would put down some lyrics and ideas that he had and send them back to me,” says O’Reilly.

CPI-ARCHIVE · The Simon O'Reilly PODCAST

The Flaws Podcast (2007)

In late 2007, Andrew Hamilton spoke with Dane McMahon from Irish band, the Flaws.

FIRST you write the music. Then you get the money. And then...then you get the women. That’s how it works, right? No? Post big-studio rock and roll, things, it seems, just ain’t what it used to be.

Gone are the endless bar tabs; no more the lowly assistants, only too happy to trot off and fulfill your every M&M-related need. Could it be true? Could “sex, drugs and rock and roll” be a mantra for the past? Why not try this new vision for size? You finish up your eight-hour day, working on a building site or in an office somewhere — drive for three hours and play your heart out to a crowd for, wait for it, no money. You have a cup of coffee and then drive three hours home, ready for work bright and early the next morning. It sounds rough, but the days of big record labels are quickly coming
to an end and, if you want to make it, you have to be willing to put in those hard yards. “We were all working right up to a few weeks ago; we’re still working some of us. So trying to do both could be a big headache. It was more pressurized, but then I guess there’s more satisfaction in the end. It feels good to know that we’ve done all of this by ourselves. But at the time, it was just torture,” says The Flaws’ bassist, Dane McMahon.

CPI-ARCHIVE · Flaws 2020

The Fight Like Apes Podcast (2007)

HOW to make a cracking new band. Take four musicians, each of them plodding along, playing music they’d rather not be playing, in other bands. Lock them in a room for three months with a bunch of old films and video from the 80’s, stir gently and allow to settle.

After washing them thoroughly, reposition them in a recording studio and let them play. Record a four-track EP, allowing them to choose which songs they want to be on the record. This part is critical: any interference here could leave the band bitter and unfit for human consumption.

Finally, release the EP, even though the lead song contains enough swear words and sexual innuendo to ensure no radio station in the country would be able to play it, even if they wanted to.

It’s a risky recipe, too risky for most record labels, but one that can sometimes give you something that the organised, sales-driven labels could never give. Something truly original.

“We were all pretty fed up with what we were doing so the four of us decided to go into a rehearsal studio to see if it worked. We went in with no real idea of what we wanted to sound like but, after two or three rehearsals, it felt like things were starting to work out. So we left the bands that we had been in and just went for it,” said Pockets. 

CPI-ARCHIVE · CPI chats to Pockets from Fight Like Apes (2007)

The Dave Geraghty Podcast [July 2007]

In mid-2007, Dave Geraghty took his first steps out from behind the Bell X1 shadow and onto centre stage in his own right. Andy Hamilton spokes to him days after the release of his debut solo album Kill Your Darlings.

WHEN Ernest Hemingway spoke of killing your darlings, he wasn’t advocating any kind of mass executions of family and friends. Instead, the man who could be destroyed but not defeated, was advocating a means of creation, an artistic imperative.

For Hemingway, it was the duty, not the obligation, of the discerning artist to be able to cull and destroy that which he loves best, his art, in order to preserve the integrity of the whole. In other words, the test of the author is not what you decide to keep, but more so, what you can bring yourself to throw away.

As Dave Geraghty emerges from under the shadow of Bell X1, this is an idiom which he has grasped with both hands.

“I was hoping to achieve something grittier with this. There were other songs that I purposely didn’t go near and songs that were culled and didn’t make the album because I wanted to keep a cohesive theme. The songs had to be deserving of a title like Kill Your Darlings," he says.“I didn’t want to record a collection of songs, I was trying to create an album that had a tone and had a mood to it. I would almost prefer someone to stick this album on once a month at four in the morning after a party than to stick on one or two songs again and again and again..."

To hear the interview in full listen to the podcast below...

The Paddy Casey Podcast [July 2007]

Ahead of the release of his third album Addicted To Company, I spoke to Paddy Casey in July of 2007 and found out about his time in LA and how he wrote his way through a west Clare winter.

SUNDAY evening and the shagging electricity has gone — again. It’s been more than six winter weeks now, stowed away in this tiny hamlet on the very edge of the Atlantic and now, for the third time in those long weeks, a winter storm has knocked out the power.

 Unperturbed, Paddy Casey feels blindly for the carefully stowed candle and the matches. Eureka, and a quick flick returns the room to its former glow. Returning to his snug beside the window, the tempest outside serves as a fitting backdrop. A gentle strum from his guitar, and the skin and bones for Paddy Casey’s latest album, Addicted To Company (Part 1), begin to take shape.

Perhaps this isn’t exactly how it went down, but when Paddy Casey returns to Kilkee next week, a brand spanking new album in his back pocket, he will be completing a creative journey that began in Lahinch more than two years ago.

“I spent a bit of time down in Lahinch, but it would have killed me if I’d stayed down there much longer. I had very little else to do down there, other than drinking and playing. You have the surfing areas which are nice but I’m not much of a surfer.

“I would have been working on songs in Lahinch. I’m sure there are songs on this record that would have been written in Lahinch but it all becomes a bit of a mash because there are bits written in lots of places.

“I think this album is a little closer to what I’d have done if I had more time to record the other two albums. I definitely aimed for a particular direction, and I seem to have hit it — I’m not really sure though.

“When we toured the Living album, I was going, ‘this is great, people are dancing, I want this to

continue’. So for this album I definitely wanted a song that was like ‘Saints and Sinners’, something to keep it up for the gigs.”

Unlike previous recordings, Casey spent a long time in the studio recording this album, the majority of it being put down in America.

“I recorded the guts of it in LA, at least half of it. It was funny, going over there for the first few days, it did feel like a totally different experience — everything was different, the culture, everything. But, when it actually got down to it, we were recording in a room that looked like it could be somewhere off the Naas Road — we might as well have been in Dublin. We were sitting in that room all day so it didn’t matter where we were.

The Julian Gough Podcast [June 2007]

WHAT would Charles Darwin have made of Julian Gough? The great thinker, master of evolution and natural selection. Would he have found a room, a paragraph or even a foot note, in the Origin of the Species for the likes of Gough?
If so, it would most likely have come in a chapter titled, ‘Thoughts on the Random Mutation’. Not that I’m suggesting that Ireland’s latest trailblazing avant garde author is some sort of literary missing link. On the contrary, Gough represents an alteration, an almost radical change of direction that is absolutely essential for progress, whether social, biological or indeed literary.
The only question left is one of genetics, dominant or regressive.
“Because it’s an unusual mad kind of book we had trouble getting shops to understand what we were doing or getting publishers to understand what we were doing in the first place. But when I won the National Short Story Prize with the prologue to the book then that changed absolutely everything.
“People began to look at the book in a different way, all of it’s vices suddenly became virtues - the little grey fella turns out to be a swan after all. Nobody want to be the fool who stands up and says ‘this is brilliant’ and be the only person saying it. So when a few Booker Prize winners say it’s good then it becomes safe...