This Past Weekend - E528 Dermot Kennedy

Starting point is 00:00:00 the game. to wager Ontario only gambling problem call connex ontario at one eight six six five three one twenty six hundred that MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario I have some new tour dates to tell you about these are new I'm gonna let you know Colorado Springs in the Colorado October twenty third Casper Wyoming October twenty fourth Billings Montana October twenty five in Missings, Montana, October 25th, and Missoula, Montana, on October

Starting point is 00:00:47 26th. Looking forward to getting into that beautiful part of America. Also we have shows this weekend, Las Vegas, August 30th and 31st, then Bend, Oregon, Spokane, Portland, Vancouver, Oklahoma City, Northern Little Rock, Springfield, Kansas City, Sioux Falls, La Crosse, Green Bay, Moline, Lafayette, and Beaumont, Texas. Get all your tickets at theovon.com slash T-O-U-R. And thank you so much for supporting live comedy and make sure you go through that link otherwise you'll end up on a secondary site and those aren't the prices that we are charging. Gang. Today's guest is a singer-songwriter out of Ireland and simple places all at the same time. A wonderful time that I had there recently.

Starting point is 00:01:50 I'm really grateful to spend time with them. I've been a fan for years and, uh, we've been in touch for years and glad to make this happen. Um, he has had hits like Paradise and Kiss Me amongst many others. I got to see him play last night here in Nashville, Tennessee. Today's guest is my friend, Dermot Kennedy. I'm off the stage. Kiss me the way you do. Oh man.

Starting point is 00:02:42 Sorry. No, it's okay. I didn't mean, I meant that for me. Oh man. Sorry. No, it's okay. I didn't mean I meant that for me. Oh yeah. I like that you did it. Dude, yeah, listen, I think after like the first song last night, I was, I leaned over here, I was like, God, I might be gay, dude. I was like, this is really awesome, man.

Starting point is 00:03:03 It felt so serious. Like I was saying to you afterwards, it felt like a very serious show. When I play a headline show, we've got moments that are down and somber and then moments that are fun and up. When I do a show like that, like the Bluebird last night, it's quite, you know, it stays serious.

Starting point is 00:03:18 And I haven't done that in a long time. Yeah. And I think crowds sometimes want both. So I would worry while I'm doing it, if people are kind of like, this is a lot of seriousness, you know? Like it feels serious, yeah. Yeah, which it should be. I take it seriously, but it's just like,

Starting point is 00:03:32 I think sometimes you need relief. But I think then as well, I like having funny moments in between songs, talking to people, because I don't take life very seriously, but I take the songs very seriously. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, man, when you like got into the songs, you were at Bluebird Cafe last night for our listeners, and that's

Starting point is 00:03:48 a small venue in Nashville. And it's probably, I mean, it may seat 60. Yeah, if even. Yeah. And I mean, we were sitting, I was in the second row and I was five feet from Gabe Simon, who was playing with you, accompanying you. And I could have done a couple notes. I could have...

Starting point is 00:04:09 You could have, you should have. Yeah, I could have chimed. Literally, I could have chimed in. Yeah, it would have been nice. It would have been a very welcome thing, I think. But yeah, it was captivating, man. It was so incredible. I was like, yeah, it felt so intense in there at moments.

Starting point is 00:04:22 You could see everybody going through like... I mean, I was going through like the history of like relationships and like I felt bad. Like after one song, I was like, I got to text this one gal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, well we spend so little, you know, I think we kind of... In daily life, we go through the motions and I think... I would like to think moments like that maybe put you in a spot where you think about life and just assess things a little bit, you know?

Starting point is 00:04:45 I, like that's what it does for me. I don't know who I'd be without it, you know what I mean? I think sometimes in terms of the therapy and catharsis I get from it, I think I take it for granted 100%. I don't know who I'd be without that outlet, you know what I mean? And I find it difficult. Sometimes it's tricky. Like last night, start of the show, I loved it. End of the show, I was feeling good. In the middle of the show, I kind of went within myself for some reason, but yeah, I think I'd be a much worse person if I had all that emotion kind of bottled up, you know?

Starting point is 00:05:14 Are the Irish notorious for like struggling to show emotion or something? I think there's definitely issues in terms of, like men in particular, I issues in terms of like men in particular I think in terms of not opening up to people I think it's something that's improving constantly but uh but definitely and I think I mean it's no surprise that Ireland has a rich history in the arts because that's how it comes out you know what I mean authors actors musicians everything. Yeah man it was it

Starting point is 00:05:43 was crazy dude it was like I went through it all. Yeah. You know, I was sitting there, I was like, I even, I got home and I texted an ex-girlfriend, I was like, I think I owe you a call, you know. That's a nice thing, right? No, it was good. And yeah, I'm glad I did, you know. Yeah, there's a lot of ballads there. I know, yeah. I was thinking where you... And it's because you don't have all the instrumental. Like I've listened to your albums where it's like you have the whole... And some of those are upbeat songs and it's different. Yes, indeed. Yeah. But when you're playing them, just right there for everybody.

Starting point is 00:06:11 Totally. But even like how you frame something is so important. Like I even laughed when you were singing Kiss Me There a minute ago because that to me is one of the best songs I've made lyrically in terms of how it's put together. But I would... If I could do it again, it would just be me and a guitar. It'd be like last night, you know what I mean? And I think you frame things in a certain way for certain goals and stuff, but when I play that song by itself,

Starting point is 00:06:35 I'm like, oh, it should be this way. I think it takes courage to take everything away from a song, and it's only recently I've kind of got that back. It's like I said last night, when I would play shows like that when I was younger, I felt so confident, you know what I mean? Cause I loved that no one knew who I was. And I loved that I had something to bring to the table

Starting point is 00:06:53 and people might be excited. And I felt, like I said last night, I felt borderline kind of arrogant about it. But now when I'm doing it, I got quite nervous for last night. But if it's like 10,000 people, I don't get nervous at all. But things like last night, I do get a bit nervous. Yeah. Just now when you said like, it used to be nice to be a surprise. Dude, that was the

Starting point is 00:07:13 best. That's one thing I miss the most about, you know, I'm grateful for having like people come out and people get to know you and stuff, but it was awesome when only you knew you in a way. And you got to be this like, you were like, were always your secret because you're you, right? And you build up this, especially as a comedian, you build up this sort of rapport with how to interact with the world

Starting point is 00:07:39 and to surprise people. Like, what, how did, what is this guy? Like that always seemed interesting to me. And then people get to know how your instrument works or it's just the surprise isn't there anymore. And it's different. Totally. I mean, that moment, I'm sure you feel this, like that moment where you feel like you've arrived

Starting point is 00:07:59 and people know who you are and yeah, no longer do you surprise people. And so you kind of feel like you have to change or deviate from what you're doing and to try and keep that feeling. It's tough. I find it difficult. I know like, I know for myself, like I remember

Starting point is 00:08:14 seeing a thing, an interview with Drake years ago and he was just saying that moment where people are sharing your music and kind of say, you've got to listen to this, you'll never get that back again, no matter how successful you get. Because that's the most exciting part. I don't know. I think like for what you do, get that back again, no matter how successful you get. Um, cause that's the most exciting part. I don't know. I think like for what you do, for what I do,

Starting point is 00:08:28 for anyone involved in the arts, I think the work is the only thing that's exciting. It's the only thing. And of course you play big shows and you have ambition and you try and grow your career and all those things are lovely, but at the root of it, if you're not, like I always say, you could be miserable playing in stadiums, do you know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:08:45 Or you could be completely content playing shows like last night, so I think it's very important to keep that. Yeah, I noticed when I have some new stuff, and that is the most exciting time, when I'm ready, when I'm like, wait till I get to this new part of the show, and it's gonna be fun for me, and it's gonna be fun for them, you know? Oh yeah, and I'm sure you could play to like 40,000 people,

Starting point is 00:09:04 and it can go either way, for them. You know? Oh, yeah. And I'm sure you could play to like 40,000 people and it can go either way. It can be completely euphoric or it can kind of feel hollow either way. But it like nothing. The work is the only thing I think. That's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. And especially these days, there's so much like surrounding things that you have to

Starting point is 00:09:20 do to kind of manage yourself, you know, like social media and just, um, I mean, specifically, I guess social media probably, it's such a big world of it all. Do you get involved with that side of things? Do you run your own stuff and all that? Yeah. Uh, no, I split it with my producers and stuff, you know, but, you know, I'm particular kind of about what we put out and like try to be sensitive or try to think, okay, this feels like me. Sometimes they're like, no, this is good. And I don't have an idea. Of course, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:09:48 So trusting other people sometimes, that's with your own voice, you know? Totally. I think I find it hard sometimes, I spend way too much time worrying about how I'm perceived. You know what I mean? Oh yeah. And I think things like social media

Starting point is 00:10:03 only make that more kind of inflamed. And then, yeah, you just get closer to forgetting what you're actually truly about. So I try and stay away. But it's healthy sometimes. Well, before this conversation gets any gayer, dude. And no offense if it does, dude. I think Irish people... No offense to me.

Starting point is 00:10:20 Yeah, yeah, sorry. And probably me, dude. I mean, look, who knows what'll happen with us. But I think, yeah, dude, the Irish are, I couldn't believe what the Irish were. I always had an idea. That wasn't your first time there though, recently, was it? It wasn't, but it was my first time really

Starting point is 00:10:37 with my eyes open, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw you in a field with a lot of cows. Where was that? It was down in Court County. Brilliant. Oh, you'll milk anything down there, people. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:10:46 And there's no women. This is the thing about how people are always like, oh, the girls are coming. They're going to be here. And you'll be you'll go to the next place. And the otter are coming. The lasses are coming. It's a false promise.

Starting point is 00:10:55 They never come. Who made all the men? Who? How did they? What did they fall out of? Yeah, they're the ones that stuck around, I guess. I guess. I mean, here I am. this is some women we met. It was like unbelievable, dude.

Starting point is 00:11:09 Actually, these are some drunken mixed fellows that we met out there, dude. These are the blackest guys I saw in Ireland right here. Were you invited to this field? No, we got there and we wanted to like just drive out into the distance. And so we stopped at a farm and a man took us and showed us all about the dairy and gave us fresh milk or whatever. And you drank the milk straight from the cow? We drank it straight out of me. I mean, it felt and I don't know how old the cow was. It felt a little illegal. I'll be honest with you. I mean, the first sip. Yeah, that's normal.

Starting point is 00:11:40 But if you, you know, I had a couple of sips and I'm like yeah yeah yeah definitely peek around for the police after a bit yeah yeah but it was yeah it was just unbelievable we just wanted to see the countryside we wanted to feel something that felt normal a farmer took us into his home and sat at his table no way yeah I'm glad you got around the country I think a lot of people go to Dublin for two or three days and they just experienced that but Ireland's a beautiful place and you can you can see so much of it in like a couple hours. Do you know what I mean? It's a small country.

Starting point is 00:12:07 So yeah. And you have to see it. Cause if you ask somebody something, you can't understand what they're saying. And so you just, you have to just believe that they're going to be okay. When you meet a lot of Irish people. Yeah. Yeah. They love you too.

Starting point is 00:12:18 Did you like, you had good shows? Yeah. I mean, I felt a lot of love and support and it was awesome. You know, I think, and it's just such a unique culture like they just They have a good time. Mm-hmm. They know how to have a good time Yeah, they're not as overly concerned with a lot of other bullshit like as we are in the States You know, definitely not like if I go on tour in Australia, I feel a similar thing people just don't take it too. Seriously Yeah, you've been down there. Yeah. Oh, yeah, Australia is so great man feel a similar thing. People just don't take it too seriously. You been down there, yeah?

Starting point is 00:12:45 Oh yeah, Australia's so great, man. Yeah, similar thing. People just, there's no bullshit. You feel good energy from people. But I have a comedian friend, Mark Hayes, and he's Irish. And so he's always queuing me in on just like the shame of the Irish and the, you know, the dark, you know. I guess there's a lot of shame over there.

Starting point is 00:13:03 I guess there is, but also, I don't know a lot of shame over there. I guess there is but also There's I don't know if you heard this phrase earlier there about notions this idea that when you start doing well at anything You get notions like you kind of start feeling yourself a bit and you have to be very careful of that I think humility like you see Irish people who just won medals at the Olympics. They just kind of in the interviews They're just like nah, I think They're so mean to themselves. It's terrible. But yeah, happy medium would be good. I think sometimes you kind of are constantly downplaying what you do. And I think it would be nice if people celebrated themselves a bit more,

Starting point is 00:13:35 but notions is a real thing. Yeah. I know, like people have said about me, you get to a certain point and some people just don't like you for no reason. Yeah. I could maybe see that. Cause there's this more unity of us as a group. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I remember there was a thing years ago. I think it was Damien Rice told the story. They were in a restaurant and there was lobsters in it.

Starting point is 00:13:54 And who was Damien Rice? He's a brilliant musician from Ireland. He had a song called Cannonball and an album called, Oh, It's Like a Classic. And he was talking about lobsters in a tank. I think it was him. I don't mean to attribute this quote to him if it's not him, but he was, apparently there was like a lobster trying to get out and, uh, and another, he

Starting point is 00:14:11 was kind of like, Oh, careful. It's going to get out. And someone was like, no, they're Irish lobsters. So the other ones are like, drag it back down. Oh yeah. Apparently the shellfish. I don't know. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:19 I love it. You feel massive support too. Don't get me wrong. Like, it's the best place in the world for doing anything. Cause people just were so quick to celebrate our own and I love that. Oh that's beautiful yeah yeah what's that article right there is about an Olympian Irish rowers brilliant response to winning an Olympic gold medal goes viral. It's all right yeah I can't complain. In a BBC interview

Starting point is 00:14:37 following the win the pair were asked Paul O'Donovan Fenton McCarthy gold medal winning athletes how does it sound how does that sound it's alright yeah yeah you can't complain about it really. I wouldn't go around introducing myself. Yes, that's everything. You wouldn't talk about it. But I love that too because we do take care of business, but don't talk about it too much. Yeah, there's a bit more humility. Definitely. Yeah, man. There was so much like, there was something you said last night that I really resonated with.

Starting point is 00:15:05 It was about like wishing you could slow down time or grab on to a moment a little bit more and just how like impossible it is and like what a fight it is. Yeah, I'm crap at it. What about you? I can't. Like I, when things are good, I don't know, I feel like I'm, sometimes I feel as if I'm waiting for something bad to happen, you know what I mean? Like you're almost like just sort of waiting for bad news or bad phone call or something, I don't know. Instead of just enjoying the fact that it's good right now, I feel very bad at that. And again, music puts me in a better

Starting point is 00:15:39 place, but yeah, I feel that way. I find it very difficult to settle into a good feeling Yeah, I think it's hard. I mean the moment it's hard to have the moment you used to I've talked about this before but you used It with the mo the moment used to be like a real thing because we couldn't record it all the time Yeah, we couldn't capture it. So the moment it was like It had so much value. The only way you're gonna to learn about what had happened was through someone else, through a storyteller. So it promoted so much more storytelling. It's like cameras have taken all that away from us. Not all the time, and not all of it. But it's definitely, it's like squashed a lot of that. Definitely.

Starting point is 00:16:21 I mean the moment, if you got to see a girl at school, you couldn't go home and look at pictures of her. You had to imagine. Oh, so you would wait till tomorrow. What she was doing and mostly in your mind you imagine, oh she's thinking of me, she's drawing pictures of me in the walls and everything and then you got to school the next day and she still didn't care about you. Yeah, yeah, or like you would see that they're online and they're not texting you. Yeah. That type of thing. Yeah, it's squashed. Yeah, so I think like there's like stuff like that I miss because your imagination became so much more of a, it did its natural work. Absolutely, I think about it, yeah, like that's,

Starting point is 00:16:55 my livelihood comes from my imagination, you know what I mean, that's all I have. And so, yeah, you gotta be careful. I think what you put in is very important. Like if I read, I can feel it sort of, I can feel ideas start to generate. If I walk around just all day and stay just literally looking at the most boring stuff, I can feel ideas start to come. But I got to be careful and not let it get squashed all the time. Like what do you mean? Like by, like get squashed by what?

Starting point is 00:17:20 As in like if I look at my phone too much, it's just sludge in my brain. Do you know what I mean? And it's just bad thoughts and stupid stuff. And so like no good song is going to come out of that. But also I spend so much time traveling by myself and all that kind of thing. So it's a, yeah, to stay creative, I find it difficult. I don't know. Like, I know like we were in your car last week and you were kind of say, you thought of something and you were like, oh, I need to write that down.

Starting point is 00:17:39 And it's that constantly, right? You're constantly trying to grab that thing and that moment of inspiration or something that can translate to part of your show. Yeah. Yeah, you notice especially like a phrase or a thing, you're like, oh, I've never said that or I never thought about that. After a while I noticed it's like,

Starting point is 00:17:56 if it makes me laugh, then it might make somebody else laugh. So I have to like, you know, cause at this point you have to think maybe you and your audience have some like, symbiosis or whatever it's called. We're similar people, yeah. Yeah, or similar. And so yeah, if they told you a song, if they told you a, you know, this thing you just heard or, you know, she's like, oh, this will probably, this will probably play. Do you base songs? Like, do you kind of start with like a nugget of a line? Definitely. Yeah, I find it hard when someone's kind of like what you want to write about is like I don't know yet. Like I have, I'll have a lyric in a song

Starting point is 00:18:28 last night, so the first song I played is called An Evening I'll Not Forget and I know there's a lot of lyrics in that from the best days of my life and from the worst days of my life and they just mix together. So I struggle sometimes when someone's like what's this song about or what you want to write about it's everything. You know like there'd be one lyric about like hanging out with my friends and one lyric about someone passing away and difficult things all mixed in together. But it all kind of, I think sometimes when I, and this is overly serious, but I think like the one lasting message through my music hopefully is like a hopeful thing. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:18:57 So if a song seems down, it's never all the way down. There's always a hopeful moment. And if it's up, it just, I'm trying to lift people up a little bit I would like if I could Have a goal from people coming to my show is just they feel a bit better about where they're at and how their life is And not in a corny way, but just that they kind of think about things and realize that life is good a little bit I would love that Even a down moment in Ireland is pretty good. Probably I think yeah. Yeah, like I said, I was like, oh, yeah, we'll take it You know, definitely. Yeah, yeah like I said. The Irish are like, oh yeah we'll take it. Oh definitely, yeah people are good. We kind of, yeah like I even, I don't know, I just, when I get too far from home I kind of miss that feeling. I don't know, there's

Starting point is 00:19:31 so many people that are happy-go-lucky, good people. I'm sure you saw tons of them, but just yeah. So that's what I mean is between songs I don't feel serious like we're all on in-ear monitors on stage and in between songs when we're on tour it's relentless on stage and in between songs when we're on tour, it's relentless, like people shouting at each other. And we're all just communicating on stage. It's just people like taking the piss out of me while I'm doing something. I'll be like, yeah, so I'm trying to sing through all of that. Like everybody on stage will be slagging me in some way in my ears while I'm trying to say

Starting point is 00:19:59 something really sincere. And then I'll laugh and the whole crowd will kind of cheer because I look happy. But it's really because someone's like slagging me about something. sincere. And then I'll laugh and the whole crowd will kind of cheer because I look happy. But it's really because someone's like slagging me about something, yeah. Yeah, you know what, there's nobody likes to laugh more, I think, than the Irish, maybe. Really, yeah.

Starting point is 00:20:14 Maybe that's something that I realized. I was just so, yeah, people just love to fucking laugh there. It's very sarcastic. Yes, they love to rip on each other and it's okay. They don't take things as personally. No. Yeah, in a way that sometimes I'll say something sarcastic over here and it doesn't necessarily land and people think I'm quite serious about it.

Starting point is 00:20:34 So you have to be careful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some of the songs last night, it was like, yeah, a lot of them felt like kind of relationship based or trying to like capture a moment from a relationship or relive a relationship or where does some of that energy come from? Do you feel like that's been something that's been very important in your life? I mean, it's important in a lot of people's lives.

Starting point is 00:20:57 Of course. Yeah, I think even the relationships, you know, sometimes- Like were you on the bachelor or something? No, I was meant to sing on... What was I meant to sing on? I was meant to sing on The Bachelorette years ago. And it fell through, thank God, yeah. I, uh, but I was... Yeah, because after some of the songs, I'm like, Jesus, how many...

Starting point is 00:21:14 How many... No, yeah, you think I'd like to say... This guy's been, yeah, like this guy's been on a lot of dates. No, that couldn't be further from the truth. But, I think sometimes, I'll sing a song and it'll be from the truth. But I think sometimes I'll sing a song and it'll be from the perspective of anybody, you know, like a family member. Sometimes I'll just embody someone else in my life. I think it's an interesting thought, right, to think that my community, say my close friends and my family at

Starting point is 00:21:39 home, we all have the same feelings and emotions. It's just I sing about it, you know what I mean? And so sometimes I feel like a mouthpiece for them. Oh yeah. You know, and that puts me in a good place because I'm not thinking about my own life all the time. So that's where all the dates come from. I've been on very few. Yeah, it's, oh, were you not a big dater growing up really?

Starting point is 00:21:58 Not really, oh man. I was like, I said these people went to school with me. Okay, I mean. Yeah, it was supply and demand. Yeah, a lot of that's not your issue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I say this, a lot of people went to school with me who have like, if they watched this,

Starting point is 00:22:13 would hear me speak for the first time. Wow, really. Haterly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Would you hate like the public speaking of it or something? Public, not even public speaking, but just, I just felt so awkward in school, you know? Like we used to, we used to like go to, you know, the way to have your locker at school

Starting point is 00:22:29 and you would get your books for the first half of the day and then get your books for the second and like drop them off. I would walk around with every book for the whole day in my bag. So I didn't have to go to the lockers for that potential interaction. I hated it, man. Yeah. Not good. God. And is that a kind of a general Irish thing? I don't think so. I don't know what it was in me, but I just felt quiet. I didn it, man. Yeah. Not good. God. And is that a kind of a general Irish thing? I don't think so. I don't know what it was in me, but I just felt quiet. I didn't... Even nowadays, I kind of feel that way.

Starting point is 00:22:52 I think it's lovely. Like, I'll talk to you and I know we can talk about things and get into it, but just general socializing, I suck at it. And I, you know, you get to an age where you don't apologize for it and you don't care anymore, but when I was a kid, yeah, I hated it. Oh. Yeah, I was a kid, yeah, I hated it. Oh, yeah. I got so nervous around girls. I just remember, well, on the school bus, I would get so like, I would get like

Starting point is 00:23:13 erections all the time, I guess, because of like the motor going. And they would play like music that we weren't allowed to listen to at home. It was like kind of not sexy music, but just rate pop music or whatever. And so I would just have to like, I just would turn my whole body just like facing just and like oh there's a constant state of arousal in school you mean that was just on the bus dude when I got to school I think there was so much kind of like violence and stuff at our school that it was hard to stay erect or on a lot of violence yeah You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a difficult thing. Yeah, if there's broken glass or somebody getting beaten,

Starting point is 00:23:49 I can't get an erection, you know? Nora showed you. Yeah, I mean, maybe I'm old fashioned or whatever, but it's like, yeah, I just, yeah. So, but yeah, around girls, yeah, I was always afraid, never could ask a girl to a dance or anything. This one girl, man, I loved her. I think I did anyway. I don't know,

Starting point is 00:24:05 I looked at her really hard every day and I, yeah, finally, I just, I needed to express to her how I felt and I saved up as much saliva in my mouth as I could one day and I just spit it right into her hair. Oh, lovely. Yeah. Like an animal, just like, you know what I'm saying? Every primal thing? Yeah, it was all I knew. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you lost control. Yeah, I guess I lost control. I remember. Dear God. Yeah, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:24:30 I couldn't, like those situations didn't even come up for me. I would just hide. I remember there was a girl that used to kind of fancy me, I guess. And it got to the point where I like stopped putting gel on my hair and stuff because I was like I need to Look scruffier for school. So no one pays attention. Wow weird, right? Like I gotta tone this down Yeah, it's too good man. Yeah, I can't be like this back into the more Yeah, just hide in the corner constantly. What is a more anyway more is like a British thing, I guess

Starting point is 00:24:59 Oh, I thought it was kind of is it in my mind. I would think of a misty more Yeah, it's like a swamp in the middle of nowhere. It makes me think of Jack the Ripper. Oh, yeah. And was that you guys' guy, Jack the Ripper? No, no, no, no, no. We don't claim Jack. Who's your most famous serial killer over there?

Starting point is 00:25:16 Well. Besides alcoholism, I'm going to say. If you look at, there's a great podcast called West Cork. And you could think it's fiction, but it's a true story. Now, it's not a serial killer, it's one standalone murder. There's very few things like that, but it's an amazing story. And it's about this lady that was killed in Cork, in West Cork, out by the ocean.

Starting point is 00:25:38 Horrific thing, years and years ago, but they still haven't found the person that did it. And you know how Ireland is, like there's a lot of talk in the town about who did it and even up until recently the fella that they thought did it Was like selling pizzas in the market and stuff and everyone will go just to see him and all that kind of stuff Yeah, yeah, but no, I don't I mean I know I'm wrong, but I don't think there's many serial killers I know here you've got classics, but yeah. Yeah, I guess yeah people. It's definitely weak There's a lot more weak Hill over here. Yeah Who's your favorite my it's definitely, there's a lot more, we kill over here.

Starting point is 00:26:05 Yeah. Who's your favorite? My favorite serial killer? That's a great question, man. You know, there was the BTK serial killer. Who's that? He was out of Wichita,

Starting point is 00:26:22 Wichita, Kansas, and yeah, he was like an electrician. He ran, he ran like his community church and he was just killing people. They're all like weirdly handsome as well, aren't they? Not him. Not him. We've had some of the handsome ones.

Starting point is 00:26:41 Ted Bundy, I believe, was the handsome guy. Dahmer was a famous one. That show was pretty great. But, yeah, I guess, I don't know, I should think about that a little bit more. Who my favorite one is. Yeah, no, there's very few things like that in Ireland. It's like a small country. Well, and you also, yeah, you'd rather, if you kill somebody, they're not going to be able to drink anymore. Yeah, true. So true. It's like, Hey, we got to keep this guy alive. We got to keep the pub in service.

Starting point is 00:27:12 You know, I love going to concerts and, um, different debauchery where you can buy tickets online, whether it be a sporting event or a, uh, swimming thing or a eating contest, whatever it is, Game Time can help. Game Time, it's a ticketing app and they have a new feature called Game Time Picks that makes getting tickets for concerts and events even easier. That's right, Game Time Picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste your time searching through thousands of tickets. Game Time offers all-in pricing.

Starting point is 00:27:53 Toggling this feature shows the total upfront with no surprise fees at checkout. As well, you can get seat views. Get a panoramic view from your seat in the app before you buy. Take the guesswork out of buying concert tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code WEEKEND for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code WEEKEND, W-E-E-K-E-N-D for $20 off. Download Game

Starting point is 00:28:30 Time today. Last-minute deals lowest price guaranteed. You know there's some things in life that are okay to be a total crap shoot like trying a new type of milk. Sometimes you see this say oh oh, Debbie's milk or Randy's milk, and you try it, you know? Sometimes it's rolling the dice on a new workout class and seeing if you like it, or mixing it up with a new takeout spot, maybe Chinese, maybe Korean.

Starting point is 00:29:00 But finding the right doctor shouldn't be a total crap shoot. And with ZocDoc, it's not. Because you've got more options than you know. ZocDoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality in-network doctors. Choose the right one for your needs and click to instantly book an appointment. We're talking about in-network appointments with more than a hundred thousand healthcare providers across every specialty. From mental health, thank you, to dental health, eye care to skin care and much more. Plus, ZocDoc

Starting point is 00:29:42 appointments happen fast. Typically within just 24 to 72 hours of booking. You can even score some same-day appointments. So stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to ZocDoc.com slash Theo to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C.com slash Theo. Zocdoc.com slash Theo. Make it easier on yourself to get a doctor's appointment. Yeah, so was there like, so where does some of that influence thing come from? Like a lot of the,

Starting point is 00:30:22 cause it's a lot of like, you know, there's some love stories there kind of. Definitely, but like tons of hip hop. I'm listening to hip hop 99% of the time. Oh you are? Yeah, like I've been, I remember my friend had 50 Cent's first album and that was just huge for me. Oh so good.

Starting point is 00:30:36 And it's funny because I listen to it all the time and I never try and let it influence my music too much cause I'd just be pretending to be a rapper and that would be ridiculous, but it does influence the way I write. Like I'll write verses in a hip hop type way and no one really knows or acknowledges it, but to me I can feel the flow. If there's no beat around then there may be no drums or whatever, but it's just to me that's written in a hip-hop way.

Starting point is 00:30:54 Like if I could, yeah, I would love to get certain features and stuff. That would be my favorite. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah, I feel like that could easily happen, especially now because there's so many, there's a lot featuring now It feels like yeah, definitely. It's important. J. Cole to me is like number one I that would be like an incredible thing to me. I would love that so much Did you you're here working in Nashville right now on music? Yes. Yeah Have you met up with other artists while you've been here a little bit? Yeah, it's funny You know because like you said Gabe Simon and Joshua were with me at the show last night in the Bluebird

Starting point is 00:31:24 but also the idea is you kind of because like you said, Gabe Simon and Joshua were with me at the show last night in the Bluebird. But also the idea is you kind of have your friends with you playing songs, and it's like you go back and forth, I'll do a song, you do a song, they do a song. But like, I don't have friends like that, do you know what I mean? I kind of feel quite solitary when I go to these places. Yeah, like sometimes, you know there's sometimes

Starting point is 00:31:43 people who have tons of features and have tons of friends on songs. I feel quite content in this way, but like a bit of a loner in the music biz. I feel like I kind of go about my business in a loner-y way, which is fine. I'm okay with that. And I love people. I think they're incredible. I think the other artists in my genre and that are doing well, I absolutely love them. But I oftentimes, if I'm doing the thing like last night, I'm just like, I'll do it by myself.

Starting point is 00:32:06 It'll be fine. Oh yeah. Definitely. Is it just, and it's not really a choice that you don't want to work with other people. It's just kind of like, this has been going fine. This is how I'm doing. Do you feel like you don't want to bother other people ever? Yes, definitely.

Starting point is 00:32:18 And I also, I don't want to be kind of, I don't want to seem as though I'm reaching out to somebody for their clout or whatever, you know? I don't want to seem sweaty about it. I don't think seem as though I'm reaching out to somebody for their clout or whatever. You know? I don't want to seem sweaty about it. I don't think you could seem like that. Nice one. Yeah, I appreciate it. To be honest with you, I don't think, just, you know, I don't know you super well, but we've gotten hung out a few times. I don't think that you could seem like that. Okay. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:32:37 I know that doesn't help anything, but- No, no, no, but you know when you can- You're still not working with J. Cole, but still. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no chance. But I think you easily could. I mean, we went out the other night and Zach Brown saw you and he was like, I, you know, immediately he brought you onto his show. Yeah, thank you for that. He said that immediately.

Starting point is 00:32:51 He didn't think at all. It was cool. He just asked. He was like so excited to see you. Yeah, we randomly ran in and we were at the Red Clay Strays and yeah, there you are now. That's crazy, dude. I saw that video. It gave me chills, dude.

Starting point is 00:33:04 It was nuts. We had, it was funny. I lingered for so long because we, uh, he said we rehearsed it beforehand and he was like, I'll sing the outro verse. He said, you sing the first half of the outro verse, I'll sing the second half. I was like, perfect. So I sang my bit, then went and hid away with the bongo player for a while. And then the outro verse came along and I was, I walked back out to the walkway and

Starting point is 00:33:24 I was like, all right, sweet, here we go. And then he started singing the outro verse. I was like, oh no, now I'm just standing here. So into like being an awkward person, I was like, I'm just standing here in front of 70,000 people. Yeah. With nothing to do. I should have been gone ages ago.

Starting point is 00:33:37 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was lovely though. God, that's so cool looking, dude. It's nice. It's the best thing. I don't get nervous for that, which is weird.

Starting point is 00:33:46 Yeah. Oh, man. That, yeah, karaoke makes me so sad. I could not even imagine having to sing in front of people. Yeah. So when did you start to learn that you had singing talent? I mean, I know that some of this will be like elementary stuff to you, but for some audience that doesn't know you, you know? Of course.

Starting point is 00:34:02 So, yeah, when did you start to learn that? Because how do you go from being like this sort of like, like, like not recluse, but sort of this like shadow lurking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Good guy. Yeah. My, yeah, we don't want to make it sound like a villain, but sort of this, um, this guy who's this patient person. How do you go from that to like being able to like express

Starting point is 00:34:28 yourself? Cause dude, yeah, when you start, it's like, there's a lot of levels to what you do. Like sometimes I feel like there's like some Mac Miller. Sometimes I feel like there's like this Dr. Seuss of like Irish funerals going on. There's so many, and then sometimes it's just like this, you almost feel like you're at a opera or something. Right, right, right.

Starting point is 00:34:47 You know? So it's really impressive. Nice one, man. Thank you, yeah. I try and do a few different things, but I remember my sister played piano, and she still does, when we were kids. And classic thing, I would just sing in the back of the car,

Starting point is 00:34:57 and I remember my mom, I was just loud, you know? I'm still loud. And so yeah, I just started figuring out, I played soccer quite seriously when I was a kid, seriously in my head. And so music was like a secondary thing. So I never worried about playing to people, because I was thinking about playing football. So I would always, it came quite easy to me

Starting point is 00:35:16 to play to people, because I didn't see it as being that important the first few times, you know? And so yeah, it just gradually became a thing. I started realizing I wanted to write music. I'd go into town and like do open mics and stuff. Oh, you know? And so, yeah, it just gradually became a thing. I started realizing I wanted to write music. I'd go into town and like do open mics and stuff. Oh, you would? Yeah, like Dublin's so supportive. That's what I mean.

Starting point is 00:35:30 It's like, I know I was talking about notions and all that kind of stuff, but it's just like, it's a nice place. I was 15, 16 playing in these pubs, and people would do anything to help you, you know? I don't know what it's like in the States, but it's just. Oh, yeah, yeah, know that Irish will do anything. Yeah, and they just, if they see some potential in you,

Starting point is 00:35:45 they'll just kind of say, I know this person, I know that person, be careful with this and da da da. And lots of advice and all that kind of thing. So, um, yeah, just gradually, I mean, like I'm 32 now, so like, I've been doing this since I was 19, I guess, you know what I mean? So it's a long road. And I know we were talking about the red clay strays and how they put time in. And I think if you get to a certain level, there's very few people haven't had that journey.

Starting point is 00:36:07 Do you know what I mean? I know you had Luke Combs on here. I know everybody's got their journey in music, but like there's so much time you spend knowing you're good and being frustrated that you don't have a career. You know what I mean? So I think you just have to be patient. It's so, like, it's so silly to me. It's so kind of arbitrary in a way, because it's like, it's this thing where you're, like you said, like you're lurking in the shadows, knowing you're good, but no one's paying attention. And then out of nowhere, people decide

Starting point is 00:36:33 you're just really good. And it's like, I knew that before. Yeah. But it just takes time. Yeah, it is. That is such a fine line. There's a... Like what's it like for you?

Starting point is 00:36:42 You know what I mean? Like when you knew you had this potential, but people didn't know you were... Yeah, I thought that I was funny. I think I was sitting on a porch one day at school, in college, and this kid's like, you should do stand-up comedy, man. And I was like, fuck you, dude. You're an idiot, right? And the guy was an idiot. So I was right. But yeah, eventually I started doing comedy, you know?

Starting point is 00:37:02 But was it that classic thing? There were times you start to do good, yeah, and then you're like, why? Why, what? You know, you see other people like, I'm doing, but I think a lot of it's just time, and it's like, yeah, like weathering that storm. And then weathering that storm of like,

Starting point is 00:37:19 other people's careers have been going, they have to have their successes. And so that's just the way that time works. Do you find that hard sometimes when you see people having massive moments? Yeah, I- I know you are too, so it's probably made easier by that. I definitely did earlier on, and then,

Starting point is 00:37:37 yeah, now it's like we're able to sell out a club and able to sell out some spots. So once you can kind of do that, you start to feel a little bit more like in control, that like, at least, okay, at least I'm doing my job. I think that's part of it too. It's like, hell, it's hard to admit to somebody that you're a comedian.

Starting point is 00:37:53 Like, you know, cause everybody's funny and everybody has good stories, especially being from Louisiana. So, like they don't even have any comedy clubs in Louisiana because people are so funny just talking to them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like I'm not gonna go pay seven dollars and go win that, you know, booze hole. Well my friend is funnier than that.

Starting point is 00:38:13 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, fucking Randy out here. Did you spend a lot of time sort of doing sets and clubs or just... Oh yeah. Tough ones? Yeah, for years, man. Yeah, I would drive and do all the sets. Yeah, I think there was a part of me

Starting point is 00:38:26 that wanted to be good at it. Of course. And then I think, after a while, I think the art chooses you because I didn't end up getting married, I didn't have a child, so those things didn't kind of like start to take up my time,

Starting point is 00:38:39 so I was still available for it, you know? Of course, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I think there's a moment kind of where some of the art chooses you. I keep thinking about you spitting on that girl's head. is still available for it, you know? So yeah, I think there's a moment kind of where some of the art chooses you. I keep thinking about you spitting on that girl's head. Terrible times. God, if she only knew.

Starting point is 00:38:53 And I tried to, I think, draw a heart when I spit or something, I tried to. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I tried to save it. I tried to do something, you know, I remember just doing like that a little or something. I don't know, I wanted to be kind of artistic. I don't fucking know. But that was the only way I could express myself so I know what you mean about the saliva I find it even when I'm doing

Starting point is 00:39:12 this you know so I don't know man um yeah were we talking but it's been good I've loved being here honestly yeah it's a good talking about? But it's been good. I've loved being here, honestly. Have you? It's a good place making music. Yeah, it's a good place. Definitely. I think... Yeah, and I think if you don't... You have to kind of like put yourself out there some here,

Starting point is 00:39:32 and if you like to do kind of your own thing. I mean, your music does feel very, uh... important to you, like you said, right? Like the stuff you're, you know, you're not trying to go for like, uh, it doesn't seem like some pop thing or trying to like read a bunch of other people's songs that they've written. No. It seems like you're trying to make your, your voice. Yeah, if it was like someone else, you know, there'd be no point.

Starting point is 00:39:56 There's people I'm a fan of and there's people I'm inspired by, but you've got to take a mix of all that and make your own thing. Yeah, otherwise it's boring. Because that's a big part of the culture here is like all the big songwriter groups. Yeah. And then they service the musicians, you know? Totally. And you got to be careful because you find, like I've written songs where I'm like, oh no, that's too like this person. There's no place in the world for that. I think it's funny, sometimes you'll have people kind of, see I remember we were talking about Lewis Capaldi the other day. I remember for

Starting point is 00:40:23 a long time I was kind of pushing to do just piano and vocal and it never really worked out and then he had his massive song. I was getting kind of used to being someone you loved and then I remember someone in my team that I worked with was kind of like, oh I was thinking like maybe piano and vocal and I was like this is so obvious like he did that already so like it's so senseless that I would go and do that, unless it felt right, but this idea of just like copying something else that did well is weird,

Starting point is 00:40:50 and we'll never get the right results, I think. Yeah, I think you see a lot of that with music, you see like someone breaks out of the pack, and then there's a lot of other people that start to sound just like them. Oh, totally, you see it now, like St. Noah Cannon, like Brian having these huge moments. I'm inspired by it, but I have to make sure I do my own thing and don't sort of, what's

Starting point is 00:41:10 the word, try and replicate it, I guess. Because you'll just end up on your ass. Yeah, because then you're just like, oh, he sounds like this person. Totally. And the reason it works for them is because they are them and they're uniquely them. And people are drawn to that, Definitely. I think even like the attitude that's contained within your music, like you see Zach Brian, like the recordings and everything, they're quite, what's the word, like they're so rough and ready,

Starting point is 00:41:33 but people are drawn to that. Everything's so perfect nowadays. So people just like that. If he's literally just pressing record and that take is that take. I think it's incredible. Again, I heard Luke Combs kind of say they'll go in and do five songs in an evening. I think it's incredible. Again, I heard Luke Holmes kind of say they'll go in and do five songs in an evening. I think that's beautiful. I've been in situations now where things can get quite fragmented and you're kind of like, okay, we'll do piano, then do vocal.

Starting point is 00:41:54 It's all quite polished and put together. So I want to get back to that side of things. Yeah, that feels like a challenge. I think that's a challenge in any art. How do I stay me? Yeah, that feels like a challenge. I think that's a challenge in any art, you know? How do I stay me? Yeah. And then how do I stay me as I change? Mm-hmm. And then, is it okay to still be me?

Starting point is 00:42:16 This changed me at the risk of that the people who are paying attention to me won't, will understand. Totally, and I get to hide behind the music. Like in your line of work, I think you are your brand, right? So like changing's got to be a whole different thing. Do you know what I mean? Like I can change my music all I like and I'll still be me underneath it. But like I find for comedians or people that do what you do,

Starting point is 00:42:39 it's tough because your name is the whole thing, right? You know, like if you change as a person, people will kind of, could criticize, could enjoy it, whatever. Yeah, but to not even evolve, I think, right? Like I think that's kind of the thing that I'm thinking of, is like a guy told me one time, he's a manager, he's worked at a fancy management company in Los Angeles, and he said, you know, your audience will grow up with you,

Starting point is 00:43:05 so you have to grow up as well, or it can get kind of stale, you know? And I thought that was just interesting, you know? It's just like, yeah, that's kind of true. Like if I, you know, be afraid to change or don't grow up, or you know, then they're gonna grow up past me. Of course. Yeah, I got that with music too. You know, you try and like, you try and sort of think about what age you were when people first started listening to your music

Starting point is 00:43:32 and then change with that. 50 Cent's a good example. He always, he stopped making music sometimes because he was just like, it's not relevant to those people anymore. It's interesting. Hmm. Yeah, I'm trying to think. Yeah, there's some like, there's a little bit of Zach Brian. I want to hear you. There's a little bit of James Blake, but there's, it's you. It definitely felt like this guy at the shipyard who's just going to fucking show you what's going on. I hope so.

Starting point is 00:43:57 You know? I hope so. My voice is blown out too, as I- And his girl, she better pay attention. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It felt like that. Yeah, it's stories. And if he goes out on the boat with you to fish or crab or whatever, he's going to be

Starting point is 00:44:09 a little loud sometimes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got told I even talk too loud. A speech therapist recently was like, you need to relax. Really? Constantly. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:44:19 They said like, cause I have trouble with my voice sometimes. Even last night, my voice kind of went about halfway through and I don't know how to not go full beans constantly. Yeah. You know. You must get so many dude every girl I know my brother's wife, my ex-girlfriend, every woman is looking for you. So I don't know if you, I'm sure you have, how many ring cameras do you have? Here we got the cameras on the house at home. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. Nah, it's just people can connect to Real feelings. Yeah, that's okay. I saw you you were nodding along. Oh, I was I had one song That had rhythm in it last night, right? Oh, no, there was a couple moments you hit some rich

Starting point is 00:44:59 Yeah, I mean well, yeah when it's not like the whole band and it's just you that's a lot of pressure I mean you had though you had the boys with you there The poet Joshua. Yeah, he was great. Dude. He was at my show in Halifax. I'll tell you that was yet the show Yeah, cuz he said he bumped into you on the flight. Yeah, I didn't know he's at the show Yeah, he came to the show in half-packs in the morning. I'm on the plane brilliant He said hey, I was at your show last night. I was like, oh you're heading to the US He's like, yeah, I'm gonna play with Dermot Kennedy. I said, oh, I'm actually going to his show No way, and so I'll see you there tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:45:25 Yeah, he's a nice guy. He was so much more confident than me. He, uh. He was funny. Yeah, he's 22 as well, so it's just like, I don't know, I think that's a difficult gig when it's just spoken, you know? The music, you can hide behind it and stuff,

Starting point is 00:45:39 but when it's just spoken word, that's not easy. Yeah, but it added this element of like, because last night, so just for the listeners, so there was Dermot, there was Gabe Simon accompanying him on guitar and mandolin and some different instruments. And there was Joshua de Schutter, and he's a poet, and he was like kind of reading lines

Starting point is 00:46:02 at certain points, yeah. And he had sort of tailored his poetry to fit around the songs. It was just cool. I don't know. Like, I was cool. I know when I was that age, I kind of was dying to do things like that. So I was excited to work with him. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:46:12 Yeah, I thought that was super cool. How'd you find him? Instagram. I saw him doing a poem. He had a really cool poem. I couldn't even point it out now, but he had a really cool poem about two people who every night in a cemetery, they come up out of the graves and one guy was really rich and one guy was really

Starting point is 00:46:26 poor. And, and just, it's this beautiful poem about like, not forgetting what's important in life. So I thought it was cool. I think there's a lot of, I think there's a lot of bullshit poetry on Instagram and I think he's not that. So that's why. Yeah. Yeah. I liked even just having a younger person, it like added this element of like, um, nervous energy and approach to the world which was like such a dichotomy to kind of some of your music you know some

Starting point is 00:46:49 of it's like you know it's more like I don't think a young person could even write something you know you know I think you have to have some experience you know. I definitely think about that now even like having any degree of success I feel better equipped now you know I used to be annoyed that I wasn't getting gigs and stuff, but I guess I'm glad it happened the way it did because now I, even as a person just in society, I try not to, you know, you learn how to not take shit from people and you learn who you are in the world

Starting point is 00:47:17 a little bit. I'd be scared if I was 22 doing this, do you know what I mean? Oh yeah, having like a lot of success at that age. Any kind of traction, yeah, and someone was, like I feel like I'm easily led or gullible even at this age, so I don't know what I'd be like if I was younger, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it seems kind of risque out there.

Starting point is 00:47:34 I want to think more about Ireland, dude. Do they have, oh, somebody said the Irish started Halloween. Is that true? Sound, yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because what is it? It sort of translates like the night of the lost souls or something like that, I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause what is it? It sort of translates like the, the night of the lost souls or something like that. I'm not sure, but yeah, Irish people, yeah,

Starting point is 00:47:48 Ireland's very pagan and sort of a lot of things like that. The dead are very important. The dead are very important. You know the way in like Coco, like, uh, in those movies, like it's like. That's the Mexican dead, right? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:48:00 It feels like there's similarities in that sense. There's like the Celtic sound festival. Yeah. Wow. My, actually, I was talking about it last night at the gig, the island my auntie lives on. Halloween's really important and it's all the lost souls. What is it called? Inishmore. Inishmore.

Starting point is 00:48:15 I thought her name's Deirdre. I thought you were about to say her name. I was like, you know my auntie Deirdre. But they have these traditions, you know, where there's very few people live on the island. It's like, I'd be bulshin', maybe a few hundred people kind of thing. And there's this tradition where someone, someone you know will knock on your door and they're kind of allowed walk around your house in silence and open drawers and closed drawers and then leave.

Starting point is 00:48:44 And then later on, everyone's in the pub and you don't know who is in your house. So it's this kind of, there's all these creepy traditions. Yeah. Oh, that's fun. But Ireland started Halloween. Yeah. Oh, that's guessing. Yeah. Halloween was invented in Ireland.

Starting point is 00:48:54 The roots of Halloween can be traced back 2000 years to the Celtic Samhain. Samhain. Samhain. Yeah. I think those things are important in Ireland, like ghosts and all that kind of thing. Do you believe in ghosts? Yeah. Yeah, for sure, dude. Yeah. from Louisiana. We got fucking ghosts over there. Oh true. Yeah, everybody's yeah, everybody's eating Trout or something, you know even you'll hear a ghost eating something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like a lot of we have fat ghosts down there

Starting point is 00:49:19 Hospital like yeah, there's a ghost in the other the other ward. Yeah and be like, yeah, there's a ghost in the other. In the other ward? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He broke his legs. New Orleans is Louisiana, right? Yeah. Ghosts are like, that's a ghost town, right?

Starting point is 00:49:31 It's a ghost town. Yeah, there's ghost tours. You can do tours about, yeah. Yeah, and the crazy thing, you'll be on a ghost tour. Somebody will get murdered because it's so dangerous there. Then another ghost will show up. You're like, oh, damn, that's Reginald. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I knew him.

Starting point is 00:49:43 Yeah, they just, he just got here. Reginald. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I knew him. Yeah. They just, he just got here. He's fresh. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, there's a lot of like that, that sort of energy there. There's tons of ghost tours and stuff like that. We had a dude in our town who got, um, busted by the cops being, for being a ghost, dude. We had, um, so this family owned, they bought like a Ramada and it was like a small, it's a small motel.

Starting point is 00:50:06 Oh, okay. And it used to be nice and now it's still nice but it's not like, it's not like swanky. And they were trying to make it on the, get on the ghost tour. So when people came to America to go learn about ghosts and everything, it would show up on like the ghosts, like, oh, you gotta stop here, right?

Starting point is 00:50:24 So they wanted to make it Haunted okay, so they did like some like like Low-key haunty shit like the wiring and stuff and it was getting a little bit of a buzz But then they're like oh, we're not getting enough people that love ghosts you know and so they would have somebody would dress up upstairs and They had hotel room doors that were across the hallway from each other. Yep. So they would open a door on each side and when you walked up the stairs, the person would just walk across.

Starting point is 00:50:51 Yeah. So you'd see something like just what was that, you know? Uh-huh. And yeah, and so it was getting some heat and people were like, holy shit, there's ghosts. And people were outside fucking hanging out and drinking Dr. Pepper and fucking sometimes even people because there people get real excited and um And then they busted the guy the guy forgot to take off his ghost sheet or whatever he was driving home It was like the owner's son and they fucking busted him dude

Starting point is 00:51:17 Yeah, yeah, yeah, have you had any like encounters properly with ghosts? Oh, yeah, a friend of mine died and like I was laying in his living room The day after and I felt him he was right outside. Wow no way. And I just it felt as if he was right there I mean it just I don't know I never felt like he was standing around me before or since. Mm-hmm. But it just felt real and I just started like crying it was like just super intense you know. Wow. I've never had I believe in all that stuff so strongly but never anything like that. Yeah Ireland you guys have like the Giants causeway causeway. Yeah, and it's supposedly made by Giants. Yeah Did you go there? Um, did we go to John's cause we didn't know I haven't been there

Starting point is 00:51:56 But is that good is that helpful? But it's but it's like but the story is that There was a giant from there a giant from Scotland and they weren't getting along. Is that right? I feel like you know more about it than I do. Yeah, I think so. Oh, Finn McCool. That was one of the giants. And there was another giant. Legend has it that an Irish giant named Finn McCool created, and everybody's going to think this is extremely gay. Exciting. Yeah. An Irish giant, Finn McCool. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:52:27 To cross the Irish sea and fight his rival, the Scottish giant, Ben and Donna. Yeah. So they like, and so it just looks like these like, those these big square stones heading out into the water from each side. Yeah. Beautiful thing. So there's one of them in Scotland as well? That's a good question.

Starting point is 00:52:44 Hopefully there is. If not not you made it up. Yeah The Scotland giant cosmic we'll say that there is Let's keep the lore alive. But yeah, there's a lot of stuff like that in Ireland like a lot of like well There's leprechauns. There's mystery, you know ancient things. Yeah a lot of that. There's a lot of like mystery, you know. Ancient things. Yeah. A lot of that. There's a lot of like, lore.

Starting point is 00:53:06 Definitely. Possibility. There's a lot of myths and stuff. It's kind of, it's romantic in a way. Yeah, I think like I loved Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and all that stuff, purely because I think being Irish, you kind of grow up loving those things.

Starting point is 00:53:17 Yeah. Definitely. I would hate to be without that. I think to be honest, like I, in my songs, like I had a song last night cause it called The Killer Was a Coward, and it's just a made up story. I love it. It's just about a king and a person that finds his way through this castle and kills him.

Starting point is 00:53:33 To me, I was just like, fuck it, why not make a song like that? What has the songwriting experience been like in Nashville? Has it been inspired by any country vibes, or is it just, this is a place that you feel is good to write and be? I think it's a good place. You know, I think you can't downplay how talented people are. Sometimes if I'm writing somewhere else,

Starting point is 00:53:54 I can get stuck and kind of come away with half a verse or half a chorus or something, whereas here you come away with full songs, because people do not stop. It's like Gabe, who was there last night, he just, he's relentless. You know what I mean? He can kind of just, he never runs out of ideas. So people here are just so talented. Plus it's just a better place to write. Yeah. I don't know. I like being here. It feels

Starting point is 00:54:14 like it's not the be all and end all, the music business, even though it's here and it's based here. And there's so many people here that are working on music. It doesn't feel like people are writing to try and be successful. It feels like people are trying to just make music and see what happens. Yeah, I agree. There's a nice sense of like just being alive here. Definitely. And you just take time and people are nice and you'll be playing a song and someone will kind of invite their friend over and play guitar, whereas in LA they'll be kind of like, what's in for me? Why would I do that?

Starting point is 00:54:40 You know what I mean? Whereas here it's just supportive. Yeah, I think that's really true, man. I mean, we went out and saw some great music and then you met up with Zach Brown and you're playing with... Yeah, I think it's definitely people... It's more of a sharing culture here. For sure. And it feels like it's its own place outside of just the possibility of making music. Totally. I think sometimes when I write, I question how important it is. Do you know what I mean? That's why, like I've had moments in the past

Starting point is 00:55:09 where I struggle with getting music over the line because I'm just like, who cares? And I completely forget about the fact that people will listen to it. You know what I mean? I kind of, I have dismissed that. And I don't mean who cares. Like it's always important to me,

Starting point is 00:55:21 but also in the past I've kind of been like, oh, I don't know. you get so caught up in it, you're just like, does it really matter, really? Like, and I don't know, yeah, so it's nice to be back at a place where music is the most important thing. It's lovely. I think when you kind of go chasing a career, it can be a tricky thing and it can get in the way

Starting point is 00:55:39 of doing the right stuff creatively, so I'm glad to be here. Oh yeah, that's a good point. Well do you feel, I mean, you've had such a great career already, do you feel like, yeah does a new like desire arise in you once you're already doing well kind of? Is it like a maintaining desire, is it? No I think it's a returning, for me it's returning to who I was before doing any of it.

Starting point is 00:56:05 You know what I mean? Like you being funny on the porch because it just makes you feel good. You know what I mean? Me playing music at home just because it's the thing I love. I have yet to play a show where I come away being like, oh wow, that was perfect. I'm so happy now. Do you know what I mean? Like when I'm on the tour bus after a gig, like I keep an even keel constantly.

Starting point is 00:56:24 I don't come off stage wired or I don't come off stage really sad. I just kind of like, yeah, it was good. And if it was good, I'm happy with it. And if it was bad, it's okay, because I'll do it again tomorrow. But yeah, like getting back, I said that last night, like I want to be able to play music like I don't care. Do you know what I mean? I just, there's no thought about like whether it's good or bad.

Starting point is 00:56:44 I'm just doing it because it feels right. And it's fun. Yeah, like I blow my voice out because I'm just trying so fucking hard all the time. Do you know what I mean? I need to get to a place where I don't feel very confident doing it. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:56:54 Not at all. Doing what? Just performing for people. Like I self-analyze constantly to the point that it's detrimental. But then I think a lot of musicians do that, right? Like you're hard on yourself, you're hard on yourself. Yeah, you're hard on yourself.

Starting point is 00:57:08 You want to do your best. Totally. Yeah, that's something I got out of your stuff too. It's like, I felt like, I felt like I want to give everything that I'm capable of while I'm here. Yes. Yeah, of course.

Starting point is 00:57:24 Yeah, it's only last night. Like you talked about... While I exist even. While I exist, I want to get everything that is possible out of me. Definitely. You know, like having played sport for such a long time when I was a kid, that felt like such a powerful feeling. And I think sometimes I'm trying to get that feeling from music. And so, yeah, I just, I think like if you play well in a match or a game or whatever, the reason you feel like you leave nothing out there, and I take that into music, I think.

Starting point is 00:57:52 And I think it's important to not be competitive as a musician, but sometimes I can take the gigs in a competitive way, you know, and just make sure you have nothing left. I think that kind of feels important. What happened with sports, with football? I just wasn't good enough. Really? Yeah. Damn. I was all right, don't get me wrong, I wasn't,

Starting point is 00:58:12 but like, I'm always conscious of, if I was on here being like, oh yeah, I had to decide between soccer and music, there'd be someone in Dublin who'd be like, arsehole, not true. You know what I mean? I was all right, but I wasn't doing that. Yeah, yeah, no way.

Starting point is 00:58:26 And that's like the biggest sport over there. Oh wait, have you seen that road bowling? Yes, yeah. I don't know what it is. I like- Really? Well, I know what it is, but- I follow them on TikTok.

Starting point is 00:58:36 Do you really? Have you seen the stone lifting? No, I haven't, but I know this is people, and these are adults, most of them it looks like. Yeah. And they get up in Shannon Vale And they throw a ball and this is a real thing that happens this isn't like a prank they throw a ball down a street and

Starting point is 00:59:08 Try to get it as far as they can and they want to get to a certain finish line in the least amount of tries So it's kind of like golf just with your hand. Yeah, yeah, and it's an iron ball It's a steel ball. You should look up the stone lifting the stone lifting seems to be back in a major way Really? Yeah one more of those. I want to see We got a cuz here's Huff Wayne Parks here going turn it up Bob He runs so far It's the best thing that I've ever seen. How much do they get? They say 13,800.

Starting point is 00:59:55 No, really all 13,800 aside and Wayne Parks is on fire. Good man, Wayne Park. Wow. And now certain things are back. There's like, there's people lifting stones at like 300 kilos and stuff. It's probably on TikTok. I feel like it's a big thing again.

Starting point is 01:00:10 Lifting stones. Yeah, like, and they're awkward, you know, it's like random. It's not like those big round ones. It's like a proper, like awkward stone in the field. There we go. Let's see it. Yes. Holy.

Starting point is 01:00:22 Let's go. Holy. Come on. Pull it John, that's it. Come on John. Holy. John. Yes So strong oh Now how high do you have to get up? I guess you have to get it above your waistline, it looks like. I feel like it needs to be on your chest, yeah. Play one more of those.

Starting point is 01:00:49 That's unbelievable. I mean, that is a huge... Strong people, yeah. That was a huge stone. Play that top one. Just play the top one. Oh, and this is a more rounded stone. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:01:04 Wow. This guy wants to make an omelet. Yeah, dude. And there's his brother who can't lift him. Talking shit all day probably. Oh yeah, this is crazy. This is, yeah, there's something so Irish about all this, I think.

Starting point is 01:01:21 I don't know what it is. I feel like I've seen him. Told you he's a strong one. Yeah what's that guy's name? The awkward ones. Tom Saltman. Tom Saltman official. Oh wow.

Starting point is 01:01:34 Where's that England? Strongest Brothers is in his t-shirt. Oh they're both strong then. It does seem one sided. My bad boys. Please don't all the work. Yeah but yeah I will say this. One of them is doing a doing all the work. Yeah, but yeah, I will say this.

Starting point is 01:01:47 One of them is doing a lot of the work, lads. Yeah, that road boiling. Play one more of those. I just couldn't see if you can find a Paf. I'm trying to think Paf. There we go. Play that one in. Gary Daly there.

Starting point is 01:02:02 Oh, he's an off-duty police officer And everybody knew this well, I knew it was a thing but I didn't know people throw it into a crowd of people That's the crazy part and some of them move and sometimes they don't move. Yeah. Yeah, look at that one 3.2 million views Wow 50 grand Wow, it's a massive amount of money. What is that 50 pounds? Yeah? 50,000 euro find the one with somebody right there. Who is this lady? That's just constant That's Michelle Smith a pop flood right there see what she says about him go up So just let you know you know you've been keeping track of this year approximately 20 past 3 on road bowls in Ireland on Facebook, so

Starting point is 01:02:47 Who's gonna win and it's a qualifier to take part in the King and Queen of the roads festival? 2024 happening in September that's Paul flood risk home Rafferty column Rafferty huge big thrower from County Arma and Pathload needs no introduction here. So tune in in about 20 minutes. You should have gone to this one. I tried. Did you really? Yeah, they were out of Cork. They were far away or they were in Europe.

Starting point is 01:03:14 Somewhere. There was one that actually made a little message to me. There you go, shortest bowl in history. Shortest bowl in history, let's see it. That's Paflod right there. That's him? That's him, yeah. Oh, shit. Oh, boy. Oh, bollocks, Paul.

Starting point is 01:03:27 That was best work. Gosh, my flood, huh? Just joking, Paul. That guy will throw one of those through my house. Oh, imagine that though, Lord. You're just. In your shins. Oh, yeah, that's Michelle Smith official.

Starting point is 01:03:35 How many people have you seen in the last year? I've seen a couple of them. I've seen a couple of them. I've seen a couple of them. I've seen a couple of them. I've seen a couple of them. I've seen a couple of them. I've seen a couple of them.

Starting point is 01:03:43 I've seen a couple of them. I've seen a couple of them. I've seen a couple of them. I've seen a couple of them. I've seen a couple of them. I've seen a couple of them. Oh, imagine that though, lad. You're just. In your shins? Oh. Yeah, that's Michelle Smith official. How much is that 50,000 pound for the winner? 50,000 euro, yes. So I don't know, 55,000 dollars probably. Wow. In and around. And look up the rules for road bowling real quick.

Starting point is 01:04:00 I just want to read it so I can. 60,573. Wow. To throw a damn ball down a road. Yeah, I don't know where that money comes from. Now that's a great question, brother. That's an IOU. Road bowling is an Irish sport in which competitors attempt to take the fewest throws to propel a metal ball along a predetermined course of country roads.

Starting point is 01:04:22 The sport originated in Ireland and is mainly played in counties. Arma. Arma and Cork. Road bowling in Ireland is governed by the Voluntary Irish Road Bowling Association. Arma won the All Ireland this year in the football. Oh they did? The bullet or bowl is a solid iron cannonball,

Starting point is 01:04:42 seven inches circumference and it weighs 28 ounces. There are two or more players or teams in a match. The one with the fewest shots to the finish line wins. If two players or teams approach the finish line with equal shots, the winner is decided by which throw goes farther past the finish line. Wow. You should have played this.

Starting point is 01:04:59 God, I'd love to. You could play this. Well, you gotta, I guess you really have to have the shoulders for it, you know? Are you lefty or righty? gotta, I guess you really have to have the shoulders for it, you know? Are you lefty? Or righty? Righty. Yeah, I'm pretty much righty.

Starting point is 01:05:09 Normie. I'll do it, but, you know. Remember when I was younger, I used to like, I'll try to like eat with my left hand for like, I'll be like, I'm gonna change things up, I'm gonna be different, and I'll do it for like two bites, and like, fuck that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 01:05:22 So like fork in your left hand. So you would now eat with a fork in your right hand? No, now I go fork in my left hand. You have knife in the right hand. But every now and then I try to change it up. Yeah, yeah, I remember at home, if you were lefty, this probably happened here too, if you were writing with your left hand, they would slap you

Starting point is 01:05:37 and put the pen in your right hand. I remember my dad, my dad's lefty too, and they would make him write with his right hand when he was younger Yeah, why they don't like it over there. No, yeah, I mean it's not to stay on Google the whole time But I bet it's like an old Irish thing. There was some weirdness about being lefty. Yeah. Wow Yeah, it is don't you to be different 100% Yeah Yeah, yeah, you get like slapped on the back of the hand. It says right here. It was all due

Starting point is 01:06:00 It was believed to an unloving refrigerator mother even as late as the 1900 some schools in Ireland We're still forcing Southpaw children to write with their right hands Nowadays we know that nine out of ten people are right-handed and that left-handedness is likely to be genetic What's a refrigerator mother yeah Is that like a latchkey kid in Ireland the term refrigerator mother was coined by Austrian physicist Leo Kanner in the 1940s to describe a mother Who's cold uncaring style so traumatized her child that they were treated into autism. Wow.

Starting point is 01:06:30 So they thought maybe if he was left-handed he was autistic. We had a fellow with Down syndrome in our town and his mom just thought he was Irish his whole life. I can't remember if you said that before. And it was just crazy, man. Yeah, and he might have been actually. She would dress him up in all these Boston Celtics shit Oh, hey, oh, it's crazy. Yeah, we're gone things. Yeah, just different. Yeah different just joyful outfits that poet yesterday

Starting point is 01:06:52 The guy we were doing the show with I had green shoes on and he called me a leprechaun within five minutes I had never met him before and yeah, call me a leprechaun. It's terrible. Yeah, he was kind of outgoing like that Yeah, you want is he hey, he was. He had a couple of pops. Do people get married young in Ireland? What's that like? Not so much. I don't know. What's it like here? I feel like it used to be, but not anymore. Yeah? Yeah, like I would say 30s, early 30s maybe. Nowadays. I know my parents got married when they were like 23, so I was just gradually growing up. Yeah, I guess I just gradually growing up.

Starting point is 01:07:25 Yeah. I guess I just wonder like how the cultures are super different. Oh yeah. In a lot of ways I'd imagine. I mean, that guy, Joshua the poet, last night he couldn't drink, he was 20 years old. I mean in Ireland, that is not the case. People can drink that early, eh?

Starting point is 01:07:39 Well, 18, but you know. Will they let him in the pubs as well, some? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially down the country, like after the road bowling. Yeah, everyone's getting in. I'd imagine that. Yeah, dude. Yeah, cork was something else.

Starting point is 01:07:50 I couldn't even believe when we got there. I was like, this is so wild. You played the marquee too. That's great. Yeah, in the tent there. I played there one time. Yeah, it was. It was totally different.

Starting point is 01:07:59 The acoustics were a little bit different in there. Do you have to change your set on in a cultural way? Probably not, right? Oh, I tell I learned stuff about like Belfast when I first got there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like the NRA. The IRA?

Starting point is 01:08:11 Yeah, and the IRA, yeah. Yes. And we learned about the IRA and like, yeah, like ooh, ah, up the raw, we learned about that. Yeah, yeah. And then we learned fuck England was the big thing we learned. You were saying you could just lean on that whenever you wanted to do it. Oh, if things got bad, yeah, you just yell it out. Yes. People are going learned fuck England was the big thing. We learned. You were saying you could just lean on that whenever you wanted.

Starting point is 01:08:25 Oh, things got bad. Yeah. You just yell it out. Yes. People are going, some guy pulled out a sword. I'm like, who has a sword? And I think he worked there. Yeah. You're like, well, that seems.

Starting point is 01:08:36 It's just security. Yeah. That seems a bit out of sorts, but yeah. Yeah. Who's Beetlejuice? Don't ever say that name. Beetlejuice. I'm serious. If you say that name three times, really bad stuff is gonna happen. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice? Don't ever say that name. Beetlejuice. I'm serious, if you say that name three times, really bad stuff is gonna happen. Beetlejuice.

Starting point is 01:08:48 Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! The juice is loose. On September 6th, We doing this? the wait Let's go, honey. is over.

Starting point is 01:08:59 Thank you all for coming to this very special occasion. I felt a little tingle. Ew. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, September 6th. Is pornography causing a problem in your life? That's a good question. It's a real question, it has in mind. It has at certain periods in my life,

Starting point is 01:09:21 watching porno and everything and watching porno was making me, it was ruining my life. It was ruining my life man. Made me feel just so much shame. That's what it did. Well watching pornography has become commonplace today and oftentimes men will use porno to numb the pain of loneliness, boredom, anxiety and depression. That's all I want to introduce you to my friend, Stephen Wolt. Steve is the founder of Valor Recovery. He is a dear friend of mine. He is a dear friend of mine. And Valor Recovery is a program to help men overcome porn abuse and sexual compulsivity.

Starting point is 01:10:01 That's right. Their coaches are in long-term recovery and they will be your partner, mentor, and spiritual guide to transcend problematic behaviors. There is zero commitment if you reach out to them. It's just the first step in trying to figure out if you may need some help, if you can get some help. To learn more about Valor Recovery, please visit them at valorrecoverycoaching.com or email them at admin at valorrecoverycoaching.com. The links will be on the YouTube. And again, there's no commitment when you reach out to them.

Starting point is 01:10:42 But I promise you, only something positive will come from you reaching out and figuring out if what type of help, if any, could benefit you. Thank you. What are some musicians that you really admire? I know that's kind of like... No, no, no. Hosey is a big one for me, you know? Oh yeah. Yeah. He's playing here coming up at the Pilgrimage Festival. Oh I saw that, yeah. I was sad, because I'll be gone. But he, yeah, he just, he's Irish and he. Oh wow.

Starting point is 01:11:11 Yeah, I think sometimes people don't know that. I think, I remember someone, I was talking to someone recently they thought it was from here, but he, it's just cool. He kind of blew up way before me. And it's just a nice to see, it's kind of a cool role model to have. He just carries himself very well, I think. Will you keep in touch or hit him up

Starting point is 01:11:30 if you have any thoughts or something? Yeah, definitely. Not even thoughts, but just to talk. I think artists don't talk to each other enough. Like I find it hard to talk to other artists sometimes because I feel like it's very, we're all quite selfish and we're all so locked into our own existence that it's tricky sometimes.

Starting point is 01:11:44 I find it much easier to connect with people who are involved in sports. I think that's easier sometimes but he's, I don't know, it's just cool for me to see him. He's got this huge career where he's got so many followers and supporters of his music but it's all always just about the music, you know what I mean? It's just he's inherently him and I think that's a pretty cool thing and it's good for me to kind of like just see that follow it. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah I'm trying to think of some other Irish musicians You too are obviously probably the biggest ever but oh, yeah, of course

Starting point is 01:12:15 Dude one time I went to like the MTV Movie Awards or something might have been music awards If I think it was music awards actually. So I got dropped off there, I'm walking up and all these people start cheering, right? And I got like a pass, like through the artist pass, whatever, and I'm walking, all these people were cheering. And I just like, in my head, I was like, these people are cheering for me. And I was like, what?

Starting point is 01:12:39 And then I looked next to me and it was Bono. Bono. Were you talking to him? I said, nice glasses, that's what I said. Because I didn't know who he was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At the time, I was just kind of like, I was 19, and I was like, I didn't have a clue.

Starting point is 01:12:53 He's the best. You know, sometimes when you're talking to somebody that's so famous and has been for such a long time, you kind of feel like you're not getting it. There's nothing beneath the surface. With him, it's the complete opposite. you can tell like if you were talking to me it's just full undivided attention oh it's give us feedback and we'll pay attention to you and stuff it's great oh I've met some of these guys Nile

Starting point is 01:13:12 Lauren yep neat guy who else oh the cranberries yep Van Morrison oh Thinly's are the best have you listened to Thinly's? uh-uh oh man I gotta get in it you like rock and roll you like the red playstrays yeah oh man Thin Lizzy are the best. Have you listened to Thin Lizzy? Uh-uh. Oh, man. I gotta get in it. You like rock and roll? You like the right place to raise? Yeah. Oh, man. Thin Lizzy is... That's up your strata. I'll have to get into that. Thin Lizzy. Oh, the best. He passed away a long time ago, but he, uh...

Starting point is 01:13:37 The music's incredible. Wow. The Boys Are Back in Town. You know that song. The boys are back... Where were they? What do you mean? Like, why were they, where were they? Oh. Does he ever say that?

Starting point is 01:13:47 I actually do know, yeah. They're hanging down at Dino's is the lyric. Dino's is here too, but there's a Dino's Lake restaurant in Dublin. Oh yeah. Yeah. And that's where they're hanging out. And where did they come back in town from?

Starting point is 01:13:59 Yeah, I don't know. But I think about that all the time. And I always think about them. Going on tour back then, it must have just been like, see you soon. Yeah. Imagine in the 70s and no one knows where you are. No one knows how it's going. You're not on social media. It must be insane and you just come back and kind of hopefully it went well. Yeah, and I don't even know if you knew how well it went really.

Starting point is 01:14:19 No, never. You just get feedback every night. And then a lot of drugs and drinking though, so. God, that must have been fucking funny. Did you ever struggle with any of the gear or whatever they call it over there? No, man, I find it like, I don't know. I again, like not to harp on about it, but I think sport was crucial for me. It was just kind of I always like a tour when I tour. I'll often do kind of I feel like it's not sustainable nowadays in music.

Starting point is 01:14:43 It was different back then. I don't know how heavily they toured and stuff But nowadays touring is so key like you'll just I don't know personally I wouldn't be able to sustain it at all. No, I think even drinking. Yeah, I gotta be careful Yeah, I just think it just be impossible like to be hung and then to the response what he's getting to the next place I just seems like it's not worth it. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know how people do it. No, I know. Yeah, sometimes, like, I don't know. I don't know how some artists do it, but I wouldn't be able. Even last night, like I'm tired today from just playing an acoustic set in a cafe last night. I'm very pedestrian. What about the love life, man? How does that look for you?

Starting point is 01:15:20 It's solid and always has been. Not always has been, but for a long time. Oh, really? You've always been good with the ladies then? No. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, cause that's kinda. I've always been good with one lady, yeah. Oh you have? Not in a corny way, that's the corniest thing

Starting point is 01:15:31 I've ever said. Do people know that that you have a girlfriend? That's my experience, yeah, kind of. I don't talk about it much, but I think if people wanted to know, they would know, yeah. Oh, so you had a lady then? For a long time. Wow.

Starting point is 01:15:41 Yeah, yeah. I don't see, like, I'm happy to talk about it, but I don't see it as like a relevant part of my career. Do you yeah. I don't see, like, I'm happy to talk about it, but I don't see it as, like, a relevant part of my career. Do you know what I mean? I don't see it as something to promote. She definitely doesn't. So it's just our existence outside of my career. Does it feel, does that inspire some of your music

Starting point is 01:15:57 with some of the, like, the emo stuff or no? What do you mean the emo stuff? Like some of the loving type stuff. Definitely, all of it. All of it. All of it. That's where it all comes from. And yeah, yeah. I never talk about it, but it's all good. What about you?

Starting point is 01:16:17 I don't know, dude. I think. Yeah, I got to get a wife. I would like to get a wife. I will say that. I got to get some of my affairs in order. I gotta get some of my affairs in order. This feels like a follow on from the serial killer chat.

Starting point is 01:16:35 This feels like, yeah. Yeah, dude, I've had it like, yeah, I mean, I date, you know, it's just hard. You're in town, you're gone, and then you're supposed to be like date, you know. Yeah, of course. You're like come back three weeks later. and then you're supposed to be like date, you know. Yeah, of course. You're like come back three weeks later. But I think that's one of the reasons

Starting point is 01:16:48 why I stayed in comedy because I was like, oh well, I had so much trouble like staying in relationships and being committed in relationships. I was like, this always gives me an excuse to leave. Mm. You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was like, I gotta go, you know?

Starting point is 01:17:02 And then you come back and they might've found someone else. Of course. You hope they found somebody else. Oh really? A lot of times, yeah. So you can detach from it and just. Oh yeah. Yeah, so it's like I gotta go, you know, and then you come back and they might have found someone else You hope they found somebody else. Oh, really a lot of times so you can detach from it. Yeah Yeah, you're like, oh gosh. Good luck with Stanley or whatever. Yeah, I'm glad you found him. Yeah, so things like that I think uh I'm trying to think of yeah. I just been I just had like I Don't know. It's just always hard for me to Like Trust somebody mmm Like, I don't know. It's just always hard for me to like, trust somebody.

Starting point is 01:17:31 I think that was just like the hardest thing. I just had no idea of how to do it. Yeah, it was like a foreign practice. Trusting somebody. Yeah. Really, anybody? Only romantically, friends, anything? Oh no, it even goes over into work and everything a lot of times.

Starting point is 01:17:45 Right, yeah. I think I have to really... Yeah, I don't know. Does it like take time? Yeah, I think it takes time. As long as you can tell with people, kind of easy. But it's been... It's just been a tough thing for me over the years. Sure.

Starting point is 01:18:02 And I don't even know why sometimes. It's a crazy line of work to be in too, right? Yeah. For that situation. Yeah, and then you're leaving her all the time or something, it's like, so many of my friends have been divorced that are in comedy and stuff like that. I think it's just a tough go of it.

Starting point is 01:18:17 Yeah, of course. Do you own any animals, Dermot? I have a dog called Tom. That's it. I miss him dearly. He's a puppy. Does he write? Does he write? Yeah, Tom the writing dog. Yeah, he is the best. It's the best thing in the world. I always took the piss out of the emotional support thing,

Starting point is 01:18:34 but I believe in it now. You know what I mean? Like emotional support dogs flying with them and stuff. Oh, you take them on planes and all? I haven't yet, but I will. Oh, you're looking forward to it? Yeah, yeah. You think like, no I can't. He was in Dublin with his big German shepherd. And I was like, if he can do that, I've got to be able to get my little puppy on the plane. Wow. He took a German shepherd with him? Yeah. Now it's a nice dog.

Starting point is 01:18:53 It's like well behaved. I think it sleeps under his legs while he's on the flight. Oh my God. Yeah, it's badass. That's beautiful. Yeah. It's the best thing. I don't know.

Starting point is 01:19:01 Here's a Dublin zoo and let's help a breastfeeding mother to encourage female orangutan bond with her newborn. So this is happening over by you guys. Oh no way. Brilliant. Well not brilliant. What app did this monkey or this woman off of? Because this seems like, and if those are Irish breasts, brother, they're full cream, I'll tell you that. They have, I, dude I saw some breasts over there. You did? Oh my God.

Starting point is 01:19:30 You're, it's like, just like, I'm coming home, tell the world I'm coming home. It just feels like the root of time started in them. Right, right, right, lovely. I mean, God, they just like the fucking, just beautiful, just like the eyes of the moon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just those fucking front hammers, baby. You'd see some goddamn, I mean, you'd see, they literally look like they were sculpted out of like, you know, just a fine fucking thick yogurt. It's wild. You thought there was no women.

Starting point is 01:20:06 Oh, but when you saw them, there was one. They would break, yeah, they'd see, yeah, you'd see a fucking shadow coming over you and it'd be a big tit. A woman would have leaned out of a window to look for something. You had your eyes peeled constantly.

Starting point is 01:20:20 Make sure a man was still at the pub, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because the pubs, yeah, I mean, I went into a pub, no furniture, bunch of guys holding each other up, fucking just yelling and drinking. Yeah. No furniture. You would go into a pet store, no pets, seven people drinking in there, talking about animals. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 01:20:39 Everything there is just people having a beer, man. It's funny though, you know, know like do you ever see the way? Italians like live to be really really old because they all just hang out constantly I like to think Irish people are kind of like that too. We just need each other There's all these like small communities and stuff. They need somewhere to gather Musics part of that and I grew up in New Orleans and there people were drunk vomiting You didn't see it in Ireland man, you can yeah, I didn't see a lot of it. Oh, there's plenty of puke. Oh, there is.

Starting point is 01:21:05 Oh, yeah. Oh, and they do it all at once or something? I would say it's just like you maybe missed it. There's plenty of it, though. Yeah. Yeah, it's the worst feeling in the world. It's crazy. I would say that nearly keeps me away from drinking too much

Starting point is 01:21:18 is the puke. I fucking hate it. Well, the first part of puke, and I don't like, you start to get this little sweat out of the like the middle of your neck or Yeah, yeah, yeah, or the saliva. It's like the saliva all over again. Yeah, it's like your saliva starts to be like hey guess what? Yeah, you're in trouble. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're in trouble Yeah, that's pretty hellish So I like how you take moments to think. Oh, just scan your mind.

Starting point is 01:21:45 I don't have a choice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I wish I could just call upon it. Yeah, man. My brain retired years ago. Years ago. Um, yeah. And some of the names in our life, I feel like people are trying to be have the most Irish name. You'll meet like somebody a oh, I fe if a ifa yeah, and that's doesn't really spell that we were talking to someone Yes, they called Neve. It's NIA MH. Yeah, and that's not anything So it's like you have to have real names if you're even gonna you should guess some these are very run-of-the-mill All right, you got some spicier names.

Starting point is 01:22:25 It's very hard to spell Irish names, but without the answers. Alright. Count. Count. Count me. Count me. Count. Quiva.

Starting point is 01:22:40 Alright. Nope. Siobhan. That's nice, but it's Siobhan. Siobhan, okay. I didn't know they had black people there. All right. Ru-re-re. Ru-re.

Starting point is 01:22:53 That's nice, yeah, Rory. Oh, Rory. That would be like Rory. D-H-R-A, like it's like silent. Okay, they spelled it so you know at home. R-U-A-I-D-H-R-I. Okay. So they don't so you know at home. R-U-A-I-D-H-R-I. Okay. So they don't spell it like Rory.

Starting point is 01:23:08 The next one, T-A-D-G-H, ta-da. Or. Taig. Taig. Taig. Taig. Okay. And the next one, N-I-A-M-H.

Starting point is 01:23:23 Noah. No, Neve. Neve, okay. Neve, just N-E-E-M-H. Noah. No, Neve. Neve, okay. Neve, just N-E-E-V, Neve. And then the next one, another one that's not real. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. Siri. S-A-O-I-R-S-E.

Starting point is 01:23:36 S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E.

Starting point is 01:23:43 S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. S-A-O-I-R-S-E. And then I'll do this last one because I've seen this one before these are good now word. Okay here we go to G are a In in e yeah granny Granya Granya as close as you've been oh, that's beautiful actually Yeah, and this one right here is not anything, but I'll read it Blath in a ID mm-hmm Blot Blot, blottenide, blot, blottenide.

Starting point is 01:24:10 Blottenide. Blottenide. Yeah, you're doing all right. All right, here's one right here. C-A-O-I-L-F-H-I-O-N-N. K-O? Kevin. I, that one is even weird for me. I would say, I would say Quailin. Quailin. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 01:24:28 There's just, everybody you meet over there, you're like, I'm Quailin Madonna Gargay, you know. Yeah, yeah, but I see that here too. Oh, yes. You know what I mean? Everyone, I was in the Boot Barn last weekend and there was a guy called Loughlin. Yeah. Yeah, and he was like, I'm Irish. You know, he just claims it, but you're like, no shit. Yeah. Um, what about the new album? So are you working on a new album? What is it like for you right now? Uh, yes, I am. I have written, I would say 25 to 30 songs and yeah, but it goes crazy. It's kind of like, you can do as many as you want. You can do hundreds. And like, I know know do you remember that song that Rihanna had I want you to stay not really sure how I feel about it that's on no I was with the fella that featured on that song mm-hmm and huge success and then a second

Starting point is 01:25:20 album he wrote 250 songs so it's just like at what point do you kind of call it you know what I mean? And then I've heard Billie Eilish do interviews where she says, if the album is 12 songs, I've written 12 songs and that's it. So I'd rather be like that. It's crazy to me, the idea of throwing songs out, you know, I don't know why I would do that. So I've got a bunch now and I feel good about them.

Starting point is 01:25:37 I never know. That's what I'm saying is like, I analyze myself too much and I think sometimes I lose perspective and I could have the best song in the world, but I can't see it. And is there certain people you go to to get really clear perspective? No. I don't play music to anyone. Anybody. Yeah, because if it's good feedback, I'll be like, yeah, I know. And if it's bad, then I'll be aggressive. Wow. So what about a management or an agent or anything? Yeah, some of that, but then that's hard too, right?

Starting point is 01:26:05 Because you kind of question like, what are people's criteria? To me, I only care that it's good, but then they might be like, oh, this song could be successful. And I was like, what does that mean? Right. It could stink, but it could,

Starting point is 01:26:18 it could send me down the wrong path musically, but it could make money on the radio. I don't know. So you got to do the right thing. And do do you will you choose a certain number out of those yeah I like ten I know like I've seen like Morgan Wallen's album with like 37 songs and stuff I don't know if I'm able for that kind of thing yeah I mean yeah I mean different people have different stuff definitely Definitely. Yeah, I wonder like, yeah, would I be scared? God, it's just gotta be so scary putting an album out.

Starting point is 01:26:49 Mm. Yeah, I mean, it's gonna define your life for two or three years, you know? It's almost like throwing a stick of dynamite into a room or something. Definitely. And then what if you don't hear anything? It may not go off, yeah.

Starting point is 01:26:59 Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, you never know. I think like, yeah, that definitely scares me sometimes and it might not happen. You know what's almost even worse is that middle of the road. Kind of just like some people like it boring. Yeah. For me what's funny is like I've never had a song go crazy. Do you know what I mean? Like I've never had a song. Like I play big venues in most places, but like I can walk around all day and no one knows who I am. So I think I kind of exist in a sweet spot to some degree. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 01:27:30 Yeah. I think for me, it's like a careful what I wish for scenario sometimes, because my life is still very normal, but then I get to go on stage and do very abnormal things. You know, like if I had to stay in my hotel room all day, because I can't, that would make me sad. Definitely. Yeah. You're almost like Clark Kent kind of you know or Claire yeah Quillen yeah Quillen kinship yeah I just because you have some anonymity still definitely there was one time you do have a chip on your shoulder sometimes though I do like

Starting point is 01:28:02 I was playing for a football team in New York, and we were at training one night, and one guy was like, are you playing shows or whatever? And I was like, yeah, I'm playing a show at the Garden. And he was like, oh cool, are you part of a bigger bill? Are you supporting somebody? I'm constantly just like, no, it's my show. People will be there, hopefully.

Starting point is 01:28:19 So I think people are constantly surprised how big the shows are, because I don't feel like a very famous person, which is lovely, honestly. That's the way it is. Yeah, I think you keep like a... You seem like a pretty regular demeanor. Nicer, man. Which I think is probably one of the best compliments you can get.

Starting point is 01:28:36 Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then to go and have that many people show up for something, yeah, that's pretty freaking unbelievable. It's nuts. It's the only... I think like if I feel lucky in the sense that before I did all this, if I had a checklist of what I wanted, I feel quite lucky.

Starting point is 01:28:50 I feel like I've ticked most boxes, which is nice. You know, my life hasn't changed. I get to play to lots of people. I get to decide what music I put out. That feels good to me. Yeah, yeah. How long do you think your album will come out? Or do you have a plan on it?

Starting point is 01:29:05 Does it matter? I don't, I'm trying not to care. It matters, but I don't know how it works to people. Do you feel a pressure? Yeah, definitely. Oh, you do? Yeah, like will people stick around? You know what I mean? Like I think music, you kind of have to stay relevant

Starting point is 01:29:20 and stay present and release music all the time. You know, I think it's, I think you have to kind of do stuff constantly and constantly bring stuff out, but you got to be careful too because if people just get bored, you know what I mean? I would love to, I'd love to bring out an album definitely in less than a year, but I'm not in a hurry to do it either. I would rather have a good one, you know what I mean? I don't think it needs to be just constantly doing it. And the tour off of it, yeah.

Starting point is 01:29:46 Like we've been doing touring very slow, we'll do like chunks. Yeah, I see some. It's taken three years now to do the tour. Oh man. But it's fine. Yeah, people don't care. As long as you show up, people don't care.

Starting point is 01:29:56 Yeah, it's like, and it's been good and I couldn't handle doing like a seven month tour or something. Yeah, I've seen like, who did I see? I saw Matt McCusker's tour and it was just every weekend like couple shows I was just that must be so sweet to do shows and go home Yeah music you can't do that because you got like a band and crew on the road and you're paying everyone every day

Starting point is 01:30:11 So you just you'd be bankrupt immediately. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, do it all. Yeah, definitely when you have such a squad how much Do you have a big band supporting you when you go out? There's What is it? There's like six of us on stage. All Irish? No, two of us Irish. And then, uh, everyone else is from Australia, Switzerland and the UK. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:30:34 Pretty diverse. Yes, indeed. But, uh, it's important. Like you, you kind of, even though it's a solo project, I think it has to feel like, I hate when a songwriter, it looks like it's them and their employees. I think that's crap. Yeah. I think it's makes feel like, I hate when a songwriter, it looks like it's them and their employees. I think that's crap.

Starting point is 01:30:46 I think it makes for a bad musical connection. I think you want to feel like a band. What makes that happen? I think, I mean, bottom line, the way you treat people, and you give people creative freedom, you let them play the way they want to play. I think if you stifle it and sort of restrict people too much, it stops being fun. I think people come to see my show to see that musical

Starting point is 01:31:13 interaction. It's not just me playing. I think it's weird sometimes when you see a solo artist and their band is just kind of in the background and not really part of the show. That's weird to me. Mmm. Yeah. What, um, where'd you meet your gal at? Like, what, 25 years ago, probably at home. No. Yeah, yeah. At home? Well, was she going door to door? No, she wasn't, but we were, we were- It's not your sister, is it? No, we grew up in the same area. And yeah, it's a very like, it's a very sort of high school sweethearts thing. Oh, that's... So there is some romance right there then. Definitely.

Starting point is 01:31:52 There's something romantic about that. And is that... Yeah, I guess Ireland makes me just think everything seems like... Fairytale over there a bit. Yeah. Sometimes too much. Certain movies and stuff, you know? Yeah. What was the one?

Starting point is 01:32:06 Oh, I know if you're talking about Gangs of New York. That one's kind of cool though. There was like this movie recently, The Irish Wish or P.S. I Love You, those types of things. Oh, terrible. Yeah. Good. Fucked. Yeah. If your wife, yeah, if you found your wife in a wishing well or something, you're out of your fucking mind, dude. Could happen. You could do it. Hey, look. That's true true man. You need to go back. Oh yeah. Oh I want to go back so bad I want to do a couple more spots there. Yeah. And maybe do one more I think I owe a little bit better of a show to maybe Belfast. It was good but I think I want to you know you just want to do it better. Yeah I like

Starting point is 01:32:43 the way you say I tried my best at the end of your shows. I think that's good. Yeah, thanks, man I think I usually I definitely 99% of the time I feel that way that I tried my best now the outcome sometimes Yeah, but then that sentiment stands above everything right like even if it doesn't go the way you want to do Yeah, try my best You know yeah people appreciate it too. Yeah, I think people appreciate it. I think so. That's probably a good point. What will you do when you get back to Ireland? Like what's something you look forward to doing? I will like to write music every day and to be like in the studio every single day. I know it's a very privileged thing to say,

Starting point is 01:33:21 but it's a very taxing thing. I got tired of it. So like I'll go just where I live is in the middle of nowhere. So I'll just be in the forest every day with the dog. Do you have a dog? No, I would like to get a dog as soon as I quit touring. Yeah. In like seven months, I'm gonna try to get some kind of dog. It's the best thing I've done. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:33:36 Oh man. Yeah. It's just like a companion. It kind of it's a nice injection of real life as well. And amongst all the weirdness, it's just nice. Like, and it's this thing that would die if you didn't look after it, so it's kind of, it's a powerful feeling.

Starting point is 01:33:48 You guys got a, is it a staffie over there, what you got? No, teeny little scruffy terrier. Oh. Yeah. He's a rescue. Oh yeah. Everything is in Ireland, huh?

Starting point is 01:33:57 Everything, I'm a rescue, yeah. Yeah, if he's a male, is he? He is male, yeah. Oh yeah, good. He's still got his cajones. Well, he won't be using them. There's no girls out there. That's true.

Starting point is 01:34:07 There's nothing. Yeah. I'll have to bring them to America. Dermot Kennedy, thanks so much, man. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you for all the awesome music, man.

Starting point is 01:34:16 Thanks for just kind of sharing whatever you can to the best of your ability. Yes, sir. That's kind of how I feel when I listen to your stuff and yeah I had a great time. Thanks for inviting me last night. And yeah, thanks for the ticket dude. It was awesome. No, no, thanks for going Thank you. Yeah, cheers on your bro cornerstone But when I reach that ground I'll share this piece of my life out I can feel it in my bones

This Past Weekend - E528 Dermot Kennedy

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.