I have been interested in Irish traditional music for the past few years.
Certainly my only interest is not in Celtic music.
I'm a fanatic about Irish music. I love its moody, modal and timeless quality. I'm different from some other composers, because I don't look at this as just a job. I think of music as art.
There's some familiarity in Celtic music, even if you've never heard that piece of music before.
I love the uilleann pipes and listen to Ronan Browne who's an uilleann piper.
The problem with being Irish... is having 'Riverdance' on your back. It's a burden at times.
The first music I was ever exposed to was Irish folk music, like the Clancy Brothers. My father plays that and Christmas songs.
My da used to sing 'Take Her Up to Monto' to me when we were walking down the street - he still does, actually - because it's got a walking tempo, and I still sing it to myself when I'm walking along.
I am very fond of the people, landscape, poetry, music, history and the Guinness. Being there makes me think of my mother and my grandmother - always sentimental and warm thoughts.
I know so many Irish musicians. They're all over, because there has been so much emigration from Ireland. Like the Jews.
When I heard the Pogues, I connected with the songs immediately, but it was also the first time I didn't reject out of hand the kind of music that my parents had always tried to push on to us when we were growing up.
In Ireland, it's been like U2 and The Cranberries, which is rock, but you know they're Irish.
I play Irish popular music, yeah? Calling it folk is like putting it in a box. It's a living tradition, you know?
I used to go to the school folk club with my songs when I was only 13 or so and say "this is a traditional folk song" and sing it with a bad Irish accent to disguise the real source.
