10 Questions for The Guggenheim Grotto

Do you have any hobbies?

I run. I don't run enough though. When I do I love it. It's hard on the road though when you don't have a routine per se. It really takes a lot of effort.

Do you have any pets?
No. I'd love to have a dog but it's nigh impossible to keep one when you are on the road all the time and you don't have any fixed place of abode.

Describe your first gig
My first gig was with a band I helped form in School. I think we were called The Mutants. We mostly played Nirvana covers although I got to sing creep and Sunday Bloody Sunday too. I still have some really poor video footage of it. Our instruments were horribly out of tune but we gave a spirited performance nonetheless.

Who are some of your favorite artists to listen to?
Two artists from Ireland which I love listening to are Cathey Davey and Lisa Hannigan, from Seattle there's Fleet Foxes and I find myself returning again and again to Leonard Cohen.

Do you have any unusual stories from the road?
What’s your favorite city to tour?
How long have you been performing?
What’s the craziest thing to happen on tour?

What’s your favorite song to perform?
We've got a song called The Universe Is Laughing which we perform with just a Ukulele and our voices. It's fun singing a song stripped down to just these two things.

Where do you get the inspirations for your songs?
From books, film, snippets of conversation, idle wondering - I magpie a lot.

What producer would you wish to work with? And why?
I generally like anything Tchad Blake is involved in. He's got a great ability for capturing a raw, unpolished, gritty sound.

Were any of your songs really difficult to reach its present form?
The Universe Is Laughing was. Mick had this beautiful melody for sometime and I wanted to make sure I wrote lyrics that took advantage of it. It took me a year to find the right topic and four rewrites.

Is there any instrument you wished you knew how to play?
The cello. Someday...

How do you want people to receive your music?
With open arms and ears.

What do you do to stay entertained while traveling to other cities?
At the moment there are three of us in the car - myself, Mick and our friend and a great songwriter by the name of Tadhg Cooke. We're currently listening to an audio book: Bill Brysons A Short History of Nearly Everything. All three of us are absorbed by it. Atoms, Supernova's, Gravity, Brownian Motion, Dinosaurs, How old is the earth, how heavy is the earth - mind blowing stuff.
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