A trip to Berlin the week before my 30th birthday in July 2014 was a turning point. It was a three-day trip and there were five of us, all musicians and songwriters — we used to attend open-mic sessions in Galway. One of them suggested the trip to play a few gigs but it was a holiday really.
None of us knew each other very well but over that weekend we became really good friends. I was a little bit lost at the time. After the recession, a few years earlier, two of my best friends and my sister had all emigrated.
I’d gone through a period of anxiety. I’d had a car accident, that was part of it, but also a cousin had died in a car crash a few years before. By the time of this trip to Berlin, I was finishing up a research PhD in Galway.
I think at this stage — finishing college, looking for a job — it’s quite common for people to start thinking ‘what am I doing? Where am I going?’ I call it a quarter-life crisis. I’d been playing in pubs in Galway and Clifden, to pay my way through college, doing cover songs, writing songs all the time. I see that as my internship.
And this trip overseas to play music was a crossroads for me. We were in this all-night city, hanging out in the streets, people busking, hanging with a lot of artists and singers. I hadn’t travelled much outside Galway or Ireland doing music.
And there was a reaction to a couple of my songs over that weekend — a great response. I felt fulfilled. I realised I could travel, bring my music to more .