The first album, AMEN (SO BE IT) was obviously an important album for you. Tell me about it.

With the first album I’d been gigging the songs for ages and ages, and the record company asked me if I would do some demos for them (to see if they liked any more of my songs, because they seemed to like what I had been doing). They liked what they got back and they even wanted to release the demos which had only taken me a couple of days to record. I thought it was a bit strange but went along with it anyway. And when people ask why this new album is so different from the first one, I was telling them that the first one took three days and cost like 20 pence, while the second one (LIVING) cost a bit more and took a month. I reckon the first one, given a bit more time, would have turned out more like LIVING you know…

But also the first album was a bit more personal?

I suppose the first album was but it was songs from over several years and I suppose I was a bit more hectic in the head back then as well.

And the basis of your song writing is your own observations, experiences and emotions…

Isn’t that what everybody does?

I wish! It seems that in this highly manufactured pop environment computers and contracted writers seem to be calling the shots, especially for mainstream acts. So that was your first album which only met with very moderate success over here in the UK…

No, I don’t think it did very well over here. It did well in Australia and did reasonably well in America, but you know it still sold and still sells to this day.

And I suppose it could sell off the back of the new album…

Well in Ireland AMEN has gone back into the top 20 of the album chart where it’s been for the last few months, on the back of LIVING. And LIVING outsold every other album in Ireland that was released last year. It even outsold Dido!

Following the release of AMEN, there were some good reviews, a scurry of activity and then you seemed to disappear off the face of the earth…

I was touring for a long time. It seemed like I disappeared but I was still touring America and stuff. I suppose there was about a year and a half when I was demo-ing every few months, recording songs. The record company had ideas of people I could work with and the first one was the DJ guy (I said I wanted a DJ guy who was into beats basically) with whom we recorded about four songs. It seemed to be going somewhere but then we tried out a few other people who I didn’t like. But the record company didn’t like what I did with the first guy Steve. And that process kind of slowed things down for a bit because they were determined that I should go with one particular producer in the UK, and me being a stubborn fuck, wouldn’t have it. The guy they wanted me to use was quality and had produced some great dance stuff, but it wasn’t what I wanted…

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Then I eventually caught up with you again last year (over two years later) at the Witnness Festival…

What happened was that I got fed up waiting for people to get behind me, and decided to go it alone. It was a question whether this album would be made or not, and I was getting fed up waiting and I’m getting older, you know. So I got a band together and basically we toured for ages, did loads of gigs building up crowds and fans. It was very good and then, all of a sudden, people are my friends again. Having said that, Sony never pushed me, they never turned their back either which was fair play to them. They could have easily dropped me because it is a numbers thing, an accountants’ game…

So you were gigging around Ireland?

Yes, and I was playing new songs which people seemed to be happy to hear. And people starting saying, ‘you’re still here and the songs are better…’ And a lot of people seemed to think that the gigs were getting better also. So everyone starting sliding back towards me again, realising that the next album could do well.

So for the new album Paddy, how did the song selection process work?

This time I let people (the record company) judge them. There were a few songs that nobody liked but which I liked and insisted that they be included on the new album. Then I let people select their favourite songs. I had three lists, the A, B, and C. Most of my selections were on the B list whereas other people’s were on the A list.

So you released LIVING last year in Ireland. How well did it do?

It did better than any other album in Ireland released last year. Every other album has come and gone but LIVING is still fluctuating between 2 and 4 in the chart. It’s actually been in the chart for five months and is still there after being released over six months ago… so it’s done very well

And the reviewers liked it?

I don’t know because I don’t read the reviews. I understand that a few really liked it…

I think you released Saints & Sinners from the album over here…

I think we tried but we gave up over here. It’s done amazingly well everywhere else but over here in England… It’s strange because during the tours over here recently that’s been the crowd’s favourite song, so something’s wrong.

And what about the States?

We’re going to Norway this week because apparently Saints & Sinners is doing really well over there. We’re going to play a few colleges and radio stations and then we’ll be looking at the USA a little later.

What’s your favourite track on the album?

My favourite track is probably not the best track but it does remind me of It’s Over Now (from AMEN), and it’s Self-Serving Society. I think the two of them seem to have the same feel and vibe going through them. But Self-Serving because I was sitting at home and wrote and recorded it in my one-bedroom flat in no time at all. But I never brought it to the record company because I knew if I brought it to them, they would want to change it. They would want to remix it and get someone else to record it properly. But I wanted to keep it in its original room-recorded version. I thought I had captured it quite well. So I didn’t bring it to them until the day we were actually mastering the album. And I brought it in on a CD and gave it to them saying that ‘here’s track 12…’ And they were like, ‘what the fuck!’ And I played it to them twice and that was it. If I’d given it to them before, they would have had doubts…

And what’s the story behind the secret track because track 12 ends, and then there’s a one minute silence and it begins again, as another song…?

I wanted to make an album of 15-16 songs anyway. It would have been sad not to have put certain songs on it. There was a song that I wouldn’t have put on it but which seems to be everyone’s favourite which is Bend Down Low. So the last (secret track) song, Home Made Bread, was also made in the flat on the 8-track along with Self-Serving. If I had given it to them as a track, they would have said that it was not the right quality… But it’s got something magical about it and is a favourite with many people. It’s not perfect but it’s got a vibe…

Tell me what you are saying with Self-Serving which seems to be a song that looks outwards a lot more…

It’s a reflection of where I’m living now. Dublin is strange right now. People used to share a lot more than they do now. Everyone has their own thing now and they don’t need to knock on anyone’s door for a bowl of sugar or whatever. It’s a kind of anti-globalisation song because every city is becoming practically the same and everybody’s bit of heritage and culture is being sold off. So that’s pretty much it.

I suppose I’ll be seeing you at Oxegen this year?

Yeah. The two Witnness gigs have been my best so I’m looking forward to it. .

Thanks Paddy.