Kingston, Jamaica | Newry, N.Ireland

I recently heard a clip of Tom Hanks being interviewed. He was asked why he felt compelled to act. He cried. He was searching for a vocabulary, a way to express his ‘loneliness’.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p03t5p63

There is a loneliness that's not boredom or isolation ~ it's closer to panic. I think the word is……desolation. Space movies explore this a lot. The horror of drifting off into eternity, waiting for your oxygen to run out. I’ve tasted that sort of…

Victoria Falls, Zambia  |  Lisnabreeny, Belfast

She: Why are all your songs so serious? Couldn’t you just write something fun for a change? (If you’re happily married after 25 years, you can have a level of candour that would have caused a major domestic in the first decade!)

Me: All serious! I think that unfair! What about all the kids songs, and youth songs, they’re fun?

She: Well ok, but do they ALL have to be about church? Why can’t you write a hit that we can retire on – something just for fun…

Newry, Co. Down | N.Ireland

Sunshine for rainy days

I’ve been songwriting since I was 15, maybe earlier. My mum used to say I was singing complete songs before my second birthday, before I could structure full sentences! So I rolled out in a pushchair to sing for adults as a novelty act. It’s probably not as rare as it seemed to them. Music touches the depths of us in a special way doesn’t it? I'm sure when our eyes have faded, and our short term memory mists over, it’s music…