Had things worked out differently, Cork singer-songwriter Mick Flannery might have spent the rest of his life sculpting stones, rather than songs, into shape.

Before he took up music full-time the Blarney-born songsmith had an unlikely career as a stone-mason. “I did it for about three years from when I was around 15 or 16,” he says. “I originally wanted to work in a bar but my old man wouldn’t let me. There was an old guy locally who wanted someone to help him out so I got the job. I ended up doing walls, fireplaces and fronts of houses, that kind of stuff. It was a job and it paid money but you’d get sick of it, working out in the freezing cold and rain. I had an EP out three years ago and I kind of started looking for gigs and trying to get out there. But I was still working away as a stone-mason.”
Now 23, Flannery has just overseen the Irish release of his superb debut Evening Train – a concept album of sorts telling the story of a week in the lives of two brothers. The album was completed over a year ago but instead of releasing it in Ireland he initially decided to try his luck in New York.
“I thought it would be a romantic thing like Bob Dylan arriving there in the early ‘60s and exploding onto the scene in a ball of flame,” he says. “But I found it very disappointing. There isn’t all that much music in Greenwich Village these days. There was some sort of a scene in the East Village but not that much. Then I went over to San Fran where my sister lives. It’s a nice place and there’s a few bars where they have live music. I did one gig there with a few Irish musicians but that was about it.
“I’m not all that keen to go back to America in a hurry. They’re fucking it up, the immigration people. Every time I go there I get pulled aside at Shannon because they think I look suspicious. They ask you all sorts of details like stuff about your bank account – I can’t remember the last time I put something in the bank.”
Flannery took up music when he was still quite young, starting with piano before swopping over to guitar. “I was sent to piano lessons form the time I was about 12 and I hated it. But I started playing guitar after seeing a certain Mr. Cobain on television. I wanted to be him for a while. In fact the first time I played live I played two Nirvana songs which I butchered in the Lobby Bar. I already had some songs of my own at the time but didn’t have the balls to do them. I decided to be a singer-songwriter but it wasn’t cool among my friends. You wouldn’t be going to school saying you wrote a great song last night or anything like that.”
“I listened to a load of Nirvana and then I started getting into Bob Dylan especially early albums like Blonde On Blonde and Bringing It All Back Home. Then I listened to a lot of Tom Waits. My mother’s family used to have a lot of sing-songs and they’d sing Tom Waits songs. I liked the lyrics and the mood he conjured up. There was always some kind of storyline to his songs and I was more attracted to that more than the poppy stuff that was around at the time
Despite his youth, Flannery’s songs have a lived-in, timeless quality. He possesses a particularly world-weary viewpoint for someone so young. He also reveals he hardly listens to contemporary music at all.
“It probably comes from hanging around with too many old men in bars,” he laughs. “To be honest I probably spent way too much time listening to Tom Waits to the point where you find yourself knocking out Tom Waits replicas. I’d prefer to be out getting pissed with my mates actually. It’s not that I don’t like modern music – I’d like some things on the radio but I’ve a problem in that when I listen to a song, I’m listening to the words. Most stuff out these days I don’t know what they’re saying. I wouldn’t be buying Coldplay albums for that reason. Even when I listen to contemporary people like Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch, I’m always checking out the lyrics.”
Having put out the album Flannery is now faced with what he sees as the intimidating prospect of getting out on the road and promoting it with an Irish tour. “I like doing gigs but my stagecraft wouldn’t be exactly of Boyzone standard,” he laughs.
Evening Train is out now on EMI/Verge.
Photo: David O'Mahony