The Flann Comes Around
His third album finds him at the top of his game but, as Craig Fitzpatrick learns, Mick Flannery still struggles with his calling in life.
Craig Fitzpatrick, 12 Apr 2012
Flannery’s been doing something of note for a solid five years now. Reared on a farm outside Blarney, the trained stone mason found Nirvana before finding his own musical gift, and has since earned a Choice Music Prize nomination and gone platinum in Ireland. He loves the creative process, he loves playing. But, famous for his retiring nature and bouts of stage fright, he’d prefer to steer clear of any attention. “Some things don’t suit me,” he nods. “Like hype. I can’t remember what radio station it was for, but this DJ rang me and said, ‘Mick, let’s do a little interview, because you’re doing a gig locally at the end of the week.’ I said that would be perfect. So he told me it would be two seconds before he started to record. He
pressed record and goes...” At this point, Flannery’s endearingly soft Blarney lilt goes full, obnoxious transatlantic disc jockey: “‘MICK, YOUR RISE TO FAME HAS BEEN CATEGORISED AS ASTRONOMICAL! HOW DOES THIS MAKE YOU FEEL?!” He laughs, then sighs. “It was funny how this guy who had been talking normally to me two seconds early had transformed. A beast of fucking hype. I was going, ‘Fuck this’. It was so stupid, all I wanted to do was hang up the phone.” The weary yet refreshingly honest way he talks, the 28-year-old could hang up the guitar any time now. The touring hamster wheel has been getting him down. Live dates supporting Red To Blue this year will be arranged more sparingly. For his health more than
anything. “It’s been a while since I’ve been doing three in a row. It was a circular thing we got stuck in. Three days on, three days off, three days on... over a year-and-a-half. It just made no sense. It wasn’t even making us any money. It was just some form of weird existence. And I’d rather not be trying to milk something for more than it’s worth. Let’s just do a couple of gigs, do a couple of good ones. Let’s not get pissed all the time’. “If I was to do that for a living for the rest of my life I’d probably be dead by 40, I’d say. Or else one of those guys who just...” He shakes his head sadly. “No, I can’t say that. But you can burn out...” The attention, the touring, all things he’ll have to negotiate if his new record is met with the acclaim it deserves. He knows himself. Still, he’s compelled to create. Written and recorded over a two year period, the follow-up to White Lies is a little more countrified and his most coherent collection. “Overall it was good craic. There was times where it was frustrating because I felt lazy. I felt like I wasn’t getting anything done and that it had been too long between albums.
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