Régine, whose background is Haitian, eagerly discusses her band’s involvement and what music can do to really change the way the world works:
“Whatever situation you are in, some things are easy for you,” she tells Hot Press, “But just the idea that – If your talent makes it easy for you, then it’s easy to share it and to use it for good. That’s what we try to do.”

As for the recent controversial suggestion that Ireland should temporarily stop overseas aid, Régine responds: “It’s hard to explain, but everybody who has lived, or been, in a country devastated like Haiti, I think, has a different perspective." Interestingly, she adds: "This might be very hard to convey to struggling people in other countries, like here, at the moment."

She tells Hot Press that it was 2008 before she could first afford to visit Haiti. "It was only when the band took off I thought, ‘I can do this now.’”

Read the full interview in the Hot Press Annual, in shops now.