At 44 years of age, Ray LaMontagne has learnt how to be completely honest with himself. His earlier songs were borne from a soul that was tortured and a mind consumed by uncertainty and anger. 2014, however, brought the more upbeat Supernova, while 2016 saw Ray dabble with experimental psych-rock in the form of Ouroboros. While these offerings might not have been the LaMontagne most people had come to know, it was evidently the one with which the singer himself felt most comfortable.

And with a more honest artist came more honest conversations – with others as well as himself. The internet is plagued with articles that speak of the singer’s uncommunicative nature in interviews, but that seems to be a thing of the past. When Hot Press arrives to meet him in the Bord Gais Energy Theatre just before his second night at the venue, he’s disarmingly loquacious.

This is not to say he isn’t still reserved when he speaks; that depends entirely on the questions. When you ask him, say, about his relationship with Ireland and Irish artists (like Lisa Hannigan, who he worked with back in 2011), he’ll say vaguely, with his head bowed and his hat pulled so low it’s almost covering his eyes: “The world’s the same, it’s the same everywhere you go. I feel… I dunno… the world just feels so small. It’s a small world, such a fragile thing, I don’t know.”

But when you ask him something open-ended, like how his song-writing has developed in recent years, he’ll say:

“Getting older has its benefits. The forties are wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I used to be such an angry young man and I put it all into music, but it took me a long time to even figure it out how to use music in a healthy way. When I was 40 I had... I don’t wanna call it a breakdown... I had a moment after the God Willin’ record where I put everything away and I didn’t know if I was going to continue making music because I was just unhappy. I didn’t like performing and touring. I put everything away for a couple of years and focused on being a husband, a father, and doing a lot of soul-searching.

“Finally I figured it out. It was those old wounds that you carry from your childhood and they left a severe critical voice in my head. That’s probably from my father. I used it to drive myself when I was younger – to drive me to get better, to be a better performer, to have the courage to get up on stage. I’m a very private person and quiet person and I don’t crave that – I still don’t. I mean if you could’ve seen me last night before the show, I was climbing the walls, I was so absolutely full of dread. But I’ve accepted that for what it is.

“I guess, what I’m saying is, I realised that that self-critical voice wasn’t working anymore as fuel, it was only hurting me. Once I made that realisation – it was hard to come to it, but I did – then I slowly began to go back to music and pick up the guitar and write songs again. Then that batch for Supernova came along and it was such a joy to write those songs – it felt like it was finally coming from the right place.”

See what I mean?

And with a voice as beautiful as Ray’s, there’s no question of Hot Press interrupting this deep soliloquy (or the three or four others he ventures off into, which I didn’t have the space to write but dearly wish I did…). If this all didn’t tell you how in touch Ray LaMontagne is with his emotions, his newest record Part Of The Light absolutely will. Entirely produced by Ray himself, the album required that honest introspection before the singer could arrive at songs he felt comfortable with sharing. In quietly whispered folk songs and rousing ballads, Ray agitates for compassion and kindness, siding with ‘light’ in a world where darkness seems overwhelming.

“I’m sure, subconsciously, it’s a reaction to our culture and how we’re steadily getting meaner and meaner,” he says. “The mighty ego is king in this world, there’s instant gratification. American culture is so unhealthy.

“I just wanted to remind myself how to relate to the world. That’s where songs like ‘Part Of The Light’, ‘Let’s Make It Last’ and ‘It’s Always Been You’ come from. It’s about going to those core things that are important to you – your relationships, your friendships – and reminding yourself why they matter. You know, the world is so beautiful and we’re so lucky to be here. If you sit outside at night and look up at the stars, you see chaos for infinity. Yet somehow we’ve made this little bubble of order for ourselves. When you think about that… it’s mind-blowing.”

If this is what has allowed LaMontagne to finally find peace within himself and continue making music, then yes, perhaps mind-blowing is the right word.

Rating: 7/10

• Part Of The Light is out now.