At home with Colm O'Sullivan

The best way of comparing my new place to the place I lived in for the last 10 years would be to compare a kennel with a massive house. One of the things I love about the new apartment is that it’s bright, open, spacious and airy, all the things my last place definitely wasn’t,” he reckons.
Colm O’Sullivan’s two-storey apartment is situated on Sawmill Road, just a stone’s throw from St John’ s College. He’s the new kid on the block, having been in residence for only about two months, and there’s a fresh look about the block too, no doubt attributable to the fact that it’s a relatively new development. The apartment also has a busy feel to it, with records, books, DVDs and musical instruments all over the place and a new large-screen TV set.
“If you come out onto the balcony you can see the view," he says. "It stretches right across the city to UCC. You can see planes going in and out of Cork Airport. There’s a park there you can just get a glimpse of too."
In the next-door apartment lives another RED FM colleague, so it’s hardly surprising that there’s a regular throughput of musicians and music fans.
”I listen to music all the time," he enthuses. "It’s great to have a job that’s nearly like a hobby."
This claim is not difficult to believe. There seem to be records everywhere on both floors, under beds, in boxes and lying on the floor beside the hi-fi.
Currently getting playtime on Colm’s house system are albums by Tim Buckley’s Goodbye And Hello, Aimee Mann, Sparklehorse, Elliott Smith and the Magic Numbers. You’ll also stumble on some Beatles albums he inherited from his music-loving Dad. The first Horslips album is in there too, complete with its unique melodeon-shaped cover, and it’s probably worth a bob or two nowadays on the collectors’ market. But a casual snoop might also unearth a copy of ‘Barbie Girl’ by Aqua. So is this a closet Aqua fan?
“I can explain everything," O’Sullivan protests. “You see, some records I have here because they’re connected with work. That one by Aqua I probably brought home to use as a beer mat. Honest! It’s not something I’d listen to for recreational purposes.”
Mmmmm. Although the apartment is generally tidy, he doesn’t actually have a filing system for his records, an understandable source of irritation. “I often come across a record I didn’t think I had and might have been about to go and buy it,” he concedes with a little frustration.
The musical instruments are there because O’Sullivan himself can turn his hand to guitar and bass, and often does. But asked if this doesn’t cause friction with his more sedate residents, O’Sullivan dismisses such worries. “Sure this is one of the noisiest places around. I had to take up the guitar to protect myself from the noise of the other people,” he good-naturedly replies.
His DVD collection has lots of U2, of whom he admits to being a major fan, and has quite a few U2 books as well. “I read a lot of music biographies”, he tells me, “but I also read books like Tony Soprano’s Guide To Management. It’s hilarious. I’ve recently been reading George Orwell’s Down And Out In Paris And London, and a book called I Lucifer by Gen Duncan. It’s about a guy who thinks he’s Satan.” We won’t ask.
The big TV screen is explained by his love of movies and documentaries, and particularly likes music documentaries, such as Dig! about The Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre. He spends a lot of time listening to the radio, but has no difficulty doing so without his official radio hat on. “Sometimes I might be listening to the radio and here somebody doing something kinda silly and I’d might start wondering why he did that. But I’m quite good at just listening to radio for pleasure only and leaving the work aspect to one side. I love John Kelly’s Mystery Train and I like listening to BBC radio online, and stations I normally can’t get on the radio."
The Red FM man doesn’t cook, so the only smells you’re likely to detect are from take-away pizzas or stale beer. The apartment contains no pets, generally for practical reasons, although Colm would like to be able to have a dog about that place. But there’s one very special objet d’art which has a special sentimental value for Colm and which he intends never to part with. “It’s a painting I was given as a present some years ago. The artist is Lorraine Mullins. It’s quite abstract and it’s a regular talking-point with various people trying to describe what they think it is. Some people think it’s just a brick and a hammock, while others see something of David Bowie in it. It seems to reflect back to people whatever they personally bring to it, and I’ll always want it with me wherever I go.”