At Home With Dan Hegarty

Dan Hegarty presents 2FM’s midnight show every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday where he spins a mix of cutting edge independent music, home-grown classics and old favourites. Like many of the recent crop of new 2FM recruits (including Cormac Battle and Jenny Huston) he first made his name at Phantom FM.

“I was there for about two and a half years and I really enjoyed it,” he says. “I couldn’t believe it when I got the 2FM job. I literally fell down the stairs, I was absolutely flabbergasted. They’ve been brilliant to me since I arrived here and it’s a lovely place to work. You’ve got so much at your fingertips and you’re working with serious pros – no disrespect to Phantom. Ian Wilson is my producer and he would do anything to help you out.”
Originally from Sandymount, Dublin, Hegarty currently lives with his fiancée Jo in a cosy two-bedroomed apartment in Dublin 4 not far from where he grew up. “It’s a great place to live and I’ve a lot of friends in the area,” he says. “You don’t have to spend a fortune on taxis and you can walk home from town after a gig. It’s actually very quiet for somewhere so close to town, which is important to me as I don’t tend to get up ’till around mid-day.”
According to Hegarty, the area is home to quite a few prominent figures in the Irish music industry. “Tom Dunne lives around the corner, though I’ve only seen him a handful of times over the last ten years. Marc McCabe and Damien McCaul are nearby, as is Ken O’Duffy from Saville and Steve Reddy from Da Capo. Dan Oggly from Friction PR is down the road and Elvira Butler from Reekus Records is around here too. The Factory is quite close to me so there are musicians coming and going all the time.”
Not surprisingly for someone who earns his living playing music, it plays an important part of his home life too and CD’s take up a disproportionate amount of space in the apartment. “It’s all quite haphazard and cluttered at the moment,” he says. “I used to have a vague idea where things were but lately it’s got completely out of hand. I’ve some vinyl but due to space restrictions most of it is in my parents house.”
So, what currently takes pride of place in Hegarty’s music collection?
“Let me see, stuff like My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless will never be very far from the CD player. That and albums like Grace by Jeff Buckley which is such a classic. And there’s Shag Tobacco by Gavin Friday, which I love, and anything by U2.I think they’ve been amazingly consistent over the years. I loved the Pop album – my favourite song is probably ‘Wake Up Dead Man’. I would go as far as to say that if I hadn’t heard U2 I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now.
“And I’m a huge Pugwash fan,” he adds. “I met Thomas Walsh years ago when I was working in a record shop. He was down in the 60’s section and he wouldn’t leave when we were closing. I nearly got in a fight with him but we’re friends now and it’s great to see them finally getting somewhere.”
According to Hegarty, late night TV is very important to someone who generally arrives home from work at 3am. “I find it so hard to wind down after a show so I just tend to crash out in front of the TV and chill out. I normally need something to eat as well. I’m a cranky bastard unless I get some food into me.”
“I’m a big wrestling fan to my shame and I watch it a lot. People always find it amazing that a fairly thin guy like me is into wrestling but it’s true, I love it. It’s a bit of a touchy subject in the house actually but luckily it’s on late at night so she tends to be asleep by then.”
Movies are another passion with Hegarty and he has a growing collection of DVDs adding to his clutter problem.
“I don’t go to the cinema as much as I used to though I got Sky Movies recently which is great to have. Favourite movies? I saw 48 Hours years after it came out and I’ve watched it 20 or 30 times since. I watched it again recently and I still think it’s brilliant. I saw Mystic River with Sean Penn recently, which I liked a lot too. I went through a phase of watching John Wayne movies – I’ve seen them all by now except The Quiet Man for some reason. I quite like James Bond movies too – they have a dated, politically incorrect charm.”
Reading is yet another pastime Hegarty enjoys as the growing number of books weighing down his shelves attests.
“I’ve a bad habit of reading two or three books at a time,” he says. “I’m just back from a trip to Dubrovnik and I was reading the Howard Stern book Private Parts which is a lot different to the movie. I’m just finishing a book on The Rock, the wrestler, and recently I’ve read Howard Marks’ Mr Nice, which I enjoyed a lot. But my favourite book of all time is probably Danny Sugerman’s book about The Doors, Wonderland Avenue.”
Finally Hegarty reveals that there’s nothing he likes more than to get the apron on and get busy in the kitchen.
“I love cooking,” he says. “I can’t say I’m brilliant at it but I find it’s very relaxing. I only started doing it when I went to Australia where I lived for 10 months. I’ll do casseroles, stir fries, salads, tofu – stuff like that, nothing too fancy. We don’t tend to have people around for dinner that often. It tends to be a few beers when friends are in the house.”

Dan Hegarty presents 2FM’s Midnight – 2am show from Tuesdays to Thursdays