Navan it large

On every path to success, there is inevitably a crossroads. One path leads to awards, famous mates and jackets with your name across the back in rhinestones; the other, to a creative dead end.

Simon Fagan recalls his own career quagmire. "I needed money, I was desperate for money! I'd come back from Scotland and I was like "What the fuck am I going to do?' So I thought I'd go into the army band to get a couple of quid. The day I was meant to start, I had this realisation that if I went in, I might never come back out. I thought, "What am I at? This is going against everything I believe in and everything I want to do!'”
Fortunately, when I meet Simon, he's enjoying a distinctly happier headspace. He's perched on the grass on a sunny day at Vantastival, a pocket-sized Electric Picnic in Louth's charming Dunany Estate.
"I didn't speak "til I was five,” he laughs, "I was actually a very slow learner. I used to keep my parents awake humming and making noises. I sang every Christmas. At any family occasion, I'd be pushed up to sing in front of everybody. I wouldn't talk to anyone but to sing was grand!”
A few years later, a 13-year-old Fagan scored a musical scholarship and was shipped off to board at St. Finian's College, Mullingar.
"It was hard in the beginning,” he remembers. "I knew absolutely nobody and coming from a big family of six boys it was difficult not knowing everyone around me. It also was kind of easy for me, I was used to fighting my own corner.”
"I was always behind. I wasn't lacking in intelligence as such. I didn't care. In primary school it was like "What's going on?' But everything seemed to slot into place in secondary school.”
He may have cranked up the concentration. However, the Meath lad still had some burning rock impulses to distract him: "That was always my real goal, that was what I wanted to do!”
Things got no better as Fagan moved on to college, where he studied orchestral trumpet at Royal Irish Academy of Music and later, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music.
"I'd be in these music rooms with these gorgeous grand pianos. I'd have a massive amount of work to do and I'd put that aside and sit at the piano for four or five hours on the trot, writing songs.”
Still, the 28-year-old is adamant that his classical training has informed the gutsy Americana on debut album Outside Looking In. "I knew the rules and I wanted to break them,” he grins.
If he needed any early validation, he got it last month when word got out that stand-out album track "Never Really Cried' had scooped an award for Best Performance in the International Songwriting Competition, chosen by a panel that included rock luminaries such as Tom Waits, Jeff Beck, Robert Smith and Jerry Lee Lewis as well as baby faced heroes like Kings Of Leon, Ben Folds and Timbaland.
"I don't know who heard my song, all I know is that they had a fabulous panel. I was told there were 15,000 applicants, so I was over the moon.”
Later, the vibey Vantastival show goes off without a hitch – having opened for Lionel Richie in the Point and Smokey Robinson in Vicar Street, our growling maestro had little to worry about.
"I had just got home from Oxegen,” he says of the latter show, "I hadn't slept all weekend and I was in ribbons! Bren Berry rang me at half four and said "Will you be here at half six to open for Smokey Robinson?' Before I went on stage I was backstage jamming with his band and next thing Smokey Robinson came down. He said "Hey man, you're stealing my band!” but because I was so out of it from Oxegen, nothing came out other than a stupid laugh!”
An even more surreal moment celeb encounter came a few months later, when Fagan was invited to record in the A&M studios in Hollywood.
"I went down to this chillout room between takes,” he begins, "I was having a cup of coffee. Next thing Prince walks in and sits down across from me. He's reading his magazine and I'm reading my magazine and I didn't know what the fuck to say! Eventually, I said "You cutting some demos next door are youse?' and he was like "Yeah, you're in beside us. Sounds good, man, sounds good.' Then I got called back to the studio, so I stood up and shook his hand… and it was as though it didn't happen!”