Oisín Leech has paved one hell of an interesting path. A teenage punk in Navan, he formed his first band, the superbly named The Vermin, aged just 14, covering songs by the UK Subs and The Clash. Getting his hands on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, changed his art and his life. He shored up in Dublin, a fervent folkie, studying Theatre and English Literature in Trinity College, writing and directing plays at the Samuel Beckett Centre.

Between lectures, his busking band The Fluid Druids took to Grafton Street. The music started to take over, and then someone told Oisín that the two best cities in Europe for busking were Naples and Liverpool. So, to Naples he went, spending a few years as a Neapolitan busker.

“We became like locals,” he recalls. “We were the Irish band, The Fluid Druids. We went through a few different names – for a while we were The Lorettas, and then we said, ‘Right, it’s time to go to Liverpool!’ We saw The Coral play at Glastonbury on the TV and we just loved them instantly. We were massive Beatles fans, and we loved bands like The La’s and Echo & the Bunnymen. We read a story that Ray Davies wrote ‘Waterloo Sunset’ in Liverpool walking the Mersey and then changed the title. We were youngsters just up for a laugh, and we went and lived in Liverpool for years.”

At that time, the Cosmic Scouse of bands on the Deltasonic record label was the soundtrack of Liverpool. Oisín fell in with legendary bands such as the aforementioned The Coral and The Dead 60’s, forming his own band The 747s, and releasing the album Zampano. He also appeared on an Arctic Monkeys b-side, a cover of Barbara Lewis’ ‘Baby, I’m Yours’, sharing vocals with Monkey main man Alex Turner.

It was with an alumnus of Deltasonic, former lead guitarist with The Basement, Mark McCausland, that Oisín set up The Lost Brothers. One of the first gigs the critically acclaimed folk duo played was in The Bridge Bar in Bundoran.

“We started singing Everly Brothers tunes,” Oisín smiles. “We looked up and a little crowd had gathered, so that was when the two voices thing started. That’s a good seven albums ago.”

Oisín shortly releases his debut solo album Cold Sea, inspired by the ocean and the landscape around Donegal. It’s also influenced by Seamus Heaney and Bruce Chatwin’s novel Songlines, with its spellbinding account of Aboriginal blending of geography, topography and song.

The album was recorded in an old sea-facing schoolhouse on the far reaches of Malin Head in Donegal, by Oisín and producer Steve Gunn. The latter is an experienced hand – an esteemed solo artist and collaborator with head buck-cats such as Kurt Vile, Cass McCombs and Yo La Tengo. They had met several times over the years and Gunn had played the folk club that Oisín runs in Navan, the magnificently named Joey Procida’s Folk Club.

They discussed producing the record in Gunn’s hometown of New York, but when Oisín suggested, “Why don’t we go to Donegal, rent a cottage and hire gear?”, Gunn rather remarkably accepted. Borrowing an interface from Brendan Jenkinson, a man who has worked with Aoife Nessa Francis and John Francis Flynn, Oisín collected Steve from the airport, pointed the car north and commenced their Donegal odyssey.

“We found this little abandoned school house from the 1800s,” Oisín explains. “But it was warm, dry and woodpanelled, so the acoustics were great. And we literally borrowed gear from neighbours. There’s a guy called Billy Robinson, who tour manages Clannad. He had this beautiful 1970s U87 microphone, so we called to him that morning.

“He was great – he did think we were lunatics going to record in Malin, but said, ‘Do you want this old Martin guitar? ’ So we literally filled the boot and drove over. I had never seen the school house before, but it turned out to be perfect. Steve and I spent day one setting everything up in this big front room that looked down on the Atlantic.”

Located just north of Malin village, overlooking Trawbreaga Bay in a place-name that could have been the album title – Goorey Rocks – the little schoolhouse became home and working studio to Oisín and Steve for four remarkable Donegal days. Steve set up his laptop and mixing desks at the big kitchen table, which they called Mission Control.

“I sang and played everything live,” Oisín says. “It was beautiful and didn’t rain once, it was July. We’d wake up in the morning, put fresh coffee on, go for a swim. The water was freezing!”
Oisín possesses a hint of a Donegal accent – his mother is native to the county, and it turns out Steve Gunn also possesses some Tyrconnell blood.

“The trip was full of these synchronicities, unplanned lovely coincidences,” Oisín chuckles. “Steve’s great-grandmother was from Downings, Donegal. In the evenings, we’d join in local pub sessions. And he met his distant cousins by total chance at the Olde Glen Bar, where his great-grandparents had met.”

Oisín brought 15 songs to work on. But he was wary about being able to capture the sound he wanted with the sparse equipment. The risk paid off. Cold Sea is a remarkable record, and don’t just take my word for it – the plaudits are pouring in from the likes of Uncut, Shindig, Rolling Stone and obviously Hot Press.

Elsewhere, Elbow’s Guy Garvey referred to lead single ‘October Sun’ as one of his favourite tracks of last year, and his colleague at BBC Radio 6, Craig Charles, stated that it stopped him in his tracks. In terms of sound, in the lead-up to the making of the record, Oisín and Steve created a playlist and began adding songs they felt the record might be influenced by.

“We discovered that a lot of our favourite records were albums that have loads of space,” Oisín relates. “The arrangements are sparse and it’s mainly guitar/voice. Steve was brilliant at catching the right sound – he would spend quite a while with the headphones and the mics.”

Oisín then spent three days in London mixing the record with Jimmy Robertson, a man who has worked with such A-Listers as Anna Calvi and Depeche Mode.

“I performed the songs live with just voice and guitar,” says Oisín. “Steve added some synths when we were in Donegal, and his Telecaster playing on ‘Empire’ is beautiful. Dónal Lunny loved ‘Trawbreaga Bay’ and sent me this bouzouki part that weaves through the song. Roisín McGrory, a local fiddle-player, put down beautiful strings on ‘Malin Gales’, ‘Trawbreaga Bay’ and ‘One Hill Further’.”

Cold Sea

Elsewhere Bob Dylan stalwart , bassist Tony Garnier, features on ‘Colour Of The Rain’. and M Ward, plays guitar on ‘October Sun’.

In April, Leech will perform Cold Sea across Ireland, including the Sugar Club, where Steve Gunn will join him onstage. Also present will be McGrory and folk legend Dónal Lunny. Then he heads over to London to play the Lexington, followed by a BBC Radio 6 live session with Cerys Matthews on St. Patrick’s Day.

Top man that he is, Oisín also gives me one hell of an exclusive.

“I got an invite from Gaz Coombes to support him on his solo UK tour,” he gushes. “I don’t even know how he heard my music, but I’m a big fan of his. I went to see him in Dublin a few months ago, bought the vinyl and saw him at the door. I would have gone and said hello, but he had about 15 people around him and I said, ‘Ah, fuck it!’”

• Cold Sea is released on March 8. Oisin Leech kicks off his Irish tour in The Sugar Club, Dublin on April 4.