Picture This. Two lads. One online music video. Dozens of sold-out concerts and thousands upon thousands of fans. This is the world that Ryan Hennessey and Jimmy Rainsford inhabit. From out of absolutely nowhere, the two gentlemen dropped like a hydrogen bomb onto the Irish music scene; and while they’ve been a fixture in the charts ever since, they’ve also been confounding industry experts and business suits at the same time. Picture This are homegrown DIY luminaries with their very own army of followers.

When I meet Ryan and Jimmy, bouncing out of Warner Music Studios, I’ve just enough time to chat to the lads before they head out to do a secret-location gig (at Doyle’s Ruby Sessions, as it turned out). In a matter of hours, the Athy duo will go on to sell out five consecutive Olympia Theatre gigs, as well almost every Irish show on their summer tour, then a few days later they’ll release their Yuletide song ‘This Christmas’. All in all, not a bad seasonal gift.

“This has just been one incredible year,” says a beaming Rainsford. “There’s been too many highlights this year to name. We’ve had so many sell-out shows and played at some of Ireland’s best venues and festivals. But for me one of the best things we did was play a gig in our hometown in Athy – which has a population of 10,000 by the way – and 5,000 people turned up for it. That’s a moment I’ll never forget.”