Monday, 09 July 2007

I'm in a hotel in Dublin listening to David Bowie...It's a very wet day and I've had an odd morning, so only Bowie will do.

I was on RTE Radio 1 this morning for a quick chat and a song, but I think I really pissed off the girl that was doing the sound.  I arrived late and very tired and confused (it sometimes takes me a bit of time to become coherent in the mornings), and I sound checked with 15, a very chilled out song, then played a bit of Be with me which is quite aggressive, to which she said "Foy, we're about to go on air, so what song are you playing because Be with me is distorting and I'll need to change the set up if you're gonna play that?"

To save any hassle, and being quite indecisive, I said I'd do 15...but then when we went live I changed my mind and played be with me...she wasn't best pleased!  I tried to apologies afterwards, and even hugged her although she was well reluctant.... to no avail.  I love live anything, you can just do whatever and no one can stop you...  I tried to infect her with an excitement for changing plans at the last second, but she wasn't having it... I'm sure she wanted to punch me in the face, as all I could do was laugh...

Anyway, then it was onto a very odd interview with the Belfast Telegraph...very personal, and I wasn't expecting that.  I always clam up a bit when people veer off from talking about music to asking about my personal situation.  We're getting more and more voyeuristic by the minute.  Nobody's happy with the music itself anymore, we all want to know about the cogs...and what the situation was when you wrote it...and while we're at it, what are you wearing, where do you shop and what's your favourite colour...?  Thankfully she didn't ask me those latter questions mind you, and was very understanding when I explained to her my reluctance...in fact we ended up having a good old yarn.

Oxegen was great yesterday, very muddy indeed.  As I started to play, it started to rain! Which was great for me as I was on the New Band Stage in a tent.  So just like last year, the place filled up very quickly.  I'm always conscious of taking myself too seriously at a festival, so I ended up playing some Radiohead followed by Back in Black by AC/DC.... no festival is complete without it surely....  

In fact I always throw a few covers in my set?

Do you know what... I maybe feel like I have to do a few covers as if to prove that  I'm not up myself or something?  It's such a weird thing to do, this whole mixing music with industry.  I essentially write songs for me, and now I’m still writing them for me but then allowing other people to comment on it, whether that be a live audience or journalists.  It can be quite daunting!

Well, enough arty waffle (there I go again...), I'm gonna head into Dublin city and have a walk around...maybe do a bit of people watching; try and figure out what their favourite colour is....