Colm Lynch has a distinctive style when it comes to playing live. He’s happily aggressive with the guitar, if there could be such a paradox. His live show consists of an eight-piece band and the energy of a small ESB station. His music is rock with a hint of blues and folk. His style is upbeat and his attitude seems to be contagiously reflected in the group he plays with. “This group of musicians have been with me for about 2 years, they seem to understand me inside out. From the very first day they just picked up on the vibe and then of course they lend their own personal gift to it. They’re all heavily invested in it. It feels more like a group thing, then just me now.”
After recording his new album Ticket-Boo the owner of the studio, Daragh Winston, brought him up to show him a new room called “The Bar” and Colm thought it would be perfect to record a video there. But when Colm said they could mime to the Daragh it response was “’Ah no no no, we’ll have to really do it. Go up and record the songs again.’ It was a very strange experience, in between all the songs we had a girl come up and touch your make up, real kind of I’ll be in my trailer stuff. It was a great experience and it turned out great.” He’s a native of Dun Laoighaire and has been gigging consistently since the release of his debut album ‘A Whisper in a Riot’ in 2006 and now with his new album ‘Tickety-Boo’ causing a stir, it seems there’s no rest for the wicked.
There’s been a lot of comparison to Dylan, which for any artist is a lot of live up to. The compliment is obviously welcome as he laughs at the prospect. “I can see where… not comparison because I certainly don’t want to compare myself to somebody like Bob Dylan. I just don’t want to go down that road! I would be hugely influenced by him. I have a number of influences but Dylan would be very very high up there on the list. Mainly as a lyricist, I really like to concentrate on lyrics. Lyrically, he was a poet as far as I’m concerned. I think for this album [Bruce Springsteen] is the one that shines through, I hope not too much. I wouldn’t like to be a copy cat… but I think influence is a better word! The first band I got into was Guns n’ Roses and then I got into The Stone Roses and The Smiths and James, they have a great catalog of songs”.
He has quite a collection of musicians making up his band, creating a great energy to the music. “I think what makes what we’re doing different, I suppose is the energy. With the band that I’m with now, we’re created a sound and it’s the sound that I’ve always wanted to create, the sound that I’ve always had in my head. We’re playing songs from the first album and they never sounded so good to me with this group of musicians. I think the very first time we got together, it was quite apparent that there was something special there”.
His last album was a different experience for him “I had people fighting me on it and I had this different idea in my head and I was kind of thinking that once I got free of that, once I could be in charge and once I could call the shots that everything is kinda Tickety-Boo”.
Ticket-Boo is in the record stores now and available for download from iTunes.
