Taylor Byrne told David Hennessy about going from busking on the streets of Dublin to playing to 50,000 people at festivals in France and playing Dublin with The Celtic Social Club as they mark ten years as a band.
23- year- old Taylor Byrne used to busk on Grafton Street.
He only did it for fun and there was no grand plan.
But when Manu Masko, leader of The Celtic Social Club band, saw a video of his playing, he was sufficiently impressed to ask the man from Finglas to take over lead vocals and guitar duties in the band.
Only weeks later Taylor was on stage with the France- based band known for playing Celtic music.
In actual fact, Taylor first thought Manu’s message was a scam and did not reply.
He also admits that had the opportunity not come along he may not have continued along a musical path at all.
Now he is getting ready for a hometown show.
Incredibly, the band who have been around for in excess of a decade have never played Dublin before.
They take their first Dublin bow at Whelan’s this week.
The band are also celebrating ten years as a band with the best of album Inventory and a string of dates that take them around the UK.
Inventory is a celebration of the best of the band’s discography, complete with new recordings of 18 fan favourites and 2 brand new original songs (Suddenly, Far Away From Here).
Lead singer Taylor Byrne told The Irish World: “We’re all getting ready, getting excited.”
It’s celebrating ten years..
“It is indeed, yeah. But I’ve only been in the band coming up to three years and for me, being from Dublin, I’m really excited for this 13 February gig.
“For me, it really feels like a homecoming show because the band has never played in Ireland before which is bizarre considering it plays Celtic music and we’ve kind of played in all of the home cities of everybody else in the band so it will be a really special show for me personally, but for the band, it’s going to be a really important show.
“We’ve never played in Ireland. That’s why we’re putting a real emphasis on this show.
“Since I joined the band I’ve been onto Manu, who’s the drummer and kind of the leader of the band.
“I’ve said, ‘Manu, we have to play in Dublin’.
“And every year he says, ‘Yeah, okay, we will, we will’, and then we don’t.
“But this year I finally cracked him and it’s gonna be a fun one.”
It only took 10 years, right?
It’s especially poignant because Dublin’s home for you.
I know it’s where you started all your music and busking and all that…
“It is, indeed. Yeah.
“And I kind of got my big break on Grafton street busking.
“It’s a really bizarre story of how I got into the band.
“I hadn’t been playing music.
“I’ve played music from a young age but coming out of secondary school, I kind of put the guitar down for a while and then was just jamming with friends at sessions.
“After long nights of drinking a couple of friends said, ‘Here, would you not get into busking just to give it a go?’
“So I did.
“I started busking on Grafton Street, and it was great craic.
“I made some great friends there.
“One day I get this Instagram message from a guy called Manu Masko from a band called The Celtic Social Club and he’s saying, ‘Look, our lead singer’s just left the band, and we’ve a tour to fulfil, France and England. I saw a video of you on YouTube and we want you to come along’.
“Initially, I’ll be honest, I thought it was a scam.
“There was Nigerian prince vibes off it so I said, ‘I’ll leave that’.
“I never actually responded to it and then about two weeks later, I get another text from Manu saying, ‘Look, Taylor, this is a really serious request and if you don’t take it, somebody else will’.
“So I said, ‘Okay’.
“I had a phone call and Manu said, ‘Look, I’ll be in Dublin in a couple of weeks. I’d love to meet you’.
“And he came over. It just kind of clicked and a week after that, I was in France for rehearsals and then about two weeks after that, I was playing my first show to nearly 1,000 people.
“So it was a really, really quick and intense and terrifying experience but I’m so, so grateful that it happened.”
I can understand you thinking it wasn’t genuine but imagine the chance passed you by..
“I’ve kind of reflected on it because coming up to this Dublin show, it does feel like a full circle moment for me and it’s given me an opportunity to reflect on this whole experience.
“There was a real intense feeling of imposter syndrome for, I’d say, the first year, year and a half that I was in the band.
“I almost felt like just a replacement, just a temporary fill in and I didn’t feel really worthy of the stages I was playing and I didn’t feel worthy of the band I was in, but I think the fact that I was so young when it happened and I was so naive, I think that worked in my favour because I think if I had have had a bit more cop on, I probably wouldn’t have done it.
“I was just so naive, and the whole situation, even reflecting on it now, the whole story is bizarre but somehow it just works.
“Because even if you look at the band, even aesthetically, I’m 23 and the guys in the band are in their 40s, early 50s so optically, it shouldn’t work.
“They’re all French, I’m Irish.
“I don’t really have any French or at least I didn’t when I started in the band.
“It shouldn’t work.
“We all come from different musical backgrounds but for some reason, when we get up on stage together, something just clicks.
“It’s really bizarre how life works out sometimes.”
It does gel together in spite of the differences between you in age and background…
“I think, if anything, it gels together because of the differences, because we can learn a lot from each other.
“The guys have a lot more experience than I do but I also think my youth and energy has kind of brought a different dimension to the band and we bounce off each other in kind of unexpected ways, and it just works.
“I don’t think it’s beneficial to go into it too much as to why it works.
“It just kind of does and when it does, maybe it’s better not to question it.”
Where do you think you’d be now had you not heard from Manu when you did?
“Well, I was doing my own thing but even busking, I wasn’t really taking it seriously.
“I was kind of doing it because it was a bit of crack.
“It was a nice way to make a bit of money and I was studying at the time.
“I was studying in Dublin City University.
“I was studying English and History which was great and I completed that degree and I’m very happy that I did.
“I honestly think if the band hadn’t happened, I probably would have packed in music.
“I probably would have went straight out of college, got my master’s, and then just become a teacher. I might end up doing that anyway.
“But I really don’t think I would still be doing music if it wasn’t for the band.
“I’m so grateful for that opportunity and it’s opened up so many different doors in Dublin now.
“I have my own solo project and I play in other bands and I play guitar for people.
“I really think if that initial opportunity hadn’t have come along, given me the confidence, I don’t think I would have really stuck at it.”
It shows where busking can lead..
“I never really considered myself a busker because there were people who were really buskers and it was their life and they were making a full wage doing it.
“They were out there every day and they took it very seriously but my idea of busking was, ‘I’ll go in at 12 o’clock, I’ll do an hour set, see who’s around, and then go for a load of pints’.
“It was a social thing if anything.
“I think I was just having a lot of fun and I think that video of me that Manu initially discovered me with, I think that element of me just having fun was the factor in his decision to reach out to me.”
I bet that busking background has really stood to you. It really teaches you about stagecraft and connecting with crowds, doesn’t it?
“Absolutely, I always say this about busking.
“I always encourage musicians who are just starting out to do a bit of busking because busking prepares you for anything that can be thrown on you on stage.
“Busking’s a really tough gig, man.
“If you’re playing on stage to a paying audience who are there to see your band, or at least are there to see music, it’s easy to win them over because they’re there to see a show, but it’s really hard to win over people who are just doing their weekly shopping or just coming home from work.
“I think that’s a real craft in itself and it does prepare you for the tougher shows where it’s a little bit harder to connect to the audience.
“You learn little tricks and you learn the basics of stage presence.
“I think it’s a really invaluable experience for any musician regardless of where you are in your career.”
It was the Beatles that really spoke to you and really inspired you to embark on this musical journey, wasn’t it?
“Absolutely.
“Of course I had heard the Beatles all through my life, all through my childhood but I was 12 or 13, and I was on the way to school, and Help came on the radio.
“It just flicked a switch in my head.
“It was the first time in my life where I really paid attention to music and I really paid attention to the lyrics of a song, and the way the melody interacted with those lyrics and with the harmony of the chords.
“Of course I didn’t understand the musical theory of that, but it just spoke to me in a way that music hadn’t before that.
“And from then, I just completely fell in love with the Beatles and they completely became my inspiration, and they still are.
“And then through the Beatles you’re introduced to so many wonderful artists and they kind of act as the root from which all of my other musical leanings grow out from.
“It coincided perfectly.
“I had that kind of epiphany of, ‘Oh my god, music isn’t about how it sounds, it’s about how it makes you feel’.
“And I think that’s what that moment was about.
“Music, for me, went from an aural experience to an emotional experience.
“It was perfect because then about a week later in the school I was in- St Vincent’s in Glasnevin- My English teacher, Paul Walsh, who was a musician himself, started doing guitar lessons.
“I said, ‘Oh, this is perfect’.
“So then I started taking up the guitar, and then it all kind of just spiralled from there and I haven’t really put it down since, bar that brief period after school when I kind of felt a bit disillusioned with the whole thing.”
What is a particular highlight of your time in the band to date?
“There’s just so many highlights but the first couple that are springing to mind is that, last summer, we played Les Vieilles Charrues which is the largest festival of France. We were lucky enough to play main stage to about 40, 50,000 people and that show was incredible.
“I mean, even the word incredible doesn’t really do it justice.
“It took me about four or five songs to actually come back into my body and go, ‘Oh my god. Wow’.
“It was so much adrenaline.
“It was just a wonderful moment for me personally, my mother and father came over for that show and they were standing side stage.
“That was a really, really beautiful moment for me.
“I remember I came off stage after that and my dad was crying, so it was a really lovely moment.
“And it will be really nice for me now coming up to the Dublin show, because a lot of my friends and a lot of my family have never seen this band before.
“My mam and dad are the only people that ever came over to France for a show so it’s going to be the blending of my two worlds so I’m really excited for that.
“But there’s the big shows like Les Vielles Charrues but we’ve played some shows in places like Southampton in venues where 12 people show up, there’s almost as many people on stage as there is in the audience.
“They’re great shows too because you have to work harder.
“I love the gigs where you have to work harder and in a way, playing a show to tens of thousands of people is a little bit easier because you’ve nothing to prove. You just have to go up there and play music. The people are happy to be there. If you show up to a show and five people have booked tickets, you have got to work a little bit harder so those moments are really beautiful too.
“But honestly, personally, none of the shows have been negative experiences for me.
“They’ve all been incredible and that’s because I get to share the stage with musicians who are incredibly talented.
“I oftentimes, even still, will be playing on stage and I’ll look around and go, how, how am I on stage with Pierre Stéphan, with Manu Masko, Goulven Hamel, these incredible musicians.
“I’m just really grateful to be there.”
You have a new record that celebrates the decade of The Celtic Social Club..
“It’s really nice for me because we’re starting to work on some new material and we’re putting an album together which will hopefully be released by the end of this year.
“I’m really excited to be more engaged with the writing process.
“I’m really happy and excited about the stuff we’re working on this moment.
“I think it’s going to be really, really interesting and cool, and it’s going to be nice for me to kind of make my impression on the band in a writing sense.
“I talked about imposter syndrome at the start but I think I have kind of accepted my place in the band now.
“I feel worthy of being there on stage and I’m excited to also make that mark through the writing too.”
Obviously I’m talking to you in Dublin, did you never have to relocate to France for the band?
“No, I haven’t.
“I haven’t needed to.
“I’ve thought about it a couple of times and I am considering it going forward.
“But no, I mean, the first two years with the group, I was still in college so I had to be in Dublin.
“But now I’m not in college, have graduated. I don’t necessarily have the same responsibilities in Dublin.
“It’s something I’ve considered but Nantes, where I usually fly to, is only an hour and a half flight.
“It’s funny. Sometimes we’ll be playing the show in the north of France and I’ll take a flight from Nantes and I’ll be home to Dublin in about three or four hours, whereas the rest of the guys have to drive through France, and they can take up to 10, 12 hours.
“Sometimes I get the better deal when it comes to traveling even though Dublin is across the ocean.”
You play Dublin on 13 February but I also notice the date of your London show, 17 March..
“It’s in the Lexington.
“Yeah, that’ll be a bit of a special show, I’d say.
“I think it will be good for a rowdy rock and roll concert.”
You were just in London yourself to play a solo show so the band doesn’t prohibit you from doing your own thing..
“Yeah, absolutely.
“They’re mutually beneficial.
“The more I’m playing with the Celtic Social Club, the more confidence I have with my own solo project and the more I’m writing with my own solo project means the more creative I’m being overall.
“They feed into each other.
“Personally I think the more music you’re doing, the better for all the projects you’re involved in.”
The Celtic Social Club play Whelan’s, Dublin on 13 February, The Lexington in London on 17 March, The Joiner in Southampton on 19 March, The John Peel Centre in Stowmarket on 20 March and Parish in Huddersfield on 21 March.
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