Dungannon musician, Daniel Corrigan, talks busking and bands

Daniel Corrigan is a 30-year-old singer-songwriter from Dungannon with a love for busking and the Beatles.

With plans to release original material this year, I caught up with Daniel this week for a chat about his love of music, from his influences to the accomplished musician he is today.

Daniel began by explaining the first time he recalls taking an interest in music as a seven-year-old boy.

“I heard ‘Paperback Writer’ by the Beatles playing in the car, and something hit me,” he reflected.

“Hearing all those voices and guitars intrigued me, and it was the first time I took notice of music.”

It wasn’t long until Daniel’s father got him a Beatles CD; a gift which he says he sat in his kitchen listening to constantly.

“Those were the pre-internet days, so I would just sit there listening, looking at the inlay and working out who was who. That’s what really got me into music.”

Daniel cites a lot of sixties and seventies music as some of his earliest influences.

“I also got big into the Eagles and Michael Jackson at a young age,” he explains.

“I would have listened to anything, really, may even a bit of Robbie Williams.

“Anything that sounded good; I never had any bias towards music.

“My dad was from a country music background. too, so I was influenced, also, by many local country artists.”

Having briefly tried his hand at the piano in his youth, Daniel said he didn’t particularly enjoy it.

He then picked up a guitar that was sitting around his house, and his dad showed him a few chords.

“It all snowballed from there… the guitar suited me better,” said the Dungannon musician. “It suited my better and I could play the song I wanted to play.

“I didn’t really want to sing initially.

“I was really into Angus Young from AC/DC at the time and just wanted to play guitar, but my dad asked me, ‘Why wouldn’t you sing?’, stating that it was a necessity that went hand-in-hand with the guitar.”

‘Good stuff for our age’

So, at the age of 15, Daniel formed the band ‘Louise’ with Dungannon-based drummer, Michael Sheehan.

“We did our own material as a two piece band since we were limited to drums and guitar,” he explained.

“Looking back, we were playing good stuff for our age.

“The late Barry Lynch was on the scene at the time, and he really championed the whole thing.

“Without Barry, I don’t think there would have been much of an outlet for young musicians in Dungannon at the time.

“He was always so supportive of us.”

Throughout their five year run, Louise played regularly all over the North.

“Back then, our parents drove us to those gigs,” he recounted. “We played a lot around Dungannon and Moy, and even ended up doing a few gigs in Belfast in the Limelight and the Empire in our time.

“We played our last gig in the Common Room in Dungannon, and, of course, my amp blew up!

“By that stage, both myself and Michael were preparing to go to university so we decided to go our own ways. However, we are still good friends to this day, so a reunion could happen yet.”

Daniel went on to study Drama at Queen’s University Belfast, and has taken part in numerous local productions over the years with the Craic Theatre in Coalisland and Bardic Theatre in Donaghmore, as well as being an ardent member of the ‘Student Drama Players Society’ at Queen’s.

Despite his wealth of experience on the stage both as a rock musician and an actor, Daniel says the busking is his main outlet these days and is something that he truly enjoys.

“You will see me busking regularly around Armagh, Dungannon or Cookstown… Anywhere really!” he said.

“I’ve never really done much gigging around the whole pub scene because I just enjoy playing on the street at my own pace.

“It’s great to get out for a few hours and blast a few songs.

“Lately, I’ve been playing a lot of stuff by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Black Keys, anything anybody requests, really.

“I like to keep it varied.”

Daniel is currently working on new music, and has recently been recording with his old band mate, Michael, who runs a small independent recording studio these days.

“I will, hopefully, have new music coming out this year,” he concluded.

“Aside from that, I fully intend to keep the busking up – and that’s the priority really.”