Patrick Freyne

Patrick Frayne, good afternoon.

You're very welcome.

Thanks a million for having me in.

Patrick, people currently mainly know you as a writer with the Irish Times, but you've just published your first novel, Experts in a Dying Field.

And the book is kind of set in the world of music and bands.

And you are also a musician and you had like a reasonably successful music career in another life.

So we're going to talk.

That's a kind reading.

We're going to talk around some of that through five songs you've chosen for us today.

Where did you grow up?

I started in Cork.

I was born in Douglas or lived in Douglas in Cork till I was six or seven.

So then we moved to the Curragh when I was that age because my dad was in the army.

So we moved to the Curragh camp.

What's it like growing up in the guard camp?

It's great when you're a kid.

It's a bit mad because, like, I was a kid who was really into, like, Warlord and Victor and you're wandering around and there's, like, soldiers just marching and there's people with guns and there's tanks parked everywhere.

So I loved all that.

I thought I was going to be a soldier.

Did you, yeah?