Patrick Freyne

They had the best writers in the world.

So top quality people feeding into the original manufactured band in a way.

Here's Patrick Frayne's first choice today, The Monkees' Daydream Believer.

Okay, so that's the Monkees Daydream Believer and that is Irish Times writer and novelist Patrick Frayn's first music choice today.

So what kind of teenager were you then?

So I started out being almost like a yuppie.

Like I was really into... You're laughing because I do not look like a yuppie now.

I was really into bands like Genesis and Eric Clapton and Dire Straits.

Really?

How come?

Where did this come from?

I just...

I guess it was in the air and my friend Dave Krugo, who lived down the road from me, was in the folk group in Newbridge, which had a spin-off band called Shades of Blue that used to play really slick.

Yacht rock?

Kind of yacht rock.

Now they'd be cool again because it's all coming back.

So I started learning guitar, but I was picking all these like ridiculously hard songs like, you know, Romeo and Juliet by Dara Straits that are really hard to play.

And, you know, Eric Clapton songs that are really hard to play like Layla.

And up until I was about 15, I was totally in that world.

Like I used to wear like a blazer and my hair would be slicked back, which didn't suit me.