Patrick Freyne -“There’s a beauty in accepting that you’re probably just average”
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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.
What inspired Patrick Freyne to write '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? When I was about 12 because my dad was one and it looked cool and I thought, you know, maybe I could be, like, a tough soldier man as well. Yeah. Were you the type, like... No, I was terrible at sport and I was flaky about those kinds of things. And my head was like in comics and music and art and stuff. Okay. Yeah.
How did growing up in a military camp influence Patrick's childhood?
So you're a writer. Your brother, David, is a very successful director. He made Dating Amber and people might have seen Eternity recently, which is a big hit. So was it a very cultured house growing up? It sounds unusual for two army brats to go into that world. Yeah. Dad has the exterior of a very tough, macho man, but he's actually quite sensitive and a very gentle man in a lot of ways. And my mom was a teacher, so there was loads of books. So really early on, I was reading a lot and listening to music a lot. So yeah, I think like a lot of teachers' houses, there's like lots of culture floating around the place. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I never felt any pressure to be macho or to be like a, you know, a tough army man.
Oh yeah, it wasn't like your disappointment to your father? No, not at all. I'm measuring how you made your bed. So, OK, so tell us about your first music choice then, The Monkees, Daydream Believer. How did this come into your life? So when I was a kid in Cork, growing up in Ireland, and I think just generally growing up then, all the culture you got was from years before. So like the Monkees were on in the early 80s, late 70s. They were on telly at 12. I think it was 12 on a Saturday. You know, they were on after anything goes. And I don't think I realised they were from the 60s. I just thought it was happening. This was just a thing. Yeah. And I loved the combination of two things. And they're still like hugely important to me.
I love the combination of comedy and the music, which was really, really good. And I love the idea, which I think is the main reason I ended up being in bands when I was later. Like, it just looked such fun to be in a band. They all lived together in a house. They wore kind of the same clothes. They each had a type. There was a dopey one. There was a funny one. There was a cute one. There was one who wore a hat. You know, there was these kind of different things. And the music was amazing. And I loved, like, they had the best writers. They had Lieber and Stahler writing for them. And they'd... Songs like Stepping Stone and Last Train to Clarksville. And I think it was the first time I fell in love with both music and comedy.
So you would stand over them as a cultural moment and a proper thing like... Absolutely. I actually met Marty Whelan recently because I was interviewing him for something and Marty agreed with me that he used to go into school and tell people the monkeys are better than the beetles. And I was kind of, I still kind of believe the monkeys are better than the beetles. Daydream Believer, was this written by Neil Diamond?
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