“It’s no good for my head if I feel the urge to sing and I can’t do it, so I’m glad to have found a solution!”

Ian Lynch was feeling pretty good when I contacted him to ask about about his performances for The Duncairn’s Virtual Cabaret and the strange times we’re living. The singer and uilleann piper with Dublin folk agitators, Lankum, had been out scouting for spaces where he could blast out a song, where he could sing in peace, even before The Duncairn invited him to take part in the Cabaret. If you haven’t seen his contribution yet, click here, Episode 1, for a perfect example of how the self-recorded performances which appear in each episode manage to highlight the raw talent of the artists involved: the pure-drop as Mr Lynch would say.

“To be honest I had already started going out singing in different places before Conor [Caldwell] contacted me,” he confessed. “My sister who is working from home had been getting annoyed at me singing in my room and in the shower so I decided I had to get out and find places where I could sit and sing undisturbed for a few hours at a time. It’s no good for my head if I feel the urge to sing and I can’t do it, so I’m glad to have found a solution!”

In the first episode of The Duncairn’s ongoing series of self-recorded performances by artists from throughout Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and beyond, Lynch chooses three very different, very distinctive settings in and around Dublin in which to record himself singing. He goes on to explain how he had already started looking for ways to keep himself occupied during everything that’s been going on, painting a picture of how he had cycled around the city trying to find strange isolated areas in which to sing songs. If you tune in - 54 minutes into the episode - for his second song, I’d Rather be Tending My Sheep, he hunkers in a tunnel. The light at the end of it, the signature Lankum appreciation of darkness running through it, the rattle and industry of a train running above it. “Where I recorded is right under the Dublin to Belfast train line, and that could well be the ‘Beller’ going overhead as I sang, so I thought it was a fitting location to record in! I spent a lot of time around those train tracks as a kid, so it is quite a special place for me.”

“I found a concrete pipe near a building site that I’ve been going to sit and sing on, on an almost daily basis,” he continued, describing more of these strange isolated places. “The acoustics are great and I’ve even started a YouTube channel called ‘Songs from the Craic Pipe’. Another place I’ve found is the factory where my Da worked in the 80s. It’s been derelict for a long time, but its huge and there’s great reverb in the place. There’s a little cockpit for the 30 tonne crane that’s still in place and if you sit up in that your voice resounds around the entire factory floor, its beautiful.”

For Ian Lynch, the lockdown has offered space that he has been happy to fill. “I generally feel happiest when I’m by myself, so I’ve really been enjoying the lockdown in a lot of ways. When I’m not away on tour I spend most of my time quietly, getting up early in the morning, writing in my notebook, cooking good food, doing yoga, going for cycles or swimming in the sea etc. I had a pretty good routine in place long before any of this started, so I’m sticking to that. The difference now is that I’m doing a lot more creative things – collaborating on musical projects with friends, going to sing and make videos, or working away on my radio show and podcast. I feel lucky to have been granted so much free time and I’m trying to make the most of it.”

Of course, the Virtual Cabaret is one of the projects for which he has been making those videos. Indeed, as an artist who has performed numerous times at The Duncairn – from main stage full band Lankum, to solo Club Fifty appearance (back in the day when 100 Club was half the size and based in the café), he is a regular at The Duncairn. “I remember that some people from the record label came over to a gig once and had to move because the people beside them were being too rowdy, HaHa. I do love a rowdy crowd and Belfast never disappoints … I find the venue to be very inspiring and I love what Ray and Conor and the rest of the team do there. I thought it was great that they came up with this way of helping musicians out during this very difficult time and didn’t think twice about taking part.”

The Duncairn Virtual Cabaret will continue throughout May with the support of sponsors NIAVAC. You can tune in every Saturday from 8.30pm on Facebook and YouTube.

Images by Stanislav Nikolov plus stills from The Duncairn Cabaret