I'd been performing in bands since I was 12 which represented, at that point, about 16 years of playing music.

The idea [of A Period of Transition album] was to get a break from everything for a while because I've been doing it for so long. I started doing it when I was 12.

I think Paul McGuinness and U2 created the Irish music industry. It certainly wasn't there before that.

When heart is open, you will change just like a flower slowly opening.

I never bought the commercial thing, at any stage of the game.

I shall drive my chariot down your street and cry hey it's me.

Then it evolved into more of a ballad style singer/songwriter thing. And there was a conflict in trying to merge the two styles with the same band behind me. 'Cause the musicians that I would need to do ballad-oriented tunes would require musicians who were more into jazz.