Meet Padraig Digan

This week"s man in the spotlight is Birr musician Padraig Digan, a singer songwriter who is aiming for the big time with his solo career after having two near misses with bands Walmark and WTF. Though I don"t need proof, time and time again proof is given to me just how small the world is. After chatting with Padraig about his former band Walmark, a distant bell in the back of my mind started ringing and wouldn"t stop. Five minutes of detective conversation work later, we discovered that Padraig and a second Walmark member, along with their guitars and amps, had come back to a party in my student house after playing a gig in DCU back when I was still learning my trade. That wasn"t the only thing Padraig remembers about the night of that gig. Walmark also did 'the most rock"n"roll thing' they"ve ever done that night - stole Shane McGowan"s drink. Supporting Shane McGowan at the gig, Walmark were not due on stage until 11.30pm, and Shane McGowan until 12.30am. After inviting a few friends over to share the pre-gig atmosphere, it wasn"t long before Walmark had gotten through the beer in their dressing room. Shane McGowan"s dressing room was next to them, and as he hadn"t turned up yet, Padraig says the natural progression was to 'borrow' some of the alcohol they were pretty sure he"d have. All in all, he says they nicked 'two bottles of vodka, a bottle of Jack Daniels and a crate of some other beer' before being rumbled by Mr McGowan himself, who ended up chasing Padraig down a corridor before the band went onstage. After this somewhat crazy introduction, Padraig went on to tell me the less rock"n"roll bits of his life as a musician to date. Born in Birr (he maintains he was the last person to be actually born in Birr), Padraig is one of five children. He says his love of music was kickstarted when he saw an image of a red lit stage with a musician - Hendrix he thinks - on a television screen in his gran"s house on High Street at a young age. He nagged his mum to buy him a guitar, and he got his first real guitar in first year of secondary school. Some of Padraig"s friends were at the time getting guitar lessons with older musicians like Mundy, but Padraig decided to go the solo route early on. 'I got a book from the library and taught myself the chords,' he says, before going on to watch and copy Nirvana Unplugged. This dogged determination was to continue, and Padraig got himself a job in a petrol station at the age of 14 to save up enough money to buy a four track tape recorder. By the time sixth year came round he had used the machine so much it couldn"t be used anymore, so he ended up renting one to make an album that he hoped would act as his calling card to get him in to Ballyfermot Rock College. His first experience of real disappointment was tasted just after school however, when he failed to get a place. Since then though, after his work in the music industry in Dublin and running a music night in the Ha"penny Bridge Inn on the quays in Dublin, he has found out they didn"t give him a place because he had already taught himself what they were going to show him in college. Plan B, Padraig says, was 'to make some money and try to move to Dublin as soon as possible to go busking'. So after a short while working in a factory he made the move. A few years later, after a short time spent studying in DIT and a long time busking on Grafton Street and in Templebar, including a run of weeks when he owned nothing more than 50 pence, Padraig hit gold, almost, with four-piece band Walmark. Signed to an American label, the band was his full time career for three years and by 2005 they were about to release an album and were organising a world tour after bagging a worldwide distribution deal. It all went wrong in the same year however, with everything 'tugged away' from the band over the space of four months. 'It built up to this big lack of belief in ourselves,' Padraig says. In the end, two band members left and Padraig and his brother Joe were left. 'We had some gigs to do, and I never back out of gigs, so we called Joe"s friend Matt and said: "You"re in the band" and he played the next two nights and played with us as Walmark for the next eight or nine months.' From that shell, the three became a new band - WTF - and by last Christmas things were going places again. The band had recorded an album, which was being sent to London to be mastered. But this time it was Padraig who wasn"t fully behind the project, though he says the album was 'really good'. 'Something in me was thinking I really don"t know if I can commit to this,' he says. 'Telling your brother you"ve played with for years "I"m bailing on you" when just two years earlier at the same point others bailed on you was the toughest decision I"ve ever had to make. You do spend a while wondering: "What did I do that for?" But I think that"s one of the reasons I"m determined to make it work this time. Because if I don"t what was the point in me walking away?' Padraig says he tried quitting music altogether about a year ago. 'But I couldn"t,' he says. 'It is a really stupid cliche, but it"s something I have to do. If I don"t play I feel sick, and get rundown.' Now it"s all looking up again for the Birr man however, with a new album in the working at a relaxed pace and some support slots for Lisa Hannigan in the recent past. He"s going down the independent route this time, seeing what happens and working from there. You can catch Padraig Digan in Athlone next Saturday, September 13 in the Passionfruit Theatre in Athlone when he supports Wayne O"Connor. You can find out more about him by checking out his MySpace profile on www.myspace.com/padraigdigan.