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He's received admiring glances from Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson and the artist currently known as Prince. But a flirtation with a military career meant SIMON FAGAN very nearly missed out on his calling as a songwriter. Now, with his debut album hitting the shelves, the Co Meath lad is putting a decade of classical training to good use.
Celina Murphy, 14 Jun 2010
On every path to success, there is inevitably a crossroads. One path leads to awards, famous mates and jackets with your name across the back in rhinestones; the other, to a creative dead end.
Simon Fagan recalls his own career quagmire. "I needed money, I was desperate for money! I'd come back from Scotland and I was like "What the fuck am I going to do?' So I thought I'd go into the army band to get a couple of quid. The day I was meant to start, I had this realisation that if I went in, I might never come back out. I thought, "What am I at? This is going against everything I believe in and everything I want to do!'”
Fortunately, when I meet Simon, he's enjoying a distinctly happier headspace. He's perched on the grass on a sunny day at Vantastival, a pocket-sized Electric Picnic in Louth's charming Dunany Estate.
"I didn't speak "til I was five,” he laughs, "I was actually a very slow learner. I used to keep my parents awake humming and making noises. I sang every Christmas. At any family occasion, I'd be pushed up to sing in front of everybody. I wouldn't talk to anyone but to sing was grand!”
A few years later, a 13-year-old Fagan scored a musical scholarship and was shipped off to board at St. Finian's College, Mullingar.
"It was hard in the beginning,” he remembers. "I knew absolutely nobody and coming from a big family of six boys it was difficult not knowing everyone around me. It also was kind of easy for me, I was used to fighting my own corner.”
"I was always behind. I wasn't lacking in intelligence as such. I didn't care. In primary school it was like "What's going on?' But everything seemed to slot into place in secondary school.”
He may have cranked up the concentration. However, the Meath lad still had some burning rock impulses to distract him: "That was always my real goal, that was what I wanted to do!”
Things got no better as Fagan moved on to college, where he studied orchestral trumpet at Royal Irish Academy of Music and later, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music.
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