Introducing... John Francis Flynn

Hailed as ‘one of the most thrilling Irish acts of recent memory’ and ‘Hot for 2020,’ John Francis Flynn was on a roll at the beginning of last year. Having finished an attention-grabbing UK tour opening for Lankum and with The Oul Fip, his second album with emerging folk powerhouse Skipper’s Alley, released to favourable reviews, Flynn was halfway through recording his solo debut and looking forward to striking out on his own. “Then COVID hit, the breaks were slammed on and everything stopped. When we got back to the studio, it gave me a fresh perspective and the album developed in unexpected ways.”

Flynn insists I Would Not Live Always “is not a straight folk album. I wanted to draw on other music that I love, so it’s shaped by collaborations with a jazz musician and producers of electronic and rock music. It’s an exploration of how different genres might fit with traditional music.” It is also, he says, “a culmination of years of singing, playing the flute and tin whistle, and all the music I’ve been listening to over the years.”

Dublin-born Flynn describes himself as “a singer of songs, player of windy instruments,” although admits he came late to singing. “I’d been playing the flute and tin whistle my entire life, but I was 19 or 20 before I started singing, after I became obsessed with The Watersons. I’d not listened to folk singing before; I thought it was naff.” His father’s large and catholic CD collection an early encourager of the eclecticism that marks his first solo outing, it was his discovery of the likes of Matt Molloy – “one of the best ever” – Luke Kelly and Shirley Collins that cast the die for Flynn the vocalist. 

Dropping out of teacher training at Maynooth University, he began gigging with little thought of a career: “just going along with whatever came my way.” There was an early dalliance with band life as bass guitarist – “I still can’t play bass” – of the improbably named Consumer Love Affair, with whom he appeared at Dublin’s 1,200-seat Olympia Theatre. “It was a long slog. We never made any money.”

Formed to enter a competition with a gig in France as its prize, the unexpected success of Skipper’s Alley emboldened the band to continue, and to up their game; Flynn’s goal has “always been to play with musicians who are better than me.” Now securely established on Dublin’s revitalised folk music scene, he describes the process of making I Would Not Live Always, much of it conducted via COVID-safe phone lines and emails, as “a bit of adding on, adding on and adding on.” In the eclectic, genre-splicing mix are songs by Frank Harte, Paddy Quilligan and Ewan MacColl alongside a West Indian shanty and pieces spun from improvisation.

“For years I didn’t have plans, but now, with the buzz of singing, of getting the emotion out and telling a story, I’ve ambitions to be a solo artist, to keep Skipper’s Alley going, and to make more albums this year.”   

Read the review of I Would Not Live Always in the Songlines Reviews Database 

This article originally appeared in the August/September 2021 issue of Songlines. Never miss an issue – subscribe today