heritage. I'm an extremely proud Irishman and learning our traditional music was a huge draw for me. As my bodhrán skills improved, my friend and I began playing together and realised that our vocal styles complimented each other. We then started playing many traditional Irish ballads and used a multi-level vocal approach that hadn't been popular since the 70's when the Irish traditional music scene experienced a revival through young 'hippy folk' groups like the Dubliners and Planxty. We began entering battle of the bands competitions. As you can imagine, traditional Irish musicians competing against live rock bands was completely unheard of, but, we soon found that our approach to the music we were playing was becoming very popular with many different types of music fans and we began winning some of the competitions we were entering. We soon recruited another guitarist and mandolin player friend and after another show we were approached by a musician who played banjo, bouzouki and mandolin who really loved our style and wanted to come on board. After this we began working as a 4-piece group called So-Ranna (it means chilled out/relaxed in old Irish Gaelic) and quickly developed a name for ourselves at local venues. We recorded an EP which began to get a lot of radio play and things just progressed from there. Eventually, because of our individual personal developments we were forced to split up and soon after I moved to Hertfordshire in England for work (at the time I was working as a Precontract Estimate Civil Engineer). While here I spent my spare time playing solo on the UK folk music scene. At the same time I was operating a weekly open music show called 'The Tuesday Sessions' for a local venue in St. Albans, Hertfordshire and was also playing guitar and singing lead vocals for part-time Rock cover band ‘The Effect’. Eventually, after six years in England, I accepted a job in Mauritius and ended up here a few months later working as a Precontract Civil Engineer for a South African company from Johannesburg. I left in November 2014 to concentrate on my own business venture here in Mauritius. I opened Mauritius' first Traditional Barber Shop with my younger brother, which is based in Black River, called 'The Gentleman's Emporium', which has now become the number 1 place for male haircuts and grooming in the district.
You left us hanging in your blog at 16 days to go, you've now been living in the paradise island for almost 4 years. What can you tell us about this whole transition and how it's developed from your expectations to now?
I arrived here in May 2011 and the moving process was a lot more complicated than I had anticipated which is why I didn't continue/finish the blog, I just didn't have the time. Since I've moved here my life has changed completely, my views on Mauritius in comparison to my uneducated views based on the research I'd been doing compared to how I view the country now is completely different. I'd like to give you a proper breakdown of the transition, but the changes in my life have been so extreme I'd be here all night trying to document it all for you.
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