WANDERING minstrel Pat Dam Smyth is set to air a new collection of "tricky subjects" when he returns to his native Northern Ireland this weekend for the fifth Bounce! Disability and Deaf Arts Festival and first solo show in three years.
The Co Down born singer/songwriter, who speaks openly about the challenges of being bipolar, believes the festival is a "massive event" in support of talented performers "who just happen to suffer from a disability".
His second visit to the festival, it has been seared on to his consciousness ever since he cycled past the Arts and Disability Forum building in Belfast four years ago and saw an advert for performers.
"I got off my bike and went into the building and got chatting to someone about what it was all about; I thought it was a brilliant idea," he says down the line from his adopted home of London.
"It's really about support and highlighting the fact that these are artists first and disabled people second. They are all being celebrated for their art, not because they are disabled."
Variously described as a raucous blues singer to a performer bearing shades of Lou Reed and David Bowie, Pat will be talking, singing and strumming his guitar to tunes taken from his new – as yet untitled – crowdfunded album to be launched in the autumn.
It follows his 2011 debut eclectic compilation, The Great Divide – hailed by the Irish music industry as a mini-masterpiece – which was produced with the help of a grant from the Arts and Disability Awards Ireland.
"A few tricky subjects are tackled in the new songs, but I didn't want to do that obvious thing of talking about the Troubles," he says. "Having said that, growing up in Northern Ireland is definitely the backdrop to the album.
"It's more about normal teenage things like falling in love, drugs and rock 'n' roll and getting into fights."
Coping with his "silent, invisible" illness has effected the occasional caesural pause in the up-and-down career of the former busker from Gilford, Co Down, who moved to London – via Dublin, Liverpool and Los Angeles – in 2013.
Now 36, his own "chaotic" years are well behind him, but touring and performing with bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic depression, still takes its toll.
"The main challenge is the extreme tiredness, which is really the worst thing," he explains. "It's really quite annoying because I used to be a 'morning person' and now I can't get going until I've had a couple of large cups of coffee.
"People don't really understand what's it's like, although the stigma surrounding it is definitely diminishing. In films, bipolar is portrayed either too dramatically or not dramatically enough.
"Often, it's about dealing with sheer numbness; the sapped energy and overwhelming lack of desire to do anything at all."
Despite this, and with the help of medication, he still turns out one song per day when writing, while, come evening time, his energy levels are primed and ready for a high-octane performance wherever and whenever he is on tour.
Singing since the age of 12, it wasn't until Pat turned 22 that he was formally diagnosed, although "the signs were there" long before his illness took on a name.
One of his most terrifying experiences was when he suffered a psychotic episode in Berlin after busking and touring for nearly six months non-stop.
"We were doing about 30 or 40 gigs every two weeks; it was chaos," he recalls. "It came to a head and it was really sad because the music was amazing and the gigs we were doing in Berlin were going so well.
"But I was completely 'not there'. I was looking at everything from an outside perspective. I had a freak-out and the guys had to take me to hospital.
"I'm older and wiser now and I can 100 per cent deal with it, but at the time it was pretty scary."
A regular speaker on mental-health issues – and recipient of an award from the Arts and Disability Forum (ADF) in Belfast – Pat, whose musical collaborator is drummer Chris McComish, has pretty much given up on the "bad stuff" and works hard to keep himself healthy.
"When your illness becomes just a by-product, that's when you can really change your own mindset," he says. "For me, my music was always there, but it's also become a therapy. More than that, really, it's the only thing that truly cures me."
:: Pat Dam Smyth will be appearing at the Lyric Theatre's Naughton Studio on Saturday, August 27. The full Bounce! programme can be accessed at www.adf.ie.
