1. When did you think about a career in music and what were your first steps into it?
I first saw Kurt Cobain on TV when I was around 14 years old. I thought he was cool - I didn’t know at the time that he was also very dead. And still I was up for the music business, yeah.
2. Best gigs you’ve been to?
Kendrick Lamar at 3Arena, a few weeks ago; Dr John at Vicar Street about 10 years ago, and Bob Dylan at The Point in Dublin, around 2000 - a brilliant band, great singing, great atmosphere.
3. Fantasy wedding/birthday party band?
Tom Waits, Tupac, Nina Simone and Howlin' Wolf.
4. The record you would take to a desert island?
Best of Michael Bublé - it would inspire me to start swimming.
5. And the book you’d take to a desert island?
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. It would remind me that things aren’t so bad.
6. Top three films?
The Big Lebowski, No Country For Old Men and the Madagascar films.
7. Worst film you’ve seen?
Seems I didn’t sit through anything for long enough to remember - something from Matthew McConaughey’s early canon perhaps?
8. Favourite authors?
Cormac McCarthy, Annie Proulx and Flann O’Brien.
9. Sport you most enjoy and any top team?
I watch the World Cup when it’s on.
10. Ideal holiday destination?
Berlin in the summer is nice. I liked Palma - anywhere where they don’t have pictures of food.
11. Pet hates?
Bad stonework, bananas and singer-songwriters, or other people on posters...
12. What’s your favourite:
Dinner? Anything with vegetables, nothing from beside a main road.
Dessert? Cheesecake.
Drink? Yes.
13. Is there a God?
I’ve seen no evidence for one as yet.
Mick Flannery plays Belfast's Black Box on January 27 as part of The Out to Lunch Festival. The gig is sold out, but for a full list of festival events visit Cqaf.com. Mick will then embark upon a North American tour in February. Mickflannery.com.
