Celtic Indie Sound: O Nualláin releases debut album ‘Divide & Conquer’

Gary Ó Nualláin is perhaps best known for formerly portraying the role of angsty foster child Philip O’Connor on RTÉ’s ‘Fair City’, but the Clondalkin man is also a talented musician.

Gary, who is from Woodford and is a past pupil of Coláiste Chilliain, creates a unique sound that expertly blends his two favourite genres, trad and indie.

The 30-year-old’s passion for trad music began when he was in primary school in Gaelscoil Chluain Dolcáin, which instilled a love of trad music in its pupils by teaching them how to play the fiddle and the whistle.

On the cusp of releasing his debut album ‘Divide & Conquer’, Gary told The Echo about switching from acting to making music, and his album launch in the Workman’s Cellar on January 28.

You were a full-time performer, having appeared in ‘Fair City’ and ‘Red Rock’, before the pandemic. What led you to pursue a career in acting?

I was a really good goalkeeper when I was a teenager. Playing DDSL Premier, and sometimes a year or two ahead of myself.

But I got pretty viciously assaulted when I was 16. I needed a couple of surgeries to put my Picasso-looking face back right.

I could probably use a couple more. But it led to a serious enough bout of PTSD.

I didn’t leave the house for 6 months except for school. Stopped playing football and all.

I tried going to play with the lads down the back fields in Woodford the following summer, and I remember just falling to my knees and vomiting in the street, I was that dizzy and anxious.

So my mam signed me up for a summer camp kind of improv acting thing to get me out of the house.

How did that experience develop into you securing acting work?

When the woman who ran it spoke to my mam about why I was there, she suggested I come to their Friday night improv thing.

So I did. Not long after that a casting notice came to her from Fair City.

She said, ‘You don’t have to go for this, but I think it would be good for you and for your confidence’, so I went for it.

I knew as soon as I walked in to RTÉ TV reception and saw the others going for the part that I had it.

I haven’t felt that sureness on any audition since. I just knew. And I was right. I played Philip O’Connor for 2 and a bit years.

You pivoted from acting into being a full-time musician during the pandemic, what led you to make that decision?

I had reprised my role in ‘Fair City’ in the back half of 2019.

I’d done bits on ‘Red Rock’, but then of course that ended when they lost the HQ premises.

But Carrigstown is a bit chaotic at the minute anyway with this whole contract situation, born out of the Eversheds report into bogus self-employment.

I was gigging away before Covid as well, but lockdown stopped everything dead in its tracks. ‘Fair City’ stopped filming for the first time since first airing in 1989.

Was switching to being a full-time musician something you had always wanted to do?

I think I’m a better actor than I am a musician. I just stopped getting work. I’ve no agent at the moment.

My last agent threw a fire extinguisher in my direction in temper at my performance in a self-tape audition… and then phoned me two days later to say it got me shortlisted for the part.

That put me off agents a bit. I’m a screen actor not a stage actor, so I’m limited in what I can do.

Even getting your own stuff made is as hard as getting cast in other people’s productions.

With the music I have a lot more control. So that side of it is nice. But nothing beats being on a film set. Especially when you’re opposite a good actor.

Your music fuses trad and indie music together, why was it important to you to have both of those elements in your music?

It was important to me to have trad influence in my compositions, even if they were modernised a bit in the production process.

Trad is my roots. I’m awful at it, but I still appreciate it.

I’ve so much respect for playing-by-ear, improvisational trad players, because people who don’t know would not believe how tough that is to do.

And then indie music is my bread and butter. It’s what I love, and what I’m drawn to.

I’m one of those people who can’t let go of the 90s. A lover of all things Oasis, and the bands from that era.

Because so many of those bands had first- or second-generation Irish members, the styles mesh quite nicely.

Can you tell me a bit about your forthcoming debut album ‘Divide & Conquer’?

‘Divide & Conquer’ is an 11-track Celtic indie album which covers a spectrum of topics from teenage romance, anti-racism anthems, housing crisis protests, religious separation, to post-colonial relations.

It is an amalgamation of musical influences from 90s alternative acts, and Irish traditional music.

At its crux it is a singer-songwriter album, but with plenty of add-ons from my incredibly talented backing band – The Wildflowers – and several guest performers.

What can the audience expect from your album launch in The Workman’s Cellar later this month?

Energy. We’re a really good live band. I prefer playing live to being in the studio. I’m a perfectionist to ludicrous, annoying levels.

I’ll sit there all night, analysing and analysing, like, ‘Get rid of this string squeak off this track, and I can hear a breath rattle in the whistle at 2:42 on that track’, compared to live where you just have fun, it’s one and done, and you just let the energy do the talking.

I’ll be there with my six-piece band The Wildflowers. Support will be from The Dandies, and Wickerlight fresh off their own recent sell-out Christmas gig.

‘Divide & Conquer’ will be launched in The Workman’s Cellar at 7pm on January 28, with tickets costing €10.

For information, follow @garyonuallain on Instagram and Twitter, or @GazzaONuallain on Facebook.