ONE TO WATCH GAVIN GRIBBEN

Twenty one year old Gavin Gribben has loved music from a young age. The Mayobridge man has been ready for the fiercely competitive nature of the country music scene from a young age and now he’s reaping the rewards

My family would have been very involved in music and they played a bit themselves.

When I was younger I took part in different competitions like Scór Na nÓg and Fleadh Nua and I won All-Ireland medals, which really sparked my interest. I am from Mayobridge and there’s good folklore and music in the area. Over time I started to get more involved in music, I developed my own style and I did brush dancing as well. My grandparents played country music too.

When I won a Scór competition I was asked to do a TG4 show.

It was a momentous experience for me and it was so strange. I loved it and the memories will last forever.

Competing at a young age prepared me for this industry.

The bigger it gets the more competition there is. I remember being in a music session with my parents, and the next thing they had me up doing a song. I was really young at the time so I wasn’t used to performing as much. I loved that buzz and it pushed me on.

When I was four years old we holidayed in a Haven caravan park in the UK. I competed in a talent show and, for me as a child, it felt like being on The X Factor. I ended up winning that night and it spurred me on from such a young age.

When country music began to boom in Ireland my interest piqued.

I released my debut album when I was 16 and I had more folk numbers than anything else. But once I began to gig, I realised just how popular country music was. I found a new love for it because I could see the general atmosphere it created and the buzz around it. There was always good craic, and dancing is also a big part of country music. My Mom taught me how to jive.

The first person to give me advice was the singer Tommy Fleming.

He told me where to go and how to put myself out there after attending one of his concerts. Nathan Carter did an open air concert in Dundalk about 10 years ago and my friend won tickets to have a meet and greet with him. I had a great chat with him that night and I had a full circle moment last year when he wrote about me in his column in the

Sunday World.

If you don’t aim high you’ll never go anywhere

I love performing my song Pub Crawl. Generally speaking, it’s a track you can get people singing and dancing to. If they don’t know the words at the beginning they will know them by the end of the song. There’s great humour in the song with the lyrics: “If I don’t make it home, I’ll be there in the morning.” There’s loose comedy there and Irish people can relate to the joke.

There’s a sort of a teasing that goes along with being involved with music and dancing.

There was a bit of that, but my friends were supportive as well. As we started to get older, people started to realise the craic that goes along with the scene.

You get the odd DM from fans on Instagram.

I won’t go on too much about that [laughs]. There has been a bit of talk about my music over the last while so there has been some reflection of that in my social media messages.

Playing in the Moynalty Steam Threshing Festival ticked a big thing off my bucket list.

It was a fantastic experience and the weather was incredible for us on the day. I have been putting the work in for years and there have been certain things I have had to miss out on in life. It was huge to stand on the stage and see everyone singing along. I would love to expand into England and Scotland and even play in the 3Arena some day. If you don’t aim high you’ll never go anywhere.

As well as gigging, I’m doing a degree in music in Dundalk IT.

I’m in my third year now. I can gig alongside my studies, but it can be a challenge when you’re travelling a lot because that takes time. I’m always busy.