Off the Record: Limerick's Lloyd John on the biggest risk of all

WHEN he was six-years-old, Lloyd John found a button accordion in his father’s jeep - an instrument that piqued his curiosity.

After piano lessons, a fair share of YouTube covers and several released singles, the singer-songwriter moved from Limerick to London to continue his musical journey.

“I found the instrument in the back of my dad's jeep while he was teaching a dance class. And I was just hidden inside in the back and I found a button accordion in the boot. I was like, ‘this is really interesting, what the hell is it?’ So, I just started messing around with it,” he recalls.

This Friday, Lloyd John, from Caherconlish, will be releasing Guarantee - his favourite work so far.

Speaking of the track, he notes: “I have a bit of a storyline that I've been telling at gigs recently, five or six tracks are consistent with the story and this is one of them.

“It’s my favourite work that I've done to date, getting the first part of it out is really exciting. It’s about the whole process of moving away, dealing with long-term relationships and figuring out the complexities of making it work and things like that.”

Lloyd describes himself as an overly-emotional performer. Through his songs, he delves into themes of confusion, uncertainty and heartbreak.

The latter would be the theme he writes about the most.

How does he deal with heartbreak?

“I feel like everyone deals with it in their own ways. Some people can deal with it better than others. You kind of just have to go through with it and take it one step at a time.

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“What I did was keeping busy. If my mind is very busy doing everything else all at once, then I can take my mind off one other thing, and that kind of helped,” he says.

Like many, he struggles with comparison. Even though he knows everyone’s journey is different, the struggle still, at times, presents itself.

“A few years ago, I would admire someone in the same world that I'm trying to get into, like someone in the music industry or someone that's writing fantastic songs or, or doing fantastic gigs. I would completely compare myself to that person and say,

‘Why am I not as cool as this person?’ I'm still learning it because it still resurfaces every so often.”

He says he has just come to realise everyone is unique in their own way. “Comparing yourself is actual torture and it ruins your creativity. Everyone is completely different. Your writing style is completely different. No one's voice sounds the same. It's completely up to the listener if they like your voice or not, but it's your voice and you own it. I think being yourself and learning to love to be yourself is the best thing you can do.”

Lloyd John lives and breathes music. It’s all he thinks about. That’s why he wants to have fun with it all, even though sometimes he tends to overthink.

“I just want to have as much fun in my twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, all the way up doing what I love,” he says.

“But I have a tendency to completely overthink and worry about everything, every single step that I go through in this career that I'm working on. I should just take it a little bit less seriously, and learn to have more fun with all of it.”

Good thing the overthinker is also a risk-taker - and he has taken what could arguably be the biggest risk of them all. .

“Going back to school days, guidance counsellors were saying to do a bit more of a safe job, take more of a traditional direction. I just didn't really love the idea of picking the safer route. I’m taking the risk and following what I love and pursuing the passion.”

In a family of “music heads”, Lloyd’s mom is his biggest fan. Although, she might be at war with another loved one. “There's gonna be war between my mom and my boyfriend here. I'm gonna say my mom is my biggest fan. Because I'll be able to explain it to my boyfriend, but I will not be able to explain it to my mom if it was the other way around.”

Speaking of the woman he got his voice from, he shares: “She's helped out so much in the last few years. Well, my dad and my whole family as well. They’ve helped me out so much. Her singing voice is incredible. She's just not like a public vocalist, but she's incredibly good. It's a shame because she's amazing.”

Lloyd John will be playing in Dolan’s, on November 9.