What’s different with us is the influence of ‘being Irish’ in our music, there’s like a great emotional sense in the music and I guess that is very much a part of the Irish artistic character - If you’re rejected, if you feel different – that is in essence what Irish Art is all about. Many of the Irish poets and playwrights, and authors, they all felt unfairly rejected by the very narrow minded farmer society. It’s got a very ancient history of expression, of pouring your heart out in song and that’s in me. That’s part of me, not just part of my culture, I just feel this passion in my heart to express, and then one day it just clicked…
I’d been doing music for years, I was writing "Praise and Fallen" and you can kind of hear a difference in focus I got it together both musically and emotionally and from then on it was kind of plain sailing, well no not plain sailing actually but I knew where VNV Nation was going from then on. "Praise the Fallen" was a kind of catharsis for me, helped me with a lot of things.

J/ So you grew up in small town Ireland?

R/ Actually I was in Dublin, so not so small a town! No smaller than where I am now, I’m in Hamburg. Growing up in Dublin there was no music scene as such apart from the accepted main stream styles. When I was 13 you were either into AC/DC, The Doors or The Rolling Stones and you beat the crap out of anyone who looked like a New Romantic or Futurist, and I was one of the latter so I was one of the people who was a target basically.
I always had a passion to leave the town. I mean I love Ireland and it’s a fantastic country that made me what I am but I’m very into meeting people from all different countries. I love to learn how to say ‘hello’ , ’how are you’ and ‘can I have a beer please’ in all sorts of languages. I guess growing up in Dublin led me to have a strong identity of who I am but also opened me up to meeting other people from other lands that would one day lead me to leaving Ireland..

J/ What’s it like living in Hamburg?

R/ The reason I moved there was that I was living in London for the last 12 years, Jesus! (throws up his hands in amazement and surprise) no it’s more! I’ve been away from Ireland now 16 years now.. Shit. Yeah, London it was GREAT but it got to the point where it was too full, too chaotic, there was no kind of break from the noise and the people. Even out of town there was always a major congregation point of people. Hamburg has two distinct characters – FUN and QUIET. I have peace and quiet if I want it, I have fun if I want it. Germans aren’t the mindless automatons that we think they will be. Hamburgers are.. to use their correct term, believe it or not… they’re very reserved but very passionate people. They love their city and they’re full of stories about their city, it’s a very working man’s city though. Very multi-cultural. Everyone mixes together, no racial divide like you get in Berlin or other cities in Germany. I LOVE IT, there’s something very magical about the place. When you’re coming back on the train, and you go over the huge central lake, you just feel like you’re home I don’t know how to describe it..
The Goth/EBM scene is like a little family, everyone knows each other, but they don’t bother you. They don’t bother people in bands, they don’t want to annoy you or anything, Wofsheim’s from there Pitchfork are from there, Rammstein used to live in Hamburg, bands a thousand times greater than us, and so we’re honoured to be a part of that scene now.

J/ So how’s your german now?

R/ Very good now I believe..

J/ I was at Leipzig that year when Das Ich didn’t turn up and you had to sing "Destillat" reading the lyrics from the CD sleeve..

R/ Oh shit, yeah..(he cracks into soft pealing laughter..) No shit, that was years ago, it’s got a lot better since. My grammar is a bit shite, but I can understand a lot more than I can actually speak..

J/ You talked a little bit about your influences a bit earlier, but what do you listen to at home?
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