Waiting in a hotel in Dublin's city centre there's a scattering of adolesecents with guitar cases; the place is a like an Irish version of Hogwarths where teenage boys swap magic wands for 'ghd' straighteners. When Yngve joins me with a pint of Guinness he informs me there's music lessons happening, how he knows this I do not know. But nevermind, lets move on with the interview.

Yngve comes across much as his music does - matter of fact but slightly dreamy, warm, self-assured but not cocky.  He has considered most of the angles and is set on a clear musical vision.  His current E.P. 'Have You No Love' is a blues-tinged slice of Americana.

So your songs reference themes such as childhood passing and loss of innocence, tell us about this?
A lot of the reviews would have said this! But yes, a lot of the songs deal with the middle child syndrome, experiences from the perpective of the middle child.  It's also coming from the perspective of kids losing their innocence at a younger age these days. How the younger generation feel the need to prove themselves.  So yes, I guess a lot of it is to do with the loss of innocence. So it kinda makes sense cos everyone goes through that process of growing up.  Though I'm not saying its a good or bad thing. I'm not going to start preaching to anybody!

Do you see yourself as a solo artist with contributors or do you see yourself as part of a band?
Previously it was definetly a solo artist with contributors. We were a band as such but they were definetly my songs. Because I had a lot of musicians playing with me, it often felt more like a band.  I'm not precious about songs. I think songs have a life of their own, without sounding too prententious about it.  But I love going into a room of musicians with a song, and going off on a complete tangent where i think I never would have come up with that on my own, it's brilliant! I Like watching people's reaction to songs that you write.  There's not enough people with an open mind when it comes to that process.

Do you think living in London acts as a liberating force musically or that it creates the pressure to conform to musical fashions?
Both.  I love the Irish music industry.  It's produced some brilliant artists, but it has a bad tendency to celebrate mediocrity.  The problem is in Ireland there's a lot of bands, a lot of musicians.  I've lots of friends here in the industry and a lot of people I admire.  It's a great scene to get good at what you do.  In terms of nourishing new artists there's a lot of opportunities like The Ruby Sessions.  There's so many small venues that act as a platform.  The problem is you've played Whelans and you're everybodys's friend, and everybody tells you how great you are when you're probably just alright. You get to a level were you're something of a 'local star' and then you go the U.K and you're back at square one.  You can't make a living out of living and touring in Ireland, it's just not feasible. But people like Jape, Duke Special and The Mighty Stef their the exception that prove the rule!

Do you find the Dublin/Irish music scene all too incestuous and restrictive?
I definetly think that's the case, it's a shame. The problem with complacency is you're out in Whelans, and you're out on the piss with your mates, and yes it's a cosy little bubble.  You're still workin a second job or a third job, and it's not like you're a rock star!  There's really only six or seven main venues in Ireland and you can only play them so many times, so what are you doing the rest of the year?  Regardless of how big you are you need to play outside of Ireland. The money's simply not there. We're at a point now where we can pick and choose where we play in London. We're at a point now where we get a quite nice chunk of money. But it's not all to do with moving to London, its also to do with the fact that we brought out an album this year.

With playing live to you stick to well-rehearsed formula or do you let the songs flow?
We completely wing it! If we play a half hour set then we don't have a set list.  There's no replacement for gigging, having played 16 shows in a row at one point the songs become almost automatic. You become so comfortable with what you're playing, you can really focus on what you're playing.

In terms of influences you've been compared to Bright Eyes and David Kitt, do you feel this is just lazy journalism?
I think the David Kitt comparision came with my first E.P. which was released in 2005, and at the time I would have probably agreed. There was one song on it and you know David Kitt uses beats and samples, so I can see where the comparision came from in terms of the first E.P.  More recently, the Bright Eyes or Conor Oberst thing.  Butch Walker was interesting one even though I'd never heard of him!  Jenny Lewis is definetly one, I love that whole Portland, Oregen Scene.  I love that whole group of artists who are independent and set up their own record label. I guess if people asked you 'What's you're music like?', I'd say The Band era and folk Americana. A lot of my influences are blues based so that's where my songwriting style came from.

Is your music influenced by your upbringing?
My dad played drums in a blues band. I grew up in Sligo where I grew listening to a lot of music he was listening to. I grew up surrounded by music.  My music teacher, Gerry Glennin, introduced me to the finger picking style of Blind Willie Jefferson and Robert Johnson, all that old blues stuff.

Do you see Whelans as a homecoming gig?
Totally. I guess there's two homecoming gigs, there's Barry's in Sligo, Barry's is a great venue.  We played there a lot.  My first live recording was done there in 2004. That's definetly a homecoming gig, my folks live 5 minutes from there. But Whelans is probably the main one that we'd push cos I lived here and went to college here. It's such a great venue. But my favourite venue is probably Roisin Dubh in Galway, its such a nice vibe, but Whelans is really great as well, its one of the mainstays of the Irish scene.

Yngve and The Innocents play Whelans on the Tues 24th Nov, Admission €10

Words: Dan Ryan

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