Pieces of 'Jigsaw' come together for Ryan as Irish tour proves a hit

He’s danced on Broadway and he’s busked in Temple Bar. He’s gone from Monaghan to New York , on to Glasgow and then Dublin. And for the past few months he’s been all over the radio. Singer/songwriter Ryan Sheridan comes to the Róisín Dubh this Saturday, after a 2010 that saw him launched on to the Irish music scene.

You’ve probably heard Sheridan’s song, Jigsaw at least once on the national airwaves. The song has tapped into the prevailing mood with its opening lyrics: “I’ve worked my days away for what/For someone to say well done, for someone to say good job?/Well it’s not for me.”Ryan admits that he’s surprised, but very happy, at the song’s popularity.

“It's phenomenal, especially for the first single,” he says. “I didn't record an album first and start releasing singles. I was trying to test the water and see what catches on. Everybody loves it, so I'm delighted with it.”

It sounds like Sheridan was feeling fairly restless when he wrote the song.

“I'd done every job under the sun and wondered where the hell where I was going to go and what was going to happen,” he recalls. “I wasn't happy in any job I was doing, going and back and forth. I was trying to piece it all together and see what happens – so that's why I called it Jigsaw.”

Ryan Sheridan cut his teeth as singer in the bar circuit in New York.How he came to be in the Big Apple is not your typical tale of emigration.

“I was touring with Riverdance at the time,” he says. “I was in the show since I was 15, and moved to New York when I was 18. When the show finished on Broadway I stayed on for an extra few years. I’m a jack of all trades!

“I was so young and it was bit of a culture shock for me,” he recalls.“I had to channel the music some way. So I just started writing in New York and really playing the guitar. I was gigging downstairs in [New York venue] Arlene's Grocery.”

Being old enough to play, but not old enough to drink, in New York meant Ryan’s age made him stand out in the city’s bars. Was he nervous, or full of brash, youthful confidence?

“It was a little bit of both,” he says. “I was on Broadway and I did tour with Riverdance, so it wasn't a stage fright thing that I had. It was definitely nerve-wracking to see if people liked my stuff. I was very new to the whole thing and I didn't really have a singing voice at the time. I was trying to just squawk it out! But i was pretty fearless and confident – maybe over-confident!”

Ryan left New York seven years ago and soon found himself in Glasgow.

He formed a band called Shiversaint, which he describes as ‘a little bit heavier’ than what he does now. The band split up after a few years but Ryan stayed in touch with one of his band mates, Polish percussionist Artur Garczyk.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.