Those few bars of Clear Day, and before that Brand New Star, are the point of contact many people have with the 45-year-old singer/songwriter from Newry.

Some artists would cringe at the though of their tunes being so ubiquitous, but Kieran takes a more pragmatic, upbeat approach.
"I love it," he said.

"Anyone who writes songs wants them to get out into the world – and if they say otherwise they're lying.

"There's lots of ways for that to happen, traditionally it would be on a record which could go into the charts and people would hear it, but things are changing.

"It's important not to become too precious about songs, and see that they have to find their own place in the world."

Kieran, who is preparing for a three-night run in the Grand Opera House later this month, admits his attitude to life has changed over the years.

"In hindsight, I tended to spend too much time pontificating over the things that I had no control over," he said.

Focus

"There's no point in moaning about the fact that it's a wet, rainy day – there's nothing you can do about it – so you should make the most of it and focus on the things that you can change."

But, when his wife Ann was diagnosed with brest cancer last year, it really shifted his priorities.

"That reminded both of us that you can't take things for granted," he said.

"We renewed our pledge to ourselves to enjoy every day, and do the things we wanted to do in life."

Ann recovered, but the experience changed the couple and their outlook.

"If you prioritise the things that are important, life will be good," Kieran said, before adding: "I'm lucky to have the career I have."

It's a career that can be traced back to when Kieran first played the guitar as a nine-year-old, but gathered momentum in the 1980s when he took up music full-time.

"Music is something that takes over your life, but one of the challenges of doing it for a living is making sure that it doesn't become like a job," he said.

"You have to keep up the energy and enthusiasm, particularly when playing live. You can't fool an audience, they will know if you don't want to be there."

Over the two decades he has had many setbacks and, in his own words, "played plenty of toilets", but he remains restlessly optimistic.
The string of Belfast shows come as a new live album is released and with a studio record – his seventh – on the brink of completion.


As for whether he feels more comfortable on stage or in the studio, Kieran said: "I love both.

Embrace

"Some people feel as if they have to choose between the two, but I embrace the both of them.

"If you get me on a given day, I'll say I love writing songs and being in the studio.

"In a studio you're trying to get a performance out of you and into a microphone," Kieran said.

"But on another day I'd say nothing beats standing on stage singing songs to people, where you're trying to get a message over to an audience.

"The challenge of having to do something different each night keeps me interested, keeps the audience interested and leads to a better show.

"I wouldn't want either the stage or performing live to be everything that I do."

But his attitude to recording has changed in recent times to reflect a more spontaneous nature.

"I realised I was singing better live than I was in a studio – the two sounded different."

That realisation kick-started "a process of rediscovering how to record".
"For years, I've been making albums by recording all the bits separately, but I found I was at my best when I brought what I do live into a studio setting," he said.

"In the last year-and-a-half we've just got everyone into a room and played – so if one person made a mistake we all had to go again."
He said that was initially daunting, but added: "Once you see that as something to embrace though there's a real excitement and I feel I've done my best work on this upcoming album."

But Kieran's focus remains on the upcoming Belfast shows, which will feature such guests as Rodney Crowell, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Kimmie Rhodes and Brendan Murphy – the people he has been writing and recording with in recent years.

Iconic

And, of course, it will all happen in an iconic venue.

"I remember seeing the likes of Van Morrison, Ricky Skaggs and Tommy Makem at the Opera House and wondering what it would be like to perform there," he said.

"Now I'm doing it and I plan to enjoy it – if someone had told me 20 years ago that I'd be recording my own songs and playing places like the Opera House, I would have taken it."

This contented approach is reflected in his outlook on life.

"When people ask what you do for a living, to say that you sing songs with friend and play them to rooms with hundreds of people isn't a bad thing."

Kieran Goss and friends will perform in the Grand Opera House, Belfast, on March 20, 21 and 22. Tickets and further information are available from the box office on 9024 1919 or online at www.goh.co.uk