Make no ‘Mones’ about it; Marty is 100 per cent country

Irish country singer Marty Mone is already counting down the days until he can officially not ‘Hit The Diff’ - as is directed by the lyrics of his most popular song - but, hit the road (quite literally) and head off in his Scania V8 for the bright lights of Ballymena, where he, along with Derek Ryan and Philomena Begley, will be performing at a very special event.

The Farmers’ Bash Country Drive-In will take place in all its socially distant glory in the Co Antrim town next month, and fans of country music all over the Province will be setting off in convoy to enjoy this almost historical event.

“In 10 years’ time, people are going to talk about the time that the world shut down,” says Marty, in his sing-song Castleblayney accent.

“And we will be able to say, ‘this is what we did - we played our music to people sitting in their cars.’

“It will go down in history and we will have been part of it.”

Music has been part of Marty’s life since he was a young age, but his very first loves, he tells us, were his trucks, tractors, and basically, all kinds of heavy farm machinery.

“My uncles were agricultural contractors, so they ran a business called McBennett Brothers; they dealt in tractors, harvesters, diggers, lorries - all sorts of machinery,

“So from a very early age I started driving them, and then I worked with them for 20 years.

“Unfortunately now two of my uncles have passed away and one is left, so the business is very small now.”

Marty says that being attracted to these big machines was in his blood, but he continues to see countless young people - from both the city and the country - drawn to them as much as he was.

“And then because I started working with them at such a young age, I was pretty ‘old school’, and I loved the high powered tractors, with plenty of noise and dust!”

He admits, however, that he doesn’t miss the long hours the career entailed, although his life these days as a musician is busy as well.

It was 2014 when the Co Monaghan man made his debut on the UK and Irish music scene, thanks to his first ever and now legendary single, Hit The Diff.

Self-recorded and produced, the song has amassed over nine million views on YouTube to date, and was followed up with his debut album, a 10-track affair that was also entirely written, recorded and produced by himself.

He released his second album in 2018, and runs his own record label and publishing company ‘Marty Mone Music’.

The singer has performed at venues such as the SSE Arena, Croke Park, The Ploughing Championships. Truckfest UK, and the Highland Show in Scotland. He has also appeared numerous times on national television and radio.

But the star’s love affair with country music - and more specifically, the guitar - began when he was just a child.

“I can remember being down the road in a neighbour’s house, and I could hear this mad guitar playing.

“I was about eight or nine at the time. I eventually met the fella, and I became obsessed by guitars, and guitar players like Slash.

“I don’t know how, but in the middle of all this I got a guitar when I was 10 or 11, and started to play. Then eventually I joined a band when I was 15, and during my years working as a contractor, I was playing music every weekend.”

He reveals he was actually out mowing silage when Hit The Diff started to take shape in his head.

Before long, he had knocked the verses and chorus out, and made a video compiled of shots of himself driving various tractors.

The response to it blew him away.

“I put the song out thinking, this will be a wee bit of craic for a few weeks for the local drivers - and to this day it hasn’t stopped.”

And he gets a similar reaction at all his shows.

“It’s the one song you have to do,” he smiles. “Most of the media and the radio stations always want to talk about this song too.

“Sometimes you can just never better a song, it has so much power.”

For Marty, it’s all aspects of the music industry that he enjoys being involved in.

“Some people in the singing world just want to sing, or others only want to record, but I love all of it,” he says. “From the going on the road, to being in the studio playing sounds - I love every angle of it.

“Doing it all yourself is tough because it might mean you’re recording an album for two months and all of a sudden the year is closing in on you and you haven’t done enough, but at the same time I’d rather have it that way - it’s fun, it’s not just doing the same thing all the time, so it is very exciting.”

“And now the fact that I’m driving my own lorry to the shows means I’ve still got my hand in that too. Plus, I still do the odd day of silage so I’m keeping my hand in there too.”

Marty has been making the most of lockdown, and even though he hasn’t been able to perform, he’s been working hard in his studio at his home.

“It has been kind of weird, but all situations bring both bad and good, so we have been doing a lot of recording, and for me, because I have a studio at my own house, I haven’t had to leave it, so lockdown suited me alright,”he says.

“I actually got a lot of songs recorded.

“Having said that, you do need to get back on the road again and moving.”

And for Marty, that means both recording his new single, but also the upcoming Bash in Ballymena next month, which he is looking forward to tremendously.

So country music lovers and farm machinery aficionados, it’s time to get excited about next month - the Castleblayney boy is back in town.