Dylan Flynn on dead poets, co-writing, and SXSW

On this episode of First Spin, Hayden sits down with Irish artist Dylan Flynn, frontman of Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets. From the band’s beginnings in Limerick to building a passionate following at home and abroad, Dylan shares how the group has carved out its own space with heartfelt songwriting and a modern twist on classic rock influences. The conversation touches on the challenges and rewards of being an independent artist, the role of social media in today’s music industry, and the excitement of preparing for their biggest shows yet. Along the way, Dylan reflects on what inspires his music, how art can shape moments of struggle, and what’s ahead for the band as they continue to grow.

Songs featured in this episode:

Running Away

Nowhere to Live

the story after they're gone

The Party's Over

Lately

Forgiveness is a Gun

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Thanks for listening—see you next week.

Transcript

Dylan (00:22.414)
Things will be better now

Dylan (00:37.314)
I swear I'll there

Hayden (01:07.032)
Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to First Spin, the podcast that introduces you to up and coming artists so you can say you knew them before they hit it big. My guest today is Dylan Flynn, an artist from Limerick, Ireland, who's banned Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets as a modern take on classic rock and roll sound with a bit of Irish flair. Dylan and I talked about the importance of art in these troubling times, playing to larger and larger audiences, and how Texas and Tennessee surprised him. Here's my conversation.

Dylan Flynn. So Dylan Flynn, thank you again for joining me here on the First Spin Pod. You have a band called Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets, which I've discovered relatively recently and have quickly become a huge fan of. Where did the Dead Poets name come from? So I've been playing music since I was about 12 years old with different people and

been in lots of different bands, but had never kind of made my own songs, never written my own songs. And when I came out of a secondary school or high school as a being in America, that band kind of fell apart, the band that I had been in for about six years. And I decided I wanted to do a solo project and my parents had named me after Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet. So I decided, okay, I'll go under Dylan Thomas and then

After a couple of gigs doing that and discussing it with some people in the industry, they were like, that's not a good idea. That's probably going to get you in trouble at some point because people are going to think that that's the actual Dylan Thomas. So I then had been playing with a couple of guys at that time and it kind of started to feel like more like a band. And I was discussing with them, were like, what should we call this band? And at one point it was going to be called just the dead poets because

of idea of Dylan Thomas and him being a poet and the fact that he's not with us anymore, so he's dead. But then the guys were like, look, I think your name should be on the front, kind of like Bruce Springsteen with the Indy Street Band or Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers or that type of thing. So we decided to go with Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets. wondered if it was a reference to Dead Poets Society, which is a great movie. A lot of people ask me that. Yeah. And surprisingly, well,

Hayden (03:28.322)
A bit embarrassingly, I actually only watched that movie about two weeks ago for the first time. But the contents of the movie and what it was about really did strike a nerve with me. I did like, if people do want to connect to that, I'm more than happy for people to connect to that as well. yeah, what that movie is about, I was like, that's really cool and really important. So certainly not a bad association to have. Definitely not. I read somewhere,

that the music is described as making music for 20 somethings in a country that ignores them, which that really stuck out at me. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? Yeah, so that that sentence, I think, came to light the first time when I wrote a song called Nowhere to Live, which ended up on our first album. And it nearly didn't end up on the album. I think at that time I was trying to find out exactly what I wanted to say as an artist.

I'd written a lot of songs at that point, but I didn't know where I was speaking from or who I was speaking to. I knew what the songs were about themselves, but the context of the whole project altogether, didn't know where that was kind of aiming towards. when the song Nowhere to Live came around, it came from a place of Ireland, just like a lot of the world has a really bad housing crisis.

It has gotten worse over the years, but at that time it was particularly bad. I think it had taken kind of a sharp decline at that time. And a lot of my friends were moving away, emigrating to Australia, Canada, the UK, America, wherever there was opportunity to have a better life and to be able to find a home. that I wrote the song, Nowhere to Live, talking about that emotion. at that time,

nearly all the people that I knew that were leaving were in their twenties. It felt like people who were in their thirties or in their forties had kind of had their life together a little bit more. And people who were a little bit younger than that didn't, hadn't experienced the struggles that was going to come in the later years. So that sentence, making music for twenty somethings in the country that completely ignores them comes from me making music for me and my friends and people like me in a country where our government doesn't really seem to care about people our age.

Hayden (05:49.518)
and only really focuses on themselves and the people like them. It's unfortunate that that statement can be applied to so many different countries around the world. You obviously your reference was specifically about Ireland, but I read that and immediately think, that's true in the United States too, especially with the things that are currently going on in the United States. mean, it's just, as I'm sure you're well aware, just pretty remarkable.

it's really, it's really a scary situation we found ourselves in at this point. And I don't know how he got here and I don't know how we get out of it really. Yeah, it's, but I think, I think in times like this, it's, it is really good to look, to look towards art because I think historically over, over decades, a lot of the best art came from times of turmoil. And yes, like right now it is, it's hard, it's hard to live in it, but we just kind of have to hope that.

there is light at the end of tunnel and on the other side and that someone better will hopefully come along and replace what is there now, as you said, in our country and in your country as well and in many other countries around the world. It is tough right now, but I think that turning to art and speaking through art is always good way to insight change.

Dylan (07:31.31)
can't stop drinking, yeah I can't stop I lost myself of purpose Everyone feels worthless I'm thinking about leaving But I'm not just following my friends Cause there's nowhere to go And there's nowhere to live People are lost

Dylan (08:04.75)
Should I leave too? Should I?

Hayden (08:26.126)
Speaking of, the art that you are making with your project, Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets, I think it is, like I said, just really fantastic stuff. You've got the first song I heard, probably unsurprisingly to you, is Running Away, which last I checked has over a million streams on Spotify. What is that feeling like knowing that you've written a song that is resonating with that many people?

It's strange. And funnily enough, that song was probably the most personal song I'd written at that time, or I definitely felt the most personal at the time because that song is about my grandfather. when I was writing that song, he was passing away. And I felt like I had maybe not spent enough time with him in his last few years. And I was feeling a lot of guilt towards that. So I wrote a song about it. And then...

when that song became our biggest song, I was like, this feels really intense because that song means a lot to me. And now a lot of people are singing along to the words of that. So it is. It's a strange feeling. that song as well was our first experience of how TikTok can be such a big platform for music. We had been using it up until that song and we didn't really know what we were doing with it. Me and the guys, we were kind of just throw videos up every now and then.

We shot a music video for that song, on the river that runs through our city. That was a, that was a big, special place for my grandfather. And we took the very opening clip of that video, which is only about 15 seconds, 20 seconds long, maybe not even that long. And, and put it up on TikTok. And I remember I woke up the first morning and I was like, Whoa, this video is 10,000 views, which is, I was like 10 times more than any video we'd ever had put up.

And then like that next evening, was like 50,000 and then it just kept going and kept going. And I, at one point I was like, I didn't know if it was ever going to stop going. And of course these things do slow down eventually. But in the moment when we had never had an experience like that before, and to see people resonating and commenting and then see it move over to people buying merch and buying tickets and, and streaming the songs and sharing them. It's, it is, it's it's weird, but it's,

Hayden (10:50.838)
It's amazing that we are able to live in a world right now where music can be so accessible and something so small or so personal to someone can become savored by people around the world in a matter of hours. think that is really, really special. you feel like you've gotten better at approaching the TikTok and social media aspect of things? Do you have a strategy going forward now ever since that happened?

I think, I think I've become more aware of what it is. And I think I know, I think I know how to play into it a little bit more, but saying that I still haven't been able to replicate the virality of that one video. I think there there's, there's always this little bit of chance and luck that no one really knows what's going on. I think that's, that's a little bit of the, of the speciality of, of, of TikTok and

What makes it kind of charming is that like, no one really knows what's going to go viral, even the people at TikTok, because it is down to the people who are reacting with it and watching it and seeing it in real time. So you can try out all these different things that might've worked before, or that might've worked for other people, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to replicate what has happened in the past. So sometimes I feel like trying random stuff is the best way to do it.

At the moment, yeah, I feel like I'm trying a lot of different things. I also try and not do too much because I feel that doing too much kind of burns me out in a different way that doesn't allow me to be creative. And I think at the moment, like we're fully independent band. don't, we don't have anyone in the industry to kind of, we don't have a manager or a label or an agent or anything like that. have friends who help us out. But our team is literally our friends. And I feel like if I.

spend too much time doing the TikTok thing and not enough time putting focus in the other things that are important that they start to wilt a little bit. And that's never good. It's all about balance. And even though TikTok can cause burnout, I think it is a necessary evil in this day and age because it is becoming harder and harder for musicians to get their music out there. And the fact that there is a platform there that someone can put up a video and be completely unknown in the morning and a million people have seen them.

Hayden (13:10.38)
I think it is really important to be involved in something like that. It's crazy. It's really kind of a crazy thing. And like you said, in a very cool way. Speaking of virality, I saw a post recently that you said, we've had four label meetings this week sitting on an album that's our best music to date and have 50,000 monthly listeners, but seemingly none of that matters unless we go viral. Is that what you're hearing directly from the labels themselves?

Yeah. And I don't even think it's, it's, it's just labels. seems to be, it seems to be everyone in the industry right now once. And I think, I think there's a little bit of a turn happening. I'm hearing it less and less like I think virality still is really important for a lot of people, including labels. think mostly labels, but I think repeated virality, but also it doesn't necessarily have to be as big. Like the running away video was, was a really, really big moment for us.

And we haven't had anything like that since, but we have had some things that have been about a fifth of the size of that. And we've been able to replicate that over and over again. And that is what I think a lot of people are looking for right now. Being able to put out a song and for it to get 50,000 views multiple times, rather than it being able to get 500,000 views just once. Do know if you're able to replicate that, it shows people in the industry that

Okay, this is something that we can work with or they've really got something going on. that's why I think TikTok is really putting a lot of the power back in the artist's hands as well, because sometimes it does really feel like, okay, if this isn't viral, the label doesn't know what to do with it. And if the artist is making themselves viral before the label comes along, then that oftentimes puts a lot of the power in the artist's hands. So it's cool in that way as well.

And yeah, in that sense, it is almost like the the power dynamics of walking into those rooms have kind of shifted a little bit. Because back, you know, back in the days before social media, it was really just the A &R person's ear. Right. And if they liked what you were doing and, you know, maybe they came and saw you at a club and you sold a few hundred tickets and everybody seemed like they're having a good time. That was enough for them to kind of say, OK, we're willing to take a chance on these guys. Whereas now.

Hayden (15:28.026)
you've proven already that you can do it and that you have the following. so now, like you said, are you going at that room and you are the one with the power. Yeah. The way I've kind of heard it recently be described is that labels don't know how to start the fire. The artists have to start the fire, but once the fire is started, the label knows how to turn it up. And that really makes sense to me. And I think that's what labels are trying to do these days.

Yeah, that makes sense. You've had some cool opportunities to play shows recently. I saw you open for Kingfisher at a show in your hometown of Limerick. How did that come about? That's a big thing. That's cool. Yeah. So funnily enough, we've known the Kingfisher guys for a while now. So they played their first ever show in Limerick. they're from a couple of different places around Ireland, but they all went to university in Limerick.

And that's where I met them first. when they did their first ever show, which was about four years ago now, we actually played with them then. And to see where they've gone since then is absolutely crazy. And it's, think it's amazing for Irish music because it's kind of just rising all ships. It's fast. It's not just them. Like there's multiple Irish artists now that are really, really breaking through into the mainstream. But yeah, that show was, that show was crazy. It was like.

5,000 people in our hometown and Limerick is a very special place to them. I said, like they went to college here and I think they kind of feel like it's their home as well. So to share the stage with those guys in front of that many people was really, really cool. Was that one of the biggest crowds you've played in front of? Yeah, yeah, it was. was the biggest that we had played. We did a show earlier in the summer with The Darkness as well, which was also in Limerick in a place called King John's Castle, which is a little bit smaller.

But that was also a really big crowd. It's kind of felt like this year we've kind of gone from like, we get to a moment where like, oh, that was our biggest crowd. And then it to a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger. And that's kind of happening with our own headline shows as well, which is amazing. Like we're going into a tour now in November at that, where we're playing some of the biggest venues that we've ever done headline wise, which is great as well. yeah, we've had, we've had this, this year has really felt.

Hayden (17:52.876)
like a turning point with the band. think we've had a lot of opportunities that have come up and it's really made it start to feel like, okay, this could be an option for a while.

Dylan (18:11.55)
There's purpose of what I'm feeling don't feel the need to hang around I can't tell what I've been dreaming so let the whole world tumble out of my

Dylan (18:36.974)
They're lying on my side I pull the rope that brings me deeper To see what's really there inside of my head You know there's too much in my

Dylan (19:07.138)
you

Dylan (19:14.113)
This drink is ongoing

Dylan (19:24.622)
in the shadows without a voice to guide the way I fall between the cracks in my floor left me wandering for days in my head running circles in my

Dylan (19:47.22)
in this meal which every day I try my best to open up and whisper secrets that only ever live inside of my head. there's too much shit.

Dylan (20:08.096)
Soon

Hayden (21:07.15)
You've this tour kind of all over the UK starting in November that is coinciding with the release of a new EP. Yeah, really exciting. we only put out an album this time last year and I think I struggle with sitting on songs. I feel like I always need to get to the next thing and I always feel as well if we're doing a tour that there needs to be something new.

All these new songs that are coming out, really excited about it. It feels like kind of a step in a different direction. And yeah, as you said, like we're playing, we're starting off in Cork, which is in Ireland. So we're doing one show in Ireland, then we're over to the UK for five days, playing some spots over there that we've never been before. And then coming back to Ireland, doing some shows around Ireland, playing some spots in Ireland that we haven't been before yet. So yeah, it's really exciting. We're going to be like returning to some places that we love and seeing some new places, which is amazing. And we're going to have some new songs to go with it.

How do you get ready for a tour? What's the process of getting yourself mentally, physically, getting the band tight, getting all that ready to go? Yeah, we're very lucky this year that because we've been playing so much that has become a lot easier. Usually it is kind of like a boot camp where if you haven't been playing a lot and you're coming up to a tour and maybe you're coming off the back of recording a record where you've been in the studio, you might know the songs, but like pulling it together live then might become a little bit of a different thing.

We're lucky right now that we do have, we've been playing about 70 % of the songs we're going to be playing on tour. We've been playing for the last kind of nine months and we kind of have been pretty tight. But some of the new ones then, suppose, like usually the way these, songs work when I write them is that I write them and I bring them either acoustically to the band or I do a quick demo by myself and I'll show the lads the demos and we kind of figure out their parts from there.

Everyone will be given their own parts individually to work on at home. And then when we all come together, we'll have a quick listen to what the song sounds like as a whole. And then we'll aim to replicate that. And I think the best way is to take it a bit by bit. often will take two or three songs a week rather than jumping at the whole set and trying to take that all in and only kind of half arcing it. We'll try and take it bit by bit and build it up. So we're nearly there now. have, I'd say.

Hayden (23:30.094)
We were about 80 % of the way through the set and it's feeling really, really tight. but, but yeah, it's, it's funny. think no matter how much rehearsal you do, I think a gig is probably worth 10, 10 practice practices in a room with, with the guys, because I've never felt tighter than we are right now. And this year has been our Physicist year of gigs. So I think it's down to that. do you think playing live generally has that?

much of an impact on getting the band tightness and kind of learning the songs and learning each other. Like what is it about having the audience there that influences that so significantly? think it's a couple of things in my opinion anyway. One of the things is that when you're going out there, you're really trusting that those other guys are going to do the job that you're going to do as well and do it right. So when that does pay off,

There's a trust that you build with those people that you go on stage with that makes you realize, okay, next time I go out on that stage, that person isn't going to let me down. And it gives you a confidence going into the next gig. Well, I think when you're in the practice space, yes, you're playing the songs and you might be playing the same way, but the risk is less because if you mess up, everyone kind of just laughs and you start the song again. And I think another thing which is onto that is, like an answer to the risk is

The magnifying glass gets turned up a lot when you're in front of people. And if you do make a small mistake, even if the crowd doesn't notice, you notice and you feel like everyone has heard that and that it was 10 times louder than everything else, even though realistically it really wasn't. So I think it's down to that. think it's a trust building thing with people that you're on stage with, but I think it's also because there is so many people watching you that you are really magnifying every small mistake that you make. And next time you go back in,

to the practice room or next time you go into the gig, you're like, okay, I'm not gonna do that again. And you make sure that it doesn't happen. You ever heard that story that Paul McCartney told about being so obsessed with not making a mistake for so long. And then there was one show at some point along the way where he just royal, I think it was Blackbird. Maybe he just like royally fucked it up just massively. And like the crowd loved it, right? Because it almost like humanized him in a way and like.

Hayden (25:51.96)
There's this element of like, I was at the show where they where they messed up. he's like, and ever since then, I haven't been worried about messing up, which obviously when you're Paul McCartney is a little, you know, it's a little different. But there's that perspective. There is definitely. I think I think it's good to have like we've done it. We've done a couple of kind of smaller shows in kind of rural parts of Ireland over over this year and even kind of smaller kind of pop up shows at home, like in places.

That might be like 80 cap where we know that it's going to sell out, but we want to do it as a kind of warm up thing. Like we did, we did South by Southwest back in March. And before we did that, we hadn't really played many gigs. So we decided to do a warm up show in our hometown, just a really small room, literally the smallest room we could play in our hometown. But the reason to do it was to kind of dust off those cobwebs, get in front of people.

make the mistakes so that we'd make them in those rooms, realize what they were going to happen. So that when we were at South by, we weren't going to make mistakes in front of the people who really matter. did that come about getting to play South by Southwest? Cause that's really cool, especially as an independent artist. you, do you apply to play or did somebody find you and ask you to come play? Yeah. we, we applied. There's a, there's a few different showcase festivals like that, that happen. We, there's, there's one that we have in Ireland that's called Ireland Music Week, which is actually happening next week in Ireland and

Then there's one in the UK called the great escape that happened in June. There's one that happens in the Netherlands called Euro Sonic that happens in January. And then the other big one for people, know, at least in Ireland anyway, is South by Southwest. So I usually apply for all four of those every year. and surprisingly out of all four of them, South by Southwest was actually the first one that we ever got an offer to play at, which was amazing. and I kind of, it kind of me laugh a little bit cause I'm like,

Okay, there's ones here in Europe and there's ones in the UK, but they haven't contacted us. But it's actually people who are on the other side of the world or the other side of the Atlantic that are like, okay, no, they're good. Let's bring them on board. And I think it was really, it was, was, was a nice, it was a nice confidence boost for us because I think being an independent band, can be tough sometimes. And it can be, it can be a little bit of a mind game. You'd be like, am I really good enough? Like if, if all these people, you know, are like,

Hayden (28:12.494)
ahead of me or all these people have a manager or a label, but we don't, kind of you start guessing at your worth, you know, and I think getting something like South by Southwest really kind of puts it on the table. It's like, no, you are good enough because these people think so. And I remember like being a teenager and watching some of my favorite bands at the time play South by Southwest and then go beyond to go on to become huge. So it was really, really a special moment for.

for that to happen. But Jack, it literally came from us filling out an application form and a couple of months later getting an email saying that it was going to happen. How great. Had you been to, had you spent much time in the States before that? I traveled a small bit. had friends that lived in New York for a while. So I'd been there a couple of times and I'd been to California with my family, but not, I hadn't spent any time really outside of kind of New York or California.

And to be honest, Texas absolutely blew me away. I didn't really know what to expect going over. think, I think I was maybe a little bit nervous, and maybe a little bit presumptuous of what the people were going to be like there. And I was completely wrong. They were, they were probably the nicest people that I've met in, in all of the States. and I spent some time in Nashville as well. And I have to say that between, between Austin and Nashville, I met some of the nicest people I've ever met and have made some friends for life. And there's actually.

another band that I met when I was in Nashville called Brother Elsie. Oh, I those guys. That song, they have wrong things. That's just such a fantastic song. Yeah. And I became really, really good friends with Brady from Brother Elsie and he's actually coming over visiting Ireland in a couple of weeks. Oh, no kidding. How cool. Are you guys going to do any shows together or just going to hang out? We're just going to hang out. We actually, wrote a song together when we were in Nashville. So we might try and get some

So at least some of that recorded at least his vocals. I get his vocals and some of his guitars down while we were here, it would be amazing because I'd love to be able to put out that song. Yeah, they just put out a song with with Very Gently. Yeah, that's That's a great song. I really dig that song a lot. Really good song. Yeah, I saw those the Very Gently guys actually, yeah, Brother Elsie and and and Very Gently on my last night in Nashville. And it was they were both amazing.

Hayden (30:37.356)
And here's a snippet of that Brother LZ very gently song, The Party's Over.

you

Dylan (31:15.432)
Snow, I finally caught a sunrise Tried to fight a good guy I don't even know why Looking for a gold mine But it's after midnight Think I'll probably go blind Looking on the bright side I guess the party's over now It's all been said and done

I guess the party's over now, the night has just begun

you

I started fire looking for a new flame She looked like an angel I thought she was the end Now she's just a-

Sorry, I think I interrupted you. You were talking about your experience in Texas and Nashville and meeting the brother Elsie guys. Yeah, think the biggest thing was that I just I wasn't really sure how much I was going to like those places and I wasn't sure what the people were going to be like, but I was just absolutely blown away. I think we all were. think we all came back being like, wow, that was a really special experience. And I don't think we were expecting the people and the place.

Hayden (32:34.22)
be as nice. So yeah, did great time over there. That's great. Well, as an American who is often embarrassed by that fact these days, I'm very glad to hear that that that was your experience. Austin is a cool place. I like visiting Austin any anytime I get a chance to go down there. It's a really neat city. Speaking of some of the other songs that the newer songs that you're working on, you've released a couple recently, a song called Lately and a song called Forgiveness is a Gun. Both of those I

Imagine are going to be on this EP that's coming out in November. Yeah. Those that there's a, it's going to be four, four tracks in, in total. so those two, two, and then another one called turn the page and another one called, I love you, but you're breaking my heart. but the first song that we released, forgiveness has gone was actually one that I had written when I was in Nashville. So after, after South by, the lads flew back, but I stayed.

and flew to Nashville for 10 days. And I had up until then had written all my music by myself. But I met some people in Nashville that were like, look, we do a lot of co-writing here. We think you'd be really good at it, which would be up for giving it a go. So I did. And I actually did a co-writing session every single day while I was there. So I did 10 different sessions. And one of the songs came out of those sessions was Forgiveness is a Gun. I wrote it with guy called Marshall Altman, was

probably the main reason that I actually ended up coming to Nashville. He reached out about a year ago. He's a big songwriter, record producer, where he has worked with a number of labels, but he found our music and it really connects with him. And he was like, look, I'd love to set you up with some people. I'd love to work with you myself. So we came down and wrote in Marshall Studio for few days and we came up with that song. And it was, I think,

A little bit different outside my comfort zone. think the lyrics in Forgiveness Is Gone are very, very direct and it's not something that I'm used to doing. like to not hide. think hide is maybe the wrong word, but I think it does feel like hiding sometimes. I like to dress things up poetically so that it is a little bit harder for people to understand exactly what you're saying. But with that song, it really, really was kind of laying it all out on the table and saying exactly how it is, but

Hayden (34:54.797)
That song is literally about that. It's about two people who love each other and are going, are struggling in a relationship and are probably not communicating properly. And they are literally just trying to get it all out there and say, look, I love you. I really want to be with you, but you need to give, you need to give me something back. And that's where forgiveness is a gun came from. So that was really exciting. All the other songs on the EP are self written at the minute, but there's

at least another album, if not two albums worth of music that we have written over the last few months that will be coming in the near future. And a of that was written in Nashville as well. So yeah, we've got lots of stuff in the pipeline.

you

Dylan (35:54.099)
on a Tuesday chasing the moonlight

Searching for an answer but I found a fight It feels all too good I have to destroy it I showed you who I was I just couldn't avoid it

How do I see what you see in me? What do I need to just believe? She said forgiveness isn't gone when there's nothing to lose And love is like a bullet but you still gotta choose To point at the past and leave it all behind

Dylan (37:21.838)
confession

Did you find that experience of writing with other people in Nashville influenced how you write alone? Did you find when you were writing alone, you were thinking, man, I wish I had some other people here in the room to help me with this or to work with and bounce ideas off of, or did you like getting back to being able to write by yourself? I think there's, there's definitely benefits to both for me. I, I get stuck a lot and sometimes I feel like getting stuck.

is a sign that, you don't want to force this right now. But when you're in a room with other people, you might not be able to force it, but someone else might have an idea that might unblock your senses, if that makes sense. So that's, that's where, that's where I thought co-writing really, really came in handy because it's not, the pressure isn't just on you to come up with everything. And in some of the sessions, most of the ideas didn't come from me.

Like I might've come in with the initial idea and I might've had a chord progression or a title for a song. And then if I was in there with another person or two people, sometimes those two people start getting, getting on a brainwave and all of a sudden they've written two verses and you're trying to figure out, okay, where do I fit into this? And then you come up with a couple of lines, but that's all that's, that's the fun of co-writing. You know, you never know where it is going to take you. But there was other stuff that I did learn while doing that, that I kind of brought into my own writing as well. And I think one.

thing that I've started to do is not go with the first line. A lot of the time, the first line is the right line, but sometimes it's not. And sometimes when you find that other line, you're like, and it takes digging into it and asking yourself, is that the best I can do? And sometimes if you don't ask yourself that, you just stick with that line and that can be fine. And I've, I've definitely done that in the past. I've definitely been lazy, but I think one thing that Nashville taught me was to delve a little deeper and see if you could find.

Hayden (39:19.862)
a little bit more than what you're giving on the surface. Well, that's got to be kind of a learned process too, like figuring out how to be honest with your own work in that moment, right? To figure out like, is that, can I dig more out of this well? Can I get anything else out of here? Or is this as good as it's going to get? Cause I imagine at a certain point you could drive yourself crazy, convincing yourself that maybe there is more in there when there's not.

Is that something you feel like you're getting better at or something you feel like you have just a natural ability for? Yeah, I think what helps with that is moving fast. I do that well. I think there's a big difference between overthinking and trying out a few different options. think you know pretty quickly if, that the best I can do? And you can be like, yeah, maybe, and move past it and not question it. But if you question it, I think you should instantly try something else.

And if it's not working like straight away, then maybe you leave it and you move on to something else. But I think it is all about keeping that kind of flow going. The idea of flow state has been, has always been something that I have been really, really intrigued in. I remember when I was studying, I studied music production and technology in university. that period was the first time that I had experienced flow state and losing

track of hours and making music and stuff. And I've always been chasing that. I think the biggest thing that keeps you in flow is just moving. I think if you stay in one place for too long, if you're staying on one line and not trying to even, not even just trying anything, that's what can break flow. So I think, yeah, you know pretty quickly if you can try harder.

but it's all about just trying something rather than doing nothing. Cause if you sit there and think about and do nothing and just think about one thing for too long, rather than trying something, you're going to get lost. actually leads me perfectly to, lately, which is the other song that is on the forthcoming EP. saw on one of your videos that you said you worked on it for over a year before releasing it. Was it one of those that just, just struggled to come out or just, just keep chiseling away at it until it was perfect?

Hayden (41:41.356)
Yeah, it was one where, I had, it was actually a song that was different pieces. was like three different puzzle pieces. So the chorus, which wasn't actually the chorus at the start, it was the outro. That came first. And then the verses came along and I had them separately. And then at one point I went, these really work together. And then I had this bridge idea that I had had for.

a really, really long time. There was never any lyrics to it, but it was this kind of building thing with piano and Toms and an organ. And one day I sat down and I wrote lyrics to it. And then I went, this could work as the connecting part to those. And then I kind of filled in the gaps. So it took a while to kind of put all those pieces together, but I was never, it never really felt like I was stuck with it. It just felt like it was kind of growing all the time. But then when I had

the song finished or we thought we had song finished. We showed us some people. Then this actually happened in Nashville. I showed it to someone in Nashville and they went, was that end part? That part's really good. That end part should happen more because the part that's like, that only happened once at the very, very end. really? Yeah. Yeah. And someone went, that's the part that I think holds the most emotion. And when I heard that first, I actually took it completely the wrong way. And I was like, they hate this song.

or try to tear it apart or try to make it something different. And it was the person who said that was like, no, that's not what I'm trying to say. What I'm trying to say is the line lately, I've been living life the wrong way lately. I've been feeling kind of lost. That's the main emotion of the song. That's what's going to connect with people. And the repetition of that is what is going to get people invested. And I was, and when they said that to me, I was like, okay. They were like, I'm not trying to say all your other lyrics aren't good. They are really good.

but that part is really, really important.

Dylan (43:52.974)
And taste the moment when death walked through the door And break me off some empathy, a feeling I ignore

Dylan (44:23.694)
Put it out, but flame is sure to burn

Dylan (44:33.55)
I said every time

Dylan (44:49.045)
you

Dylan (45:03.31)
Let's go!

Hayden (45:16.472)
Before we get into the last little section here, I did want to bring up, this is my favorite thing that I started doing with these interviews is I've been asking people for fun facts and they rarely disappoint. And this one, your response was incredible. You said that when you were a kid, your party piece was throwing coins up in the air, catching them in your mouth and then swallowing them. Yeah. Okay, I got to hear more about this.

So, yeah, when I was in school and I can't remember what it might've just been like something that I started doing to impress my friends. But I, yeah, I used, it started off with small coins, like really like, like 10 cent coins, which are kind of like the smallest coins that we have. and I used to flick them up in the air, catch them and swallow them. And I did that for years and there was actually a bit of a story and I felt like this might was going to come up because I always do tell people it, but I remember.

I had, I can't remember what had happened, but I was playing sports and I had hurt my knee and I had to go for an MRI. And I remember I got to the MRI and I had a piercing at the time and in my eyebrow and the nurse said, you have to take that out. And by the way, is there any other metal in your body? And I said,

I kind of have a minute. then she went away. And I think about it and I was, how am going to do this now? So then I called her back and I was like, so last week I was putting a chewing gum in my mouth and I accidentally put a coin in there. Do you think that would be an issue? And she was like, it might be. She was like, do you remember what color the coin was? And in my head, I was like, I swallowed a few different color coins. And so I actually can't even tell her because I'm only telling her as one. I was like, no, I can't remember. And she was like.

Okay. She was like, we're going to give you some medication, come back in a week. It'll pass. then we can do the MRI. my gosh. So yeah. you have a ballpark on how many total coins you swallowed over, over the period of time that you were doing this? Assuming you don't still do this as a party trick? No, I haven't done, I haven't done it since that MRI. It's because that scared me. Cause I don't, I don't know if it actually would have, it would have happened.

Hayden (47:28.728)
But because the MRI is a big magnet and there is metal in the coins, I was worried that in my head if I'd forgotten that that was going to rip my insides. But it was probably over 30 coins throughout over for a couple of years. Yeah. It's like your own personal piggy bank right there. Yeah. Yeah.

Hayden (47:52.716)
All right. Well, thanks again, man. The last section is called Final Spin. They're just rapid fire questions. First thing that comes to your mind. If you could open for any artists living or dead, who would it be? Sam Fender. Yeah, that's that's been one. Yeah, people watching is, I think, probably my favorite of the year. I've only gone back. I've been a huge Sam Fender fan for years and I've only enough of only

come back to that album. The album didn't hit me as much as the other two did when I first listened to it. But now I've started to delve a little bit deeper into the non-single tracks and I'm just absolutely blown away. But yeah, it's an amazing album. What was the first album you owned that was just yours?

I think, that's tough now. I'm, I'm yeah. That, okay. That wasn't mine. The one that I bought myself that I hadn't been either given by my parents. wasn't parent. It was probably the nineties. Yeah. I was, it was the 1975 debut album, the 1975. Yeah. I remember buying that when I was a teenager on iTunes actually. Yeah. I remember buying the digital version of the album on. I didn't even have a physical. I got a physical on vinyl at a later point, but I remember buying it on iTunes.

They're making a biopic about your life. Who's playing the lead role? the first person that came to my head because I love him as an actor and I love the bear is Jeremy Allen White. But I can't say that because he's playing Bruce Springsteen in the upcoming biopic. The number of people that say Timothy Chalamet because he just did the Dylan movie. Yeah, that's true as well. Maybe Zac Efron. Either Zac Efron or

Jeremy Allen. Who's an artist or a band that you love that people might be surprised by? I have a massive soft spot and always have for Taylor Swift. I think her songwriting, even though can be really, really poppy and cheesy at times, is still some of the best pop songwriting that has happened over the last 30 years. And I remember when Folklore and Evermore came out, I was like, my God, okay, this has been like

Hayden (50:04.418)
I've always seen this side of Taylor Swift and always appreciated it. But when those two albums came out, was like, this is amazing. I loved those two albums. yeah, Taylor Swift. I had the exact same experience. I've always liked Taylor Swift and then Folklore came out and I was 100 % on board. The final question is who is an artist that has less than a hundred thousand monthly listeners on Spotify that you think people should be listening to? So there is a band

called Clifford's now I'm not sure I'd have to check if they might be coming up on a hundred thousand now but we played a show with them we did our hometown show last year we brought Clifford's who are a band from Cork another Irish band they Cork is about an hour and a half from Limerick where we live and they played with us they had released an EP at that time and we all absolutely loved it so they played that show with us now since then they

have got signed and they've gone on to do amazing things. played Glastonbury this year and did a huge festival run. So I'm not sure if they're, they, a couple of months ago they were under a hundred thousand, a hundred thousand, yeah, a hundred thousand listeners, but they might be coming up on it now, but yeah, I'm going to go with Clifford's. think this was officially my first international artist. That's pretty cool. Amazing. Yeah.

And, uh, like I said, I just, I think, I think your songs are great, man. And I hope you guys get a chance to come play more shows in the U S if you're in LA. Um, I will certainly be there. A hundred percent. That would be amazing. Yeah. We'd love to, as I said, we had absolutely fantastic time at South by Southwest. So the next chance we get to come over and play some more shows. I'll let you know. Great. Thanks Dylan. Appreciate it. No worries. Thank you very much.

Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets are playing their biggest headlining shows to date all throughout November. Shows in Ireland and the UK, Cork, Birmingham, London, Manchester, Glasgow, Galway, Limerick, Listerwell, and Dublin. I'm sure I butchered at least one of those. Their EP, I've Been Living Life the Wrong Way, releases on November 7th. Follow their socials to keep up to date on all the exciting stuff they have going on. And while you're there, follow the first spin.

Hayden (52:18.254)
pod socials at first spin podcast. If there's someone you think I should check out, email me at firstspinpod at gmail.com. That's all for this week. Thanks for listening. And you know what? Send this to your mom. I think she's gonna like it.