Derek has gone in one direction from boy band to Country

â€Å“WHEN I see the success of Niall Horan and the others in One Direction now I think back to our early days in a boy band. But it has obviously worked out better for him,â€Â says young Country singer Derek Ryan who left home in Carlow at 17 to go to London and join boy band D-Side. Back then Derek and D-Side had hits in the UK top 10, a number one in Japan but now nine years later, long after the boy band bubble burst for him, he is back in the charts for the first time again with his Country album Dreamers and Believers. â€Å“Back then we were travelling around all over the place promoting our records. I remember one day alone we were on five flights. Another time we were going from Los Angeles to Miami to record and then we were touring in Japan where we had a chart topper. We were living out of suitcases at the time we were on Top of the Pops in the UK,â€Â says Derek. The unassuming 28-year-old laughs heartily when he talks about all this and he smiles too about being in the HMV charts in Northern Ireland when the chain got into to difficulties after Christmas. â€Å“After nine years Iâ€â„¢m back in the charts and I have a running joke with my friends now that as soon as I got back into the charts I closed down HMV,â€Â says Derek with a smile. At a time when there seems to be a renaissance involving a few young Country singers in Ireland Derek is one of those. While he has left the boy band days long behind he does not think that many of his new fans would have been followers of D-Side. â€Å“I imagine all the followers now are all new fans and have not come from my boy band days. They would hardly come to a Derek Ryan Country gig, but maybe they should because it is very lively and energetic,â€Â he says. â€Å“I write a lot of my own stuff and those songs are sprinkled with songs by other people such as Pete St John who penned The Fields of Athenry â€â€ he wrote Dreamers and Believers which is the title of my new album. â€Å“I have also been co-writing with Gerry Carney from Claremorris who wrote Paddy. While I am always working on new material I sprinkle our live show with some cover versions of songs that I like,â€Â says Derek. While he is pleased with the success of the album which made the Irish Pop charts over Christmas and is currently high in the UK Country charts, Derek is also delighted that his record label Sharpe Music in Northern Ireland has released a DVD here and in the UK featuring ten songs that he has released as single since he has moved back to Country music. â€Å“One of those The Belle of Liverpool is a song that we start our live show with and I wrote that when I was living in London. â€Å“I was always into Country as I grew up in a house where my parents and all of us listened to Country music. Along with my brother we often played at local gigs for social dancing when we were much younger and before working with D-Side came along,â€Â says Derek. â€Å“Thank God another song that I wrote Itâ€â„¢s Friday came along for me some time ago and everybody loved it. I also wrote some more old style Country songs that are on the DVD such as Made of Gold, Godâ€â„¢s Plan, Motherâ€â„¢s Son and Life is a River and when we play in the UK they seem to be the most popular songs.â€Â Does he ever have any contact now with the lads that worked beside him in D-Side? â€Å“I am still very friendly with one of the lads, Damien Bowe, who also tried for success as a Country singer a few years ago but he probably didnâ€â„¢t get the push at the right time. â€Å“I wrote some songs for him during that time and he is now working with another lad on the local scene around Carlow and doing very well as a wedding band called The Vows. â€Å“All the other lads keep in touch too especially around birthdays and special occasions. We travelled around so much together that we were like brothers during the boy band days and as we lived almost in each otherâ€â„¢s pockets for five years I suppose it was inevitable that we had to drift apart,â€Â he says. What does Pete St John think of his version of his composition Dreamers and Believers which alludes to the dreams and the hopes of so many in the music business? â€Å“I heard that song first when myself and my brother were fans of a Celtic-Rock band called The Whole Shebang and it was written originally for them. â€Å“But I always had it in the back of my mind to record it and after doing so I sent it on to Pete to get his views. He phoned me and gave me his blessing even though I changed around the arrangement a bit and tried to put my own stamp on it.â€Â Derek has a young band working with him including Barry Kirwan, a son of veteran singer Dominic Kirwan, on drums and he says that young people are again getting back into Country music. â€Å“I feel that the shows that singers such as Nathan Carter, Gerry Guthrie, Lisa McHugh and myself are doing are attracting a younger audience as well as some people of more mature age. â€Å“The songs that we are doing are new and fresh and there is just a great buzz again in the Country music industry,â€Â he says. Derek Ryan is taking his new found success in his stride even though it is a world away from the days when he got signed to Warner Music in London and spent five years with D-Side during their days as teen idols. â€Å“It was always the plan to come home at some stage no matter how successful the boy band was. I came from a Country household and the plan was to return to my roots and write and record Country songs,â€Â he concluded. Derek Ryan and his band will be appearing at the Valerie Hughes Country Concert in the Loughrea Spa Hotel on February 20. â€â€ TG