Fynch is an icon. The Drimnagh rapper, creative, and Burner Record co-founder has been a key component and personality of the Irish hip-hop scene ever since he decided to pick up a mic at the age of 21 in 2017.
His decision in 2018 to have his head shaved on stage at a District showcase event is legendary, as are his features alongside the likes of 49th & Main, his Burner Records compatriots XXXInStereo (formerly Marcus Woods) and Local Boy, Gaptoof, and Odd Numbers to name but a few.
It’s impossible to speak to the man and not become enthralled by his enthusiasm, his passion, and his way with words, partially attributable to his career as a sports journalist, a passion you can hear scattered throughout his lyrics in reference to Premier League legends of the early 2000s and his beloved St. Pats.
For now, however, his focus is fully on music and the long-awaited release of his 11-track debut album Youngfella, a project two years in the making. “I spent however long just sitting on the tunes and ruminating on them, but once I decided to get going to start releasing them it was quite quick” Fynch recalls as settles down to discuss the biggest project of his career,
“I shot the cover on a Saturday and had it announced on the Wednesday. If I kept thinking about it for any longer it would never come out and it would just be a weight around my neck”.
Youngfella is an album straight from the heart. Documenting the comings and goings of a 20-something in Dublin city, it marks the trials and tribulations of growing up in a city that’s falling out of love with itself and watching a whole generation of your peers disappear to far-off lands in search of a better future. It’s the story of sticking around the life you’ve built around you while you silently plan your own escape.
“It’s an album about where I am currently, mentally and then physically. I’m definitely physically still in Dublin but mentally I’ve already left and I’m getting ready to do the classic and make the jump to London and do something else for a couple of years. These eleven songs are reminders of why I love this place and also reminders of why I need to get the fuck out of here”.
“In the album, I’m longing for a Dublin that doesn’t exist but that’s my own perspective and that Dublin definitely does exist in friends and family and all the memories we’ve made have by and large been here” he adds, “I might romanticise it more having left but we’ll just have to see”.
Youngfella is very nearly an album that never saw the light of day, as Fynch admits himself he was very close to calling a day on music a number of times over the past few years.
“Be it just frustration with writer's block or I’d become more weathered by making music in Ireland” he explains, “I can calmly exist in my place in the hierarchy of Irish music, but a lot of times I might have been frustrated with not being able to go any further, or annoyed that I can’t get x or y or whatever."
"Having a hiatus from the end of 2021 to 2023 was good because if you’re not releasing anything you can’t complain if people aren’t listening or they forget about you. I needed that because when I was releasing singles I was getting agitated by it all, so the break was me giving myself away from the mic or the pen and trying to make it flow as naturally as possible”.
“I needed to realise that I enjoy doing this and that it’s worth keeping going for that reason alone” he smiles, “it doesn’t need to be any more than that”.
As we speak about the album and Fynch’s upcoming migration to London, it’s impossible not to feel as though Youngella may not only be a celebration of Fynch’s journey to date but also a goodbye, a capstone for a period of his life when creating music was all he loved.
Being such an avid listener of albums, clear from his near encyclopedic knowledge of hip-hop history, is this album something he had to do, had to put out into the world, before he takes his final leave stage left?
“I could probably not release anything ever again after this and maybe I’ll be content with that” he admits, not an edge of bitterness in his voice, “at the same time it could also give me the goo to make three songs a day, and its give me a push to try some new sounds and get back in the studio but I won’t rush into it”.
“It’s the making of songs that are enjoyable, thats the fun part” he adds. “The poxy part are sending emails to try get it in playlists and stuff, thats the part I hate”.
“I love writing and performing but as an independent artist you have to juggle it but in the end hopefully it’s worthwhile” he continues, “For me worthwhile is being able to play a few shows and have a bit of craic, that’s the bottom line and hopefully some people get something out of the album in some way shape or form”.
Youngfellas, whether he wants to admit it or not, does feel like the end of an era. One of the final graduates of Ireland’s hip-hop boom releases his debut and leaves for pastures new. Nearly 8 years on, is he proud of all he’s achieved to date?
“I’d like to think so” Fynch replies after a moment’s reflection. “I never really reflect on myself like that. 27 years in I’m still kicking, still releasing music, I have a job for now, I’ve maintained a decent relationship with my dog Patch, so yeah, I probably am”.
“I started this knowing nothing” he laughs, “There was no musical background really, I was never particularly musically inclined I just loved Irish rap and what was going on and I wanted to be involved. I had no clue where to start with producing. I was half decent with English and studied journalism so I knew I could write a bit, so it just felt more natural.
"I tried to produce but it became a foreign language to me. All I knew is you can be mad verbose, really wordy, and sound shit or you can say something really simply and sound hard as fuck. I still think my voice doesn’t suit rapping but I’ve too many tunes out to stop now; I can’t autotune it to bits. It is what it is”.