Sean Walsh - otherwise known as Rushes - left Skibbereen, County Cork in search of something more.
"There wasn't much musical influences for me down there. It was probably when I discovered the internet that I realised there were all these other places where things were happening."
Given that Walsh sounds like he was born out of Diffusion Labs as a fully formed artist, it's slightly hard to believe - an image of him hunched over the computer, endlessly YouTube-ing Pharrell tracks. This is someone who, recently, found one of his tracks, Wave, included in Spotify UK's New Music Friday playlist, fitting in among mainstream heavy weights. At 22, he could be the finished product - smooth, polished and above-all-else, confident.
It's a further surprise to learn that Walsh's goal was never to be a frontman, per se.
"I've been writing songs since I was 11," he says. "My first song was so bad. I was like, 17. Off the back of that, I got a support slot with James Arthur [at the Cork Opera House in 2014]. It made me realise that I have so much to work on, so I took a few years away to progress it even more. Then, I met the guys from Diffusion Lab.
"Initially, I didn't want to be an artist, front and centre. [Song-writing] was what I always wanted to do. Being an artist takes so much out of you, it's a lot of pressure ... I didn't know if I'd be able to handle it. I just love writing, I just don't really care about anything else."
His work with Diffusion came about after a stint studying music production in Dublin. When he felt that he wasn't progressing to where he wanted to be, and was struggling to express himself creatively, he put his studies on hold.
"I just made demos in my bedroom - loads and loads of demos in my bedroom. Once I had a lot, I came into the studio and it started from there, really.
"It's been so good with working with them. They're just incredible. I knew how to write songs, but I didn't know how it was all, kind of, put together. It completely opened my eyes to how it's all done. It's not just doing a song and putting it out. There's so many different layers to it."
It was Ivan Klucka and his "business mind", as Walsh puts it, that saw Wave worm its way into many a playlist on the aforementioned streaming platform. Walsh explains that Wave is about "A friend going down the wrong path, but you can't really stop them from what they're doing, but you know they'll find their way out in the end."
I didn't know the song would do well. I suppose you always have an inkling, but it's mainly just knowing that if you keep doing the right thing, something is going to come from it. I don't mind if it doesn't take off immediately, but as long as we get somewhere at some point."
The standard of Irish music right now motivated Walsh to work to a high level ("I'm a perfectionist that way, I always have been.") Currently, Walsh is concentrating on putting his own band together, saying that he wanted to ensure he had a body of work to present before he returned to the stage.
"I've got really good players," he says, smiling. "I want to do all of the festivals next year."
Rushes released his latest single Liquor in mid-September, with a five-track EP expected to follow in October. He reckons the EP - which includes a collaboration with previous Plec Pick Jafaris - casts a wider net in terms of genre - "Some elements are pop, some might be R&B, soul ... I think for the EP, it's probably more dark pop.