The son of a folk musician and product of vibrant hip-hop scenes, Maverick Sabre’s (real name Michael Stafford) music has always vacillated mellifluously between a mixture of genres. Add to that being educated in New Ross to then crossing the pond to London under the advice of friend, Plan B followed by trips to South Africa and Jamaica and you’ve somebody more difficult to pin down than the ending of Inception.

Of his dual upbringing, Stafford told the Irish Examiner in October, “You have people trying to Anglicise me…Obviously I’m Irish because I went to school in Ireland”. His unequivocal Wexford cadence when he speaks with us on the phone makes this hard to dispute. Describing the influence that his Irish background has had on him, he tells us that “the country and the history and being brought up here defines you as a person. In my house there was a lot of bluesy and traditional music. My father was a musician, his father was a musician and my uncle was a musician so I was always surrounded by it.”

Folk is obviously something that the singer/songwriter holds close to his heart. When quizzed on any projects that he has in the pipeline, he reveals to us that he’s currently working on a folk album with a producer in England. Setting up camp back over in England, he explains, "being 17 and moving from a rural area to the big city in a different country was always going to be daunting at first but it was something I needed to do. It made me a better man in a lot of ways. And more focused in what I wanted to do and what I wanted to achieve."

Maverick was twenty when he broke through, appearing on 'Sense the Terror' with fellow Irish rappers, Terawritz and Nu-Centz. Five formative years have passed. And Maverick is open about his growth as an artist. "I've become a better musician. I look at music in a different way-a more knowledgable way than before. If you spend enough time working at any craft and put the hours and the effort and the work rate into it, I think you'll always get better. It comes from playing and writing more and being with great musicians."

He’s also quick to emphasise the importance of identity and self-belief when we ask him about the pitfalls involved with starting out and tribulations that can arise from opportunistic record companies, something perhaps which Plec Pick, Otherkin, Sabre’s support act at the Jameson Bow Street Sessions that night can heed as they continue their swift trajectory. "Believe in yourself and your individuality. Don't believe that you need somebody to tell you that your music's great. As you've seen in many different cases" He also doesn’t feel you should be dictated to your motive or be diluted. “Don't let anyone tell you you should be watered down to suit something else that's not you”, he insights.  “Keep on fighting for what you believe in, be that through your music or your message. That'll always stand true.”

This isn’t to say that he isn’t appreciative of the collaborative work he has pursued since his first album, “Lonely are the Brave”. He alludes to the ‘mi Mandela' album on which he did work with actor, Idris Elba and a host of South African musicians and Mr. Hudson and George the Poet in Johannesburg. There was also recordings with the Jamaican reggae artist, Chronixx who he discovered in Kingston and Brooklyn rapper, Joey Bada$$. On the latter experience he elucidates  "it changed my perspective of myself and the world quite a lot" and caused him to “look at music in a more knowledgeable way.”

Different cultures it seems are something that Sabre would be keen to engage with, the musician, he tells us having visited the latter five times prior to the recording of latest album, 'Innerstanding'. "I spent quite a lot of time in Jamaica, back and forth, four or five times in the last couple of years. I've only been to South Africa once but I spent a couple of weeks down there working on a project, the mi Mandela album with Idris Elba. Musicians and music and culture definately inspired me."

The sessions will be his first performance of 2016. And what better way to start than in the rustic surroundings of Jameson’s prestigious distillery. But don’t bet against hearing the last of Maverick Sabre this year.