Local singer-songwriter Ryan McMullan has shared how lockdown allowed him to be more honest in both his music and his life and appreciate the love surrounding him in difficult times.
The Portaferry native is excited to experience the "positive pressure" he gets from performing for home crowds when he returns to Custom House Square this summer.
Ryan caught up with Belfast Live to chat all things lockdown, his new single 'Static' and what 2022 has in store for fans.
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Reflecting on the last two years, he said: "It was March 2020 and I was on tour in America and I had a load of phone calls with my manager who was saying get on the next flight and get home.
"My initial reaction was three months off would be a nice break because I was so busy and then the shows move from three months to six months and it was annoying but I thought it was another three months I could write more songs or whatever.
"After the six months, the shows were postponed for over a year and that's when it all started to weigh on me because three months was nice, six months was too long and all of a sudden it was almost two years and I was thinking what's going to happen here."
He continued: "In hindsight, there were a lot of pros that came for me because I started to get a bit more honest with myself which is reflected in the songs on the album - as much as I love what I do for a living, it's not all what the social media side of things portrays.
"It can be pretty depressing and it can be pretty lonely and having to address certain issues was really tough but I got songs out of it that I'm really proud of.
"On the flip side, it showed how much love people had for you and you had for other people so with as much badness that came with it there was certainly a little bit of good that I found in it."
2021 bounced back successfully in his favour with his UK and Ireland tour, supporting Dermot Kennedy at Belsonic and his BBC documentary 'The Ryan McMullan Story' being only some of his highlights.
"To have a documentary made about you is just surreal, especially when you haven't released an album yet - most documentaries are artists in the middle of making new records or a homage to their incredible journey but with me it was strange to see it.
"Supporting Dermot Kennedy was my first real gig back of 2021 so to go from 0 to 20,00 people was kind of mental and I was also very lucky as I did a whole UK and Ireland tour and the pandemic opened up the week before and then closed again the week after.
"I think I was just supposed to go on that tour and it was meant to be," he explained.
Ryan's new single 'Static', first written with Foy Vance in 2018, is set to be released on Friday.
He added: "With the pandemic and the documentary, there was an album 80 per cent ready to be released and then it all kind of didn't make sense anymore so the album changed but 'Static' is one of two songs that remained on it.
"I always knew it kind of had something and I kind of wanted it to sound different from the way I have been pushing myself previously so we kind of put this 80s synth base into it and it changed the whole thing.
"We were having a conversation about finding yourself in things before you even realise you are in it and the initial fear of that and the acceptance that comes once you've recognised it - that is what the whole crux of the song is about."
With the pandemic allowing him more time to look at what he wanted things to look and sound like, fans can look forward to his "redesigned" debut album later this year.
"This album will be something different but very much still me," Ryan laughed.
He says he is more than ready to be up in front of Belfast crowds once again when he plays CHSQ on August 27.
Ryan said: "It's weird because that was my last show in Belfast before the pandemic and with this show coming up, 2022 feels a lot more normal than 2021 did so it's almost like the two of them are bookends.
"One opened the story of the pandemic and this one will hopefully be closing it - an outdoor gig in Belfast, if we get lucky with a bit of sun, is pretty much perfect.
"I love playing in Sydney, I love playing in New York, I love playing in London but whenever you come to Belfast, you feel a certain positive pressure to put on the best show because it's home and then you find the crowd are almost doing the same.
"You end up with this elevated gig because everyone puts more into it because it's home - if I had a top ten list of gigs, the chances are that six of them are Belfast and the only reason there are another four is because I've only done six in Belfast."
Ryan shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
"2022 is not the end and it's not the beginning and it's not the beginning of the end - it's merely the end of the beginning.
"It's a new chapter of the same story and it has been an incredible journey over the last few years and it's amazing to see the support that comes through," he said.
"As long as I can keep those people happy, they'll be keeping me happy so I just expect this to be another good year leading into another great year in 2023."
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