Interview: Damian McGinty on touring America as a teenager, going solo and life after Glee

Not many artists can say that they've sold out shows all over America and played The Today Show to millions of viewers before they've even turned twenty. Through his work in Irish traditional group Celtic Thunder, singer-songwriter and actor Damian McGinty has done all that and more, including a season-long arc on the hit show Glee back in 2011.

Of course, most people may know him primarily from his work on the show - which Damian acknowledges humorously.

"I make the joke frequently, 'I know that I will have really made it one day whenever headlines don't say Glee star Damian McGinty,'" he laughs. "I just find it funny. It would be ridiculous for me to complain about being on a show such as Glee. It was such a blast and a great experience."

He says that he always considered himself more of a singer than an actor. Growing up in Derry, he cites Garth Brooks as his biggest early influence.

"One of the first records I listened to was by Garth Brooks," he recalls. "We had an old cassette player and a recording of the Best of Garth Brooks. I remember when I was four years old, I recorded over one of the songs. There was a song called 'Standing Outside the Fire', and I recorded myself singing over the first verse on it. If you listen to it, there's a four-year-old Damian obnoxiously singing with Garth Brooks."

When he was just 14, Damian joined Celtic Thunder, a group that has released over twelve studio albums, played on top American chat shows, and has opened the New York St. Patrick's Day Parade. He says that while his dream of performing for people was coming true, it was very difficult to do so at such a young age, when the other members of the band were fully grown adults.

"It was exciting, exhilarating, all of those things, but it was also incredibly uncomfortable," he says. "I developed physically quite late. So I was going through a voice break, going through all those really uncomfortable things that you're kind of able to do in a normal life, hidden in the back corner of a classroom.

"But it really helped me grow as a performer. I look back on it so fondly, and I never took it for granted. I knew from a young age how lucky I was to be able to do this, because it's not a normal job."

He took a break from the group after co-winning The Glee Project, a reality TV competition where the winner got to have a seven-episode arc on the Ryan Murphy show. Damian credits his family for being able to stay level-headed when fame struck at such a young age.

"I don't know if I've ever fully gotten carried away," he remarks. "I would say that is in large part due to my parents, they really did an incredible job.

"This was an explosion where you couldn't walk down the street. That was difficult to deal with, and not something that I enjoyed. In a weird way that's given me peace, because I know what it looks like and I don't like it. Fame didn't bring me any more happiness than the day to day life, so that was an important realisation for me. I also met a lot of people who were on a crazy level of fame that also were struggling and weren't happy. It's a very, very difficult thing to deal with.

"Glee was just a moment in time, where the TV show was one of the biggest things that ever happened. I was just caught up in this magic in a bottle and I happened to be a part of it."

One benefit of lockdown is that it's given Damian time to really focus on his solo music. In 2021, he has released a new single every month, including 'Those Were the Days', a song about his life growing up in Derry with a music video filmed at his parent's house in the city.

"I created this plan of a song a month which has been very fast-paced but it's also been very enjoyable," he notes. "I'm as close to Derry now as I was when I left. It's a place that I will always hold dear to my heart."

Now based in Tennessee, the singer-songwriter says that he wants to be performing until he's in his 60s, and 70s. If he keeps up his current work ethic, that looks highly probable.

Listen to Damian McGinty's single 'Those Were The Days' below, taken from the EP of the same name, out on June 25.