A quarter-of-a-century ago, Bren Berry “literally hung up” his guitars, he tells me – with no real intention of ever picking them up again.

The Dublin native had spent the previous decade immersed full-time in music – “and full-time on the dole,” he adds. He first put in the hard graft in the late ‘80s, as a member of The Coletranes, who scored a No.5 single with ‘I Wake Up’, released via the U2-founded Mother Records imprint Son Records.

But after an American record deal that “came to nothing”, out of the ashes of The Coletranes, a new band, the defiantly independent Revelino, was formed.

With Bren serving as both guitarist and manager, the band established themselves as a thrilling force in Irish music with three acclaimed albums, major headline shows, and support slots for the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Television, and Echo & The Bunnymen. Their 1994 self-titled debut was listed by Hot Press as among the greatest Irish albums of all time, while their 1996 track ‘Step On High’ was included in John Peel’s famous ‘record box’ – the DJ’s small private collection of treasured singles, which later became the subject of a 2005 documentary.

In 1998, however, Bren was approached by Peter Aiken of Aiken Promotions – who he first got to know while they played for the Hot Press Munchengladbach Football Club – to start working with him at the soon-to-be-opened Vicar Street venue.

“He said he loved my band, but he thought maybe it was over,” Bren recalls. “We’d missed our chance. So, I started in Vicar Street, and I’ve given it my all since then.

“We were making our final album as a band [2001’s To The End] at the time,” he adds, “and it took us a couple of years to get it finished. We just petered out – and I stopped playing.”

Of course, as anyone who’s seen Bren Berry’s face peering out amongst the New Releases in their local record shop lately will be aware, the story doesn’t end there. At the age of 61, the musician has stepped back into the spotlight, with the release of his debut solo album, In Hope Our Stars Align.

The initial inspiration was sparked during the doldrums of the pandemic, as Bren found himself pulled back into the world of Revelino. Following the 25th anniversary of the band’s self-titled debut, he set out to get the album pressed on vinyl for the first time – with the subsequent release, in October 2020, hitting No.1 on the Independent Albums Chart.

“The goodwill towards the band was wonderful, at a pretty dark time for all of us, really,” he says. “We were all in lockdown, living in isolation. And it going to No.1 was a really nice bit of vindication. Because we’d given it everything. We believed in ourselves, and backed ourselves. But we just fell short of the dream, of making a living out of it.

“So that probably was the start of it – it planted a little seed...”

During this time, Bren began playing the guitar once again at home, and also enrolled in a creative writing course. But his musical ideas didn’t begin to take proper shape until his former bandmate, Ciaran Tallon, challenged him – while “very drunk” – to finally complete a song.

“I really struggled to write anything complete, and to find a voice I was happy with,” he reflects. “But on Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday, I thought, ‘Rather than murdering one of his songs, today would be an amazing occasion to write my first song, in his honour.’

“I sat in my shed, got a piece of music going, and felt in a good place. And then something told me to drop the register of my voice – and everything fell into place for me. It was an amazing moment and it all just flowed from there.”

That writing session resulted in the song ‘Black Satellite’, and from there, he continued to write – before realising, with his wife Karen’s encouragement, that these tracks were leading him towards an album.

Shaped “very much” by his current perspective, “as a family man” of 61, In Hope Our Stars Align was written across a year-and-a-half – during which time Bren underwent surgery for two coronary stents.

“I was pretty burnt out,” he tells me. “I was run down and probably a bit exhausted. Coming back after Covid was so tricky for our industry. We were open and closed, and then at 50% – or we were standing, or we were seated… Or we had 8pm curfews.

“For me, to manage all that when we came back was quite exhausting,” he continues. “So when I had that surgery, my doctor advised me to take some time out for a couple of months. I used that opportunity to start working more seriously on the album. It was a great tonic for me.”

That central theme of recovery, and embracing new beginnings, is explored on the track ‘Hairpin Bends’.

“It’s probably my favourite song on the album,” he reveals. “I’ve this funny kind of image of myself, coming out of the long grass, after hiding for so long. Or being behind the curtain. So that’s me revealing something of myself. It’s very much about rediscovering – not just music, but something in myself.”

Throughout the writing process, Bren made a deliberate effort to “shine a light on positive things”, in line with the album’s title. It’s particularly evident on ‘This City’ – despite the fact that the song was inspired by a Save The Cobblestone protest, and concerns about Dublin being turned into “a bland, generic city”.

“I love this city,” he nods. “There’s no doubt that they’re ruining it – and the things that tourists might want to come and see are the very things that they’re destroying. But it’s still home.

"My mother was from the Liberties and my father was from Ringsend, and I was born in Ringsend. I lived there until I was five, and moved to Churchtown. Growing up, I spent a lot of time in the Liberties with my grandparents, every weekend. And I’m working in the Liberties, for my 27th year now.”

Bren Berry. Photo: Curtis DeSmith

Despite live music being such a central part of his day-to-day in a behind-the-scenes capacity for all of those years, Bren tells me that he never really had the impulse to get back out there himself.

“All those times I’d walk on stage while bands were soundchecking, I never ever thought, ‘I miss this,’” he says. “It had just gone from me altogether.”

But, he wonders aloud now, if an unexpected moment onstage with Ed Sheeran might have played some role in rekindling his creative spirit.

“In 2018, I was involved in promoting what was, and still is, the biggest tour in Irish history, with Ed,” Bren recalls. “It finished in the Phoenix Park. I was walking him onstage on the last night, and he said, ‘Just grab a guitar and come onstage with me later, when Beoga are coming on!’

“So I did,” he laughs. “Obviously I wasn’t plugged in! I was just there in the background with one of Ed’s guitars. But there’s no doubt that being surrounded by so much talent has been such a positive thing for me, just by osmosis. And not just artists, but amazing crew and colleagues. It’s all led to this point.”

Bren joined forces with in-demand producer Gavin Glass for In Hope Our Stars Align, working at his Orphan Recording Studios in Co. Wexford. Renowned Irish drummer Binzer Brennan also contributed – as did an impressive cast of backing vocalists, including Sack’s Martin McCann, Yvonne Tiernan, Gavin Fox, Rachel Grace, The Frames’ Joe Doyle, Danny Anderson, and The Lost Brothers’ Mark McCausland.

When it comes to the state of Irish music right now, Bren – speaking from the unique perspective of both a front-and-centre artist and a major behind-the-scenes force – doesn’t think “it’s ever been so good”. He lists Lisa O’Neill, Lankum, Christy Moore and Damien Dempsey among the many homegrown acts who continue to inspire him.

“And also KNEECAP, who did five nights at Vicar Street,” he adds. “They have that incredible ability to balance humour with very serious messages about language and politics. The Mary Wallopers were incredible at Christmas as well. I really love a band that has a great sense of humour – but also a real level of seriousness in their art. That’s a beautiful trick that I think KNEECAP and The Mary Wallopers have mastered. It’s really refreshing.”

As for his own newfound career as a solo artist, Bren admits that he’s still pinching himself over the fact that he can walk into a record shop and see his own album on the shelves.

“Sometimes I felt quite frightened by the process – like I was out of my depth and it was running away on me,” he says of the project’s creation. “I blew four times the budget that my wife and I agreed we could afford – and that required a certain amount of sacrifice from my family.

“But when we got the vinyl test pressings, we got a nice bottle of wine, sat at home, put it on the record player and played it through,” he continues. “My wife turned to me then, and said, in the most meaningful way, ‘It was worth it.’ And I just felt so happy in that moment.”

In Hope Our Stars Align is out now.