I Have A Tribe: "I had other adventures and other work and followed that for a while, and then came back to this when I was taking it a bit less seriously."

Patrick O'Laoghaire, the man behind the music project I Have A Tribe, released his second album Changing of the Guard last Friday, and it's a record that's been a long time coming.

As with any release week, he's up to his neck in work- but with his beloved dog Teddy (to whom he's dedicated both a song and the album cover) providing emotional support, O'Laoghaire is taking it all one step at a time.

"It was good fun," he said of making the record. "It wasn't too serious a process."

O'Laoghaire carved out a space for himself within the Irish music scene with his intimate, meditative songs. He's one of those rare artists who can connect with the listener from the very first chord, which has led to national recognition as one of the very best folk musicians of the last few years, despite a substantial gap between official releases.

O'Laoghaire admits to being afraid of what the hiatus meant for I Have A Tribe when creating the new album. "For a while, I was a bit conscious of that, and then I realised it doesn’t really matter," he explains. "Trying to plan too far ahead, you miss a lot because you’re not moving, and I found myself really easily stuck in that thing of not moving for ages. I had other adventures and other work and followed that for a while, and then came back to this when I was taking it a bit less seriously."

According to him, it's been a learning curve, but he seems to have found a method that works: simply starting and not worrying about thinking too many steps ahead. "I'm very friendly with The Scratch- Dan is a good friend of mine, and he said to me, 'You just make a decision, and then make another one. It's all just a series of decisions.' And I think it will be helpful in terms of not getting too caught up in what happens."

His approach has clearly worked. Changing of the Guard is a triumphant return: it's a gorgeous collection of songs, a natural maturation of I Have A Tribe's sound and a record that deserves to be heard. He has a unique way with words as he captures the world around him with unflinching honesty, and paired with gorgeous soundscapes he's not one to be missed.

Frontman Colin O'Brien of the band Villagers features on Changing of the Guard, and it's a musical collaboration between friends more than anything else. "I remember going to see his gigs and in a funny way, I was thinking that we might get on just because of the way he was playing music. Sometimes that wouldn’t happen, maybe we wouldn’t get along. But I was drawn to it."

Along with O'Brien, O'Laoghaire has found himself friendly with some of the biggest among his musical peers. His history boasts an invitation from The National to play the PEOPLE festival, as well as an impressive run playing in the Grammy Award winning brass player CARM's live band for arena shows supporting indie folk superstar Bon Iver.

But according to O'Laoghaire, many of those high-profile shows came about by chance- as for the Bon Iver show, he didn't even know the size of the show until right before. Having played with a few of the musicians in CARM's band, he was sent a simple text inviting him to play. "They didn’t even tell me actually, they just said, 'We’re playing a gig in London, do you want to play in it?' And then a couple of weeks passed and I texted them asking where it was, and they said, 'Do you know where Wembley is?' I was like, Jesus Christ, okay!"

As he embarks on a solo tour for Changing of the Guard, it's by no means an arena tour, but he's admittedly a bit relieved by that fact. He expressed his excitement for an excuse to travel around Ireland. "There’s loads of small interesting, lovely places to play, and I think lots of people are doing that now as well. There are all these places where it seems to be more than just playing a gig. I have a friend who organises a festival, and he said to me- you might not get rich from it, but you will."

As for his musical future beyond touring, O'Laoghaire wants to collaborate. "There are a lot of people doing stuff that I’m very drawn to, and I think that the few tastes I’ve had at collaborating with different people, I just find I enjoy it so much."

And as for I Have A Tribe?

He does admit to having "maybe another album written," but also to making music he doesn't think is right for I Have A Tribe. When asked what that differentiation means to him, he himself seemed slightly baffled by the question. "I don't know. I spent a while on Inisherin, one of the islands off Galway, and ended up writing lots of pieces of music that maybe had poetry or Irish language in it. I think I separated it naturally, but I don’t think that was necessarily helpful or healthy, because it’s all from the same place."

But Changing of the Guard is a release in every sense of the word. "It's not that it's gone," he explains, "but it's left space for other things, and that'll be fun."

Listen to Changing of the Guard below.