Northern Irish singer-songwriter Dom Martin plays Brighton on back of new album

But as he says, the other side of that polarity, is the great connection he gets through gigging – as he says – “relentlessly.”

His latest UK tour brings him to the Brighthelm Church and Community Centre, 53 North Road, Brighton, BN1 1Y on Saturday, April 13. Doors 7.30pm.

Tickets on https://www.fatsoma.com/e/977k98xm/dom-martin-demi-marriner-brighton

“I did my first tour in 2018. It was amazing. I was getting to live the life and to see what the life of a musician is like. It was just beautiful to have that experience and meeting people at venues and the promoters and most importantly meeting the people that came to the gigs was great. I have always written but I never really had the intention to take it on the road. Most of my songs were about particularly horrible things in my life at that time and I found the way out with those things was through music as therapy. I didn't really want to play most of those songs. That first album was just really about coping with the difficult things.”

Not long after that first tour, of course came, the pandemic: “But we didn't stop. We just went online during the pandemic. My manager and good friend just refused to lie down with it. He got a lot of equipment and just set up audio recording and we went online overnight.”

Obviously it was a compromise: “Playing to a crowd is one thing but playing to a camera is just practice but it was still giving me the experience and it still meant I was able to stay in touch with people that liked my music. It was enough. And I think people really appreciated the fact that these were free gigs when they were all staying at home with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

“I don't know if I learned anything less or anything more because of what happened during the pandemic but it was just a question of keeping going really. Life can be incredibly frustrating but you’ve just got to carry on. It's about perseverance through the hardships, through the pain and through the anger and through the disappointment. We showed great resilience. We all went through this great test and showed that we could keep going.”

And since then Dom has toured relentlessly: “I have been all over the world. I have been to Russia and to the States and all over Europe, and at the end of the year we're doing a European tour which is pretty big.”

As for recording, the most recent album is the special one – Buried In The Hail: “It was the first one where I had full creative control. Nobody was adding things. I produced it myself. With the other two I didn't know what I was doing and I learned a lot of lessons. I can't listen to the others without hearing mistakes and hearing the way it wasn't supposed to be but this one it is exactly what I wanted it to be. For me the results are amazing. I can listen to it without feeling sadness or pain or whatever. I just feel joy.”

There will be a new album next year all being well.