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16th August 2018
03:30pm BST
From as far back as I can remember I've been crazy into music. I got my first ipod when I was in secondary school and every single evening, I would spend hours upon hours on YouTube looking for new songs to add to my playlist and to play for my friends.
I began to delve a little deeper and started following my very first blog. This is way before bloggers were even a thing now. I'd come to this website time and time again to find new bands and to broaden my musical knowledge. That blog was Nialler9.
Nialler9 has been around since 2007 and he is one of the biggest music heads in the country. He's heard the bands before anyone else and he's very particular about what he puts on his site, so you know it's always top quality stuff.
So you've guessed already by the headline, but in the lead up to Electric Picnic I HAD to have the chats with this guru.
Nialler9 was something Niall kind of fell into. He was studying Web Design in NCAD but his passion ay with music, so he combined the two.
He saw a gap in the market. He was spending his time looking up new artists and bands that hadn't been written about thus far so he decided he'd be the one to do it. It became an outlet for him to share his music taste with friends, family and eventually a wider audience.
"I didn't know it was going to be a career, writing about music isn't exactly the most lucrative job in the world.You kind of have to build yourself. I've been very lucky I have advertising on the website and a decent but niche audience who are interested in music."
The website is now a hub for music lovers, a place to recommend new music. Nialler has also expanded to working for tv, picking music for adverts and DJ-ing.
"A lot of hard work, I'd say. Never stop learning and be particular about what you feature, that holds weight for people."
Niall is now known to many as the first person with the knowledge on the hottest Irish and international acts. He's a really humble guy with a lot to say about music, you can just tell it's his life.
It seems he has gained his status by targeting the right people:
"I think there's always people who are happy to listen to the radio or Spotify but there's also people who are way more interested in digging deeper" - That's where his blog comes in.
"I'm really looking forward to it because I've never played that stage before, it's a big one. Generally speaking, what I play is kind of electronic, melodic disco music, so it'll be something in that vein."
Casa Bacardi is going to be insane this year. There's some serious acts that join Nialler9 on the line-up such as CiCi Cavanagh, Méle, Camelphat and Joey Negro.
Cannot bloody wait.
"For me, Maggie Rogers, Peggy Gou, Kojaque and Mango."
If you want to learn more about Nialler9, you can find him here.