When he couldn't find a place to stage gigs for all ages, Dylan Haskins converted his ordinary south Co Dublin house into a live venue. He tells Jim Carrollabout the DIY approach

WHEN DYLAN HASKINS wanted to put on some live shows for people of all ages and couldn't find a place to stage them, the solution was obvious: turn his house into a temporary venue.

"As teenagers, we couldn't get into most gigs, and we ourselves couldn't play in over-18s venues either, so this seemed like a way around the problem."

Before the Hideaway House came into being, Haskins and his friends had used a variety of non-pub spaces for shows in south Dublin and Wicklow.

"We used any space we could get that wasn't a pub. The old parochial hall in Greystones, Co Wicklow, Paddy's Hall, had closed down to be turned into apartments, but it was lying dormant for ages, so we turned it into our own building for our collective, the Basta Youth Collective. We showed movies, put on shows and built up a really good community."

When Paddy's Hall was eventually redeveloped, the collective were left without a space - until Haskins had his brainwave.

"House shows are quite common in the US because I guess they have bigger houses and big basements, so I always wanted to do that," he says. "My dad passed away in 2006 and I inherited his house and so I had a house to do something with. I thought it would be good to put it to a very productive use which would get a lot of life flowing through the place."

The first Hideaway House gig in Deansgrange, Co Dublin was in October 2006 and featured the American band Defiance, Ohio. There have been shows every two months or so since, depending on bands' tour schedules and availability, and a long line of acts have passed through the doors (see panel).

Haskins says the experience has been hugely positive. "People are a bit puzzled - but in a really good way. The intimacy of the shows is not something people experience all that often and they appreciate that. One of the important things for me is that it is not always an audience that I know. I like to have a mix of new faces and old faces."

The 21-year-old Haskins is involved in more than just putting on gigs in his gaff. Other activities include the Hideaway record label (with releases by Heathers, Hooray for Humans and others), the Roll Up Your Sleeves film about DIY culture and the forthcoming Change? project at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin, which will consider what "change" means.

For Haskins, all these activities are about trying to impart the thrill of DIY culture to others, something he first experienced as a young teenager at a gig featuring punk bands in Co Wicklow. "Up to that point, all I knew was the other world of rock stars and it seemed completely inaccessible. Then I went to this all-ages gig upstairs in the parish hall in Kilcoole and saw another side to punk completely."

Change?is at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin from January 26th to 31st.

Read more from this interview online at www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord