A French fancy

SUMMER MEMORIES'SUMMER FOR ME is the freedom to dress in light clothes, be able to take a morning walk and, weather permitting, take a swim in the sea. I love to amble around Portobello, where I live, or take a trip to the North Wall and its adjacent sandy beach. Massey's Woods, on the edge of Rathfarnham, with its mature trees, old estate ruins and walled garden, is another favourite and really gives me a sense of time passing.

"Over the years I've written a couple of summer songs but the sound of the summer is not what interests me. Songs that have stayed with me are Walk On Byand Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head. They were on a cassette of easy- listening songs I took on my first holiday with a grown-up boyfriend to Hersonissos on the island of Crete. They remain stand-out songs. I spent the vacation plagued by ill-health. I had a kidney infection, then tonsillitis followed by an ear infection and my first case of prickly heat. After the second course of antibiotics I was ordered on to a no-fun diet of boiled carrots and potatoes. There was no ice cream, no alcohol, even the carrots conspired against me – I didn't even get a summer glow from their carotene colour.

"I love France in early summer. Last year, I went to the small village of Albi, a medieval city northeast of Toulouse, to record my current album, The Nameless. I brought my studio and instruments with me and recorded the songs in a building that was about 500 years old.

“I get a sense of pure happiness from food. Summer means being able to cook with sun-ripened rather than ship-ripened produce.

“I’m going back to France this year, to Brittany, which means a whole new cuisine to explore. I’ve not been there since I was a teenager, when my daily indulgence was a chocolate croissant. My palate has changed quite a bit since then. But I will probably still give the oysters a miss. I would like to be able to sample the vast selection they have on offer but I’m afraid that 15 years of vegetarianism means I can’t live with the fact that the molluscs are still alive when you fork them and that you’re eating them as they die.

“Two years ago I played Electric Picnic and I’m playing again this year. It wasn’t just playing in a field. I’m also playing the Big Top at the Galway Arts Festival next Friday.”

The Namelessis out now

- In conversation with Alanna Gallagher