‘There are 40 in the choir so I’m sure there are one or two “look pretty” singers. Luckily, we also have two women with amazing voices’

Q&A:ALAN LEECH Tenor and organiser with Sing Out Loud and Sing Out Strong talks to EOIN BUTLER

Tell us about the Sing choir initiative. Sing is a marriage between the National Chamber Choir, which is based in DCU, and residents of the local area. The idea was to get the people of Ballymun singing, basically. Our brief was to recruit a community-based group that didn't sing – that didn't even know each other, in fact – and train them to perform alongside the National Chamber Choir, which is the professional choral singing body in this country. We tried not to compromise either way: we wouldn't dumb things down, nor would we overstretch the group.

Let's get down to brass tacks. How many massive busts-up have there been?None whatsoever. I had some concerns in advance, sure, wondering how the two groups were going to get on. I said to the chamber choir, it's not a case of dumbing down – but we do have to be patient all the same. But I think everyone really enjoys the sessions. My style of facilitating is to have a bit of craic.

No one storming out of practice? No doors slammed?No major clashes, no. Why do you ask?

Reality TV has conditioned me to believe that whenever strangers interact there has to be acrimony. Well, there was one occasion when my sheet music vanished shortly before practice. I was quite annoyed about that. But it turned up eventually exactly where I left it. Did I apologise? No, but I apologise now to everyone.

Tell us about the group. They're mostly older people, but there are some young people too. Some of them are teachers who learn about singing technique in seminars and so forth but don't get a chance to put it to use. Most of our singers can't read music, but one of them has just come to me with a piece she has composed herself. So it really is a mixed bag.

Was there any minimum entry criteria or was anyone free to join? There were no entry criteria, no.

Has anyone turned out to be such a bad singer you had to give them a special job playing the triangle?I call that the "look pretty" singer. That's the person whose job it is to look pretty. Well there are 40 in the choir so I'm sure there are one or two "look pretty" singers. Luckily, we also have two women with amazing voices. The rest are about average.

You're performing a gala Christmas concert at the Axis in Ballymun on December 21st. What can people expect to hear?The highlight for me will be an American spiritual called Sweet Little Baby Jesus. It's a song I learned from a CD about 15 years ago that became my calling card for a while. It's just a basic melody with some simple chords around it from the National Chamber Choir. The drone effect is like the duvet that the melody sits on top of. It's gorgeous and I think the resonance of the text hits everybody, regardless of their religious beliefs. Even if you're an atheist, you can relate the sentiment to anything. Prada handbag, Gucci shoes, sports car – whatever is special to you.

Atheists might be a little offended you assume they're so superficial. Granted.

Any more traditional Christmas songs?Of course, there's going to be a whole series of Christmas rounds – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Merry Christmas to Youand so on. Eventually we're going to bring it up to 16 rounds so that it's just a cacophony of Christmas cheer. Oh, and we're also doing a rendition of Jingle Bellsthat's very current. Jingle Bellsis usually a happy upbeat songs in a major key. We're going to do a sad, minor-key version.

How do you make Jingle Bells a sad song?Instead of "Jingle bells" we'll sing "Christmas bills, Christmas bills . . . " It's about how the bills never stop and the presents get more and more expensive and all we ever seem to do is pay and pay.

Wow, you're really bringing on the festive cheer.(Laughs) Well, people have certain expectations. They expect to hear O Holy Night. They expect to hear Silent Night. But that's not our brief. There are plenty of other groups who do that. Our music brings you to a different place. Some of the early music is in Latin, some is in French. But it's amazing. The Christmas programme always sells out. Since the recession began, our numbers have gone up every year. Last year, lots of people turned up without tickets. There was almost a riot.

Just wait till they hear Christmas Bills.Exactly!

Alan Leech performs with Sing at a gala Christmas concert at Axis Ballymun next Tuesday, December 21 at 8pm