Luke O’Neill: ‘I would be in bits by now without music. It has held me together’

Without overstating it, I would be in bits by now without music. It is the one thing that held me together during the pandemic, in some ways. It’s so different to my day job in science. Something funny happens in our brains and they go into a different state. And at the moment I need that more than ever to escape the day.

My past year has been intense. Life was extremely busy before Covid anyway. I used to travel a lot – to universities, conferences, companies – and that gap has been filled by lab research on Covid and my media appearances. I’ve never worked so hard in my life, but I’m happy to share my knowledge because I know people have anxiety and questions about coronavirus.

Jon Bon Jovi's cover of I Can See Clearly Now at Joe Biden's inauguration was the perfect song. We'd had a cold, long, lonely winter, but it was going to be bright from then

I miss gigging with my band, The Metabolics. That has been a burden to bear. The last gig we did was in March last year in Tanzania, which was a fundraiser for a cancer charity. We flew all the way there, played one of the three gigs we had planned and flew back again early because Covid hit around that time. It felt like the Americans leaving Saigon – we knew we had to get back quick.

You might notice that all the songs on the playlist are uplifting. Even if it's months away, I'm dreaming of the day that The Metabolics do a gig and play songs such as One Day Like This, Here Comes the Sun and Getting Better, from my favourite Beatles album, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I'd especially love to play I Can See Clearly Now. I enjoyed Jon Bon Jovi's cover when he played it at Joe Biden's inauguration. It was the perfect song because Trump had gone, we'd had a cold, long, lonely winter, but it was going to be bright and sunshiny from then.

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I’m delighted that sea shanties became more popular during lockdown. I wonder if it’s because it feels like we’re all trapped on a ship on this long voyage together. Sea shanties were often songs of longing of home, so you can understand why they’re resonating in lockdown more than ever.

I’ve picked a few songs from Rogue’s Gallery, Johnny Depp’s sea-shanties album that came out on the back of the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. I knew about half of the songs on it anyway – when I was studying for my PhD in London, I was in a band where we’d often play sea shanties. And they’re part of the Irish repertoire; The Dubliners and The Pogues sang a song about a ship called The Irish Rover.

I heard Tolü Makay being interviewed on RTÉ radio and then they played N17, her Saw Doctors cover. I knew it would be a favourite of mine immediately. I loved that song anyway and sometimes you can’t beat a good cover version. She’s a new artist, she’s young, and she brought her own spark to it. It’s hard to be original these days; there’s a huge amount of music that goes back decades, so new music is often derivative.

Playing with Mundy for the RTÉ New Year's Eve programme as we came into 2021 was one of the biggest thrills in recent years for me

Another example of an innovative new band is Fontaines DC. A Hero’s Death is a song that’s different to anything we’ve heard before.

I also chose July by Mundy. I was a fan anyway and then he asked me to play with him for the RTÉ New Year’s Eve programme as we came into 2021. It was one of the biggest thrills in recent years for me. It was 100 per cent a positive experience and there were no negatives, which is rare in life. I’ve chosen July, which is set in a park. It reminds me of my father, who had a deck-chair business in Stephen’s Green back in the 1970s. I asked Mundy which park it was about and he said it was Stephen’s Green, so the song is consistent with my imagination of it.

The last song is Lily the Pink, which was a massive hit in the 1960s for The Scaffold. Paul McCartney’s brother was in the band; he changed his name to Mike McGear to distinguish himself from McCartney. It’s one of the songs I remember from my childhood – I must have been about four when it came out and it’s still a brilliant song.

The chorus goes: "We'll drink a drink, a drink/ To Lily the Pink, the Pink, the Pink/ The saviour of the human race/ For she invented medicinal compound/ Most efficacious in every case." That chorus resonates with me right now because Inflazome, the company I co-founded, discovered a new anti-inflammatory medicine that we think will treat many different diseases.

We sold it to Roche in September and we played that song to celebrate, because we're the company that invented a medicinal compound that's most efficacious in every case. And who knows, we might be the saviours of the human race. – As told to Shilpa Ganatra

Luke O’Neill is professor of biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin