Robert, it's been almost two months since you released your debut album, what have you been up to since? I was actually busier before the album was released than I am now. Since the promotional campaign was limited to live performances in Dublin, it hasn’t been too hectic. Right now I’m looking at various territories and figuring the markets that I can promote my music in. I’m also looking for a manager, three years later! How do you feel the reaction has been from the public, and from the media? I think the problem really is that much of the public are not aware of me, and of my music, and this is obviously down to promotion. Luckily, all of the shops here in Ireland carried Distance, but really, you’re just another CD on the shelves unless you’re on TV and radio. But those who have responded have responded well. HMV for instance gave me a fantastic review, and to me that was enough to say “right…onwards and upwards”. Do chart positions matter to you? I’d like to say they don’t but of course they do. Essentially they gage how successful you are in terms of how much people are enjoying your music, but as I said before, it’s difficult to get an album into the charts that isn’t in the public consciousness. It's frustrating, but you just have to keep thinking of different ways to attract attention from the public. You are playing an acoustic gig at Radio City in Dublin, wasn't your acoustic gig at Whelan's supposed to be your final one? Yes it was supposed to be my last acoustic gig. I want to go back out with a bigger set up - adding percussion and bass to the guitar backing. I’m not trying to compete with bands, but I’ve done the acoustic thing, and I feel that it was the right thing to do to start out that way, I can never be accused of using backing tracks of lacking the ability to sing live, and that was the first thing I wanted to get out of the way. Radio City was a venue I hadn’t played, it was offered and I wasn’t willing to turn it down so Kevin (my guitarist) and I are going to play it. How far along are you in the musician selection process for your band? Well I have a percussionist and a number of guitarists who are interested and over the next two weeks we’ll be getting together to see what we can come up with. I want to change the set from the acoustic shows, but obviously I’ll still be performing songs from Distance. I can’t find a bassist, so if there’s anyone based in Dublin with some level of dedication and of course talent, call me! What about Distance, will there be any further promotion for the album? There’s another single in the pipeline pencilled for August. We’re going with “Killing Kind” after quite a bit of discussion about which track would be next. It’s funny, the first two singles were very much evident to me, but now that the album is released, I feel like people’s response to the tracks is influencing, and confusing me. I probably wouldn’t have chosen “Killing Kind” myself, since I didn’t write it and of course there’s the factor of it being compared to Shelby Lynne’s version which makes me rather uncomfortable since I admire her so much as an artist.

WHILE the Merrion Hotel played host to Queen Fabiola of Belgium over the weekend, Peploe's on Stephen's Green was the restaurant of choice for Mary Harney and her husband Brian Geoghegan entertaining friends from Galway. Opposite her table singer Robert O'Connor in trademark Ralph Lauren was celebrating the success of his recent CD, Distance.

CASTLEKNOCK singer and heart-throb Robert O'Connor is on the crest of a wave. His debut album, Distance - just released through Universal - is flying off the shelves. A former model, Robert has been described as an Irish James Blunt, who is wooing fans with his own lyrics. He's a welcome fresh voice on the singer-songwriter scene. But the nicest thing, however, is that he still has his feet firmly on the ground and isn't fazed in the least by all the hype and attention he's suddenly receiving.

Robert describes his debut album as “35-minutes of questions about life and love”. His honesty does not stop in his press statements but continues all through this album. Ranging from the tongue-in-cheek to the sorrowfully beautiful, it's no surprise to hear he's been tipped as Dublin's next big thing in songwriting