It's said that Irish people have great taste, but this, of course, is nonsense. Take a look at our celebrities, those gifted individuals the Irish populace have elected as this country's cultural icons. Brendan O'Carroll, Pat Kenny, Daniel O'Donnell, Gerry Ryan, Patrick Kielty, Tony Fenton, anyone who presents Den TV – exported, most would be lucky if they got a job doing panto, but here, we can't throw enough money at them inshowing our appreciation of their wondrous talents. Occasionally though, the Irish people do back the right horse. Even if it means looking beyond Montrose to find it. David Gray is a perfect example, the Welsh singer/songwriter having survived a long and extremely winding career to become Ireland's favourite adopted son. His latest album, White Ladders – his fourth and finest - has now gone platinum in this country. Being big in Ireland may be akin to being big in Japan in commercial terms, but it undoubtedly boasts a little more relevance when it comes to having an impact on America and the rest of Europe. 

"I'd say Ireland is notably different on a few major scores," offers the 32-year old Gray. "One is its cultural heritage, and the other is its turnout of quality pop music as well. It's being taken seriously, at least in the last 20 years, as quite a major player in the pop music scene…" 

All thanks to the ceaseless efforts of The Corrs, of course. 

"Oh, absolutely," laughs Gray. "They've been pioneers since the cradle, moving Irish music bravely forward! God bless 'em, every one. Seriously though, I think that's a big difference, Ireland's cultural impact. But I hear what you're saying. It's still a world slightly removed from the world rock'n'roll arena." 

As one critic put it, David Gray's rise from the ashes of so many misfires and so much mismanagement is "a success story scripted by the fans rather than the industry". Never having had the luxury of a particularly inspired marketing campaign behind him, Gray has ultimately had to rely on the oldest trick in the book – touring endlessly. 

"With every album, there was never really any marketing done, nothing that worked anyway, and so it gradually became clear to me that the only real way people were going to hear my music was for me was to go out and play everywhere and anywhere. Up until now, radio just didn't play my songs, so playing live was the only alternative. I've always loved the feedback of an audience anyway, so it wasn't exactly a struggle, to be honest." 

After three critically acclaimed albums - the third, Sell! Sell! Sell!, being his first for a major label - it was an ill-conceived American tour in 1997 that proved to be the final straw for Gray. Sacking his long-time manager, Rob Holden, his agent, and his PR crew, Gray retreated completely from the music industry. When he finally returned last year with White Ladders, he was a little bit older and an awful lot wiser. 

"I knew I was onto a good thing from day one really," he states. "Going independent was completely the right thing for me to do, and at the same time, I learnt to just open up to other people. It was like giving it away really, I suppose, letting other people work on the music, sharing the responsibility, the creative process. And it became instantly enriched by the fact that it wasn't just me carrying the whole burden. And I think that was the turning point." 

It was early in 1998 that Gray and his new writing partner, Clune (a session musician from Middlesborough), set up a home studio and began working on the songs that would eventually make up White Ladder. When people began responding well to their new material, Gray decided to stay on the independent path by setting up his own record label, IHT Records ("HIT Records was already taken"), to release the album. Having just gotten out of his contract with EMI America, Gray was in no hurry to repeat his first major label experience. 

"Until you're actually making these guys a lot of money," he offers, "then you don't have them all on your side. You're just one of fifty things they've got to do that day. That experience for me just made me want to get off the ride completely. And part of that process meant getting rid of everyone I was working with at that time, so I could figure out exactly what it was I wanted to do." 

Having figured out that he wanted to record more songs and release them himself, Gray was soon calling up some of his old associates to see if they could start all over again with him. Top of the list was his old manager, Rob Holden. "It wasn't like it all went completely wrong between us, it was just that need I had to get away from it all. So having walked away from everyone, I then kinda came back to them all, cap in hand. Once we knew we were making the right record, it just felt very positive from the start. And everyone recognised that." 

Now hoping to repeat his Irish success in the UK and further afield, Gray is currently working on his next album, an acoustic collection of "songs that have fallen between the cracks". The only trouble is, he's lost his keyboard player. "There's only the three of us in the band, and Tim, the keyboard player, got married in America last week and consequently cocked up his immigration. They won't let him leave America until next year. Now we've got Slane and all that coming up, I'm not exactly sure what we're going to do. We haven't told anyone yet." 

There must be a few Irish fans out there who'd have experience of smuggling people in and out of America? 

"Yeah," laughs Gray, "we'll put the word out. 'There's a mysterious package with blond, spiky hair we need picking up'. But basically the chaos from that has kinda knackered everything for now. Hopefully there might be a little window of time after the Slane gig, if we can get him over, where we might be able to go into the studio for a week and try and put the album down. That's if we can get him out. "Ireland is full of musicians; maybewe'll just getpeople up from the audience to cover his parts. They'd have to bring theirown sandwiches though."