‘The Prodigy helped me put my family life back together’

One day in early summer of 1993, the radio was murmuring away and on came Out of Space by The Prodigy. I felt that lightning bolt I've heard people use to describe the first time they heard Elvis or The Beatles – the initial shock as the current travelled through me followed by an emotional thunderclap: a sense of belonging.

Around that time, I found myself directly in the path of a personal storm. Shortly after, my family broke up and everyone in it dispersed. I ended up staying with my aunt in Dublin for a couple of months and got my first job: minding my uncle's van so it wouldn't get robbed while he went around Dublin filling fag machines. Then I found the rest of the album. Experience was the first tape I ever owned.

Listening to Experience over and over was like finding religion in hard times

I went back to my hometown in Skibbereen to try and help piece family life back together, greeted by a flood of confusion, insecurity and chaos. I clung to that album like it was a raft, listened to it over and over – sort of like when people in hard times find religion.

It unearthed a relentless passion, helped my confidence, being in my early teens. It gave me hope, forged friendships and steered me towards one defined path: music.