Kevin Walsh: 'Music is a helpful way of forming a connection to people'
Kevin Walsh with some of his supporters at the launch of his crowdfunding appeal. Picture: John Allen
For thirty-year-old Kevin Walsh, a singer/songwriter who was diagnosed with autism at the age of five, the biggest challenge in his life is "the dichotomy of being a high achiever and not forming the social connections you would think comes with that".
Walsh, from Cork, recently launched a crowd-funding campaign to produce his debut single, 'Embrace the World', a pop/rock power ballad. He plans to record the tune with 13 singers, and create a narrative video to accompany the song. It is partly in aid of the autism charity, AsIAm with 50% of the proceeds going towards the organisation.
When Walsh wasn't reaching the usual milestones in his early childhood. His mother brought him to a doctor who made the autism diagnosis.
"Not much was known about autism at the time," he says.
As a child he attended a special needs school, Scoil Triest, at Lota in Cork. Walsh found it beneficial as there was a lot of emphasis on speech and language, as well as social skills. He also spent time in residential care in Lota to help him transition from liquid to solid foods.
He found it traumatic to be taken out of the family home "and put in a strange place, mixed in with all sorts of people with different levels of functioning. At the time, I thought I was sent there because I was bold. But it was necessary for my survival."
Walsh made good progress at school. "Apparently, I taught myself to read but I have no memory of that," he says.
"There was talk of 'mainstreaming' me in regular school when I was about ten. But it took until I was about fifteen before I went to Colaiste Choilm in Ballincollig. That transition was really difficult. There was a big social world there that I had no idea about, the quickness and pace of it and the social code between boys and girls. It wasn't something I had seen much of in Scoil Triest."
Ultimately, it was music that helped Walsh integrate at secondary school. "There was a piano in the classroom and I was encouraged to play it. It was the starting point of me connecting with my class mates. I even got to play at the end of the year graduation ceremony."
Walsh is largely self-taught at the piano. "I had some lessons but I was self-directed."
Walsh sat the Leaving Certificate Applied, attained 600 points, among the highest scores in the country. After school, he attended the National Learning Network in Cork followed by the Cork Academy of Music at the North Monastery.
"That was fantastic. It was my first time really studying music formally."
Walsh then went to the MTU Cork School of Music, graduating with a first class honours BMus and a Masters degree. His thesis was on musical theatre as a community practice.
"It was kind of a sociological study," he recalls.
For Walsh, music is his way of expressing himself. "It's a helpful way of forming a connection to people because you can understand your own emotions, singing songs. I get catharsis out of it."
Embrace the World includes fellow-singers Emma Langford, Molly Lynch and Caroline Kay.
"The dream is to get other top Irish and international singers involved too," says Walsh.
Walsh thinks big. His ambition is to carve out a proper career in music. "Longterm I am aspiring to write a stage musical," he says.
Walsh is already at the planning stage of that with director and screenplay writer, Yvonne Coughlan of Kinsale-based Red Sandstone Varied Productions.
She is co-directing the video for Walsh's single. "It is going to be based on my life and some of the key challenges I went through to get to this point."
As a child, Walsh "got into music watching MTV with its high octane music videos from people like Michael Jackson and Meatloaf".
The Fund It campaign aims to raise €8,000 for production costs. "Putting my music and my story out there is a gesture of hope to help bridge the networking gaps associated with autism."
