Question of Taste: John Haggis, singer with Emperor of Ice Cream 

The Cork vocalist includes the likes of Kamasi Washington, Sonic Youth and Kate Bush in his selections

John 'Haggis' Hegarty, singer with Emperor of Ice Cream.

John 'Haggis' Hegarty is a musician from Cork, and has been based in Waterford for many years. He is singer with Emperor of Ice Cream, the veteran indie band who have just released their latest single, ‘I See You Everywhere’, on FIFA Records. He also published his first novel last year. 

Best recent book you've read and what you liked about it:

The Hidden Pleasures of Life by Theodore Zeldin. The book is a guide to new ambitions in work, relationships, and learning. It looks at how people relate to each other, and how we might improve the art of living.

Best recent film:

It was released in 2014 but I only got to see  Goodbye to Language  by Jean-Luc Godard recently. It is stunningly beautiful.

Best recent gig you’ve seen:

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard at the All Together Now festival this summer. Gilla Band and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds were the other highlights of the weekend for me.

Best piece of music you’ve been listening to lately (new or old):

Kamasi Washington's Truth. The song comes at the end of a six-movement suite and is a 13-minute opus that is like the soundtrack to the end of all things. Beginning with a pensive melody, the song swells into a sacred offering for these bleak times.

First ever piece of music that really moved you:

Watching Apocalypse Now as a teenager and hearing Ride of Valkyries for the first time really blew my young mind.  But lyrically, Working Class Hero  by John Lennon made me want to pick up an acoustic guitar. It's such a simple song but it had an intravenous effect.

The best gig you've ever seen (if you had to pick one!):

Sufjan Stevens in the Olympia, in Dublin, ten years ago was sublime, but many of the gigs I got to see in Sir Henry's as a kid are hard to beat; Sonic Youth with Nirvana, Mercury Rev with Rollerskate Skinny were just two of the highlights.

Tell us about your TV viewing:

I haven't had regular TV channels in 15 years but as the nights get shorter I love taking old black and white movies out of the local library. Series boxsets I've loved are Justified, The Expanse, The Boys and the daddy of the all, The Sopranos.

Radio listening and/or podcasts:

OpenTempo FM is a pirate/guerilla radio station in Waterford city. Music lovers and local DJ's pump out quality music 24 hours a day, and it is reminiscent of the heyday of Radio Friendly in Cork in the mid-90s. I don't listen to many podcasts but Blindboy is great, and a young team of kids have started a new podcast in Waterford called The Unlucky Charms where they have relaxed chats with guests from all over the world about their lives, loves and dreams.

You're curating your dream gig – which three artists are on the bill, living or dead?

Jimi Hendrix, Kate Bush and The Beatles.

Emperor of Ice Cream. 

Best celebrity encounter:

I ended up sitting on a flightcase watching Autolux with PJ Harvey, at a gig, in London. It turned out we both were enamoured with Carla Azar's drumming style, and so for the hour we sat watching Carla's every graceful move.

You can portal back to any cultural event or music era – where, when, and why?

I'd go back to New York, 1973 and apply for a job behind the bar in CBGB's. Over the next 15 years some of my favourite bands showcased their new music there for the first time.

In your own life, have you been doing anything in particular in relation to climate change, biodiversity, etc?

I was the musical director at the Green Gathering Festival in Wexford for a couple of years. The festival  had all Irish artists but the main aim of the festival was to highlight how we can change the way we put on festivals, and more importantly, how we live better, cleaner lives everyday.

I also directed, designed and helped to build the New Street Gardens project, in Waterford, where we reclaimed disused land in the heart of the city and turned it into a beautiful, football field sized, community garden. The centerpiece of which was a stage where local events could be held.