Joe Chester: The escape artist

Singer-songwriter Chester may be one of Ireland’s best kept musical secrets, but he’s happy for it to stay that way

Joe Chester: ‘The more successful an artist becomes, the more risk-averse they become’ Pic: Julie Bienvenu

In one way or another, Joe Chester’s new album is about leave-taking. It’s about leaving Ireland to live abroad. It’s about leaving singlehood to marry his Corsica-born fiancée Julie. And it’s about leaving behind the innocence of his youth to forge a new maturity in his songwriting.

When Chester picks up the phone to The Sunday Business Post, he’s happily sequestered in his apartment in Nice in France, where the weather is of ...