Regan's leftfield altfolk debut stands an outside chance of winning, but just being nominated for the Mercury means a jump in record sales for the singer-songwriter, along with a massive increase in publicity and press coverage. And with great timing, Regan began a North American tour yesterday, the nomination ensuring ticket sales will spike sharply for gigs in New Jersey, New York, Toronto, Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles.

Regan is the first Irish artist to be nominated since Snow Patrol got the nod in 2004 for their album Final Straw.

"He's as endearingly 'out there' as his lyrics, " one music journalist said this week. And the lyrics are pretty out there.

He grew up in Bray, only leaving once, a few years ago, for a short stint in Brighton before returning to Wicklow again, although he now resides in Dalkey.

The surrealism of a seaside town, with its crummy arcades, fading colours and dilapidated seafront, inspired Regan's music and way of thinking. On his MySpace website, he interviewed himself about the setting of his childhood: "So you were lonely walking around woodland but you grew up by the sea did you not? 'Yes in part. . . pedal boats in the shape of swordfish, the man who ran them dressed like an undertaker, growing up. . . It's hard to talk to anyone in a storm, the wind takes your voice from you. . . sends it out over the waves out to the lighthouses.'

"You say, we stayed out late it's a lighthouse trait, in 'Black Water Child' . . . what is it about lighthouses? 'I don't know, you sit on the beach and light a cigarette, then the lighthouse lights a giant cigarette back.'" His father played guitar and wrote music and his mother is an artist, so Regan spent his childhood looking out the bay windows of their home and hanging out with the various artists, musicians and poets that wandered through the place. It became obvious, with his exceptional mind and love for music, that Fionn would lead nothing if not a vaguely bohemian life. He dresses the part, in velvet blazers, vintage shirts and chocolate brown cords.

Everyone who knows him says he often speaks in riddles, extended metaphors and a general stream of consciousness.

A post on his blog sums up this surreal state of mind: "Dear shipmates. We have docked for cover at the kish. It's been a year of sail neath parliament hail, navigation brail, boat-car-aeroplane and train rail, set to sail again upon suck inhale. We'll iron the road creases out of our travelled-too-far foreheads, straighten our toes with marquee mallets, catch memory tears on bootsale spoons, dry bones around harbour fires."

The first EP he released was Reservoir in January 2002. It was followed a year later by the Hotel Room EP and his live performances were beginning to stir interest around Dublin. "When Fionn starts to sing, strange things happen, " a Hot Press reviewer wrote of one of his gigs in 2003. "During the chorus of his song, 'Sirens', a fire engine wailed past outside.

Commonplace enough, I grant you, but just as he sang the bit about "mattress on fire" the glass ashtray containing a candle on our table exploded, showering the table with shards and instigating a minor conflagration." Both EPs were released on Anvil Records.

In 2005, the Campaign Button EP was completed and by now it was becoming clear that Regan, the nice-guy oddball with the persona of a stoner poet of times gone by, was going to have a great album if he could channel the brilliance of his EP tracks.

He did and, recruiting Simon Raymonde from The Cocteau Twins to mix the record, they made The End Of History, releasing it in August 2006. He was promptly nominated for the Choice Music Prize and was very close to winning it but lost out to The Divine Comedy. He was also nominated for two Meteor Awards . . . Best Newcomer and Best Irish Male, which were won by Humanzi and Damien Dempsey respectively.

In October 2006, a big US break came when the hit drama Grey's Anatomy picked up on 'Be Good Or Be Gone', a track from the album, and played it during one episode. TV being the new radio in the States, this was a massive boost to Regan as Grey's Anatomy was previously responsible for Snow Patrol's monster hit 'Chasing Cars', leading to over a million downloads of the track in the US. And in recent months, 'Be Goodf' has been used as the soundtrack to a Toyota ad.

His girlfriend Laura Murphy, an actress, performs with Regan, singing backing vocals and playing tambourine, a partnership that has echoes of Damien Rice teaming up with Lisa Hannigan.

Not so, though, says one industry insider. "He's the opposite to Rice. There's no real ego there. He's a lovely, down-toearth guy." Another acquaintance says, "He's quiet and unassuming. Yeah, he's a bit eccentric but you can tell that from his music. Over the last few years, his music has meant everything to him. He did it all on his own and is very proud of it. He's confident in that he thinks it's good but he's not egotistical, quite shy actually and a bit uncomfortable talking about his art."

Others think his wide-eyed mystical persona is just that and that he is canny when it comes to the media, smart and savvy in terms of how the music industry works. But most see him as the genuine article and the word 'hippy' surfaces no matter who talks about him.

In June, Lost Highway records, a branch of Universal Music in the US, snapped him up. They are releasing the album in America this month and even though the label has Ryan Adams, Van Morrison and Elvis Costello on its roster, this is the first time it has given a record deal for a debut album from any Irish or British artist.

Regan's associates in the industry are generally perplexed by his endless capacity for verbal intelligence. "He's very genial, sociable, seems as if he's happy with his own company, doesn't seem to crave people in the same way that other artists do. But he said this thing the other day, " an industry head said, "'like cutting a battleship with a butter knife.'

He conjures up such unexpected images and gets to the core of use of language.

It's bizarre how he uses language in a visual way. They should teach him in school."

CV

Occupation: Singer-songwriter
Born: Bray, Co Wicklow
Age: 26
In the news: He has just been nominated for the 2007 Mercury Music Prize