Dublin native John Carney, the director of the new film ‘Begin Again’, joined Tom Dunne as this week’s guest for ‘Back to Mine’.

Carney, who is most familiar to Irish audiences for his international hit ‘Once’ with Glen Hansard, has built a considerable Hollywood presence since his days of making the hugely successful ‘Bachelor’s Walk’ for RTE in the early 2000s.

Carney's first song choice during his 'Back to Mine' appearance was 'Kentucky Avenue' by Tom Waits. 

‘Begin Again’, which is out now in Irish cinemas, tells the story of a down on his luck A&R man who discovers a new singing talent in the guise of Keira Knightley (who knew Knightley could sing? Trust us, she can).

“It seemed like a fruitful story to tell,” Carney said.

In fact, in the aftermath of releasing ‘Once’ back in 2006, Carney had the idea for ‘Begin Again’ but it wasn’t until recently that the strands came together. To achieve this he has cast a number of big names including Mark Ruffalo (‘The Kids are All Right’) and Keira Knightley (‘Atonement’).

How did he come to cast Knightley in the film?

“I met her and I thought ‘this is somebody that I can work with’,” he said.

Knightley is of course a major name, but Carney was undaunted by this.

“There are no movie stars...It’s just a bunch of artists working together to make a film”.

Carney was originally the bassist for Dublin band The Frames. His second song choice was 'Right Road (Wrong Road)' by Glen Hansard.

Gregg Alexander, the New Radicals frontman noted for his 1998 hit ‘You Get What You Give’, wrote a number of songs for the film, which Knightley sings. How did the songwriting process work?

“I supervised every part of it...he worked off the script a lot,” said Carney.

Carney's final song choice was 'Babylon Sisters' by Steely Dan.

‘Begin Again’ is on release now.