At the age of 19, Ryan Mack found himself in a boyband bubble as a member Louis Walsh’s next big thing called HomeTown and with fame and fortune on the horizon.

The boyband got off to a promising start with a number one hit, Where I Belong, and tours supporting McFly, The Vamps and Olly Murs.

HomeTown’s global travels took them around the UK and Europe and to exotic places such as Dubai and South Africa.

But the Irish boyband ultimately failed to reach the dizzy heights of the pop industry and within three years their dream was over.

McLoughlin, aka Mack, tried a solo career with original songs and pub gigs, but ultimately he was forced to get a day job working for a furniture delivery store in his native Newbridge, Co Kildare

“I couldn’t live on hopes and dreams, I needed a job that paid a weekly wage,” Ryan, now 32, says today.

“I put music on the back burner. I then became trapped in a cycle working eight-to-six Monday to Friday, coming home, eating dinner, going to bed. At the weekends I was drinking.

“Everybody has an ego and mine was a little bit bruised at that time. I’d had a little bit of a reality check. People assumed I’d made it and then they saw me playing in a pub or delivering furniture to their cousin or grannie.”

Mack admits he suffered mental health issues.

“I definitely had it at the time, I had a bit of a breakdown that ultimately led me to stop drinking,” Ryan tells me.

“My dad is an alcoholic and I’ve seen what it can do to people. He’s been through it all and he’s sober now and on a good path.

“He brought me to an AA meeting when I was younger, maybe 12 or 13, and I don’t know if that’s what made an impact on me and is the reason I don’t drink today.

“But I remember taking it in…this lad was up talking about his experience and how it ruined his whole marriage and family relationships.

“I don’t have that kind of a problem with drink. It didn’t consume my life, I didn’t wake up every day thinking I need to get a drink into me.

“It was just that I had hit rock bottom in the sense that I was going nowhere. I was down in the dumps and at a very low point.

“I went to the Electric Picnic in 2017 and I saw all these artists, some of them heroes of mine, on the stage where I had aspired to be and here I was in a field drinking.

“That was the moment I decided to stop drinking and I got out of the day job.”

It was during Covid that his original songs connected with people online around the world. Today, Ryan is a successful independent artist as a singer and songwriter with more than three million monthly streams on Spotify.

Although he feels strongly that Spotify should pay artists a greater cut of income, he says he’s not going to complain.

“Spotify pay 4,500 U.S. dollars for a million streams, so it pays a very good wage for me,” Ryan reveals. “And I pay myself a teacher’s salary.”

A song called Broke, about his personal financial situation, ironically was the one that gave him his first big success.

“The video instantly got 30k views and that gave me a glimmer of hope,” Ryan tells me.

“In TikTok you could end up on anybody’s ‘For You’ page and at the time I was in Newbridge, Co Kildare, in my bedroom posting up a song that landed on Charlie Puth’s page and Megan Trainor’s page. All these big time American artists were commenting on my stuff. The algorithm was showing them what was popular.”

One of his songwriting partners is Robert Grace, another young Irish artist who is now enjoying a successful career as an independent having spent time on a major label.

Kilkenny man Grace’s breakthrough song was Fake Fine, which, it turns out, was co-written by Mack.

“We now have a good track record of writing good songs together and Robert has co-written eight of the 10 tracks on my debut album which I’m releasing next weekend,” Ryan says.

Mack is in top shape physically these days and looks every inch a rock star. As well as cutting out booze, he has immersed himself in physical training.

“In 2018 I started doing ju-jitsu and I started running and now it has consumed my whole life,” Ryan adds.

“I also do HYROX, a multi-sport that has taken over the world at the moment and I’m pretty competitive at it. I think it’s my addictive personality, but it’s a good addiction and it’s at a healthy level. Now my life is all about fitness and music.”

RYAN Mack’s debut album, Better Late Than Never, is out August 28