Ones To Watch: Ocean Tisdall opens on why there is no better time to be an emerging Irish artist

And why we should have all spent lockdown writing sad songs in a creepy house.

How did you spend your lockdown? It was probably a bit different to Ocean Tisdall, who moved back to his native Ireland from London.

Instead of Zoom quizzes and working from home, however, he shacked up in his great uncle's abandoned old house in the hills of Wicklow, and started to compose an EPs worth of emotionally vulnerable alt-pop tracks, inspired by the likes of Troye Sivan, Lana Del Rey and Frank Ocean.

"We stayed there for two weeks," Ocean tells Irish Charts. "We wrote White Lies and a few songs on the EP there, I think being that creepy, weird house. that's where the creepy vibes [of White Lies' video] came from."

White Lies' macabre music video, which sees Ocean dig his own grave (of course), was also filmed at this same house, something of a "full circle moment [...] and people may now think I'm insane, but I don't mind that."

MORE: Belters Only earn landmark Irish Number 1 single

Ocean also had plenty to celebrate after White Lies' release - it debuted straight in the Top 20 of the Irish Homegrown Singles Chart, Ocean's first-ever chart entry in his native country.

"What I love most about Ireland is it's always changing, but we keep the same cultural identity and we always stick together," Ocean says. "We have so many artists just coming out and being themselves - there are so many different characters, personalities and people. It's a really exciting time to be Irish and an artist right now."

White Lies is a succinct taste of what's the come next for Ocean and what fans can expect of his upcoming EP, his first since signing with Universal Ireland last year. Another upcoming single we can't talk about in detail, with a release date TBC, only builds on White Lies' foundations; a tale of messy love affairs told over a cacophony of throbbing synth-pop beats.

"[White Lies] has only been out two weeks and the reaction to it has been mad," Ocean adds. "I'm really excited for the EP, for everyone to hear it and see all the videos in their entirety. I'm buzzing to be back doing live shows and the frickin' world and just do what I love."

White Lies is out now via Universal Music Ireland.