Your Music: Cormack Burns

"When I came into the world I was very ill and actually died twice. I had a lot of excess fluid on my brain and the doctors wanted to turn the machine off, but my parents were completely against it. They were told that if I came through, I would be in a vegetative state, and gave me a week, and then a month and then a year to live. 30 years later I'm still here."

The experience inspired him to write the haunting It's Not Up To You.

When it comes to music, Cormack says he has always been a fast learner.

"I started to sing at the age of 9, at family parties and the local youth club concert. I wasn't playing then so performing unaccompanied gave me a lot of confidence. I saw my brother playing the guitar and said, I reckon I could do that. He taught me how to play my first 3 chords in one crash course and I went on on my own after that, practicing every day for half an hour. I just feel so comfortable and at home with music that I was playing guitar before I could tie my shoelaces. 5 years later, I decided to try my hand at writing songs."

Cormack tells us that he wrote many songs but the first he was really proud of was A Different Kind of Love, a song that a lot of disabled people might relate to.

"At the time I lived at home and the whole family spoiled me a lot, but I wanted a relationship. This song was basically saying to them that I know you love me but I want to go out, I need a different kind of love."

Cormac now spends many hours helping children learn to play music.

"I used to gig quite a bit but find it really tiring, so now I stick to writing, and teaching guitar at the house in Fork Hill, Co. Armagh. But I did get a grant from Disability Arts around 3 years ago, so I made an album."

Here's the first track from Cormack's album: