Niall McNamee at The Greystones Sheffield and Oporto Leeds: Actor and singer-songwriter on Leeds United, Saipan and Jackie Chan

“I don't know why I do it other than maybe severe self indulgence,” he says with good cheer, discussing the challenge of making a living from his work.

For he lives what appears a pretty glamorous life as a folk singer-songwriter and actor. Describing himself as “a romantic football fan who writes songs”, his debut album Glass and Mirrors came out last month, and the numbers are impressive: it had amassed more than 100,000 streams by the time of this interview in October, he said, and his Spotify profile gets more than 15,000 monthly listeners.

But it’s not all so easy, he insists.

“Music can trick you for a while because what happens is when you're in the middle of making songs and you're really excited about the idea that one day people will hear them, you forget that easily nothing can happen. It doesn't matter how good the songs are. It doesn't matter if you're really well-prepared. There's still lots of luck involved. So I'm delighted, and it feels like it was one of those moments where it's like everything's worth it. Because, truthfully, without being negative, it's not been an easy year. Music is such a tough industry and it's the only kind of world in which I respect anyone who is doing it whether I like their music or not.

“There are few rewards, so when people say why do you do music, I think the why for musicians is: we just do it anyway.

“With the statistics of how many people want to be a professional footballer, at least there's millions and millions of pounds in it, if you get to the end,” he says by way of example.

“When I got 80,000 streams, I said to my manager: ‘I've never been more excited to earn a tenner in my life!’”

Speaking of football, Niall is a lifelong Leeds United FC fan and season ticketholder. Although he lives in London, he gets up for as many matches as he can and his father, Gerry McNamee, a well-known supporter heard on the Talking Leeds podcast.

Naturally, Niall is therefore very excited about his upcoming gig at Oporto in Leeds city centre on Friday - part of a 26 date UK and Ireland headline tour which is also at The Greystones in Sheffield tomorrow – even if it’s the night before the Whites face second-placed Manchester City away.

The trials and tribulations of LUFC have loomed large in his life.

“I’m 31 years old. That's not a good age, really, to have been a Leeds fan. You kind of just missed the Champions League side of stuff. We were just about coherent in time for League One. But at least then it was slightly easier to get an away ticket.”

Football extends into Niall’s acting career, too, as he plays goalkeeper Alan Kelly Jr in the upcoming film Saipan, about the saga during the 2002 World Cup when Irish captain Roy Keane forfeited his place in the squad after an argument with manager Mick McCarthy.

Niall says that, after seeing title, “I was like, it's either a war film or it's about one of the biggest moments in Irish football and I was very excited then.

“Also, I'm such a big Alan Partridge fan and Steve Coogan fan so when I found that he was Mick, I was just buzzing, and it made so much sense then. And Éanna (Hardwicke) who is one of my best mates, and was before we (were in) films, was so good as Roy.”

Keane might also be a Manchester United legend, but Niall of course turns the conversation to Leeds.

“I remember really clearly when I was younger, there are a few films that I watched that made me want to be an actor, one of them was The Wind that Shakes the Barley but the other one - and keep it in mind, I think we were in League One at the time - was the Damned United.

“Because as far as I was concerned, no one cared about Leeds We were nowhere. I'm looking at loads of my mates who support Man United, Liverpool and it’s all about the Champions League and then suddenly I'm in the cinema watching Marching on Together start the movie.”

Niall’s family is from Dundalk, County Louth, bu he went to school in Leicester then moved to London at 17, working on building sites while doing acting auditions and playing gigs in Irish pubs to pay the rent.

He has performed in West End as the lead in Romeo and Juliet. Film and TV parts followed, including roles opposite Pierce Brosnan and a major fight scene with Jackie Chan in 2017 film The Foreigner.

The latter is an anecdote which tends to follow him around.

“That was my first proper movie job and I literally had to tell my foreman on the building site that I wasn't coming in the next day because I was getting collected to go to do a stunt with Jackie Chan and his team for two weeks before we started filming so we could learn it.

"I was frustrated at the time, but now I think fair enough, no one believed me, and that's okay. The movie took two years to come out and when I finished filming it, I knew that the money wouldn't last forever, so I went straight back to the building site, and I could tell that the lads, whilst we got on, thought that I was this randomer who was a nice enough fellow, but for some reason had this fantasy that he'd fought Jackie Chan. Because people believe, if you've been in one movie, that you must live in a mansion, but it was only a few weeks.”

Quite a good one to dine out on, though? He agrees, but adds: “It's bad to say that the coolest thing about me has already happened.”

Niall McNamee (with support from Amelia Coburn) performs at The Graystone in Sheffield tomorrow and Oporto, Leeds, on Friday. www.niallmcnamee.com