The celebrated band from Ireland, Téada, will be bringing a host of energetic traditional Irish tunes and songs to The Studio, Appell Center for the Performing Arts in York on Sunday, March 6th in an event sponsored by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society. More information and official SFMS Covid Safety Policies can be found on the Susquehanna Folk Music Societywebsite. Tickets for the concert are $24 General Admission, $20 for SFMS Members, and $10 for students (ages 3-22). Tickets will be available at the door or online.
Téada is a renowned band from Ireland that has been playing and recording albums for 21 years. Téada was founded in 2001 by Sligo fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada along with button accordion player Paul Finn. They’re joined by Seán Gavin on flute and uilleann pipes and Patrick Doocey on guitar. This acclaimed band has toured the world and has played at prominent festivals including Milwaukee Irish Fest, Edmonton Folk Festival, Temple Bar TradFest, Shetland Folk Festival, the Rainforest World Music Festival, and many others. In 2014, the band performed to 40,000 people during an extensive 7-week tour of Japan and Taiwan. This spring, Téada will be releasing their sixth album. SFMS Staff Writer Mary-Grace Autumn Lee had the chance to chat with Téada’s fiddle player, Oisín Mac Diarmada about touring, recording, and stories the band has gathered along the way.
Téada is 21 years on the road this year and time sure flies when you are having fun! The band grew out of an album project I was asked to do back in 2000 which included some of my great musical friends. There was no grand plan to start a band and tour the world, but momentum grew from the recording and subsequent gigs and the project had evolved into Téada by 2001. Initially the band had a string focus in terms of instrumentation – hence the band name which translates from Irish (Gaelic) as ‘strings’. America has always been a huge part of the heartbeat of Téada, providing us with great support and encouragement since our debut tour in June 2001, and we are always thrilled to return, albeit with a few more grey hairs then we had back at the beginning!
Téada has performed around the world at many acclaimed festivals. What are some things you have experienced from traveling to different countries and performing for people of different cultures?
Sharing your culture with people around the world is a really great privilege, which I become even more aware of as time passes. There is such a welcome in so many parts of the world for Irish culture and we are blessed that people without a direct connection to Ireland can feel such affection for our music, song and dance. It is definitely one of the most fulfilling aspects of what we do as a profession, to be able to connect with people from such a variety of places and get a glimpse into their cultures and life experiences. One of the highlights for me was a 7-week Téada tour of Japan & Taiwan 2014, which was eye-opening in terms of getting to experience such a different culture to our own.
Téada is releasing their sixth album this coming spring. Would you mind sharing a little bit of the process of creating the album? How does the band collect and arrange tunes?
Our new album – Coiscéim Coiligh (As The Days Brighten) – will be released very shortly on Gael Linn Records. The title is an old Irish (Gaelic) phrase which translates literally as The Rooster’s Footsteps, but is suggestive of the onset of brighter days. Like a lot of projects, this recording process was interrupted by the Pandemic, which delayed the release timeframe from 2020 to 2022. It seems like now is a nice time to be releasing the album, as we get back on our feet again as a society with an optimism that brighter times are ahead. Going back to the actual process of creating our albums, they tend to take shape when we reach the stage of yearning for some exciting new material to add to our live set! Then the gathering of material begins in earnest and over time and of course a number of rehearsals in various parts of Ireland (since we are scattered around the country in terms of our locations!), things start to digest and new selections emerge. When it comes to choosing material to record, we tend to favour unusual repertoire, which may be unearthed from older archival recordings or indeed recently composed within the tradition.
Téada is known for taking rare tunes from the tradition and re-energising them to keep them relevant today. How does the band approach these tunes to keep them alive?
There’s something really special about coming across a rarely-heard older tune. It’s like a glimpse into another time, and more often than not, these tunes have unusual motifs or melodic ideas which you don’t typically hear played nowadays. It’s exciting to keep renewing the well of repertoire within traditional Irish music, whether through new compositions or bringing back forgotten tunes from the past!
Susquehanna Folk has many members who are Irish music appreciators and/or musicians learning Irish music. What are some of the most important tips you share to musicians learning how to play Irish music?
If you haven’t yet started on the road of learning to play Irish music, it’s never too late to start! There are so many resources out there nowadays for players of all levels, which can stimulate you to improve your skills. Learning this music, like any craft, is a journey so it’s important to try to get enjoyment from the journey! Enjoy the small steps of development rather than overly focussing on gaining proficiency quickly. Listening is as important as the active playing part.
Téada is getting ready to hit the road to go on a spring tour. What are a few things you are looking forward to?
Touring is a great privilege for those of us who enjoy it! There’s always a sense of expectancy heading out on tour and no two tours are the same. I’m looking forward to playing music with musicians I admire, soaking up all the visual stimulation that travel brings and hopefully bringing some enjoyment to other peoples’ lives. When it comes together for performers and audience, it is a very special connection and occasion!
Téada will be performing live on March 6th, 2022 at The Studio, Appell Center for the Performing Arts in York . For more information about tickets and concert safety policies, please visitthe Susquehanna Folk Music website.
Mary-Grace Autumn Lee is a Harrisburg area musician. You can find her on instagram @thatdulcimergirl, her youtube channel, and her official site. Mary-Grace also plays with the Celtic/Americana band Seasons.
Married Musical duo Zoë Conway & John McIntyre, touted by the BBC as “simply one of the best folk duos on the planet,” will bring their innovative combination of Irish fiddle and guitar to the Fort Hunter Centennial Barn in Harrisburg on Monday, March 18th at 7:30 pm. The concert is sponsored by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society. More information can be found on the Susquehanna Folk Music Society website. Tickets are $24 General Admission, $20 for SFMS Members, and $10 for students (ages 3-22). Tickets will be available at the door or online.
Earlier this week, Zoë Conway chatted with SFMS staff writer Peter Winter via email about the origins of her ongoing musical collaboration with her husband John McIntyre, her personal musical journey, and her unique position as a celebrated musician with a foot in both classical and traditional folk music.
You took the road less traveled, learning both classical and traditional Irish music. How did that come about? I know you were eight at the time, was that something you wanted to learn or were your parents and teachers advocates for both styles?
Ah! My parents don’t play any music but they love it, and brought all five of us children to traditional music lessons, sessions and competitions. By the time I was born, my older siblings were excellent traditional musicians, so I was totally surrounded by it from day one. When I was around 9, I saw a young girl performing an incredibly difficult virtuoso piece on an American Chat show – Introduction and Tarantella by Sarasate – and I said “That’s what I want to do!” My father then found me a classical violin teacher and I went to her for some years and continued my studies into my twenties in Dublin. At the time, traditional music teachers wouldn’t allow you to learn classical and vice versa, so I had to continue living separately in two worlds with this hidden life for a long time.
I am so fascinated by your dual musical background, because I think so many people still think these two styles are at odds with each other. What are some distinct elements from both trad and classical that have made you the musician you are today?
You know, a lot of the time they are at odds with each other. But for some reason, perhaps if you start both early enough, they complement each other, a bit like learning two languages at once – things just click into place. In the trad world, you must learn by ear and memory, and remember an incredible amount of tunes which is so beneficial for musicality. In classical, you learn so much as it is so disciplined. You learn your whole instrument, technique, tone, tuning, speed, accuracy, control and to relish practice. Put the two together and it’s a winning combination!
How did you and your husband John begin working together musically?
We have a very long story, actually living across the road from each other as children before both moving away, then meeting once in secondary school, but when we finally got together we were both professional musicians. John was at the time touring worldwide with his Indie band, The Revs, and I was touring with Riverdance and Rodrigo y Gabriella, so we didn’t have any time to actually play together! When we got married, we slowed down a bit and wanted to spend more time together, so we started to play, and it was just so easy and fun! We haven’t looked back since! Of course, as it now turns out, John was the perfect fit for me as he also studied classical guitar, and grew up playing traditional music sessions in South West Donegal, alongside his rock and roll!
You two keep it eclectic in your performance! Why is it important to you guys to not limit yourselves to just one genre?
Really, our first love is traditional Irish music. That’s what we listen to in the car and at home. However, quality music from every genre is amazing, and it inspires us. These other genres have really influenced our interpretation and composition of traditional Irish music, and they challenge us as musicians. I also find that these pieces from other genres, say Tiger Rag which is a swing jazz piece, acts like a sorbet in a meal – they give light and shade to a whole performance, and actually help shine a light on the traditional elements in a way.
In 2018 you released the record “Allt” with Julie Fowlis and Eamon Doorley. They have also been guests of our concert series a couple of times! When did your paths first cross and how did the idea for the project come about?
Well, you already know how amazing they are! As people and as musicians! I have known Éamon from a young teenager, and met Julie a few times at events and more recently when we were both filming for a TV show. I was frantically finishing a commission for orchestra, so running away into corners to get a few more bits done, and I think Julie was delighted to meet someone very similar to her!! We both have a lot on with family and music! She suggested that we could collaborate on a project and so we spent a while emailing, coming up with ideas. John speaks Irish in our house, and Julie and Éamon speak Irish and Scots Gaelic, so we came up with the idea of taking Gaelic poetry and composing new music and settings for it. We then spent over a year gathering ideas and rehearsing, and finally recorded and released the album. We are very proud of it, but were absolutely overwhelmed with everyone’s response!
You have collaborated with so many different artists and been a part of so many different projects! What is one that always comes to mind as being special?
Oh gosh, everything I do is such a pleasure. Last night for example, we performed at the University of Limerick Concert Hall with singer Iarla O Lionard of The Gloaming, and Australian-Irish genius guitarist, Steve Cooney. What an honour! But the main one for me was being invited to perform at a night for Leonard Cohen at The Point in Dublin some years ago, as the only Irish musician there! I had been recording the week before with an American producer on a track with Bono and Andrea Corr, and the producer asked me to come and play at this special event at the Point. I got to perform that night with so many legends – Beth Orton, Jarvis Cocker, Lou Reed, Nick Cave…it was amazing!
Eileen Ivers, a pre-eminent exponent of the Irish fiddle will perform on Friday, January 18th at 7:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York (925 S. George St., York, PA 17403) in a concert sponsored by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society. More information can be found on the Susquehanna Folk Music Society website HERE. Tickets are $30 General Admission, $26 for SFMS Members, and $10 for students (ages 3-22). Tickets will be available at the door or online HERE.
Earlier this week, Eileen chatted with SFMS staff writer Peter Winter about her roots, upcoming projects, and following your compass.
Your parents were from Ireland and you grew up with this heritage, but it was at age eight when you finally started playing music and learning this instrument. Was it your parents’ idea or your idea to start actually learning this music and this instrument?
It was actually my decision! It was funny Peter, cause my cousin was playing the piano accordion, and there was a little something of that going on so my mom thought, “Oh maybe the piano,” which I kind of rebelled against. And then she thought, “Maybe it’s some Irish dancing,” so I did try Irish dance for all of about two weeks, and I just didn’t like it! But I just kept asking for the violin! There was something that definitely drew me to the instrument at a very young age. There was even an aunt in the family who recalled that when I was 3 years old, she said it was funny I’d go around the little Bronx apartment playing, I guess, “air violin” with a pink plastic guitar and a wooden spoon.
That’s awesome!
So maybe there’s something there!
Did you begin learning in a more traditional violin style, or were your lessons fiddle lessons?
Yeah, they were very much traditional Irish Fiddle lessons. Our teacher back then was Martin Mulvihill, and he taught a lot of kids around the tri city area, and around New York. He taught the button accordion, the piano accordion, flutes, whistles, it was amazing. He was from Kerry, and he just had a wonderful way about him. So it was very much in the oral tradition, and really kind of just learning by ear, and learning from him.
That’s awesome. You’re really known for bringing together a lot of musical styles, united under this banner of Irish music. Whether it’s band members from different musical styles or utilizing African beats. You grew up in this Bronx neighborhood, in this cultural diversity, do you think growing up in the Bronx led you to want to embrace this musical diversity and bring different styles and cultures together?
I think it may have played a part for sure Peter. I don’t think it was the sole reason. But I think just through the years being so immersed in traditional Irish music (and I think it’s so important to sort of ground yourself; in whatever tradition that is) and I competed through the years till the All Ireland Over 18 Senior Championship and, thankfully, I won it when I just turned 18 that summer. To me then, it was kind of like, “that was a nice part of my life,” but there was something about just the violin as an instrument that kept drawing me to learn more, cause obviously there’s so much music that can be played on the violin.
And just being in any kind of urban city, being so fortunate to hear (which I did) the great Stephane Grappelli, or these amazing musicians who would kind of come through town and to just absorb all styles. I was just a fan of music in general. It was an extension that kind of came out of that.
And just a little tie into my dad, God rest him, he used to listen a lot to bluegrass music in our house growing up, and I think that was always in the back of my head so later on in life I really loved just the parallels. Of course Irish music is hundreds and hundreds of years old, but nearly the last four centuries people have been coming to this country from Ireland, and the music certainly has had such an amazing journey, and is a big part of Americana Music, so that really drew me Peter; just to get a little bit more of a wider range out of the recorded music that I was doing and also performing…It’s a fascinating journey! It certainly keeps changing musically in the show a little bit, but it’s still all connected, so I find it very interesting.
For the past 20 years, you have been such a torchbearer for traditional Irish music, and being so connected to Irish fiddle playing, but you are also such an innovator. I don’t know how many other people are out there sending their fiddles through wah pedals, and you were certainly one of the first people to do that. How do you balance these two idea of innovation and tradition, and how do those two concepts relate to each other for you?
Ah that’s a great question! And thank you! It’s funny, it’s something that I’ve grown to learn that’s just part of me. I think, like any artist, you have to be true to yourself if it’s in you to create music in that way, and even I had a moment for sure even in my 20s, where I was saying, “gosh this doesn’t feel right, you know, don’t go there, don’t go there.” But how can you stifle creativity? Or just the want to keep learning and keep exploring and innovate and really, truly, hopefully push the limits? The violin is an incredible instrument and can do so much and can make so many incredible sounds, from rhythm to lead, to everything; especially in emotions as well. So it just was something I said “Look, this is in my heart, I just have to do this!”
But at the same time, it wasn’t a very haphazard thing at all. It was really (and still is) a journey of discovering what can be done, but also again the connections; because I think especially being very, very, privileged to be performing this music (and to be asked to perform in many different places) it’s a huge responsibility that I feel (and I bring to the band and they certainly feel the same way) to present the music in a very thoughtful way. Not just throwing stuff here or there, but to really lay it before an audience or in records, the thesis of it all. This is the tradition; and if you want just purely traditional music, there’s amazing places you can go to find just maybe that, and we love to certainly ground the night in that (and I feel my music is very much grounded in that) but again to show how it’s all connected. How it comes from this very beautiful, pure place, but, whether it be to extend it into some Cajun voicings, or some back beats of bluegrass within an arrangement, or certainly (like you said Peter) maybe loop or bring in an improvised violin solo, we get there in ways that are certainly connected.
I like to ground my playing, my thoughts, and an evening in a concert where the audience comes along for the ride. They’re understanding, “Ok this is cool.” We’re going in these directions and hopefully at the end of it they feel a sense of maybe even learning historically about some stuff, and just kind of going into a really fun musical journey.
So your last record, “Beyond the Bog Road,” in 2016 goes along with what we’ve been talking about. This record explores the connection between Irish music and how it connected and led into other forms of North American Music. I was wondering if you could speak a little about this record, and also what lead you to record it.
Thanks Peter. Yeah, it was a labor of love for many years honestly, because with my background it was an obvious one at the time. I just really got into the history of the music. I was documenting a lot of our family history. We have a little house in Ireland that we built on my father’s land a good many years ago now. It’s something, we used to go over to Ireland every summer as a family (my dad used to work for the airlines) so that was like a huge part of the extension of our life. So [I was] kind of documenting a lot of the history, videoing an awful lot, filming, as well as then researching this. It was a good many years of really getting into it in a really deep way.
The famine really impacted where my family is from in Ireland, and I learned so much about like incredible famine walks that were going on, [and] the relationship Ireland had with America even way before that, so it was a good kind of time to really delve into that. I learned so much, and that really fueled the live show as well. I’ve seen audience members really respond to that because so many know that, “Celtic music sounds familiar,” but then when they realize why, it starts to make a lot of sense. It’s cool, we do a lot of tunes still from that particular record in the program, as well as some stuff from a new record that we are just about finishing up now. It’s great, it’s exciting!
Oh Nice! Anything you can tell us about that new record?
Oh I’m so excited Peter! Yeah, it’s going to be called “Scatter The Light.” Again, I always find I kind of have to just follow the heart, it goes back to that again! After “Beyond the Bog Road” was so heavy intellectually and ethnomusicologically with what I was doing, I started just writing some lyrics. I was getting into a lot of just composing, and realizing that they [the pieces] were connected with very powerful themes of positivity and faith. I don’t know, I was just getting into a place where I started to see that it was certainly connected. Even the tunes were a very happy kind of angle on things!
I still just love the art of making a CD. I love that it has to have a message (for me anyway). I like it to be unified. I think at the end of the process you start to whittle down the tracks and really say “Ok does this make a complete thought?” A complete gift, at the end of it. We have artwork, we’re just basically halfway through mixing, so it’s really exciting. It’s coming out very soon. It’s nice and we’ll be playing some tunes from that as well, ‘cause you can’t not do it. You have to keep moving forward!
In addition to more traditional concerts, you and your band do educational programs at schools, and other venues. Why is that something that you make time for, and why do you think that’s important to add an educational aspect to what you do?
Great question, and thanks for asking! I’m very passionate about that and I feel it is even somewhat of a responsibility as a traditional musician. It’s a pure gift to be taught this tradition, and to be a part of the continuum of this wonderful living tradition. I think that’s a great term too; the living tradition. You’re a part of it, it comes and goes and changes, our ancestors have been playing this music and the stories that come through the music. To try and impart that to students of music, whatever age they are, I think is a wonderful thing. Certainly when I teach, I love to do that in [the] very pure way that I was taught the music. And then of course the wonderful deep history behind it. When the band and I go in sometimes to even teach some master classes or just outreach programs, it’s just great to fuel these school age kids with thoughts that learning an instrument is great. It’s a great thing to have in life, it’s just a great thing for your mind as your mind develops, and roots music especially and acoustic instruments can be very cool and very accessible. That’s a big point I try to get across in a very underpinning kind of way. Just to get that out there, that it is something.
I went through school, I was a math major in college, and I certainly knew math and music; it’s a beautiful part of the brain (I’m actually helping my son, he’s nine and a half and he’s learning the violin in school so I get to see it firsthand!). Music is a powerful thing, and you’re fans and you know, and the folk society certainly knows, it’s a big deal. Thank you for mentioning that because I think it’s so important and it is kind of a part of what we do and I just relish the chance to do it every time I can, I just wish there was more time in the day to do more!
You have done so many projects. Not just your own albums, but collaborations with other artists and movie soundtracks. As you look back on your career, are there any collaborations or projects that really stand out to you as special?
Oh Wow! A flood comes in mind as you ask that question, which is a great question. Just a flood of thoughts. It’s so funny. I’m thinking about [how] somebody asked me to present a speech to some graduates, and I’m kind of contemplating a lot of that, and what can you bring to that event. You know, I think improvising is such a powerful tool that we have as musicians, and God knows in life in general [laughs]. I think as you’re asking that question, I went to something that was an interesting one. Bill Whelan, who was the composer of River Dance (he wrote pretty much that show) he wrote the music for this incredible film called “Some Mother’s Son.” It was about the hunger strike around 1980 in Ireland. It was a very powerful time of political turmoil of course, Bobby Sands, and all those amazing men whose story was told through this film.
Long story short, Helen Mirren was one of the incredible actors in the film, and I was asked to play on the soundtrack, but when I recorded the outro part of the film, it was in Dublin, and I saw the film on the monitor, it was solo violin over this score, it was just a very ambiguous chord structure, I think the key of C from what I recall (I think) and Bill Whelan just said into my headphones “Eileen just kind of travel and see.” and that’s sort of all the advice he gave me. And I remember the movie, I won’t give anything away, but it was incredible, and Hellen Mirren played a mother (if you ever have time Peter definitely check it out it’s incredible) and her acting was amazing and I kind of knew the story, and I was basically reacting to her acting, completely as it was happening, and not knowing what the outcome was going to be. I was literally following her and the story as I was playing, and it was such a powerful moment for me that I did nothing but emote and play through my instrument. I wasn’t thinking about technically anything, sometimes the nastier the sound on the violin I could create to try and feel angst; that was where I went to. It was a really wonderfully freeing experience of trying to emote through an incredible actress and an incredible story. And that was probably one of the moments that I, if you want to say collaboratory, I just felt humbled to be a player in this amazing scenario. And I just was exhausted after. Oh my God, I was very emotional, and I think the guys in the booth were too [laughs]! I just heard them in the cans “Thanks Eileen.” It was a cool moment.
That’s great. Thank you so much for your time! I have one more question. This is kind of a broad one. I think it’s been a really interesting time from when traditional Irish music was in the 90s, to where we are in 2019. Does anything jump out at you as to how Traditional Irish music has changed over the past 20 or so years or to how the perception of trad Irish music has changed?
Yeah, great question again! Loaded question. Probably we could talk for an hour about it! To try and kind of whittle it down, let’s see. And even you say 20 years, and I think you’re being very kind Peter, because I’ve been playing this for so, so long and performing out of my college days in the late 80s, and really kind of digging in, and being on…the precipice of so many new ideas, and thankfully some records that were kind of groundbreaking in the tradition, and I say [that] humbly because at the time it just felt like the right thing to do.
Just following that compass.
Right, exactly. To be told by the next generation of players who are really out there right now doing it as well, that certain records and certain things have shaped them as players and even performers, I mean that again is incredibly humbling. So I think what the body of work that we’ve been doing (“we” meaning me and the people who have come up with me) and of course [we] always build on those before us. I always have to say that right? It is so important that that timeline is maintained. There’s just so much there, and it has changed.
I think just a couple quick ways in my mind would be the elevation of the technical prowess in the players is just incredible. And yet there’s emotion, thank God. There’s still emotion in their playing. And a lot of them are very thoughtful, they do know that this is a continuum and it’s not about being self centered but it’s truly an art and we’re part of a much bigger picture you know? I think that’s really wonderful. And just the arrangements and the chord structures are getting much more full of dimension and thought and I love that! You know the Michael Coleman days of the 1920s when he’s playing the tune and there’s certain chord changes that were obvious but the piano player would just be hanging on a G chord [laughs]!
He would have no idea what was happening!
Those days are really gone and a hundred years from that even, there’s a lot more to it. Also I love to say the performance of it. Because I think when you’re asked to perform, it is a performance; you don’t put your head down, you’re not in a circle. Part of Irish music is being social, being in a corner of a house or a pub and just enjoying each other and the music. You’re not performing in that situation. I think that when you’re asked to perform, you have to perform! You have to put thought into it, you have to put arrangements, you want to chat with the audience, and I think bring them along for the ride of what it is! Instrumental music, it’s good to have some background on some things as well! I think that’s really important, and I think a lot of the musicians and bands are really, really taking note of that. I think that’s really important and fantastic, to bring it up to that higher bar.
Well Eileen this has been an absolute blast! Thanks for taking time out of your schedule to talk with me!
Absolutely my friend! It was a joy! Thanks for great questions! It was fun!
Acclaimed Scottish Fiddle and Cello duo Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas will perform on Saturday October 27th at 7:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York (925 S. George St., York, PA 17403) in a concert sponsored by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society. More information can be found on the Susquehanna Folk Music Society website HERE. Tickets are $24 General Admission, $21 for SFMS Members, and $10 for students (ages 3-22). Tickets will be available at the door or online HERE.
Earlier this month, Natalie Haas chatted with SFMS staff writer Peter Winter about the latest Fraser/Haas record entitled “Ports of Call,” the beginnings of her musical collaboration with Alasdair Fraser and development of her iconic accompaniment style on the cello, as well as growing up going to fiddle camps with her equally noteworthy sister, Bluegrass/Old Time fiddler Brittany Haas.
Peter: I feel like in 2018 I can’t pick up a folk album or a folk publication without hearing either about you or your sister Brittany. Both of you are at the forefront of playing right now, so I wanted to know a little bit about what was in the water when you two were growing up? What was the role of folk music when you guys were kids? It’s absolutely crazy how you two are doing.
Natalie: [Laughs] Yeah! We were really lucky to have (when we were growing up) the world of fiddle camps, and that was kind of our entry point for both me and Brittany. And so thanks to Alasdair for having created that scene near where we both grew up! That was where I discovered Scottish music for the first time, and that became my kind of life calling, and the same thing for Brittany with Old Time music. [We] discovered this whole community as well as the music itself, and really fell in love with that and [it] had a huge life changing effect on both of us. So maybe there was something in the water, I don’t know! Right around Santa Cruz, California is where the camp is, and that’s about an hour from where Brittany and I grew up and just kind of happened into it by accident really; both of us coming from the classical Suzuki method and then Brittany’s violin teacher introduced us to Alasdair’s Scottish fiddle school and we both went there when we were very young our first time (I was 11 and she was 8) and then we’ve been every year since, and it’s had a huge impact on both of us!
Peter: That’s amazing. Were your parents into fiddle music at all? They introduced you to classical music but were they a part of introducing you to this music?
Natalie: Only in taking us to fiddle camp! Yeah it was classical music we started with, only because our parents didn’t know there was anything else out there until we heard about this camp. So we both did Suzuki for a few years and Brittany started Bluegrass fiddle lessons actually cause she was kind of getting bored, and my mom (she’s just a real go getter) she asked at the local guitar store in Palo Alto, and that’s where Brittany met her first fiddle teacher.
Peter: That’s awesome! How did you and Alasdair first start playing together as a duo? How did that come together?
Natalie: It was through the camp. I went for a couple years just as a student, and it’s a big camp, so I didn’t meet him right away. I was young and a few years after I had been going for a little while I had gotten a little bit better at my instrument, and I was sitting in a Baroque workshop (we had a special guest there who’s a great Baroque violinist from England) and Alasdair was sitting next to me in class and heard me play and pulled me aside after the classes and asked me if I wanted to try some stuff together. He had been looking for a cellist to kind of help him realize this dream of kind of getting the cello back into Scottish music, because it’s one of the few kind of folk traditions that has a really well documented history of cello being a big part of it. So we kind of went off together under a redwood tree and started reading some of these old bass lines out of these 18th century Scottish fiddle collections together, and that was kind of the jumping off point for seeing where the cello had been and then taking it from there and deciding what we could then do with it.
Peter: You guys have been playing together for so long, and it’s so cool to see any band regardless of genre be able to hold it together and continue to make increasingly wonderful music for as long as you guys have. You obviously have such great musical chemistry that’s so evident from your recordings and seeing you guys live, did you recognize when you first started that there was something really, really good with the two of you playing together?
Natalie: I don’t think I did, because I was only 15 at the time! I didn’t really have a sense of that. I was kind of in a perpetual sense of bewilderment and awe at that stage. It was something that developed, you know? I was still a student when we started playing together, and I had a lot to learn still. It was a really cool kind of journey together of developing this thing that hadn’t been done yet. I mean it had been done hundreds of years ago but hadn’t been done in today. So no, I don’t think I was aware, but I was always very grateful to be asked to do that, and really learned so much in the process, and it’s still kind of a learning journey! There’re limitations with only two instruments, but it’s also very freeing in a way because I have all this open space available, and how to fill it is always an open question. So it’s really exciting to get to have that freedom together.
Peter: Yeah! How does it feel that you two are still playing together 18 years and 5 albums later? Does it feel crazy that it’s been that long?
Natalie: Yes and no. It feels totally natural. I think when you’re choosing a band a lot of it is musical, but a lot of it is personal as well. We’ve always just gotten on really well. So yeah often times when you’re choosing bandmates, you’re choosing people over musicians. I think that’s really helped; that we’re such great pals at this stage. Of course, it’s not 100% of the time perfect, but he’s one of my oldest friends, and I really appreciate that we have that bond. And yeah, it’s still a joy to make music together after all this time.
Peter: Going back to the two of you working together and Alasdair having this dream of bringing back the cello to traditional Scottish music. At least to my research (you can correct me if I’m wrong on this) when we’re going back to the early days of cello with fiddle tunes, we’re looking at these very simple bass lines, almost a drone essentially, and taking that to where you’ve brought it which is just absolutely amazing, I feel like you’ve created such an iconic sound! I hear other cellists copying it, and I’ll even hear guitarists trying to emulate some of the great rhythms you’ve brought to contemporary Celtic music. What were some of the influencesor ideas that you were bringing in to try and return the cello to Celtic music?
Natalie: Yeah, well for me there were very few cellists at that time who were inspiring to me, it was pretty much Rushad Eggleston, and he hadn’t really done it in a Celtic music context so much at that stage. He was kind of in the process of developing this set of rhythmic tools for the cello, so I was very influenced by him, although we sound completely different in what we do. Also Darol Anger, he kind of happened into the camp. Using these bowed string instruments more as rhythmic tools and part of the rhythm section, that idea is something that came from Darol, but hadn’t really been applied to Celtic music before me I guess.
So those two, and then also just being around fiddle players in the camp setting, because there are so many fiddles, often times you would have a melody player, but I would hear the one who wasn’t playing the melody (the teachers or the older, more advanced players that I looked up to) and decide to try and copy what they were doing. Same thing with sitting in a session and hearing piano and guitar. Funny that you say that there are guitar players copying me, cause I was originally just copying them! People like John Doyle, and trying to figure out how to treat the cello like that: as a rhythmic, kind of driving force behind the melody. Yeah so listening to other instruments and figuring out how to make that work on the cello as well.
Peter: I just find this so fascinating you were in these uncharted waters…How long do you think it took for what you were doing, your style, to kind of come together?
Natalie: Definitely a few years! That’s why I think we didn’t record our first album until 5 years-6 years into the playing together. And I think our sound has changed a lot since then too. I was still kind of figuring stuff out for a long time before we recorded “Fire & Grace” and you know that album has a lot of raw energy on it, but then I think our arrangement sensibilities got a lot more sophisticated from that point on, and that’s something that’s still evolving. And writing our own tunes and all that didn’t start right away, I mean for me anyway. So yeah, it’s kind of an ever-ongoing process!
Peter: For Sure. So, speaking of recording, and how things have changed, on the new record “Ports of Call” from last year, you guys talk about going outside of Scotland. You have some original tunes on the album, as well as tunes from Scandinavia, Spain, and France. Did the concept come first, or did you find yourselves gravitating to tunes outside your normal stomping grounds?
Natalie: Yeah. That’s a good question. No, I think the name came later (as they often do in this) but we started to see a picture forming of the tunes that we had chosen. It’s about half and half, original tunes vs tunes from other countries, and I think that is the natural result of the kind of traveling that we are doing and having all these fiddle camps in different parts of the world, getting exposed to other kinds of music where the fiddle is also very prominent and having these wonderful tune exchanges with people at our camps, because Alasdair’s camp model has always been to kind of have this three pronged approach, of three different fiddle cultures coming together, and seeing what happens over the course of the week.
Peter: Oh, that’s really neat.
Natalie: So yeah, it’s always sort of this cultural melting pot! There’s a lot of tune sharing that goes on back and forth, and so we really just kind of picked tunes that we love from these other cultures. We’re not trying to say that we’re authentic exponents of these traditions, but we’re trying to give them our full respect and best treatment in our own voice, which might be tainted by Scottish music a little bit! [Laughs].
Peter: Obviously in addition for both you and Alasdair it’s not just about performance. The fiddle camps are such a huge part of what you do, and you have the associate professorship at Berklee, why is education something that is so important to you?
Natalie: Well I think that’s part of the way that folk music works. It’s meant to be shared and not necessarily by really advanced players. A lot of our audiences are amateur musicians actually, and we love to share what we do. We do workshops too, all over the place, and part of the tradition is bringing people into it and getting people excited about it. And we love exposing people who haven’t heard this music before. A lot of people coming from the classical world (like I was when I was younger) just haven’t been exposed to other styles of music, and seeing the joy on their faces is just really gratifying. And having grown up in the fiddle camp world, I guess I want to share that with other people; the total life changing experience that it is.
Peter: Yeah. My brother is a classical cellist and did one of your camps this summer, he just came back raving about it!
Natalie: Oh Amazing!
Peter: What do you think are some good rules to follow for backing up a tune? Some good ground rules for accompanists out there?
Natalie: Yeah well, I guess number one is the melody is always king, so whatever you’re doing, it’s always in support of the melody, so you are not the main focus. That being said, I couldn’t content myself with playing these old bass lines because I would get bored! So whatever you have to do to keep yourself interested, varying what you do constantly so you’re never getting stuck in learning a pattern and just playing that over and over. Creating different textures I think is really important. Especially because these tunes end up getting played lots of times, so trying to figure out different ways of making sound on your instrument that is going to be always serving the tune and serving the arrangement too, so you can be playing a tune multiple times and really guide where it is going.
Peter: So finally one more question to bring this full circle. I recently saw a youtube video (I think you guys uploaded it this year) of you and Brittany doing a duo thing together.
Natalie: Yeah!
Peter: It was so good! I’m such a fan of both of you!
Natalie: Thank You!
Peter: It is so cool to me that you guys are both so talented in different but complimentary genres and styles! Do you guys think there is one day a Haas Sister full album in the works?
Natalie: Yeah I really hope so! We just did this special sister tour this May of Ireland, so that video was during our rehearsal time for that, and of course we love playing together, it’s so easy! We have this twenty years of shared repertoire (through the fiddle camps again!) even though we both kind of went our separate ways in different styles of music. I really hope so, Brittany is going through a little transition right now, she went back to school, although she’s still playing. She has to be kind of more judicious about when she’s on the road, so if there is something that happens in the future she’s gotta be the one who gives the green light.
Peter: For sure.
Natalie: But yeah, we’ve both said that we want to do it more.
Peter: As one obsessive music fan I feel you two owe folk music. We need that Haas Sisters album at some point!
Natalie: (Laughs) Well I certainly hope it won’t be too far in the future!
Peter: Well Natalie, thank you so much for your time and putting this together! We will catch you at the concert! Once again thank you so much for coming back and playing for Susquehanna Folk!
The great Scottish Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis (as heard on the Disney movie BRAVE) and her band will be performing at The Abbey Bar in Harrisburg, PA in a Susquehanna Folk Music Society sponsored concert on Sunday October 11th at 7:30. You won’t want to miss out on getting tickets to see this astonishing singer! Tickets can be found HERE
Peter Winter, a writer and musician living in Harrisburg, had the opportunity to do an in-depth interview with Julie; covering topics such as where she came from and the deep respect that she has for her heritage, her latest CD, her love of music which has extended to a broadcasting career, and the priorities that she has for her life.
For your convenience we have put this wonderful interview into sections to help guide you to the parts that most interest you.
You could say I was slightly nervous going into my interview with Scottish folk singer and multi-instrumentalist Julie Fowlis. To rattle off Julie’s extensive list of achievements would be to include an award for “Folk Act of the Year” at the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2014, as well as her becoming the first Gaelic solo artist to nab a Scottish Music Award that same year. In addition to receiving a nomination as ”Folk Singer Of The Year” at the 2015 BBC Radio Radio 2 Folk Awards, Julie is also an experienced broadcaster on radio and television. She holds a BA Honours in Applied Music, and an MA in Material Culture & The Environment in addition to her Honourary Doctorate of Music from the University in Aberdeen. Oh, and then there’s “BRAVE” the 2012 Disney/PIXAR film for which Julie provided multiple songs.
However, what ever apprehensions I might have been harboring were instantly dispelled when a cheery and familiar “Hello Peter How are you?!” greeted me on the other end of the line at the start of our phone interview. With occasional sounds of her children in the background of the call, we chatted on everything from the role of Gaelic in modern day Scotland, “it’s a living, breathing, and importantly a modern language as well as being an ancient one,” to our mutual happiness at her latest record “Gach Sgeul/Every Story” being released on vinyl, “I’m glad we did it too. It was a really fun thing.” Through out the extent of the interview, I was constantly impressed by Julie’s selfless dedication to not only the musical and linguistic heritage that she champions, but also to her family.
“Who You’ve Come From”-Growing up in North Uist and the importance of knowing your Heritage.
Peter: You are associated with bringing not only traditional Scottish Gaelic music but also language to the forefront. How did that all start for you? In your early years and your childhood, how did you grow up with your traditional music and language? What roles did they play in your life?
Julie: My mother is a native speaker, my father speaks English, so we had two languages in the house. Although there was no Gaelic medium schooling at that time, everyone in the community spoke Gaelic and our teacher was a great singer and tradition bearer. We were in a small school with only 12 pupils and were schooled for seven years, from five years old up to 12 years old, in one classroom for the most part; at one stage there were only two in my class, myself and one other boy. You don’t really realize that as a child but looking back now, she [our teacher] was just this incredible tradition bearer and singer and she just made song an unofficial part of the curriculum.
Also, where I was raised in the Hebrides there was a really strong tradition of piping and instrumental music as well. It was very normal for both girls and boys to learn a little bit of piping quite early on, so I was allowed to hear this music from a very young age and I think like so many experiences in your formative years they kind of have a powerful effect on you throughout your life and that’s certainly true for me.
Peter: Were you strongly fluent in Gaelic from an early age or was there a point where you consciously decided you wanted to embrace your native language?
Julie: I’m not sure there was a definite point, it was kind of a longer process than that. We were very guilty as youngsters of being spoken to in Gaelic and answering in English (it certainly wasn’t rebelling against anything, it probably had to do with a lack of confidence to speak it!) so there was this understanding and acceptance of the language. It was probably when I was in my late teens and when I had started university and being away from home as well that you start to realize how important these things are and I made a conscious decision then to make an effort to speak it a little more.
Now, how ever many years later, I have my own family. I have two children and it’s our first language in the house. We’re very much a bilingual family; the kids speak English as well, and their father is Irish and he speaks Irish to them so I guess in some ways the kids are almost trilingual. It’s what I speak naturally to mums at the school and the teachers, and we have a huge community here. It’s something that is completely normal now but it did take a conscious decision to commit to it, especially with having kids. I think speaking a minority language you’re always fighting the tide. It can be quite overwhelming some times because even though you’re involved with a really strong and active and vibrant community, it’s still very much in the minority and it’s almost like there are tiny battles every single day that you have to fight to kind of keep going.
Peter: That leads me into my next question! I’ve heard you say before that you want Gaelic to be your children’s first language. Do you think you’ve seen a shift in Scotland to an extent? Are there other people of your generation wanting this language to be more of a part of their lives and their children’s lives?
Julie: I think so. I think it has probably to do with the opportunities being there now through things like Gaelic medium education and musical tuitions through the medium of Gaelic. Things like that where language is placed at the center rather than being an afterthought. So I guess there’s more visibility of it because of this increase in opportunities for both kids and adults. And I guess there is a sort of visibility in the sense that over the last ten years the Gaelic language has become an official language of Scotland, because it wasn’t up until 2005.
Peter: Really?
Julie: Absolutely incredible. It had no actual legal official status until 2005. It’s unbelievable. The language that’s been spoken for over 1,000 years on this island; It is incredible. And since it has received official status, that has allowed for development in terms of visibility to do with signage and maybe more programming and things like that which are really, really, important. Especially for youngsters I think, to see that it’s a living, breathing, and importantly a modern language as well as being an ancient one.
Peter: Once again that flows into my next question: So much of you life is caught up with this language. Why do you think that this linguistic heritage is so important? Why is showing this language as not only an important thing in antiquity but also making it a living breathing entity, making sure that your children are fluent in it and even that it is their first language, why is that so important to you?
Julie: Well I think, again at its simplest it gives you a sense of who you are and who you’ve come from. And I say “Who you’ve come from” quite deliberately because we have this phrase in Gaelic “Co as a tha thu? ” which translated into English means “where are you from,” but literally translated it means “who are you from” and that is what we say to ask where someone is from. There’s this sense of genealogy and lineage and who you belong to. And I guess that only makes sense, when you can understand the language and the place names you come from. The environment itself, the landscape around you, comes alive when you actually know all these words. People use them in English, but actually they’re Gaelic words. They might be geographical terms, or they might be old place names but we’re surrounded by them and they’re used everyday by English speakers, which is wonderful. However, I think when you have the language, then all these names, all these words, they make sense. They tell you something about your landscape, they tell you about where you are standing, and there might be a reason for the name of that rock, or that hill face, or that loch or that bay. It gives you a clue as to what went on there, or what went before you. And I think that gives you a great grounding in terms of your own sense of place, and sense of belonging. It’s a sense of being settled perhaps.
“Well of Heritage”- Compiling an Archive of Scottish Folklore
Peter: One of the interesting roles you have, an extra hat you wear that a lot of other musicians don’t wear, is that you’re also in a way an archivist. You’re not just performing these songs, but you’re finding these amazing traditional songs and bringing them all to the rest of us. What are some of the sources you draw from? Is there a physical archive where you can tap into some of these older songs?
Julie: There is. Of course, I have to say I collect little tiny bits and pieces, but mostly I’m very fortunate to be able to tap into other folk who are doing really incredible archival work. I’m able to tap into that, and listen to songs and learn stories from other’s people’s work as well, so I definitely don’t want to take any credit for that! There is one incredible resource that was set up just a few years ago it’s called “Tobar an Dualchais” which is known as “Kist O Riches” in Scots, and it means the “Well of Heritage.” This is a website that was set up to digitize and make available online tens of thousands of recordings that had been made in Scotland from the 30s onwards by incredible characters (there really very few characters when you look back there were just a handful of them) who went out of their way when native speakers were passing on and we were losing pockets of culture. They went around and from the 30s onwards they collected songs and stories, historical information, information about place names, legends, folklore even things like recipes and local gossip and information; really, really important nuggets. And they were all documented within different archives and collections. One of them being the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh, one being the BBC Archives, and the other main one was the National Archive, The National Trust for Scotland Archive in the Island of Canna collected by John Lorne Campbell. These were all put together and they were digitized. There’s a team that spent many years digitizing all these old reel to reel tapes and cataloging them properly and then uploading them on to a website and they are now free for anyone around the world to listen to just at the click of a button. I think we’re now at almost 45,000 items, recordings, on this site and it’s an absolutely incredible resource. It’s one of the most advanced digital archive projects in the world. I worked with them for a year as artist in residence, and I’m very, very proud to be associated with them.
“I Seemed to Have These Songs all There”-Collecting Songs and Recording an Album at Home
Peter: For the last album “Gach Sgeul/Every Story,” were there in particular any interesting sources that you used to discover songs for that record or maybe a place you weren’t expecting to find a song that made it onto the album?
Julie: I think that album kind of came together whilst I just had my first child and just after a couple years of her being a baby and a toddler I fell pregnant and had my second child. I kind of felt like I was on a bit of a personal journey through that time and music definitely wasn’t my main focus. The children were my focus. But whilst that was all happening, whilst I was on that personal journey, different songs came to me at different times from different people, and when we decided “OK it’s time to do an album” I seemed to have these songs all there. And so it wasn’t sort of a conscious decision to search for songs for an album but they came to me in different ways.
Some I learnt whilst I was the artist in residence at “Tobar an Dualchais,” some of them came whilst I was working on a great BBC project which was called “Hebrides” in English and “Innsean an Iar” in Gaelic, which was a nature program actually, but that included performances from singers singing songs that were very much rooted in terms of the environment; songs about nature, or bird song, or the change of the seasons, or the sea; things like that. It was a lovely series that brought together culture and environmental issues and nature, and some of the songs on the album came from that working on that project. So I guess it just all came together quite organically.
Peter: Going into the record did you have a pretty locked in sense of what tracks were going to be the album? Sometimes you hear stories of artists recording way more than they actually need. Did you have a strong sense of what was going to constitute the album?
Julie: I think we did have quite a clear sense of it. We had a list of 25-30 songs to begin with and before we got anywhere near the studio, we whittled them down to the 10 or 11 we wanted to be on the record. We ended up with the 11, so it was kind of as we planned. I guess having kids kind of focuses the mind in a way that we had never been able to do before.
Peter: Going along with you talking about working while having kids around, you decided to record this album at home. I was wondering if you could talk a little about that. There’s a story about how one of your daughters is actually on the album?
Julie: It was actually the first day of recording. I wanted to do it at home because I wanted it to be relaxed and know that the kids are OK, and we had friends and family members looking after the kids while we were busy recording. Typically the first day in the studio (typically for us anyway) is always really slow and you never get very much done, and it’s only the second day that you really get into it. But quite untypically, the first day had gone exceptionally well. We had got a whole song down in the morning and we hadn’t really expected to. So we moved onto another song and thought, “well let’s just keep going.” And so we start the second song and everyone was feeling really good, but this time it was bedtime for my youngest (she was only a year at the time) and I guess she just wanted her mom, naturally, and so I was kind of caught between wanting to put my wee one to bed but yet keep all the guys and the engineer. Everyone was kind of poised, ready to go, so I felt kind of torn between the two. So I just had one of these baby carriers and so I picked her up and as soon as I did, she settled and was instantly quiet and so I thought, “Let’s just risk it.” And I just took her into our little studio space, with the backpack on, which is probably not great for the lung capacity actually. She fell asleep whilst we were recording the track, and so I joke that if you listen closely you might be able to hear her.
Peter: That’s fantastic. Speaking about that album, first of all I just have to compliment you, it’s such a fantastic record.
Julie: Oh thank you!
Peter: You’re welcome! I love how so many people associate you with keeping these traditions alive which is so wonderful, but I don’t think enough gets said about how subtly and tastefully innovative your newest album is. It’s really intimate, but you also have these big sounds and up to five fiddle parts at times. On some tracks, (and I saw this on a vide for Celtic Connections 2014) you have a vibraphone player at points?
Julie: Yeah There is!
Peter: It’s amazing! I think so many times people try to expand this idea of acceptable traditional instrumentation, and it kind of blows up in their faces, but you guys did it so well and it just fits in the mix. Whose idea was that? Who wanted to have mallets and vibraphones?
Julie: Well I guess again like so much in trad music so much happens because of friendships in quite an organic way; the scene is so small. We worked with great bodhran players in the past, but quite often with slow songs we were kind of thinking “is there a different way we can bring in percussion that doesn’t sound too orchestral?” something that just kind of blends into this kind of acoustic sound we are trying to make. And Iain Sandilands, who is the percussionist on the album, he’s married to a great friend of mine who appears on the album as well (actually she plays fiddle in the band RANT who came up with the string arrangements). So we asked Iain if he would just like to come along and try some things out, and we knew what he does, and that with his understanding of the trad world coupled with his incredible musicianship and training we just knew it would work. He is an incredible musician; he can be very, very understated, but yet very, very powerful because he is so understated. Some times you’re not even aware he’s there but then you realize that there is this beautiful sound going on and it’s him that’s making it.
Peter: It’s so good. Some of the most uptempo styles of songs you do are traditional “mouth music” and “working songs.” I was wondering if you could explain those for someone who was unfamiliar with them.
Julie: There are different categories of those up beat songs, one kind of umbrella is “working songs” and under that umbrella there are different types of work songs so there might be what we call waulking songs, there might be milling songs or rowing songs, songs for churning butter, or for cutting grass. Things like that, and they all have different rhythms and the idea is the song would have been sung to the work being done. So therefore that’s why the rhythms are so different. So they represent a way of life that is almost entirely gone as machines and modern ways come into replace traditional methods. These songs retain those feelings and the rhythms, so they always hold a great interest for me.
The other really up-tempo type songs are the mouth music, what we call “Puirt à beul” which literally translated means “tunes from the mouth” and these are the kind of up-tempo tracks that we like to sing because they are really good fun they can be quite challenging, they’re tongue twisters. They tend to have a funny story. I’m always amazed and impressed by them cause when you see the translations of them, you think they are really simplistic, almost silly throwaway songs, but when sung in Gaelic, there’s quite often different methods such as rhyming, internal rhythms, and alliteration that are used to create interest and to create certain sounds and rhythms that can make them really, really challenging to sing I have to say. So they are actually really clever little pieces of composition.
“Coming at it From a Different Angle”-Broadcasting Career
Peter: You’re involved in a lot of broadcasting, getting to interview lots of different artists, I saw you in a picture recently interviewing The Punch Brothers which was like for me, “Oh my gosh all my favorite people in one picture.”
Julie: They’re great guys!
Peter: Oh My gosh, I think the Julie Fowlis/Punch Brothers musical collaboration has to happen at some point.
Julie Fowlis: Oh I would love that! That would be great!
Peter: Yeah Please! For Crying Out Loud! Anyway, Not a lot of musicians get to do that, to wear both hats. You are being interviewed by me right now, as you’re often interviewed, but also you get to talk to your peers in this same way. What do you like about getting to interview other musicians?
Julie: It’s a bit odd, because I wasn’t trained in broadcasting or journalism, and I totally fell into it by accident. I think the first thing I ever did was I had to stand in and do a radio program. I had never done anything like it! I think they just asked me because I was a performer and I guess they thought I might be able to handle it you know. And the next thing all of a sudden I had like eight shows and I did the same thing the following year, the thing kind of snow balled, and it was almost as if it happened without me really realizing it you know? But now I kind of feel a little bit more comfortable wearing that hat. And I always used to feel that I was just a musician who was, we have a phrase here that is “flying by the seat of your pants,” I always used to feel like that. But now I guess I feel a little more comfortable with that hat on.
This summer being at Cambridge (Folk Festival) it was lovely to be working with a really great experienced broadcaster, radio character and celebrity Mark Radcliffe who’s a well-known voice and face here in the UK. We kind of balance each other out because I’m coming at it from another angle than him. I guess the battle for me is to always not keep the interview too “in house,” and not music speak all the time because you’re trying to present them to a wider audience who really have no or little experience of, say, The Punch Brothers, where if it was me in a room with them, I’d be wanting to talk about tunes, and rhythms, and songs, and harmonies and things but you have to take a little step back and try and remember who is listening to this.
“Everything Else in a Bundle”-Defining Yourself as Person and Artist
Peter: You have many different roles: Preserver of heritage, singer, broadcaster. At the end of the day who do you see yourself as?
Julie: I guess my default answer has to be “a mother.” I think that’s who I am first and foremost now. I think I’m a mum to my two kids first and foremost. And then thereafter, I think everything else in a bundle. I was always so wracked with nerves and lacking in confidence when I was around other instrumentalists I used to say “Oh I’m a singer really who just plays a little bit” and then when I was around singers I would say, “Oh I’m an instrumentalist really, I’m not really a singer” I would always try and play down what I do. I guess I’m kind of old enough now to say, “You know, I have a crack at the singing, and I play a bit of instrumental music, and a bit of broadcasting.” I think having kids puts everything into perspective. I am very, very fortunate to get to do all these things within my job, and I go on to do the best that I can.
Peter: “Gach Sgeul/Every Story” is getting amazing reviews, and you’re the first Traditional artist to win the National Scottish Music Awards. There are a lot of people bringing folk music in the forefront, but you are exclusively singing in a specialized minority language and yet your music seems to resonate so broadly. Why do you think people are drawn to your music despite the fact that there exists this language barrier?
Julie: I think definitely it’s much less about me and much more about the music. The music is so powerful, and I think the music is so honest. You can spot manufactured music, and you can spot real music. Music that was created for the want of making music. It wasn’t created for money, it wasn’t created for fame or fortune, it was created for the love of making music. For putting a child to sleep, to pass the time while you were doing a hard task, out in the fields or milking cattle. This is music that is very true and it is very honest, and I think that’s what speaks to people.
Peter: My last question! When you’re not playing music or keeping your kids in line, what are some of the Julie Fowlis albums of 2015?
Julie: I have to be honest and say one of my albums of 2015 is by my husband’s band Danu from Ireland. They had their 20th anniversary this year and that record is in the car all the time. The kids love it, it has incredible musicianship; that album is really fantastic. It’s a really complete piece or work I think. As a musician, I’m guilty of putting on a few tracks of something then putting it off then putting on a few tracks and turning it off. There are very few albums I hear nowadays that feel like a complete piece of work, you know? Definitely “Buan,” which is their new album, feels like a piece or work to me. Of course, going back to The Punch Brothers isn’t that [The Phosphorescent Blues released January 27th 2015] an incredible record? Totally amazing. There are so many now I’m trying to pick, those would be two that stand out for me this year.
Peter: Julie thank you so much for taking the time to do this!
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