Image Courtesy of Breabach
Fans of Scottish trad band Breabach who missed their recent appearance at the Woodford Folk Festival needn’t worry – the band will be back in a few weeks time for a string of festival events including an appearance at this year’s WOMADelaide. We thought it was about we chatted the band so managed to get a hold of bass player and vocalist James Lindsay all the way in Glasgow to chat about their plans for Australia, their new album Ùrlar and the importance of the Scottish tradition in music.
Gareth Hugh Evans: Weren’t you in Australia just a couple of weeks ago?
James Lindsay: We were. We were at Woodford – enjoying the temperature there. It was up to 44 [degrees] one day.
GHE: I think you’re a bit of a glutton for punishment if you’re going to come all the way to Australia, head home to Scotland for a couple of weeks and then have to do that massive flight again to come back out to Australia.
JL: I know! We had to get our washing done done!
GHE: I guess this time of year is pretty important for British folk music with the awards and stuff on plus Celtic Connections in Glasgow.
JL: Totally. We all had to get back – we’re all involved in different things at Celtic Connections so we had to horse back and do that. That festival just finished.
GHE: How was it?
JL: It was great. We had too much fun!
GHE: We should probably talk about festivals coming up for you guys as well. You’re heading back to Australia and basically doing the folk festival circuit that tends to happen around March and April. How’re you feeling about returning to Australia again?
JL: We’re much looking forward to it and visiting a few new places. We’ve been over a few times now. We’ve spent a lot of time in Melbourne and this last trip we were in Brisbane so it will be great to get into Sydney and get to Adelaide and all that. We’re really looking forward to it – we’ve always had a great time whenever we’ve been out.
GHE: I think Australia, being a colony originally, has a big connection to celtic music, to Scottish music. It must be nice to play to overseas audiences that do feel that connection.
JL: Yeah definitely. It’s really great after shows a lot of people will come up to us and say they’re either born in Scotland or they’ve got family here and it made them homesick. It’s really nice.
GHE: I think Australians are probably pretty well versed in Irish music but maybe not so much in Scottish music – I’m not sure people realise how different the two can be. I remember asking my Mum, who’s Scottish, when I was a kid what the difference between Irish and Scottish music is and she told me “Irish music is good but Scottish music is happier”.
JL: (laughs) That could be true! But Scottish music can be a lot sadder as well I think.
GHE: That’s true – it does have the pipes which can be quite mournful.
JL: Yes exactly. The pipes can be really melancholic when you want them to be.
GHE: I really like what I’ve heard of your new album – Ùrlar right?.
JL: Yes Ùrlar. It’s a gaelic word that means “floor” or “ground”. We were talking about the mournful pipe playing – that kind of sound is a pibroch, the slow classical pipe music. It’s one of the oldest forms of pipe music. The ùrlar is actually the first movement, the first motif in one of these pibrochs. We liked the combination of the two themes.
GHE: Obviously there’s instrumentals on the album and also some songs as well – a lot of them in Gaelic. How important is it as a trad band to be singing in the native language of Scotland and continuing that tradition?
JL: We think it’s very important and we’ve got a couple of fluent speakers in the band so it seems kind of natural just to have them singing in a tongue that they’re fluent in. We also sing in Scots as well – we kind of like to represent both those languages
GHE: It feels like music is the way Gaelic can thrive – the way that people who may not be speakers can still connect with it.
JL: Definitely. It gets a lot of people interested in learning as well. At the moment it’s the highest uptake of people learning to speak Gaelic and I think a lot of that is because of the music. As you say it’s a way of getting into the language.
GHE: Listening to you guys and recent stuff from The Battlefield Band as well means I’ve been getting into Gaelic music quite a bit. It’s a very musical language.
JL: Totally – it’s very rhythmical.
GHE: I haven’t had a chance to see you guys live yet but I’ve heard that it’s very high energy. Is that a fair assumption.
JL: Yeah, I’d say that’s a good take on it. We definitely keep the live show very varied. We play to our audiences – we’ll have slower, poignant moments but towards the end of the set we like to ramp it up. We’ve got two sets of bagpipes and Megan [Henderson] our fiddle player does step dancing as well so we get all of these things combined and hopefully create a bit of a noise, a bit of energy.
GHE: When you’re performing at a festival do you tailor your set to the festival crowd, as opposed to the set you’d do at your headline show?
JL: In the UK we do a lot of sit down theatre shows where we’ll do two halves for a concert. We definitely structure that a lot differently to our one hour festival shows. We like to keep the energy up more for the festivals.
GHE: I’m really chuffed you’re doing WOMADelaide this year – it’s a fantastic festival. It’s great to see some celtic music coming back into it. Have you played WOMADs elsewhere?
JL: Yeah we’ve played WOMAD before and it’s a really great experience. We didn’t actually get to hang about that long but just wandering about the site – the music there’s so diverse. There was a fair bit of celtic stuff. It was really varied and really exciting so we can’t wait ti get to WOMADelaide.
GHE: It’s nice to present this type of music to such a wide and open audience. I feel like the people who go to WOMADelaide don’t go with a pretence of “I have to go and see this headliner” or whatever – they’re just there to discover great music.
JL: It’s a great thing. It’s a really music lovers festival these WOMADs. It’s great that people are up for opening themselves up to hear new stuff.
GHE: Once you guys finish your festival run here in Australia you’ll be heading home in time for the festival season in the UK I guess?
JL: We finish up in Sydney at the start of April. And then we fly home – April’s quite quiet for us but then in May we head off on our UK tour. And then all the UK festivals will kick off after that.
GHE: I know you’ve only just released Ùrlar but are there any plans to record again this year?
JL: There’s talk of maybe doing something next year because it will be the twelfth anniversary of the band. We kind of like that because a 12 year old bottle of whisky is the standard. There might be something to come out for that but at the moment there’s no details I’m afraid.
GHE: Well thanks so much for chatting with us today, it’s been great.
JL: We’re really looking forward to getting out and spend a good bit of time in Australia.
Breabach will be in Australia in March. The full list of dates are below:
Friday 7th and Saturday 8th March – Port Fairy Folk Festival, VIC
Sunday 9th and Monday 10th March – WOMADelaide, Adelaide, SA
Tuesday 11th March – Brunswick Music Festival, Melbourne, VIC
Sunday 23rd March – 10 Days on the Island Festival, TAS
Saturday 5th March – Sydney Opera House, Sydney, NSW
Timber and Steel 
Thank Folk It’s Friday – 14th February | Timber and Steel said,
February 14, 2014 at 15:12
[…] “We definitely keep the live show very varied. We play to our audiences – we’ll have slower, poignant moments but towards the end of the set we like to ramp it up. We’ve got two sets of bagpipes and Megan [Henderson] our fiddle player does step dancing as well so we get all of these things combined and hopefully create a bit of a noise, a bit of energy” – James Lindsay from Breabach chats to Gareth Hugh Evans. Interview here […]