"... the commonalities between cultures"
It's interesting to note the dearth of material regarding Alasdair Roberts available to the casual observer.
A quick internet trawl won't find much of use, with the Glasgow based artist seemingly able to operate without causing ripples in critical circles. Yet this sits at a complete tangent to the importance of his work, which seems to add a genuine sense of strangeness to the Scottish tradition.
Working quickly, moving from project to project, these are exciting times to be aware of Roberts' work. Last year's 'The Pig Gaed The Spree' collection found the artist rifling through Alan Lomax' Caledonian recordings, while the Galoshins project has witnessed the re-birth of an almost forgotten morality play.
Yet 'Urstan' is perhaps his most unusual act yet. Born into an English speaking family, Alasdair Roberts agreed to co-host a night at Glasgow's CCA with Mairi Morrison which found the songwriter plunged into a new, alien tradition.
Out now, ClashMusic tracked down Alasdair Roberts on tour in Spain to discuss his work within the varying Scottish traditions.
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Can you remember your first encounter with Gaelic folk songs? Did that leave an impression on you, encountering that different, distinct discipline?
I just listened to Gaelic music quite a lot when I was younger, yeah. It’s sort of been in the background of my life, in a way. But, I don’t speak Gaelic fluently most of the Gaelic I do know comes from listening to the music... song culture. The first song I heard in Gaelic was actually called 'Mhic
Iarla Nam Bratach Bana', which means 'Son of the Earl
of White Banners', which is quite a well known catchy song. Really, I love the music, I find it very moving just to listen to. Usually I can only really enjoy it translations - verbally - but there’s something about the mood of the music, whatever it is, just sometimes speaks to me.
Did you find that, having been steeped in a Scottish tradition, it was a strange beguiling beast to master?
You’re right, there are structural differences within the music and things that perhaps are based on older sort of modes. The poetics are different and...yeah, there are a lot of differences to it. I just think of it as Gaelic on the record but it’s mostly just vocals; mostly just the meaningless syllables which you sing as part of the chorus in Gaelic songs. I didn’t really take any of the lead vocals, it was just choruses I was joining in on.
From what I’ve read, the project began in the CCA so did you approach this with the idea of injecting modernity into the Gaelic tradition?
That wasn’t really at the forefront of my mind, I wasn’t trying to be contemporary or modern , we were just seeing what sounds would arise and what kind of music would happen when we got this certain group of players together, whose sensibilities...we’re just friends really, people who I wanted to play with. The music just grew out of who was involved in the session rather than a conscious attempt to make it sound a certain way.
Have you sang Gaelic folk songs in your sets to try and introduce them?
Only with Mairi, I think I sang ‘Ic Iarla Nam Bratach Bana’ a couple of times, but there’s other ways that Gaelic music has influenced my own music. A lot of the songs that I write draw on traditional Gaelic melodies, things like that. I suppose, also, I went through a point of reading a lot of Gaelic literature and that kind of Celtic poetics influence my writing as well.
There’s a great book that came out a couple of years ago called ‘Songbook Of The Pillagers’, it’s like an anthology of medieval Gaelic poetry and there’s some really cool stuff in there. Honestly, the rich traditionary of guys like Sorley MacLean and hundreds of poets.
Have you found commonalities between Gaelic folk song and Scots?
Yeah, certain similarities, always commonalities, maybe just in terms of the subject matter: a lot of the songs are to do with mortality or to do with love. Basic primal human emotions and stuff. They’re actually kind of similar, and there’s also kind of work songs for different kinds of work. The Western Isles deal with things differently than say the North East of Scotland, which tends to focus on earthy kind of matters. There’s probably melodic differences, but they do seem to have influenced each other over the centuries.
I think some people underestimate how late Gaelic died out - up until the 20th century there was still remnants of Gaelic culture in Aberdeenshire.
The part of Scotland where I grew up, Callander, was Gaelic speaking as well. I read a book of poetry from that area, from the type of Gaelic that was spoken all the way from Glasgow up to Callander. That area was rich in Gaelic about 100 years ago as well.
You helped curate ‘The Pig Gaed The Spree’ recently. How did that come about?
I met a fella called Nathan Salsburg, an American guy who lives in Louisville, Kentucky. I met him a couple of times and he knew Scotland’s traditional music as well as me and my musical work and how it related to Scottish traditions and so on. He asked me to make this compilation, so that involved me listening to these recordings from the ‘50s that Lomax had made and select like 45 minutes, which was a really enjoyable thing to do - I like listening to that kind of music, it’s enjoyable and educational. There’s probably a lot of stuff I would have wanted to include in it; the compilation, but there really wasn’t room for it. I could have made a few compilations. There’s no Gaelic material on my compilation, even though a lot of recordings that Lomax made were from the Gaeltach, I kind of felt that because I’m not an expert on Gaelic songs, by any means, I thought that task would be better left to a Gaelic speaker. I think that Mason is actually discussing with Margaret Bennet about making a Gaelic compilation.
So what did you aim to do, is this literally a compilation of recordings that you enjoy and think should be represented?
In a way, a bit of everything. I wanted it to be quite broad in terms of the type of tunes and the geographic area and the sort of gender split; an equal number of men and women, and all the kind of cultures apart from the Gaelic culture, really. I wanted to get a broad snapshot of what was going on in the country at that time, but there are certain areas that are richer than others for songs: there’s quite a preponderance of stuff from the North East that goes with that very rich song/ballad area.
Lomax was a true internationalist as well, he travelled all across the world. As for your own studies of Scottish folk song, has that taught you that there’s commonalties of folk culture all across the world?
I get a sense that my own future work will continue to draw more specifically on Scottish materials and things, but at the same time I don’t see that happening in any sort of nationalistic way, it just seems a natural process for someone who’s living and working in England and Scotland to do that at some point. I enjoy exploring the commonalities between all different cultures and things. Being here in Spain has been a great opportunity to do that. The second night that we were here we went with our hosts to this pub, and it was great to hear that raw really passionate flamenco singing style, which I suppose has some commonalities with certain kind of traveller singer styles. It’s kind of a more open throat style that the singers have here, that fits with the Scottish traveller style. I’m interested in, as I travel, basically, the commonalities between cultures.
Photo by Alex Woodward
- - -
'Urstan' is out now.
A quick internet trawl won't find much of use, with the Glasgow based artist seemingly able to operate without causing ripples in critical circles. Yet this sits at a complete tangent to the importance of his work, which seems to add a genuine sense of strangeness to the Scottish tradition.
Working quickly, moving from project to project, these are exciting times to be aware of Roberts' work. Last year's 'The Pig Gaed The Spree' collection found the artist rifling through Alan Lomax' Caledonian recordings, while the Galoshins project has witnessed the re-birth of an almost forgotten morality play.
Yet 'Urstan' is perhaps his most unusual act yet. Born into an English speaking family, Alasdair Roberts agreed to co-host a night at Glasgow's CCA with Mairi Morrison which found the songwriter plunged into a new, alien tradition.
Out now, ClashMusic tracked down Alasdair Roberts on tour in Spain to discuss his work within the varying Scottish traditions.
- - -
Can you remember your first encounter with Gaelic folk songs? Did that leave an impression on you, encountering that different, distinct discipline?
I just listened to Gaelic music quite a lot when I was younger, yeah. It’s sort of been in the background of my life, in a way. But, I don’t speak Gaelic fluently most of the Gaelic I do know comes from listening to the music... song culture. The first song I heard in Gaelic was actually called 'Mhic
Iarla Nam Bratach Bana', which means 'Son of the Earl
of White Banners', which is quite a well known catchy song. Really, I love the music, I find it very moving just to listen to. Usually I can only really enjoy it translations - verbally - but there’s something about the mood of the music, whatever it is, just sometimes speaks to me.
Did you find that, having been steeped in a Scottish tradition, it was a strange beguiling beast to master?
You’re right, there are structural differences within the music and things that perhaps are based on older sort of modes. The poetics are different and...yeah, there are a lot of differences to it. I just think of it as Gaelic on the record but it’s mostly just vocals; mostly just the meaningless syllables which you sing as part of the chorus in Gaelic songs. I didn’t really take any of the lead vocals, it was just choruses I was joining in on.
From what I’ve read, the project began in the CCA so did you approach this with the idea of injecting modernity into the Gaelic tradition?
That wasn’t really at the forefront of my mind, I wasn’t trying to be contemporary or modern , we were just seeing what sounds would arise and what kind of music would happen when we got this certain group of players together, whose sensibilities...we’re just friends really, people who I wanted to play with. The music just grew out of who was involved in the session rather than a conscious attempt to make it sound a certain way.
Have you sang Gaelic folk songs in your sets to try and introduce them?
Only with Mairi, I think I sang ‘Ic Iarla Nam Bratach Bana’ a couple of times, but there’s other ways that Gaelic music has influenced my own music. A lot of the songs that I write draw on traditional Gaelic melodies, things like that. I suppose, also, I went through a point of reading a lot of Gaelic literature and that kind of Celtic poetics influence my writing as well.
There’s a great book that came out a couple of years ago called ‘Songbook Of The Pillagers’, it’s like an anthology of medieval Gaelic poetry and there’s some really cool stuff in there. Honestly, the rich traditionary of guys like Sorley MacLean and hundreds of poets.
Have you found commonalities between Gaelic folk song and Scots?
Yeah, certain similarities, always commonalities, maybe just in terms of the subject matter: a lot of the songs are to do with mortality or to do with love. Basic primal human emotions and stuff. They’re actually kind of similar, and there’s also kind of work songs for different kinds of work. The Western Isles deal with things differently than say the North East of Scotland, which tends to focus on earthy kind of matters. There’s probably melodic differences, but they do seem to have influenced each other over the centuries.
I think some people underestimate how late Gaelic died out - up until the 20th century there was still remnants of Gaelic culture in Aberdeenshire.
The part of Scotland where I grew up, Callander, was Gaelic speaking as well. I read a book of poetry from that area, from the type of Gaelic that was spoken all the way from Glasgow up to Callander. That area was rich in Gaelic about 100 years ago as well.
You helped curate ‘The Pig Gaed The Spree’ recently. How did that come about?
I met a fella called Nathan Salsburg, an American guy who lives in Louisville, Kentucky. I met him a couple of times and he knew Scotland’s traditional music as well as me and my musical work and how it related to Scottish traditions and so on. He asked me to make this compilation, so that involved me listening to these recordings from the ‘50s that Lomax had made and select like 45 minutes, which was a really enjoyable thing to do - I like listening to that kind of music, it’s enjoyable and educational. There’s probably a lot of stuff I would have wanted to include in it; the compilation, but there really wasn’t room for it. I could have made a few compilations. There’s no Gaelic material on my compilation, even though a lot of recordings that Lomax made were from the Gaeltach, I kind of felt that because I’m not an expert on Gaelic songs, by any means, I thought that task would be better left to a Gaelic speaker. I think that Mason is actually discussing with Margaret Bennet about making a Gaelic compilation.
So what did you aim to do, is this literally a compilation of recordings that you enjoy and think should be represented?
In a way, a bit of everything. I wanted it to be quite broad in terms of the type of tunes and the geographic area and the sort of gender split; an equal number of men and women, and all the kind of cultures apart from the Gaelic culture, really. I wanted to get a broad snapshot of what was going on in the country at that time, but there are certain areas that are richer than others for songs: there’s quite a preponderance of stuff from the North East that goes with that very rich song/ballad area.
Lomax was a true internationalist as well, he travelled all across the world. As for your own studies of Scottish folk song, has that taught you that there’s commonalties of folk culture all across the world?
I get a sense that my own future work will continue to draw more specifically on Scottish materials and things, but at the same time I don’t see that happening in any sort of nationalistic way, it just seems a natural process for someone who’s living and working in England and Scotland to do that at some point. I enjoy exploring the commonalities between all different cultures and things. Being here in Spain has been a great opportunity to do that. The second night that we were here we went with our hosts to this pub, and it was great to hear that raw really passionate flamenco singing style, which I suppose has some commonalities with certain kind of traveller singer styles. It’s kind of a more open throat style that the singers have here, that fits with the Scottish traveller style. I’m interested in, as I travel, basically, the commonalities between cultures.
Photo by Alex Woodward
- - -
'Urstan' is out now.
