My friend Pafka Steidl and his band Cheers jamming in Rock Café Prague. He will appear in our interview soon. It will be amazing! Pafka is witty, friendly and he takes his career in Celtic music seriously! Please watch out for that interview because there will be two great tracks that will be available for download.
With Lucie Šmahelová, Alexandra Šantorová, Ladislav Veselý, Obludný Neználek, Tomáš Pergler, Jan Brabec, Jaroslav Macháček and Veronika Perglerová at Bar Klub U Svatého Rocha.
J.P. Kallo gives us insights into the Contemporary Irish Folk Rock band Sliotar.
Members:
Ray MacCormac (whistle, pipes, vocals), Des Gorevan (drums and percussion), J.P. Kallio (guitars and vocals). http://www.sliotarmusic.com
J.P. Kallo is always in a chatty mood. He is one of the nicest fellows around. His sense of humor is amazing. One of the things I love about Sliotar is that these guys create music that’s catchy. They have this natural telegenic quality too.
This is an insightful interview. I reviewed their amazing album called Fine Friends last time. It’s one of those Celtic albums that can sit side by side with your other Modern Rock albums due to its fresh sound, yet still maintain that very Celtic sound.
What defines the totality of Siotar’s sound?
J.P. Yeah, I have tried to analyze that in the past and find it difficult. In the traditional music world there seem to be lot of these restrictions, where you are supposed to play the music in certain way and there are things you should not do. In Sliotar we always had lot of respect for these restrictions, but took them very lightly :-D. We do relay heavily on strong rhythm and the deep bottom end of the acoustic guitar, which I tune to dadgad. Also Ray’s whistle style is very unique! But over all, it is very organic process of three guys from very different musical backgrounds playing music that just feels right.
Tell us the inspiration behind the making of Fine Friends your new album.
Fans of the music
J.P. In summer 2011 we were touring in Europe and there seemed to be something falling in to place with our music. Many sound engineers and festival organizers told us that that was the best they have ever heard us. So when we got back from the tour we set up to capture some of that energy. In my opinion Fine friends is the closest Sliotar ever got to capturing the live sound and feel in the studio.
You guys have this style. I don’t really know how to put it exactly but it sounds a bit like North American compared to say, UK.
J.P. Really? 😀 It’s always nice to hear how other people hear our music. The funny thing is that we get lot of inspiration from our travels. We have been all around Europe, but never made it to North America, not yet anyway 😉
Wow 16 years in the music business! How did you and the rest of the guys, maintain the passion of sticking together and releasing a total of five albums.
J.P. Well, I am the second Guitarist, and I’ve been in the band for 12 years. Des and Ray have been there from the beginning. I think again it has been that organic growth that has kept things interesting for us. But I must say that after our second album Bi liom bi we took control of things and for the past 10 years the band has grown a lot and we have built much bigger following by spending lot of time on the road and working really hard on the live show.
Ireland has a lot of great musicians! Thoughts?
J.P. Yeah, there is so much great music here. It is really inspirational place. And the fact that we are part of a tradition that has gone on for hundreds of years, it really makes you humble.
One of those random self shots
How do you think is the best way for fans to support your band in terms of getting the album out? What is the best marketing tool for you?
J.P. There are many ways. You can order Cds or download our albums from our websitewww.sliotarmusic.com We worked really hard on making sure that when the fans do decide support us, most of the money goes to us and back in to keeping us on the road, instead of half of it ending up to some middle man. We live for the live shows, and we are so grateful that so many people come to see us year after year. That is definitely one of the best ways to support us. Also there are small things like sharing our facebook page www.facebook.com/sliotar with your friends, re tweeting our tweets on twitter @sliotarmusic. And sharing our youtube videos. Also you can join our mailing list on our website, we don’t spam you much just the most important things like new album and the tours. But if you want to stay on top of what we are up to, facebook and twitter are good for that.
As to best marketing tools, obviously all the social media stuff is really helpful and we had quite good success with our youtube videos. But still our website is our most important place of business and the good old word of mouth has been good to us.
J.P. from Sliotar
June, 2012
Update!!!
According to Jeremy of Poitin: They’re coming to the Czech Republic in July.
Two amazing bands meeting and jamming together. You people in Prague are so lucky 🙂
From J.P. Hey man. Here is our summer European tour schedule. There are still some extra dates on the way and few private shows that are not on the list. We’ll have a video camera with us, so I’ll keep you posted through out the tour:-) J.P.
List of gigs for July and August:
12th Porter House, Kortrijk, Belgium
13th The Black stuff, Luxembourg
17th Zach’s pub, Plzen, Czech rep.
18th Vagon music club, Praque, Czech rep.
21st Keltska noc, Plumlov, Czech rep.
26th Kurim Celtic evening, Kurim Czech rep.
28th Teirisch Irisch Keltisch, Tieschen, Austria
August
4th Prázdniny v Telci, (7.30pm) Telc, Czech rep.
4th Lughnasad, (11pm) Veveri castle, Brno, Czech rep.
6th Prázdniny v Telci,Nocturna club, Telc, Czech rep.
9th Killarney, Zweibrucken, Germany
10th Dudel sack, Bad Kreuznach, Germany
I love the fact that this site is becoming more and more interactive 🙂
BALCONYTV.COM 2/09/2007
PRESENTED BY PAULINE FREEMAN
Biography
About SliotarAfter 16 years, 5 albums and over 2000 concerts, Sliotar is an institution. It all started on Paddy’s day in The Porterhouse, Dublin in 1996 when three guys were asked to play music for the day. This led to a residency that is still going strong. Sliotar has toured Europe extensively and continues to do so on a regular basis. They have played in hundreds of venues, brought their mix of Irish folk music from Finland to Italy, from County Clare to Bratislava and everywhere in between.In these times when the music business is struggling Sliotar has broken the mould and gone back to basics by packing a van, hitting the road and building a following one concert at a time. Quarries, castles, theatres, clubs and pubs, Sliotar has done it all (even a Tesco’s car park). Their live show is legendary and has become an annual event in many places around Europe. They work with the crowd to win them over. They give people permission to cast aside everyday life and just live in the moment with the music.
Ray McCormac’s piping and whistle playing has unmatched fluidity and dexterity. Backed by the rhythmic play between Des Gorevan’s drums and J.P. Kallio’s guitar, the band can lift the roof off any venue. The tunes are based on Irish tradition but more and more originate from the band. The songs vary from JP’s modern folk songs to Rays haunting acapella renditions of age old traditional songs.
Individually, from the soundtrack of “Waking Ned” to guesting on a chart topping Finnish rock bands album, the members of Sliotar have done it all. Collectively the band has broken the mould time and time again.Driven by the positive feedback from their 2011 summer tour, Sliotar returned to the studio and started work on their fifth album. “Something gelled on this tour and the feedback from the crowd and organizers was that Sliotar has never sounded better. We are excited about the new material and can’t wait to get it recorded”. Sliotars fifth album, Fine Friends was released on 25th of January 2012.
In 2012 Sliotar will be on the road once again to promote the new album. This is already mapping out to be busiest year in the bands history and there has been busy ones before. So whether it is on a big festival stage in front of thousands of people or a small Irish pub in the beautiful countryside in Austria, be sure to catch Sliotar live.
French band doing Celtic music whacks your belly with humor.
Great! Here is a French band here playing Celtic music. They are Fun. Well, they take their music seriously though. You can tell by listening to sample tracks off their MySpace site. I checked their website. I went to their photo gallery. There is this one picture where the piper stuffed all the whistles and flutes in his right pocket. The fiddler looks a bit like a Goth chic minus the angst.
What about the music? It is anything you’d expect from a Celtic rock band. But you have to think of something a little but edgy like for comparison. Think of the Pogues and Horslips. I do know bands that are comfortable to jam with them in the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. It is just a matter of time. I recommend that you give them a listen if you are in the mood for some Celtic rock-if you find the slurring make vocals with French accent your kind of thing.
The played last June 22 in the recent Fête de la musique in Talmont Saint Hilaire .
Blue Highwayare a Bluegrass band characterized by slick and tight musicianship. The members are from Tennessee.
Thumbs up to tracks: Two Soldiers, Wondrous Love and the a capella Someday.
You need to hear them in big speakers to get the total feel of the music. I see that this band is known all over the world based on the press releases. You can’t blame them. After 10 albums, they have established themselves as stalwarts in the field of Bluegrass. The effort they put in every tracks make them a cut above the rest. The catchy tunes make the band accessible to mainstream listeners. Blue Highway is a band for people with impeccable taste in music.
Album launch, great instruments and feeking around: The Feekers!
Album launchings online and offline are interesting. You always get to pick the unexpected. Such as the luck I found with Tarbolten. It’s the debut album from Dublin based duo The Feekers. Aside from the interesting album title and of course what their band name means, we find some interesting bits about these two musicians. They have such passion for traditional Irish music. And well, because it is the thing that they do best.
Traditional music has really achieved such soaring popularity lately. I think with the gap between the ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ in the music scene has been narrowed down. It is only a matter of time when the world finally redefines what is considered as hip and what isn’t. Radio is no longer as influential as it used to be and more and more people catch what’s being streamed online or what they come across on blogs and websites. This where , social butterflies(those with over 2000 friends) and megaphones(those who love posting links to videos and music) in facebook come in.
So please have the pleasure of reading my Q&A with Darren Lynch. And I hope you get to spread this to your friends. Let’s put the spotlight to The Feekers.
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Sample mp3s
What has happened to the trad scene for the past 10 years in your opinion?
Trad music has remained strong here in Ireland and continues to grow. Unfortunately, I don’t think there has been any recent bands that have broken the mould like the way some of the greats have done in the 60’s and 70’s folk revival. The final members of the legendry Dubliners and Clancy Brothers have unfortunately passed away in the last 10 years. I hope the passing of these legends will bring about a calling for more trad and folk music and maybe even another folk revival as people seek other bands to replace these.
What were the memorable things that happened during the recording of Tarbolten?
Recording sessions were very relaxed, with John and myself having very little planned beforehand. We didn’t record in layers or double track, so what you hear on the album is a direct recording of what and how we play. We think this gives the music more energy and a closer realism that represents how we sound at live gigs and performances. It was also less time consuming and allowed us to get more tracks recorded in a short time. Chris Marshall was our recording engineer in the Elektra studios in Temple Bar, Dublin. Chris has a very laid back attitude and left us to do things in whatever manner that made us comfortable while offering us his expert advice and guidance.
John plays the banjo and whistles while you play the octave mandolin and also do vocals. What are the things about playing the octave mandolin (or the instrument in general) that we listeners don’t know of ?
I play the octave mandolin, which some people call the Irish bouzouki. I play in a similar tuning to the mandolin and Irish tenor banjo so I think octave mandolin is more accurate name for my instrument. I find it to be an all round instrument, in that it can play both melody and a rhythm equally well.
Why did you choose the title Tarbolten for your debut album? And also why the band name The Feekers?
Tarbolten is the name of one of the tunes played on the banjo on the first track of the cd. It was recorded in one straight take and we thought it captured the energy and character of The Feekers.
We called ourselves The Feekers after a couple of years of going nameless. John suggested the name as a joke originally, and it grew and stuck over time. Feekers isn’t really a word, but the verb ‘to feek’ is a slang name Irish travelers sometimes use which means… I’ll leave it to your imaginations!
Please tell us more about the album and also the tracks in term of styles.
As a duo, The Feekers basically consists of John looking after the playing of tunes and melody while I look after vocals and rhythm. We wanted an album that had a good mix of both tunes and songs that represented us both as a band, so that’s why we put a 50/50 mix on it. The 10 tracks on the album consist of 5 songs, along with 4 banjo tracks, and we couldn’t resist slipping a slow air on the whistle in!
What can we expect from you guys in years to come in terms of your music. What is the next level for The Feekers?
This year is just really about getting our name out there. We have a few Irish festivals to play in 2012, which include the Ballinamore Festival in Leitrim, The Prosperous Festival in Kildare, and The Banjo Festival in Tullamore. Next year we plan to start recording our second album and spread our wings further afield and play a few festivals around Europe. Playing some Celtic and folk festivals around Europe is something we’d be really looking forward to.
The Feekers are a traditional and folk music duo from Ballyfermot, Dublin.
Darren and John have known each other as teenagers when they hung around as friends in nearby Bluebell, but only met up again about 5 years ago to form a band after realising each other’s interest in folk and trad music.
Darren Lynch (Vocals/Octave Mandolin) and John Keenan (Banjo/Whistles) have played together for a number of years around numerous pub sessions, gigs and festivals, and plan to release an album in the near future.
Darren started off playing music after finishing a successful amateur boxing career with Crumlin Boxing Club. It was then in his late teens that he picked up the banjo and then later the octave mandolin and mandola. He
learned from some of the great folk and trad musicians in the area: that included Tom Moran, Liam O’Neill, Darach de Brun and John Lane. He then went on to play and record with the bands The Broadside Merchants, So-Ranna and Tam-Lin before forming Feekers with John in 2007.
Darren plays a mixture of folk songs from Ireland, Scotland, England and America, and is influenced by The Dubliners, Planxty, The Fureys and Sweeney’s Men.
John plays Irish tunes on the tenor banjo that he learned from his grandfather John Keenan Snr. John has been
playing banjo since the age of 10 and has also learned from his uncles who he has also played with over the years. John’s uncle Paddy Keenan plays the uileann pipes and played with the Bothy Band, and John’s other uncle Johnny is known today for his banjo playing and for the festival set up in his honor ‘The Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival’.
This year, The Feekers are due to perform at the Ballinamore Festival in Leitrim, The Prosperous Festival in Kildare and The Banjo Festival in Tullamore.The Feekers form a unique and fresh folk sound that is rooted in tradition and this sound gets across in their first album ‘Tarbolten’ which was released on 1st May 2012. The album is available from Claddagh Records – www.claddaghrecords.com
Celtic Music Fan 