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Q:
Did you have trouble substituting the Irish instruments for the more traditional
blues instruments?
Not really because first off there are similarities between the sounds you can get from the uilleann pipes and the sounds you can get from the saxophone. It's just amazing that this hasn't been tried before.
Secondly there is a pretty loose mixture of Blues, Rock and Celtic music on the CD, so it was more a question of which instrument to use where rather than having them all blast away at the same time.
Q: Did the Celtic and Blues mix present any problems for you recreating the sound live?
Definitely. We've always been told that we're pretty loud as a live band, so when we did our first show the uilleann pipes were not miked up. They were just being run through an SM58 mike. It was a disaster!
The poor guy could hardly be heard. We were very lucky in the fact that the pipe player we have is very good with electronics, so he fixed it up for the next show. Volume, that was the main problem, not really one of different musical tastes.
Interestingly enough, our pipe player is the son of the drummer (Gerry McIlduff) who played in The Plattermen, who's lead singer (Rob Strong) is the father of the guy who sang in the film "The Commitments," so he knows all about Blues and Rock as well as Celtic Music.
Q: Why do you think this wasn't tried before (mixing the styles)?
I have no idea. Really. When the idea fell into place for me I was amazed to discover how easily the two styles mixed, and then when you sort of go back and look at the history of the two styles then it becomes apparent why they should mix so well. I'm just happy to have discovered it.
Q: Listening back to it now, is there anything on the CD that you would do differently?
Well not really differently. I'd like to have had a little more time to add some more things to it. For example I really wanted to have a Cello on "Adam & Eve" but there wasn't time. I really felt that sound was needed on that song. It would have given it more depth, more sadness I quess.
For the rest I'm pretty happy with the way it worked out. I mean you can get too stuck up on certain things and end up hating it if you spend too much time on it. Anything I didn't get to do on it I'll just put on the next one. (laughs).
Q:
How much of the music was written before and after going into the studio?
Most of it was written before we went in. I think it's a bad idea to leave too much to the last minute.
The band has got to know the tracks inside out before going in there. After that doing the 'overdubs' is like putting the icing on the cake.
Because of our heavy touring schedule at that time, and Davy being busy with his own projects, we did his parts mostly in his own studio when we went there. He's so good that he could just record whatever you wanted in one 'take'. If you wanted another 'take' it would be completely different but just as good. "The Emigrant" was one of the first songs that we recorded for the CD and we took our time with that one.
We're both very happy about that piece of music.
Q: What was it like to work with Davy Spillane and in his studio?
I think sometimes I'm still in a dream about it. I mean musically he's just amazing and as a person he's just so nice.
You have to realise I had some of these songs in my head for a long time, so when we got into the studio and it started to become a reality then that was a very special feeling for me. On some other tracks Davy did things that I would never have thought of, so it was real strange, and exciting, to hear it become something else due to his musical perspective.For me that's the real magic of making music together with someone...and Davy is the absolute best in his field!
I'm honoured to have worked with him.
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