Mabon bringing their Celtic energy to Womad festival
Why is it important for the people of the world to hear different styles of music? Music is one of the windows we all have into other cultures. We need to learn and understand more about each other as peoples if we are to tackle the world’s increasingly global challenges – so the more ways we can share and communicate, the better!
Womad is such a diverse lineup of talent from all around the globe, for people who may not have heard of your group, describe what your music is like?
It’s original, InterCeltic music – so it’s written by our frontman Jamie Smith, who is influenced by the traditional music of all the Celtic nations (Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Brittany and Cornwall) and beyond. It’s a modern face to an ancient culture – lively, danceable, uplifting music.
What can we expect from your Womad NZ performance? Bring your dancing shoes for a start! Celtic music features plenty of jigs and reels, and our take on it has plenty of funky grooves too. We play for the love of music, and you’ll see that in our performance – hopefully you’ll be smiling just as much as we will be!
What are you most looking forward to about playing Womad?
We’ve played in Womad in the UK a couple of times, and some of us are long-standing punters at that festival too. So it’ll be great to see how Womad New Zealand is different – and how it’s the same despite being the other side of the world! The best thing has to be the chance to hear all the other artists, there’s so much incredible music: some we’ll know, some will be completely new to us – that’s the Womad way, and we love it!
How long ago did your journey with music begin and at what age?
Most of us have been playing music all our lives – but as a band, we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary in 2019! To mark the occasion, we’ve had a look back through all six of our previous recordings, and made a new album which features all the ones our audiences have loved the most, along with some new tracks. We recorded it live in 2018, and it’s going down a storm with our friends and fans so far!
What has been the highlight of your career thus far?
At the risk of sounding cheesy, it’s hard to pick out one moment from so many! The Rainforest World Music Festival in Borneo? Or outdoor stages in Mexico City? Closer to home, the Festival Interceltique in Lorient is always special for us, as it’s where we did some of our earliest gigs, playing outside the bars and cafes! And playing in Wales is always a pleasure too, sometimes on festival stages, but sometimes in tiny, packed village halls – our gigs can be so different to each other, but we enjoy them all!
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Jamie’s compositions are inspired by the traditional music of the Celtic countries – and also by the contemporary music in that genre which abounds today. But as five individuals, we each have a different set of inspirations – sometimes overlapping, sometimes seemingly disparate. So when we’re all in the Mabon Wagon, what you might hear totally depends on who has control of the aux lead at that moment.
Please share with us something about your home country that we may not know?
Wales is most famous for coal and steel in industrial times, chapel music, harps and choirs, and maybe Tom Jones! But there are all kinds of wonders here: stunning natural landscapes (not that you’re short of those in New Zealand!), a language that goes back 1,600 years, a system of strict ‘harmonic poetry’ unlike any other in the world, Europe’s largest, mobile, annual cultural festival, and of course, Tom Jones! Do you have any hobbies outside of music?
We’re all avid readers, eaters and music fans, and some of us are big film or sports fans too. But maybe the things we care most about are the hot topics of today – the environment, global progress, social change – so the banter in the band van can get a bit heavy at times! What are three things that make you happy?
Good company, good food, good music!
Do you have any new projects you are working on at the moment that you want to tell the world (or at least New Zealand!)?
The thing we’re most excited to be part of right now is our 20th anniversary celebrations, and the new live album Twenty, and gigs around the world to celebrate. Hopefully this will only be a halfway milestone at least – we’re hoping we’ve got another twenty years in us yet!