Folk trio LAU go on tour to mark musical decade
Folk trio LAU are celebrating making music for a decade.
The band consists of three top traditional musicians: singer Kris Drever, Martin Green on the accordion and keys and fiddler Aidan O’Rourke.
LAU appear at the Tolbooth on June 21 as part of a nationwide tour that takes place over the next six months.
“Some people seem to find that their lives go whizzing past,” said Kris. “But we all do so much that it does feel like 10 years since we started playing together.”
The gig will see the band play two unique live sets, featuring all their greatest material from across the last decade, and LAU continue to effortlessly bridge the seemingly diametrically opposed worlds of acoustic folk tradition, classical composition, pop song and electronica.
“The plan is to play songs from throughout the decade,” Kris said. “We have some new songs we have never done before. We will be doing some older stuff, but in a new LAU kind of way. And we’ll also do stripped back versions of some of our more modern stuff.”
Each LAU member is a multiaward winner, and since forming the band they’ve gathered armfuls of plaudits, including three consecutive years of being crowned ‘Best Group’ at the BBC Radio Two Folk Awards.
But the band’s basis is as a group of friends, who love to play together and experiment with music. “Music is a form of communication,” Kris said. “It could probably be argued that we would never have met if we hadn’t played music. I suppose it’s a bit of a ‘chicken and the egg’ situation.”
The band’s tour is split by several summer folk festivals, with Kris believing that all bands ‘should play music in a field in front of people’ at least once a year.
And despite the gruelling schedule ahead, LAU are ready to embark on what is sure to be an exciting tour.
“We love coming to Stirling, and people there are always up for it,” Kris said. “We are never disappointed when we go up there and can’t wait to play.”