Supergroup fiddles the traditions
Martin Hayes talks about how his innovative band is reaching a new audience
The Gloaming might be best termed as a traditional Irish music supergroup. In their ranks they have four of the genre’s supreme practitioners and one who has also produced or played with major leaguers in the rock arena. Founder member Martin Hayes has been one of the country’s most celebrated fiddlers for over three decades. He was as surprised as anyone when the group scooped last year’s Meteor Choice Music Prize for their self-titled debut album. The coveted award is mostly the preserve of rock bands and singer-songwriters.
‘I did not expect us to win it but you would have to take into account that I am hugely ignorant of the workings of the music industry,’ Hayes confesses. ‘I didn’t even know what the Choice Music Prize was. I was happy that our music resonated. I hope it helped renew interest in traditional music with people who would not otherwise be touched by it.’
The Gloaming may well have done so. On the night of last year’s ceremony, there was a mix of curiosity and satisfaction among those unaware of their quality and those in awe of it.
‘Irish music was revolutionised by Seán Ó Riada then Planxty, through to the Bothy Band and De Dannan; they were game-changers,’ he says. ‘But that was in the late Sixties and Seventies. I don’t think there has been anything which has stirred things up in that manner since then.’
Though the 53-year-old Clare man would be too modest to say it, The Gloaming are one group that are stimulating that evolution.
The Gloaming’s singer, Iarla Ó Lionáird was cast as a down-at-heel emigrant in the Oscar-nominated
Brooklyn in which he sings the traditional song Casadh An tSúgáin during a scene in a soup kitchen. He is also a member of Afro-
with Celt Sound System, another band Hansard and Martha Wainwright fuelled by fresh approaches. as well as Antony & the Johnsons.
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh brings ‘When I was imagining this band dynamism on the Norwegian I had certain musicians in mind Hardanger fiddle. Dennis Cahill that I felt might be musically has played guitar with Hayes compatible,’ says Hayes. for years. Thomas ‘I couldn’t imagine what it Bartlett, aka might sound like. We simply Doveman, plays came together in a room, sat in a piano and has circle, began to play and a sound collaborated emerged from that. There is a lot with The of improvisation. National, Glen ‘My job is to hold down straightforward melodic content. Caoimhín bounces back and forth from that, but he is more a colourist, if you like. Thomas and Dennis shear off between rhythm and harmonic development. Iarla is the singer so he has that area cordoned off. Everyone takes command of the thing they do.’
Their feted debut was only the start. The Gloaming 2, which is equally exquisite, will be released on Friday. They begin a five-night run in the National Concert Hall on Saturday.
‘Everybody had a successful musical career before this band, so if you bring all those strands together it’s going to create some attention,’ he says.
‘We didn’t anticipate the commercial success of the first album but we always intended to move the group on. There was a strong feeling among us that we’d only just begun.’
Some traditional music fans can be doctrinaire but it is not a mindset Hayes has encountered.
‘Nobody will be 100% happy with everything you do.
‘But even in Comhaltas [Ceoltóirí Éireann] and organisations like that, they know that there has to be room for people trying new creative approaches. You must keep in mind that in our other lives. Caoimhín, Iarla and I are uber-traditionalists and deeply devoted to that. We’re not saying traditional music needs to be changed. I love the music of Seamus Ennis, Tommy Potts and Willie Clancy.
‘We feel strongly that regardless of what someone feels about tradition it has to be of the now to be truly alive. I go back to the old recordings of pipers and fiddle players. I return to them constantly. The journey music takes is about going back to the starting point and coming out with something new, about returning to the beginning for renewal.
‘The Gloaming are the same but just maybe a little different.’
The Gloaming 2 is out on Friday. They play the National Concert Hall from next Saturday to March 2 (excluding February 29).