When did you start writing songs?
I don't remember a time when I didn't really.... when I was little I made up songs in the back of the car, or instead of doing my piano practise. And I'd get my friends together for school concerts to sing harmonies and play glockenspiels and tambourines whilst I sang and played guitar so I suppose that was my first band! Then I think I went a bit shy and only played them to myself in my bedroom.
Who do you feel you've learnt most from?
It's hard to say... it all kind of gets absorbed and I have loved different artists at different times - and then I would write a song and notice their influence in it.
As a teenager I played Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell songs. I learnt the whole of Carole Kings "Tapestry" from the record, and I wore out my Simon and Garfunkel tapes! So that was where I was coming from - which was very un-cool at the time! When I auditioned for university I told them I wanted to be a songwriter but no one could teach me about it. There's so many more opportunities now, but in those days there weren't, so I just muddled along on my own and learnt by listening to, and learning songs. I think that's how it works really anyway.
I was able to help out at the UK Songwriting festival last year and got some great nuggets from Richard Thompson. And just one or two sessions working on songs with songwriters I really admire taught me a lot too. Boo Hewerdine ran a songwriting weekend arranged through the PRS back in 2002 which I was lucky enough to take part in, and this Easter I signed up for songwriting at Sore Fingers week with Darrell Scott. An opportunity not to be missed, and hugely inspirational. You learn a lot just being around writers like that. Darrell took a very intuitive approach and we didn't really talk much about the craft or technique of songwriting, more about the creative process, and as a result I feel I have learnt to trust in it more.
You play guitar, banjo and small harp on your album. Do you tend to use instruments a lot to support your writing process?
Sometimes it all comes together – words, melody, and most of the chords too. I'm currently having a really good flow with it.
But yes, if there's a song in my head then I will usually go towards an instrument. However I am conscious of the tendency to fall into a pattern of, say, always picking up the guitar and not seeing where the song wants to go first, so sometimes I let it 'brew' a while.
I have just finished a song that is just for voice, and maybe bodhran.I think it's good to vary your approach because different instruments can take a song to different places. (My piano playing is so hit and miss I often end up with more interesting chords when I write piano songs!) The banjo was a good example of this. I got home from a bluegrass festival having accidentally bought a banjo (these things happen) and was sitting on the sofa noodling around with it and a song came out that is quite different to something I would've written on guitar - although I often play it on guitar at gigs now.
For some reason, I haven’t found the harp lends itself so well to the songwriting process. Maybe I get too caught up in writing a harp part or something… I usually end up playing tunes anyway! Having said that, I wrote a song on the small harp recently, which I wouldn't want to accompany in any other way, so maybe there are more to come.
Was there any particular sound or feel you were aiming for with 'A Few Small Things'?
Yes, I wanted to do something quite understated, as the title suggests, and I chose more intimate songs that had a reflective mood on the whole. I also wanted it to be true to where I come from. In some ways I've gone full circle - back to something that sounds quite English after soaking up a mix of celtic, american roots, rock and world music.
The starting point of each recording was me singing along with the guitar, and I tried to keep the space and natural dynamics in the arrangements which grew out of that. The most important thing was for the lyrics and the emotion to come through. We didn’t use click tracks or synth sounds or anything, and there’s no solos except for the one on "Rose" performed by Clive Gregson.
How did you arrive at having Miranda Sykes and Clive Gregson helping out on the album?
Well, I'd met Clive a few times at festivals (In fact I think he was headlining the very first folk festival I ever played!I) but really through friend connections. I went over to Nashville in 2001 for a wedding and visited him there. We kept in touch, and when I said I wanted to take songwriting more seriously he offered to help if he could. I was brave enough to give him a CD of demos for him to critique after a Nancy Griffith gig, and he rang me a few days later having made "copious notes" !!
We recorded his session up in Oldham. I thought it was a nice coincidence that he played on the same track as my friend Andy as the two of them had worked on an album together back in Nashville. We always try and catch up when he is over here and he has been a great source of practical advice, good business sense, and funny stories...
Miranda, again I met on the circuit. The first time was possibly at a Pressgang gig – a band she was in with Maclaine Colston (who now plays on my band). And I think she even came to try out for "Madigan" once and we didn't follow it up. More fool us!! Anyway, at some point we became firm friends (I think it involved beer!) and have never looked back.
One year I played in the club tent at Cambridge Festival and she suggested coming down to Bath so we could work on some of my songs together. We started doing gigs - as my own "Champagne for Breakfast" band and later as a duo, and she recorded a song of mine called "Killing Time" on her second album. At that time we also we discovered a mutual love of artists like Patty Griffin and Beth Neilson Chapman. I was delighted to have her play and sing on “A Few Small Things”, although it ended up being quite different to the material we had been previously performing together.
Who's in your band at the moment?
Bethany Porter plays cello, Robert Harbron plays English concertina, mandolin and guitar, Maclaine Colston plays hammered dulcimer and Josh Clark plays percussion and cajon. I’m very lucky to have them as they are all such fantastic musicians. We have been developing the harmony side, which is something I love, so everyone gets to sing too.
You've certainly got a varied musical CV. Can you give us a run down on your past collaborations?
After the Young Tradition Award in 1993 I went on to work as Cythara with Maclaine Colston. It's nice to be working with him again, but it's very different now- back then we were a purely instrumental duo with me on celtic harp. By the last album we recorded we plucked up the courage to sing one song each!
Then it was Crook, Sears and Harrison (which sounds like a firm of solicitors dosn't it?), which later became Madigan. The band was described as celtic rock/pop by the folk press and drew on our different musical backgrounds: combining Irish traditional and American bluegrass and contemporary influences. I was singing a lot more by then and introduced a song or two of my own into the set. This led off into a duo with multi-instrumentalist Henry Sears - largely our own take on traditional material, or original material we made sound traditional! (Around that time I also enjoyed working with songwriters like Andy Davis from The Korgids/Stackridge and as The Rainkings playing rock 'n' roll country blues lever harp and singing harmonies.)
After that I got to play funky electric harp and dance about with the band Elephant Talk, whilst playing more intimate gigs with Miranda Sykes and working on my own material.
How did your soundtrack work for the BBC come about?
Maclaine and I were busking outside Bath Abbey and the composer (Richard Grassby-Lewis) came up and said he would like to work with us. He loved our sound and really wanted to understand how we used our instruments and write in a way that reflected our style. It made for an enjoyable few months recording. And what a great series it was!
What was your job on BBC 1's 'Lark Rise to Candelford'?
How did you know about that! You've been doing your research... Well, I was just a villager, a poor Lark Riser. I had signed up for SA (Supporting Artist) work with an agency and forgotten all about it. When they asked me if I wanted to do Larkrise I had just started recording the album so the extra money was well-timed. And hanging around a lot of the day in beautiful countryside gives you plenty of time to think about other things! I did tell the composer when I met him that I could get him in touch with some of the best traditional musicians in the country but, as a mere SA, I wasn't allowed to call him! However, one of the principals has now signed up for harp lessons so you never know, I might get promoted to Candleford for the next series...
What's your involvement with the Bath Folk Club at the moment?
Personally I'm not sure if the name 'folk club' gives the right impression, although we do have a raffle!! Some of the bands that have played say the vibe is more like a festival venue. And the chips are good.
The club is run with vigour and enthusiasm by Marick and Louise Baxter. I am part of a group of people (that include James Fagan, Nancy Kerr, Alan Burton and Josh Clark) that meet up to discuss ideas and contribute individual skills to the running of the club. My main involvement is helping run the Singers group once a month alongside Louise (and Nancy when she is around).
We just celebrated our first year! Bath is such a vibrant city and there are lots of talented people here and I think the folk club has really helped draw it altogether and link up different groups of people in the area.
You had some success in a recent songwriting competition didn't you?
Yes. "A Bicycle in Need of Repair" reached the semi-finals of the UK Song Contest. Apparently this indicates that the song was in the top 15% of over 6,200 songs entered into the competition. I don't know what this means really. I didn't get a prize, and even had to print out my own certificate!
You've got some new material waiting in the wings already haven't you? 'Black Fly?'
Yes, that's the song I wrote on the banjo, which has become a bit of a favourite. To be honest I've got lots of material waiting in the wings, but over the last year we’ve been doing newer songs at gigs which I want to record very soon, and I've been asked for certain songs a number of times now, so it feels about time.
I like the idea of an album having a certain theme to it though, so I want the songs to fit in with that, lyrically as well as musically. I'm going to go for a fuller sound and include more narrative songs this time. I’ve already got a title and a rough running order so I’m pretty keen to get into the studio and start recording!
Dave Kushar
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