Do you know where your initial spark for songwriting came from?
I've had a few pivotal moments in becoming more entranced by songs and what they can do – hearing Tori Amos perform in The Queen's Hall in Edinburgh in the mid 90s, and running home to write down the lyrics of a song that she didn't introduce and that I didn't recognize: “I could drink a case of you, darlin', and still I'd be on my feet” which totally blew me away. A few weeks later, my high school art teacher gave me a Joni Mitchell/Carole King mix tape which contained A Case Of You, along with other amazing songs which I listened to, obsessively, for the next seven years or so, to the exclusion of all other music.
Hearing Karine Polwart performing at the Burnsong Live! Festival in 2005 was another defining moment – the quality of her writing and her musicianship and that of the Karine Polwart Band just bowled me over, and made me certain that I wanted to write and perform songs for a living.
Have you had any sort of formal musical training?
I had classical piano lessons from the age of 4, with an amazing teacher, called Mary Newlands, who used music as a positive force in her own life and the lives of those around her. She enriched her community with music and instilled in me a great love of melody, harmony and words, and a passion for the interplay between them.
At primary school, Mrs Park, the music teacher, was a sunny, positive woman who sang everything, including “Good morning boys and girls”, and got me really excited about music.
I took up the recorder and the violin at primary, and in secondary also played the guitar and then the flute – there were lots of opportunities to perform in orchestras, windbands and choirs.I studied English Language & Literature at University, but later on I did a course in Popular Music and Sound Technology at LIPA, which was a fantastic learning curve of a year – everything from songwriting and arranging to live sound technology and sampling.
The Scottish Arts Council have been very supportive of you. How did that come about?
I entered a songwriting competition called the Burnsong Gathering in 2005 - part of the ongoing Burnsong project, devised by Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association and supported by the Scottish Arts Council. The prize for seventeen unsigned songwriters, myself included, was to spend a week in Dumfries listening each night to brilliant songwriters like Karine Polwart, Geoff Martyn, David Scott, and Boo Hewerdine performing, and bring tutored in songwriting during the day – a well thought-out prize!The following year, the seventeen of us were invited to compete for a space in the Burnsong Songhouse 2006 – a similar songwriting retreat for established songwriters. I was really lucky to be picked to take part in the Songhouse. Again, this was funded by the Scottish Arts Council.
After these experiences and the songs I wrote both in and after the Songhouse, I felt that I had the songs ready for my first album. Also, after meeting Karine in the Songhouse I subsequently met her husband, Mattie Foulds (when recording piano arrangements for Karine's Fairest Floo'er album) and he offered to produce my album, while Karine and her band offered to play on it! So the album itself followed on from both the musical and the collaborative aspects of the Burnsong project – and because of this, I applied for funding support for my album. I was delighted to have Scottish Arts Council support for this, and indeed for showcasing the album at Folk Alliance 2008. They've also been supportive of singing and songwriting projects that I've been leading over the past couple of years working with children and young people in Broomhouse, a deprived area of Edinburgh, in conjunction with The BIG Project, a youth and children's charity
Had the songs for your debut, 'Butterflies And Broken Glass', been around for a while?
Three of the songs are collaborations from the Songhouse, and most of the other songs I wrote in the weeks and months following that experience - I got really into writing a song every day after the discipline of the Songhouse approach. A couple of the songs – Just Outside Your Door, and Cinderella's Slipper – I had written quite a while before, and discarded, but Mattie felt they had potential and so I re-worked them, and did proper piano arrangements for them, and found I quite liked them too.
The recording process sounded satisfying - hiring a grand piano and heading for a beautiful location in the borders - Did it go to plan?
The recording process was fantastic – Heriot Toun Studio is a beautiful, peaceful space to spend time in, and it was a treat to own a Bosendorfer, if only for a week! Things did go to plan - Mattie Foulds was great to work with as a producer, as was his brother Jamie, who engineered. It was really exciting to hear arrangements I'd written coming to life, played by fantastic musicians, and equally to hear songs going to new and unexpected places. I wanted to keep recording forever, and remember how sad I felt when we were packing everything up to go back home.
I've read and heard numerous collaborations of yours over the last few years. What are the main rewards of working like this for you?
It's a real privilege to play and write with and for other songwriters. I find working with other musicians really stimulating – it's a way of opening my ears to other approaches, so it's a great way of learning more about songwriting – I'm only at the very beginning (hopefully!) of my career as a songwriter and I have lots to learn. It's great fun, too, to bounce ideas off other people, and to have a rapport on stage with other folk. It's also a challenge to put your ideas out there in a group context and to grow in confidence at stepping out of your comfort zone.
I love your piano arrangements on Karine Polwart's 'Fairest Floo'er' album. Is it daunting taking on such revered Scottish tunes?
Thanks very much! I was honoured to arrange The Dowie Dens Of Yarrow and The Learig for Fairest Flooe'r. I didn't find it too daunting - perhaps that's because I hadn't heard The Dowie Dens before, and I wasn't too familiar with The Lea Rig. I worked from Karine's a capella renditions and her ideas for the songs. Mainly, I remember being struck by the beauty of The Dowie Dens and spending many hours trying to pick “the” notes that I felt supported the melody and that did the stark, grave story justice – hours that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Is it essential to have a good grounding in Scottish traditional music? Would you have been excluded from certain projects without it?
I feel very lucky to have been taught the songs and poems of Robert Burns in primary school, and to have picked up other traditional songs, poems and tunes along the way. I wouldn't say that I have a solid grounding in traditional music - my background is much more in classical music. I never considered my own music to be folk until the album started to get reviewed! I wasn't really sure what it was, some kind of storytelling to music, I had decided – but I guess that's the part of traditional music that has always grabbed me the most, and I hope that having a passion for this alongside a bit of a classical piano approach might mean I have something to offer in performing and recording traditional songs.
Any dream collaborators you would like to pursue?
Joni Mitchell, always! I'm really open to collaborations, and there are too many excellent songwriters to mention them all, but I'd welcome any offers from folks who have the time and the inclination
Is there some more material of your own on the way?
Yes! Last year was very hectic, but this year I am trying to get back to a more disciplined approach to my writing, as I hope to record another album in the next year or so. However, I won't record another album until I write the “right” songs, so I may be some time… In the meantime, seven of us who were in the Songhouse 2006, along with Mattie Foulds, have formed a band called The Burns Unit (in homage to the Bard!), and I have a few collaborations on our forthcoming album (title tbc), which we've just finished mixing and which will hopefully be released fairly soon.
Dave Kushar
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