From small beginnings in Petty Harbour, Newfoundland, Great Big Sea have gradually got a huge bandwagon rolling. Having conquered their home territory, extensive touring ensured Canada followed. Since then it's been gold and platinum all the way. Well all the way around Canada.
That's about to change as Cooking Vinyl have picked up and released the band's "UP" album. Featuring covers, self penned songs and newly slanted tradition tunes, "UP" is an album that overflows with energy.
It's that rare jewel of an album that sparkles with highlights. From the cover of Slade's "Run, Runaway" to the acceleration of "Mari-Mac" this is an album that captivates and enchants before setting your feet loose.
The album was released just before Cambridge and heavily
plugged by the band. That they got away with so many plugs showed
that not only was the band full of talent, they had the cheek
of the devil. The band had the honour of starting the festival
proper and afterwards, I dropped back stage for a chat.
#B=Bob Hallet #D=Daryl Power #N=Neil King
#N The album, "Up"
has been out in Canada quite a while. How did it make it's way
across the great big sea
#D [laughs] We've been pursuing England and Europe for a long time. I think we got too big in Canada to ignore as a marketing entity. Cooking Vinyl has a solid reputation as a label that can sell non-commercial music. Artists like Ani Difranco and Billy Bragg aren't considered mainstream musicians. They're very good at selling that sort of material. We didn't see the point of signing to a multi-national that wouldn't know what to do with us, whilst Cooking Vinyl have already got a track record.
#N You blend modern cover versions, REM and whatever, with songs that come from a traditional background.
#D Traditional music in Newfoundland is really fluid. I find in Ireland and Cape Breton and the Southern United States that traditional music is this real iron clad school. To be a good traditional musician you play as close as you possibly can to that ideal. In Newfoundland, it's a really fluid tradition. They intermingle hymns and four hundred year old ballads with Elvis songs without any real distinguishing. As far as they are concerned, they're all good songs.
#D They played music that they all enjoyed and liked. So when we were forming this band, we took the same tack. We're trying to maintain an adherence to tradition. People at parties when we were growing up always mixed tunes. They might start with a reel and end up with something they heard on the radio. For us it's been a great opportunity to play not only traditional tunes, but songs that have meant things as we grew up.
#N You've just had the Queen over.
#D She was there to celebrate the John Cabot thing, five hundred years since they discovered Newfoundland. That's to be in a couple of years by a celebration of 1000 years since the Vikings discovered us. You get a lot of money to organise these things so we're on the lookout for another excuse.
#N Is it coincidence that you've pushed out this year whilst there is the media coverage?
#D It wasn't so much that as something the band were ready to do. Canada, we've reached the top of the heap there. We're not going to sell a lot more records in Canada, you can't keep climbing the pyramid indefinitely. Bands are finite things and at the moment we've got a lot of time and energy to put into it. We're really enjoying ourselves. It was time to do Europe. Basically we're back to square one.
#D We just wanted to do a:record this music and b:take it and travel with it. Playing the UK and Europe wasn't a pipe dream for us. We knew if we focused our attention and efforts here, over time it can be achieved. One of the main reasons it can be achieved is because although Newfoundland is a bit isolated, it's only four hours from London by plane. It's a seven hour flight from St. Johns to the other side of Canada. Canada is so huge and we've spent so much time travelling from one side to the other. We're going to be spending more time flying to London and Germany.
#N What was it like going gold in Canada?
#D Going was a thrill. Roots based bands don't sell a lot of records anywhere. "UP" is on it's way to going double platinum in Canada. We just put out a new album there a month a go, which has already gone gold. It's due to come out over here around Christmas.
#D That's all up in the air. Right now we're enjoying the success of our new album, but our focus here is "UP". We were real proud of "UP" when we recorded it and it's wearing real well for us. It's not stale, it still feels new and we're enjoying it.
#N Why is there such diversity in the band's sound.
#D Well Newfoundland culture is a hybrid of French, Scottish, Irish and English. The genes and the language have all become mingled. Newfoundland music is Irish in the vocal presentation, but a lot of the harmonies come from English music. The rhythm is more Scots and French based, which creates that unique strain of Newfoundland music.
#N You play an amazing amount of instruments on the album.
#B That was nothing to do with me.
#D We made a maxim that we were going to get paid by the instrument and suddenly Bob went out and learnt a load of new ones. [laughs]
#B I started with the guitar, but I wasn't a very good one. It soon became obvious to me that I was going to have to practise a whole lot. I abandoned that and learnt to play the accordion. Myself and Daryl and Alan and John, we all grew up in families where there were a lot of instruments around. They were there and we were encouraged to play them as much as we wanted. There was no one standing there with a big stick, but if you wanted to play it was there. You didn't have to get a key and take it from the basement.
#N Your more traditional tunes, are they family tunes or did you have to go out a research them?
#B Just about everything we play now, has some Newfoundland connection.
#N What about "This Is The End Of The World"?
#D Well the World as we know it end's in Newfoundland. Beyond that is the Atlantic and a different way. It's a song that worked it's way into our set. It surprises people when we play it. They don't expect it. In the same way they don't expect the Slade cover "Run Run Away". We nearly didn't record it. Our tongues were firmly in our cheeks when we did. It was a big hit in Canada, the video won several awards.
#B It was the last song record. It took a day to do everyone had great fun. John took a snare drum, turned it on it's side and played it like a bodrun. It was fun.
#N Cheers.