Talking To...Rua macMillan
#NK It sounds like the whole thing came together in a very natural way.
#RM There was a good gap between getting the contract with Greentrax and going into the studio. We had pretty much a whole year to get out and do stuff. Tia was busy, I was also doing the Paul McKenna Band and it was a bit difficult getting everyone together. Yes it was pretty natural, organic about the way it came together in the end, the people that I wanted to work with were there.
#NK You mentioned the Paul McKenna Band. It's been said that as a Scottish musician, you're only allowed to be in one band if it's your first otherwise you've got to be in at least two by law.
#RM [laughs] It's pretty true though.
#NK How do you balance up being in a number of rising bands at the same time.
#RM It's really just a wee bit of jiggery pokery with the calendars. It's literally a case of when Paul and me are looking to book stuff...As we don't really work with an agent and organise a lot of stuff ourselves at least in Scotland. We just block off weeks in the calendar and stick to that. I'll book a couple of weeks for the trio and we'll try to keep that free.
It's not just me Sean Grey's got another project on the go. We're all old friends and it all seems to work really well.
#NK You played a lot of festivals last year and this year sees you busy as well...
#RM I'm just about to head off with the Paul McKenna Band for our first tour out there. I'm literally on the bus on my way home to get my laundry done. That's three weeks in America, followed by a week in Italy. We're briefly down your way, then Germany, followed by Me going off to Denmark, where I'm going to be teaching for a week. Then there's touring with the Trio after that. Working on getting more dates for the Trio next year.
#NK All in all a pretty busy year.
#RM It's good fun.
#NK Do you actually get any time to enjoy the places? Or is it a case of "if it's Tuesday it must be Belgium?"
#RM We generally try to get half an hour to ourselves [laughs]. It depends. You can go three or four days and accept the fact that you're not going to see much. Then you get a couple of days where you can chill out and relax. On the American tour, we've got a lot of driving and a couple of days between gigs. We should have a chance to see something. We just found out that we've got a gig near...Do you remember that tune I wrote, "Henry The Lobster", we're playing quite close to the place where Henry was bought and the whole thing started. I think we'll try and get down there and acquire a lobster as a mascot for the whole of the tour.
#NK And if the worst comes to the worst, they taste delicious.
#RM Exactly and there's another tune to be written.
#NK One of the things I like about Scottish and other traditional music is that the artists spend time teaching, doing workshops and putting back into the scene. How important do you think that is to bringing creative forces together?
#RM When we're away, we always try to see if we can get a couple of workshops together, try to get something during the day. Most of us teach privately. It's great because you can bounce new tunes around. See how other people might approach them. Even tunes you've known for years might suddenly get a new flourish. Teaching group work gets some fantastic ideas, there's plenty of good feedback. It also helps to pass on some of what you do and that builds on the works. It's great just to share music with them.
#NK Also, particularly with the instrumentals, it seems to give you license to do what you like with the title.
#RM It's almost like there's a competition to come up with the most outrageous names for tunes, sometimes. There's the traditional "Mr & Mrs Such & Such from Somewhere" sort of thing to names like "The Brick". There's no real limit on song names. It definitely gets dafter.
#NK Thanks very much, hopefully we'll catch up at a gig again soon.
#RM I'm playing Cambridge with the Unusual Suspects/The Muckle Loons, oh, and The Brian McNeill Session.
photo credit:
Neil King