1) Your latest single Da Sealkie Wife’s Sang breathes new life into the traditional Shetland folk piece by Mary-Ellen Odie. Which classical artists inspire your work and who are some musicians that audiences might be surprised to hear influence you too?
I have many musical influences. Philosophically I would say that I have been influenced by the work of the great conductor Sergiu Celibidache. I love Renaissance choral music, the music of Bach, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Olivier Messiaen, Arvo Part, The Beatles, Queen, Suede and Oasis and, of course, that of my father. I have no time for snobbery in music – music should speak to you directly, not be something you claim to like for reasons of wanting to be thought of in certain ways. Good music is good music and is expressive of the richness and nature of human thought.
2) You’ve taken a traditional folk song and transformed it into something new that still retains the DNA of the original. How do you go about interpreting something so well-known and beloved, and still manage to put your own stamp on it?
I tend to shy away from the idea of interpretation. Interpretation is a deliberately cognitive act, rather than a form of responsiveness to the world. My own stamp on this particular folk tune was not the result of thinking “how might I interpret this?” but, rather, a form of natural response to the tune itself and how it is embedded within Shetland culture. Not having grown up in Shetland, this response is necessarily different from that of someone who has lived here all their life.
3) Joining you on the track are the Aberdeen-based quintet Orchestra Nova (who readers may recognise as the Nova Quartet). What was it like collaborating with the group and how did their involvement come about?
It is necessary to point out that Orchestra Nova is the name that the Nova Quartet chose to perform under in this single, because they were, in this case, a string quintet also performing without their usual viola player. It is always an interesting experience collaborating with different musicians, because one has to get to know how the players respond to music, the particular sounds that their instruments make and so on. No violinist, violist or cellist is the same and no person responds to a particular piece of music in exactly the same way. All of this must be considered and understood if one is to make and give a good performance. I first met the Nova quartet when I was producing an audiobook of the naturalist Bobby Tulloch’s book Shetland An Islander His Islands and Their Wildlife. There was some room left on the fourth disc of the audiobook and so I decided to arrange two of Bobby Tulloch’s folk tunes for string quartet to finish off the production. Bobby Tulloch was the brother of Mary Ellen Odie who wrote the folk tune Da Sealkie Wife’s Sang. The Nova quartet are a very fine and musical Aberdeen-based group, so it was a natural progression to ask them to perform my arrangement of it.
4) Before the single, you produced the audiobook version of Shetland: An Islander, His Islands and Their Wildlife by celebrated naturalist Bobby Tulloch. Did your work on the book, and Shetland in a wider context, influence your work on this single?
I would say that my work on the audiobook definitely influenced my work on this single. Apart from anything else, it introduced me to the folk tunes of both Bobby Tulloch and his sister Mary Ellen. I was also able to talk about them with Bobby Tulloch’s niece, Caroline, which really helped me understand the music better.
5) What’s next for you?
I’m certainly thinking of releasing my own Berceuse for string quartet, and also considering an album of arrangements of Shetland folk tunes. The wonderful thing about such ideas is that they lead you in musical directions that you might never have imagined.
