FIDDLER, guitarist, composer and, most recently, singer, Mike Vass has always been a musician seeking new outlets for his creativity. His most recent album Save His Calm was a departure for the multi-instrumentalist as he gave voice to his own lyrics for the first time, but he has always been someone looking to tell a story with his music.
His thematic approach to works such as In The Wake Of Neil Gunn and Notes From The Boat mark him out as one of the most interesting of Scotland’s traditional composers and now he has a new post which is a perfect fit for an artist of his scope.
Vass has recently been appointed as traditional artist in residence at Edinburgh University with a wide-ranging brief that will see him delve into the Scottish Studies Archive and create new work and collaborations with students and artists from other disciplines. It is a role that could have been tailor made for the Nairn native. How, though, did the position come about?
“They advertised it, actually,” explains Vass. “They were looking for a traditional artist in residence – a storyteller, dancer or musician – and I just thought that it would suit me very well. There’s a few projects I’ve been involved in that have used archive material at the School of Scottish Studies so I’ve been in there quite a lot doing bits and pieces and I thought it would be a great opportunity to go deeper into the archive.
“So I sent in my application and then went for an interview, which is something you don’t do when you’re a musician ...”
With a body of work behind him demonstrating his ability to work with themes and archive material, Vass was duly selected and began work in January.
“The archive itself is incredible,” says Vass. “They have recordings going back to the 1930s, old recordings on wax cylinder and things. They began digitising the archive about 10 years back – the Kist O Riches/Tobar an Dualchais project – which is online so about a third of the archive as been digitised and put on Tobar an Dualchais so there is a lot there but there’s clearly a lot still to be gone through.
Vass adds: “I did a project last year for the Scots Fiddle Festival, The Four Pillars, which looked at the traditional tune types on the fiddle – the air, the march, the strathspey and the reel – and actually used archive material from Tobar an Dualchais for that just to help put the whole thing in context. So before each piece of music was played there would be a clip of people either playing the piece or discussing old fiddlers or telling fairy stories of fiddlers. I just find it all so fascinating. I was delighted to get the job.”
Vass, however, will not be directly involved in the digitisation of the remainder of the archive. It is, rather, his job to use the archive material to instead inspire his own music and to make people more aware of this incredible public resource.
“I’ll be using the archive to inform my own projects over the next few years,” says Vass. “I’ll also be acting as an ambassador for the School of Scottish Studies and the archive. I went to Edinburgh University and I had no idea that the School of Scottish Studies was even there.
“So many people don’t know that the archive is there. And it’s a public archive, it belongs to the people of Scotland and everybody has access to all of this amazing material.
“I’ll also hopefully be starting some projects with other people who want to use archive material so there should be lots of interesting things happening at the school over the next few years.”
MANY folk bands and singers have been beneficiaries of the archive already. The collection of Scots and Gaelic song has been repeatedly dipped into as new young artists discover old, long-lost tunes and songs and bring
them back to life for future generations. In that sense it has already proved invaluable and Vass hopes that it will continue to be in the future.
“I know lots of people that use the archive to find new, older material that is yet to be uncovered but a lot more of that could be happening among the wider public and hopefully we’ll get the word out.”
Traditional music by its very definition is reliant on a passing of the baton from generation to generation. The existence of an archive such as Tobar an Dualchais is vital in plugging the gaps and keeping the tradition alive.
“It’s our cultural heritage,” says Vass. “It’s about using these old pieces to inform new pieces of work. It’s not just playing these things verbatim, it’s seeing how things were done all those years ago and realising that this idea of the carrying stream is real – things morph and grow and musicians and artists doing this work, we’re part of that stream. It’s a great way of understanding where the music has come from and the storytelling and using that to not just keep it alive but also to progress.”
Vass’s mention of storytelling is apposite. He is perhaps the foremost storytelling composer working in traditional music. His ability to fully engage with a theme and produce work of stunning quality around that theme has long marked him out as a singular talent. Is that narrative way of working something that he plans to continue with his own work?
“I think it depends,” says Vass. “Sometimes you don’t know where these ideas come from. You just stumble across them by accident and when they do come up I just see how far I can run with them, how far down the rabbit hole I can get, but it’s hard to know what will spark these thematic projects. But I’m sure there will be more in the future, specifically as part of this job.
“For instance, I’m hoping to do a series of ballad animations. I worked with animator Gavin Robinson on a number of projects and he did a fantastic animation for (Malinky bandmate) Fiona Hunter of her version of the Cruel Mother and thought we could try something similar, but this time bringing together the students at the Celtic and Scottish Studies Department with the Edinburgh College of Art animation music students. So we’re looking to do that with some of the big traditional narrative ballads of Scotland. And that in itself could prove to be a great resource of even secondary school pupils.
“We’re also looking to do a podcast with artists who have used archive material in their own projects and discussing how they have used the material for their own creativity. I’m thinking of the poet Andrew Greig who wrote his whole novel Fair Helen based on the ballad Fair Helen of Kirkconnel and it’s an amazing piece of work. It’s really interesting to see how people have taken these old traditional forms and created something quite special with them.”
VASS clearly is relishing his role and his enthusiasm is clear. However, having only started his role in January he has been working on planning mainly and has yet to properly meet the students. That will come after the summer but in the meantime, Vass still has a busy time ahead of him outwith his university role.
“I haven’t written any songs in the last few months,” says Vass when asked if he’d be making a return to singing. “I don’t have specific album project in mind yet. I’m hoping to do a bit more with The Four Pillars project – maybe take it on the road next year. In the meantime, I’ve been doing some purely solo shows – just me and the guitar and the fiddle and the songs. I’ll be in Gairloch tonight and Ullapool tomorrow and next month I’ll be in Findhorn on
June 19 and then Lyth Arts Centre in Caithness on June 20.”
Of course, as well as his solo career, Vass is also one quarter of Scots song stalwarts Malinky, who are shortly going to be releasing their 20th anniversary album.
“It’s a big collaborative thing with six guest singers singing new material,” says Vass. “Then there’s also a disc two with old recordings and demos documenting the past 20 years.That was a special thing to work on.”
Vass’s creative outlets are many and varied and with his new posting – and access to the incredible archive material at Edinburgh University – Scotland can rest safe in the knowledge that there is much more to come from this uniquely talented artist.
Mike Vass plays Gairloch Community Centre tonight and The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool tomorrow.
For more info on the Celtic and Scottish Studies archive go to www.tobarandualchais.co.uk
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Peat & Diesel take iTunes by storm
THE foremost craic dealers of the Outer Hebrides Peat & Diesel’s recently released debut album, Uptown Fank, took iTunes by storm this week, hitting the heights of number 13 in the UK album download charts.
It comes as no surprise given the reception the band’s hilarious take on west coast culture has garnered across the Highlands and islands.
Fans of the band have been commandeering all manner of transportation to get them to gigs across the Hebrides – including some hardy souls who took a rigid inflatable from Stornoway all the way to Tobermory to listen to classics in the making such as Callum Dan’s Transit Van and Salt and Pepper. The National has been trying to sort an interview with the boys but as yet to no avail. Watch this space ...
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Trad stars make Scottish Album of the Year long submissions list
THE Scottish Album of the Year Award is now open for entries and several prominent folk musicians are eligible. Already on the long submissions list are Aidan O’Rourke, Brian McAlpine, Brighde Chaimbeul. Breabach, Kinnaris Quintet, Gary Innes and Hamish Napier to name but a few.
Submissions close on Friday at midnight. After that, 100 impartial “nominators” will decide on a long list of 20 which will then be whittled down to 10.
It has been another incredible year for Scottish trad music so let’s hope there is some decent representation in that long list when it is published. For more information and to view eligible albums go to www.sayaward.com
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