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31 f Who’s the mother?
“It’s not that simple. Sometimes I’m the mother! Just kidding.”
You’ve worked with Emily Portman for quite some time now. What is it about her as an artist that fits with you?
“I think with Emily I really get her approach to traditional song as well as its influence on her own writing. I feel in a way with her that similar pagan thing, for want of a better word. I know that Emily grew up in Glastonbury and I think there was some- thing in the air there for sure that’s left its mark on her! Although there’s a reality to her work, it’s not sort of new age/hippyish but instead is grounded in human and worldly realities, poeticised. Also I suppose we probably have some similar interests beyond folk song, but related to it, in fields of myth, folklore, folk tale and so on.”
“I sometimes think that if a collabora- tion goes well it’s kind of alchemical in a way. You bring different ideas together and they can make something gold. As an indi- vidual you don’t necessarily have it in your capacity to transmute the base chemicals into gold. But by collaborating you can.”
When you’re writing alone do you imagine the parts of your future collabora- tors or can that only happen in the room when you’re together?
“It’s mostly just letting people do what they want. That seems like the best way to get good results – surprising results. It’s a
waste of people’s talents if you just tell them what to do. Why would you get some- one who’s such a great bass player as Stevie Jones or a great drummer as Alex Neilson and then just tell them what to do? Such a wasted opportunity. You kind of trust those people to do something great.”
Despite the delay in Pangs reaching the world, you tend to make records very quick- ly. Is that for financial reasons or just the way you need to work?
“A bit of both. I remember being in this studio in Glasgow and in the time we recorded twelve songs this other band that were in the big studio next door had record- ed all the snare drum parts for their album!”
“I
’m always open to new ways of doing things but it’s tended to be about trying to capture a live performance. I don’t think it’s necessarily better,
ethically or aesthetically to do it quicker. It just seems to work better for some people.”
There was a delightful interview recently with Martin Carthy for musicradar.com in which he still sounded positively thrilled about the possibilities of the guitar. Are you?
“I think I still am. When I was younger I used to do a lot of alternate tunings. But playing live it just became impractical so I use just one or two tunings now. But I still enjoy the fact that you can find completely different ways to play things and different
sounds. On the Furrow Collective tour I’ve started playing electric guitar more and that’s been exciting. I mean, it probably doesn’t sound very exciting to anyone read- ing this! But to me it’s quite different.”
“I read that Martin Carthy piece and he was talking about playing with a zero fret. I didn’t know what that was and had to Google it. And I have played guitars with zero frets but I’ve never noticed it before. I’d like to explore that more. I must’ve been about fourteen when I started playing gui- tar and it’s been the instrument that’s appealed to me most.”
To be playing for so long and still have new things to discover, that’s the ideal isn’t it? And to be able to see a big difference between the Alasdair Roberts on the cover of fRoots thirteen years ago and now.
“The whole view of music and life that I
have is different to how it was then. I imag- ine in another ten years’ time I’ll be embar- rassed about this interview too. But even if I did an interview when I was 70 and looked back on it when I was 80 I’d be embarrassed. That’s the amazing thing about life, you’re always learning. You tend to think the moment you’re speaking is the pinnacle of your insight and awareness but then you realise a bit later on that it wasn’t. You always have something new to learn, whether that’s about being a friend to peo- ple or being a guitar player.”