93 f
“He has taught me a hell of a lot about the folk business, saved me five years of doing folk clubs, which is a real godsend. I don’t think anyone can appreci- ate it unless they’ve actually done it. We’ve been through hell and high water, and some of the best gigs too. He has the experience to analyse that, not to the extent of being picky, but to analyse it in a professional and psychological sense; that really has taught me a hell of a lot – about people, music and the business.”
But practically, the juggling of so many projects obviously still needs prioritising. Kate and Kathryn are very pragmatic about the whole thing, wanting to play it by ear and gauge reactions as they go on.
Kate: “It’s got a lot of potential. We’ll just have to see how it’s accepted by peo- ple, how it’s going down.”
Kathryn: “The reaction we’ve had so far from those who’ve heard the band has been really favourable. Everyone’s com- mented on the fact that it is very wide- reaching, appeals to such a wide audience, which is really encouraging for us.”
On the other hand, The Lakemans are far more vocal about the ambition they feel for the project.
Sean: “We talked about this a hell of a lot when we were practising and getting this together. Basically The Equation is number one on the list, most definitely, because we have the chance. We have the contacts, we have the plans and we all feel now that we’ve got the gig, we’ve got the music. We’ve got the opportunity to take this a long way and we’re going to do it. Quite frankly, The Equation is an extension of both The Lakeman Brothers and Kate & Kathryn. Naturally it is. We could never do what we’re doing with The Equation as two separate acts. We can earn more money, we can play to bigger audiences, we can widen our appeal, we can travel all over the place, have crates of working hol- idays – that’s how I see it really! It would be foolish at the moment to completely forget the two acts but the way it’s going at the moment… and we haven’t even had any major publicity yet. I know certainly that our agent in the States was going bananas when she arrived back from the Folk Alliance saying that we were the hottest news there. We were like “Well, how come, what’s going on?” She’s crying out for demo tapes yesterday and every- thing, so if that keeps up, well, we’ve got to go with it. It‘s a brilliant opportunity so let’s go with it.”
Sam and Seth also feel that the ambi- tion they have has a much more produc- tive outlet in the form of The Equation, though The Lakemans are still alive and kicking as a separate entity.
“We see far more happening with the Equation than we do as The Lakeman Brothers. The Lakeman Brothers are fan- tastic. We’ve got our first tour in the States in October and that’s going to be good. But there’s far more scope with The Equa- tion, more profitability, it’s far more excit- ing. We’re young and we’re highly ambi- tious. We’ll try anything.”
1995 T
his is where another element of the buzz surrounding the project comes in. A lot of it is in fact self-generated, by the sheer enthusiasm and determi- nation that drives the band themselves. The Lakeman siblings are ferociously ambitious, motivated and self-promoting, taking on a tone that could easily rub people up the wrong way. But there’s no doubting that they’ll achieve what they want to. There are not many artists on the British folk scene, for example, who can claim sponsorship from British Airways, flying them to gigs which are a fair dis- tance apart from each other and planning a European tour which will take them to several European cities for one-off gigs.
There is also an amazing amount of graft going into the promotion of The Equation and you can’t help but get the impression there’s some sort of masterplan at work. As Sam says, “You can’t pussy- foot about, you’ve got to have the ambi- tion to go somewhere. You can’t do it if you sit around on your backside…”
Sean: “I don’t want to take any credit away from Crapstone Music, and a really strong network of people who we’ve got behind us. We have a barrage of about four or five people who are really working very hard. They’re not your run-of-the-mill folk agents. They really know what they’re talking about. That is what is extremely exciting for me and I think for the rest of the band.”
“The business is getting more profes- sional every day. Artists have got to adapt to take a chunk of the action and let’s face it we are professionals and we love folk music. We’ve got to make a crust. I don’t want to be a megastar, don’t want the has- sle. I want to play good music and be financially secure with it and to do that you’ve got to play the game.”
“We’ve got a very strong network of professional support behind us. A lot of ideas in marketing and media. It is defi- nitely our aim, internationally as well, to promote ourselves effectively. That’s really what we want to do. We don’t feel that anyone has really done it successfully. Without seeming pompous about it, we
see that with the strong network of sup- port behind us we can do it both musically and in the business sense. It very important in the ’90s, as any musician, whether you’re a jazz musician, a folk musician, a Bhangra musician, to be multi-media in order to survive.”
Part of playing the game is using image to their advantage, something which is, however you view it, important in the broader scheme of things. They want to present themselves in the most strong, upbeat way possible.
Kathryn: “I think the image of the thing, the idea of youngsters doing all this traditional stuff is really appealing. We haven’t got an Arran sweater or a tankard in sight. Or a beard.”
Sam: “The fact that we’ve got this live-
ly, young image – handsome, if I may say so – means that there will hopefully be dif- ferent people wanting to listen to the music. And we think the music will stand up to that.”
Sean: “Existing older folk audiences might be put off by what they see as arro- gance. I would call it very passionate ambi- tion. The image that we’re conveying as The Equation is very poppy. There isn’t a lot of difference between what E17 would do in a photo studio and what we do. Hopefully though, that audience will have the common sense to cut through the bull- shit. That is designed for widening the audience. Fourteen- and fifteenyear olds passing Folk Roots in WHSmiths will say ‘What’s that’!’ It’s not designed to scare the shit out of Fred Bloggs from East Anglia who still sings his songs with his melodeon at Sidmouth Festival every year. We want him to come to the gigs as much as everybody else. That’s what it’s all about.”
So. That’s who The Equation think they are – presenting the music in a way that it stands up by itself but with an ambition that rivals the best of them in the professional world of music. They’re not setting themselves up as crusaders, they don’t want to be leaders of the brat pack, they just want to do it their way. Or E17’s way!
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