Celtic JigsNReels Aug. 2001 ------------------------------ Our artist of the month for September is Tempest. Due to us being down, we're including a few of the questions now, and dependent on how long it takes for the ISP to finish their part of the work, we'll email the rest if needed. But you can of course get the full interview on the site once we're back online. JnR: What brought you to Celtic music? Leif: I've been interested in traditional folk music as long as I can remember. Specifically the Celtic stuff, I grew up in Norway with traditional Norwegian music, and both geographically and musically very close to Scotland and Ireland. There were a lot of Irish musicians settling in Oslo in the 70's. So we formed little sessions and formed a cross between Irish and Norwegian music. Because the people interested in playing tunes were either Irish or Norwegian. We had a little folk club going on in Oslo in the 70's, and I learned a lot from that. And I lived in Ireland for a while in the late 70's. So I have always been influenced by both the Celtic and Scandinavian stuff. Its all been the same to me in a way. And with Tempest, we do quite a bit of Scandinavian material in with the Celtic. And so its all sort of Northern European stuff. We're not what I would call an Irish music band, we're a rock band that plays traditional tunes. But very much of the music is traditional based. A lot of Celtic Rock bands with their original material aren't grounded in the tradition. And I feel that you can write a new melody to a traditional lyric, or take a traditional lyric and write a new melody, or we can write a new song with traditional roots or we can update what we think is a good traditional song. And the purpose of that is that here is a good song that needs to be played, needs to be heard. And being the fact that it has survived for hundreds of years it must be good material to begin with. and if we can give our own spin on it than that is our way of keeping the tradition alive without feeling that we've bastardized it in any way. I feel that traditional music is there to be used/expressed. I love traditional music played acoustically by good players. But I also like taking your own spin on it and making it yours and if there's an audience for it, we'll provide it. JnR: Is there any relation to traditional Scandinavian music and traditional Celtic music? Leif: I've found more direct relation to Scottish stuff more so than Irish. There are actually traditional Scottish songs and Scandinavian songs that have the same lyrics just in different languages. And there are songs about the same things and the interaction across the North Sea. I could go on about some valid theories that the Irish harp came to Ireland with the Vikings. It originated in Siberia, down into Scandinavia than across the water with the first Viking raids and ended up being the Brian Boru harp we know of now. So I know there's a lot of cultural interaction and that happened in the music as well as ballads were carried back and forth across the sea. I don't know if the Irish harp theory can be backed up properly, but they do know that there was no Irish harp before the Vikings. And when I was in art school, I did a study on the Norwegian folk harp, and it was the Irish harp, but instead of the lap harp, because they never figured out to put it flat on their lap, so they put it flat on the table, and it came to Ireland where they figured out to put it on their lap. So there is a lot of interaction and a lot in the music. The fiddle tradition as well, similar tunes. Then you go to the Shetland Islands where you actually have a cross of Scotland/Norwegian music but its Shetland music. Its all a part of the same thing really. It changes color as it travels a bit. We could play a melody of tunes and have both an Irish tune with a Scandinavian tune and if they are obscure enough no one will say what an odd combination that is. It's all folk music, and its music that's meant to be played. JnR: With Celtic rock, is it simply taking a traditional tune like "Jacobites" and playing it with modern electric instruments, or is it more complex than that? Leif: It could be that simple. In that particular example, there's more to it. I am the one who arranged it, its gone through various arrangement ideas in the rock band format. I think its snippets of other musical ideas and made it our own. So the current arrangement is a uniquely Tempest take on it. Which then again others would hear and take our version and put their own parts to it. That's a part of the living tradition. You can do that with folk music. You can add and subtract a little bit. That one, when we do the straight traditional thing, it usually gets very subjective in our treatment of it. I'm a folk musician, but when you get rock musicians take on it, which I think is part of the fun of exploring. And it's a lot healthier for rock musicians to play traditional tunes than Top 40. " Full interview and featured artist page available at http://www.CelticJigsNReels.com