22/09/2009

Kerr Fagan Harbron Interview - Part 2

Here the trio look at the complexities of a musician's working life - with colleagues and with babies!

So, pregnancy's been a creative time then? Karine Polwart put out two album's when she was pregnant.

Nancy: Pre-pregnancy was pretty creative but pregnancy's been hanging on for dear life to be honest. I won't quite get as far as Karine but I'll have an album and book out whilst I'm pregnant. I think voice wise I recorded at the right time because it's not affecting it horribly, but I haven't got as much breath. And because it's all songs on this album I think we got the right time in July. I'm very pleased we've done it and it's a thing now. We just have to get it out.

What about touring with the baby. Is that going to be happening?

James: Of course, yes it will have to be. Nancy: Apparently they're quite small!

James: Yes, they are quite small. We're just behind the first surge of folkies from our generation having kids, so we've seen other couples in our place doing it and doing well. People like Jon Boden and Fay. People who tour together, Vera and Jock (New Rope String Band) they're both in the same band.

James: Rob hasn't been briefed of his full duties yet. Nancy: He'll be in a mentoring role. James: A strong male role model for our child. Rob: Don't play that chord son.

Nancy: It will have to change. James and I have been, probably up until when we started to work with Rob, and a little as a duo, we've really been quite responsive about where we play rather than proactive. Because we're a couple if someone has wanted us to do a gig we've pretty much always do it.

James: We've started to that anyway as we've combined with Rob now at the same agency, Emerging music will be looking after both the duo and the trio, so baby or no baby we were planning to consolidate this work into something a bit more like our own little network that we operate within and that might have implications for future recordings and bookings and how we work. Rob's had that experience to a certain extent with Chris Wood, John Dipper and Miranda and other people in the English Acoustic Collective. I don't think we're necessarily going to call it something, but the working for each other and working as a community is something we'll aim for.

But along the lines of the English Acoustic Collective?

Rob: For instance, I play on this album and so does Ric Foot so he's an interesting musician and maybe some of our audience can find their way towards him. Or maybe Nancy and James's audience can see that I'm involved in a trio record and find their way to my stuff. Just a way of sharing. If we're all on different websites and Myspace sites it's kind of like a little too fragmented. Not anything as formal as a label or a brand but there will be one place you can go to where you find out about lots of things. But the link is the personnel and the musical ethic.

James: You can see that already happening on the folk scene and it's a recent phenomenon. You look at someone like Kris Drever, his whole thing to me seems to be operating in a series of networks and that's seems to be working really well for him. Obviously with professional help as well. The ethos of working with friends in networks seems to work very well for people recently because of the ease of the internet and all those things that help you stay in touch with each other. Then, as Rob says, share networking, which is what your site does.

Well, the community becomes even stronger hopefully.

James: Yes and without hopefully diluting any of the individuals. One of the best things about working with Rob is that it's a strong sense of something different what we do with him. And the energy is different with the duo, even if there might be some shared repertoire. I just think the whole feel is different when we do a show with Rob and when maybe we get Ric involved, both for duo shows and trio shows. I think that's going to add another layer, he's definitely up for that as well. We had hoped to launch the new album with Ric because he's heavily involved in the album, he's on nine of the tracks playing acoustic double bass it sounds really good. He's such a lovely fella.

www.kerrfaganharbron.co.uk/

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