I interviewed these artists because I wanted to learn more about their musical journey and hope that you will discover and delight in their wonderful creations as much as I do.

There are of course many bands and artists out there who may not get the recognition that they deserve for some time, often because they are more devoted to actually making music than promoting it. Later down the line, the sands of time may reveal the treasure of work that such artists dedicate their lives to and we marvel that they are even of our time and question how it is that we are only hearing about them just now. So it is with great pleasure that I can share these interviews with such great artists  and hopefully help towards their uncovering.

I was fortunate to work with Alan Lacroix on the track ‘All The Pretty Little Horses’ (read more about that song in DAY 1 section “All The Pretty Little Horses’ and download the song for free) He is one of the most skilled guitarists and singer/writers I know and writes some of the most haunting songs I have heard.

His pieces are timeless and absolute gems of meditative song writing. Check out his interview and links and you will be in for a real treat. His performance films on you tube are mesmerizing.

Mishaped Pearls are also good friends and I have been amazed at how this hardworking and wonderful band have made such a remarkable debut album as ‘The Singer and the Poets’. Seeing them for the first time live at The Slaughtered Lamb earlier this year, I was hypnotized by their poetry and beauty and hope you will be too.

The brainchild of guitarist and songwriter Ged and classically-trained soprano Manuela, Mishaped Pearls’ sound is a unique contemporary blend of classical, pop, folk and world music, inspired by the colorful world of the Baroque.

I have been fortunate to witness the birth of this fantastic band and their album ‘The Singer and the Poets’ is one of my favorite albums of all time. Their live shows are mesmerizing and I am delighted to share their music with you.

I caught up with Ged and Manuela for this interview for Spiral Earth recently.

Visit their site and get to know their music which is truly magical. If you are lucky enough to catch one of their live shows I am certain that you will be blown away by this beautiful band.

Listen to ‘L’aimee De Sappho’ by Mishaped Pearls here….

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INTERVIEW WITH MISHAPED PEARLS

Hi Ged and Manuela, many thanks for joining us. Your debut album, The Singer and The Poets has been championed by Tom Robinson and already you are appearing at European festivals this summer. It is one of the most beautiful albums I own and I am very impressed that you recorded and produced the album yourselves. What is the story behind the album?

Manuela: Thanks Kelli. Unexpectedly, and perhaps rather weirdly, the album became possible thanks to an inspiration from John Harle’s theme music of the BCC1 Drama Series “Silent Witness”, “Silencium”. The music has a contemporary feel with simple melodic lines, yet unusually features a male soprano voice, singing in Latin.

This is where I come into the picture: I have had classical training and, as a mezzo-soprano with leanings towards operatic “trouser-roles”, some of the sound qualities in my voice can be compared to those of counter tenors, like the one in the “Silencium” track.

So, despite two musicians living side by side for years, for the first time it happened that we had a sense of possibilities of bringing our worlds together: the classical and, in Ged’s case, folk/world.

Ged: One other important factor should also be mentioned: around the same time I began listening intently to the music of a certain young lady, which not only completely rejuvenated my approach to guitar picking technique, but also opened my eyes to the sheer lusciousness of sound and texture that can be achieved in a guitar-led musical style. I only mention “Flowers”, or “Heavens Door”, or “The Kiss”... need I go on?? I would say that your beautifully woven melodic lines and the characteristically rich flavour of your music have had a direct influence on us Kelli.

But back to our somewhat domestic scene: somehow Manuela rapidly developed a passion for ancient Roman poetry and we proceeded to create our first four songs in Latin. Songs in other languages quickly followed. One of the interesting things about The Singer and The Poets is as previously said the songs are in European languages but if anything it makes the album more intriguing. Most people get it after 2 or 3 listens and then the can’t stop playing it which is a good sign.

Manuela: I was amazed what treasures I found, and how surprisingly strong and engaging some of this ancient stuff still is to us today, for example “Odi et Amo” (I love and I hate), “Da mi Basilla Mille” (Give me a Thousand Kisses), both by Catullus who died around 50 BC. Although not opposed to changing around the order of some of the original lines, I prefer to preserve the essential integrity of the poetry as much as possible, and it has been miraculous how it has merged so perfectly with the music throughout the album, regardless of era or language. Ged often gets the ball rolling by creating a musical theme and/or instrumental flavour and for this album I have hunted high and low for poetry that would chime naturally with these. Once in place it acts as a catalyst to develop the songs further and as we moved on from Catullus to Ovid, Petrarch, Rimbaud, Louise Labé and others, we ended up with a selection that was begging for the title of the album “The Singer and the Poets”.

Please tell us how you and Manuela met 

Manuela: Well, talking about the love for music and languages, I essentially just put the words “music” and “French” into a search engine, and up came Ged. That was it – a perfect match – just like the songs. Of course it was not any old search engine, but I don’t want to go into any details. The main thing is, it worked, and I only tried it the once!

What is your earliest musical memory?

Manuela: My mum used to sing to me, accompanying herself with the guitar, and the most memorable little song, which embarrassingly I can still sing very well, is about a bunny rabbit, which fell into a brook “plumps!”. It’s called “Klein Haeschen wollt’ spazieren geh’n”....

Ged: I am not too far off from that, although my mum singing “An Irish Lullaby (Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra)” probably had a far greater degree of musical sophistication, considering that it was originally recorded by Bing Crosby...

What has been your favourite experience as a band so far?

Ged: For me it’s playing at the lovely Union Chapel. The natural acoustics are amazing.

How many members are currently in your band?

Manuela: Seven

Ged:  We have been so lucky in finding not only great musicians to play with us
but also really lovely people who have added their own feel to the songs. They are from mixed musical backgrounds, some classically trained and others like myself who only play by ear. We have Andrew on keys and bodhran, Helen on violin, Sean, mandolin and guitar, Amelie on bass and Naomi who plays cello.

Who are your musical heroes?

Manuela: My heroes come from a wide spectrum, but I do especially love a Swedish singer called Anne Sophie von Otter who has collaborated, for example, with Elivs Costello and Benny Anderson which is unusual for someone like here with an international opera career. I admire her curiosity, open-mindedness and the genuine and fresh approach which she brings to any genre of music that she tackles.

Ged: My older brothers were into Neil Young, Cat Steven, Joni Mitchell, Steeleye Span and Ralph Mctell and coming from an Irish family, many traditional Irish bands including Planxty, The Wolfetones and The Dubliners. So these artists were the first ones to really register with me and some of them influenced my guitar picking styles and general songwriting. I also got into bands like Zeppelin, Focus and Deep Purple as a kid and then later more rock music but folk and acoustic music was always bubbling away in the background.

Who are your favourite current bands?

Manuela: CocoRosie

Ged: On the folk side I really like Julie Fowlis, Kris Drever and Kate Rusby and I love what the Imagined Village are doing, mixing up Eastern and Western instruments and styles.. Also a band from the Sahara Desert called Tinariwen who seem to be doing a similar thing the other way round. They sing in their native tongue and play electric guitars in a bluesy style with lots of great percussion. For me, this is a great way forward, breaking new ground and is kind of how I see Mishaped Pearls you know just mixing it all up. I saw Mumford and Sons last year at Cambridge Folk Festival and they blew me away. Pure energy, great song writing, lovely melodies and top musicianship. I also love Elbow and their last release The Seldom Seen Kid. It’s such a beautiful album.

 

What's next for Mishaped Pearls?

Ged: Playing more gigs, festivals etc.. We are playing Nozstock on July 10th and we have a mini tour in the South of France in August. I’m constantly writing new material so as well as the album which is only available online at the moment although we do sell hard copies at gigs, we will release a 3 or 4 track E.P in the next few months. We’ve done a cover of Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain” and his publishers have given us the all clear if we want to release it so that will probably be on the E.P. We have another song in English too!!

 

www.myspace.com/mishapedpearls

 

When I first found Alan Lacroix's music online, I was spell bound by his very unique mastery of the acoustic guitar. Alan has developed his own system of tuning which gives his pieces an indefinable haunting quality. I went to see him play at a small bar in London and was delighted to find him playing pieces which lasted over ten minutes and took wonderful unexpected musical turns to astonishing plateaus of beauty. His playing was faultless and I knew I was witnessing an absolute maestro at work.

I asked Alan to work with me arranging a cover of 'All The Pretty Little Horses' for the 'Beautiful Star' Odetta tribute album. Working with Alan on the track was a dream. Jane South (Flute) also joined us in the studio and plays a marvelous performance on the track.

Alan is one of the few guitarists I know who continues to push the boundaries of his instrument beyond the limits and his songs are simply astounding. Alan's voice was made for his particular songs and his way of playing. When I hear his songs I can honestly say that they are like nothing else I have heard, so original, so beautiful and so very very powerful.

Please allow me to introduce you to Alan Lacroix..........

Hi Alan, many thanks for joining us.

Thanks Kelli, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for asking me to take part in this interview, it’s not something I’ve done that often so I’m looking forward to it.

When did you begin to play the guitar?

My mother had a Spanish guitar in the house when I was growing up.  I suppose I must have been around 10 years old when I first picked it up and started to make all kinds of horrendous noises.  I think I only took up playing more seriously when I was about 15 years old.  There were a few largely ineffective lessons at school (where the teacher would blind you with his technique and then expect you to be enthusiastic about playing ‘House of the Rising Sun’…).  I taught myself to play after that until I got as far as I could on my own.  I eventually had some classical guitar lessons when I was in my mid twenties.  Those lessons helped to demystify quite a few things about the instrument for me.

What music did you listen to as a teenager and who inspired you to experiment with the acoustic guitar as a complex instrument as opposed to the more conventional way of playing?

We have to go back a fair way to when I was a teenager! That puts us in the late 1970s when punk had exploded into the public consciousness and the charts were a strange mixture of new wave artists and disco music.  I must admit that my musical obsessions at the time were far more conservative than The Sex Pistols or The Clash.  I was in the process of absorbing the complete output of The Beatles (initially through the old red and blue albums before working my way through all the releases).  This subsequently led me to a more general appreciation of 1960s music, particularly the music of bands such as The Who, The Byrds, The Doors, Cream and Jimi Hendrix.  I must also mention one particular album in my mother’s collection, ‘Scott 3’ the 1969 release by Scott Walker. This album remains one of my favorites to this day; the amazing voice, wonderful song writing and arrangements are still irresistible. Aside from the 1960s vinyl, I was also heavily influenced by The Jam and Paul Weller’s scything guitar playing (the choice of Rickenbacker guitars also made a strong aural and visual connection with some of my favorite ‘60s guitarists particularly Townshend, Harrison and McGuinn).  Another favorite from that time was the Medway mod band The Prisoners who I saw live on a regular basis, they were a devastating live band modeled loosely on The Small Faces releasing two or three albums in the early 1980s and making the odd television appearance I believe.

The inspiration for my current approach to the acoustic guitar doesn’t directly relate to the music I grew up listening to.  About four years ago I was really struggling with my song writing.  Up to that point I had generally worked with standard tuning on the guitar.  The familiarity of the tuning had become something of a blind alley (or so I thought at the time).  I was listening to the ‘Pink Moon’ album by Nick Drake, which as you know is carried almost entirely by a single acoustic guitar and Nick’s voice.  It fascinated me that an album could be so compelling using just these barest of elements.  One of the reasons the album succeeds so well is Nick’s extensive use of altered guitar tunings.  This was the catalyst, which encouraged me to begin exploring various altered tunings as the basis for new material.  There are problems with the approach of course (retuning the guitar at shows can be painful!).  In my experience working with altered tunings can be as limiting as it can be liberating, the more extreme the tuning the more limited the musical choices and practical chord fingerings can become.  Nevertheless, it was a challenge that I was prepared to take on.  Once I had been working with altered tunings for a while I discovered by chance the work of James Blackshaw (an English 12 string acoustic guitarist who works with long form minimalistic solo guitar pieces using altered tunings).  I had never really thought about 12-string guitar in this context before (despite owning a 12 string Rickenbacker guitar for 20 years!). 

Try listening to ‘The Broken Hourglass‘ for example; this will give you a good idea of what James is capable of.  It had never occurred to me that this style of playing was even possible.
I decided to sell off as much equipment as possible in order to raise enough money for a good quality 12 string acoustic.  I eventually got a Taylor 455CE in 2008 and started to experiment with different tunings and combinations of strings. It took around three months to develop a technique that was robust enough to produce reasonable results with the sound of the instrument.  These foundations in string tuning and picking patterns were eventually brought together on our recording of ‘All the Pretty Little Horses’.  I must add that I did fall back on some of what I had learnt from my classical guitar studies in the early 1990s, that was a very important point of reference in developing the approach.  Altered tunings help you to deconstruct your preconceptions around scale patterns and chord shapes and lead you into musical territory that you may not have otherwise reached. 

I have recently returned to standard tuning with a completely different approach to it, the old limitations no longer seem to be there.  Aside from the tuning of the instrument, having a flexible approach to way you play the instrument is critical.  Strumming chords to accompany yourself can have the effect of reducing the guitar to something of a blunt instrument.  There is such potential for subtlety with the instrument, it has often been said that the guitar has the scope of a miniature orchestra such is the range of dynamics and timbres that is available, only recently whilst working extensively with a Spanish guitar have I begun to scratch the surface some of this potential. 

I have a huge amount of respect for Julian Bream, one of the leading figures of 20th Century classical guitar music; I was lucky enough to see one of his concerts in the early 1990’s which was amazing.  There is so much to learn from the way he articulates and phrases the music; it certainly gives you a great perspective on your own limitations as a musician!

 

You have made a series of films of your performances on you tube that in my opinion are some of the best performance videos I have seen on the Internet. How important has the Internet been for you in reaching a wider audience and what has the reaction been to your films?

There are two main reasons why I started to make films of one-take performances of my most recent songs.  Firstly, the process of sitting in front of the camera and having to produce a fully realized version of a song has really helped me to develop the levels of concentration that are necessary to cope with that situation.  I think it’s as close as you can get to the state of mind you have to be in when you are giving a live performance to an audience.  I have found the key to an unbroken performance is to be actively thinking ahead all of the time, anticipating the changes in the music.  It has certainly altered my approach to performance, especially when most of the material is right at the edge of what I am capable of playing. 

Secondly, the material itself is less conventional to the material I have written before.  I have been trying to incorporate some of what I have learnt about compositional techniques of classical composers (particularly 20th Century composers such as Messiaen, Schoenberg and Britten).  The result is that there is very little repetition in the music, there is no verse/chorus approach, in most cases the pieces are through composed and are musical settings of words which have already been written (and written without any consideration of them being set to music).  I accept that this potentially makes the songs difficult to come to terms with and I feel that they succeed best in the context of a visual performance.  Thank you for your kind words regarding the films it means in some small way they have fulfilled their dual purpose.  What reaction I have received to the films has tended to be encouraging (in the main part this has been from friends who are also musicians, that seems to be an area where the material seems to resonate the most clearly).  Of course the Internet may well prove to be an important way for me to reach new listeners, it hasn’t proved to be the case so far, we shall see…

Please tell us about your current project

I’m currently working on a set of songs for Spanish guitar and voice which I have touched on above.  The title is ‘From the river to the sea’.  The songs have been written in standard tuning which makes them very practical to play in concert.  The project began last summer with a set of verses each of 12 lines in length.  My previous project was a 30 minute song called ‘Nine Black Elms’ which had a narrative structure, characters, a murder, a chase sequence and a trial.  The song was the conclusion of direction I had been taking with narrative pieces like ‘The Anderson Brothers’ and ‘Cain’. 
I wanted to look at a more poetic approach to my lyrics, partly this was the result of reading ‘The Waves’ by Virginia Woolfe, partly from reading the poetry collections of Ted Hughes, W.B.Yeates and Dylan Thomas.  I was keen not to compromise the words by having to make them rhyme or fit a particular metre.  Once I had refined the verses I went through a process of adding music that would best create the right backdrop for the text, in some cases this meant having a different musical idea for every line (‘Horses’ is a good example of this approach and was the blue print for the project embracing my intention to include compositional devices like palindromes and tone rows). 

In October and November of 2009 I started to perform these musical fragments for the first time at Carl Chamberlain’s London Singer/Songwriter Circle.  This was an invaluable part of the writing process as it became apparent very quickly which ideas worked the best in a performance context (a word of thanks to Carl here for that opportunity!).  It has been a gradual process developing each of the songs in the project, a process that has taken place largely in front of an audience at various shows over the past few months.  Recordings of the songs are available to download free from Last. FM (http://www.last.fm/music/Alan+Lacroix/From+the+River+to+the+Sea+%282009%29)

I must also mention another project I am involved with as a contributor.  Ginkgo Music have put together an album of songs by established and emerging artists in order to raise money for the preservation of natural habitats in Ecuador.  An orchestrated version of my song “August” is included on the album.  Other contribution artists include David McAlmont, Devon Sproul, Martha Tiltson and Kate Walsh.  I believe the album will be launched in the next few months.  Obviously it’s exciting for me to be involved in a project with these artists and in aid of a good cause.  If you would like any further information on the project please visit the Ginkgo Music website (http://www.ginkgomusic.com/).

Who are your favorite current artists?

Aside from my immersion in classical music I have quite a few current favorite artists many of whom I have been lucky enough to meet and some to work with.  All are very worthy of attention, many have new albums available or will have in the next few months.  They are (in no particular order): Samantha Whates (debut album ‘Darker Nights Make for Brighter Days’ to be released later this year), Rhys Marsh (currently working on a new album, previous album ‘Dulcima’ was out last year), Jess Bryant (new album ‘Silvern’ completed, release date to be confirmed), Mondesir (album due later this year), Buzzard Lope (new mini-album ‘Daybreak’ available now), The Title Sequence (‘Lovers’ single available now), Roshi feat. Pars Radio (album ‘The Sky and the Caspian Sea’ available now), Autumn Grieve (mini-album ‘Stray Birds’ available now), Stuart Masters (album ‘One Last Look Around’ available now), Blue Rose Code (single ‘Love’/‘Whitechapel’ available now), Johnny Parry (album ‘More Love & Death’ available now), Sam Carter (album ‘Keepsakes’ available now), Tom Janssen (album being recorded, release date to be confirmed).

Alan’s other websites ….

www.myspace.com/alanlacroix
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alan-Lacroix/105742040297
http://www.last.fm/music/Alan+Lacroix
http://www.youtube.com/user/xoircal