WEBVTT
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Will Pound joins me on episode 76.
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Will first started playing harmonica at age 10 to help with his breathing after he underwent two major heart operations as a child.
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Since then he has rose to fame on the English folk scene, being nominated for Folk Musician of the Year three times.
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He now plays harmonica and melodion, diversifying his musical output to cover many different acoustic genres.
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Will has released a number of albums with a range of quality musicians, with his last album spanning the traditional music genres of the European continent.
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He has a number one Christmas single and a number one Christmas album on his resume, has played at Buckingham Palace and on an advertisement featuring Robert De Niro.
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This podcast is sponsored by Seidel Harmonicas.
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Visit the oldest harmonica factory in the world at www.seidel1847.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Zeidel Harmonicus.
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Hello, Will Pound, and welcome to the podcast.
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Hey, Neil.
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How's it going?
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Thanks for joining today, Will.
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So you are an English folk harmonica player, largely.
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Yeah, that's right.
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I mean, it's interesting, actually, sort of how you describe me, because I mean, I guess, yes, in principle, definitely English folk harmonica player.
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But I guess nowadays, I'm sort of more or less thinking of myself as a general harmonica player, you know, that plays lots of different musical styles, but yeah, from England originally.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, great.
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And so I think, were you originally from Warwick?
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So I was born in Rugby, but yeah, pretty near Warwick.
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And I was brought up near Warwick, yeah, in a little place called Whitnash.
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Yeah, that's where I was brought up until I moved away to Newcastle when I was 18.
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Quite a while back now.
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And you're 35 now.
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Yeah, and now I think, are you living in North Wales?
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I am, yes.
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I'm living up in Carnarvon.
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It's such a beautiful part of the world.
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And it's actually like a very inspiring place to sort of write music.
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So I have a little studio up there where I do some session work.
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And yeah, I do a lot of walking and I've written quite a bit of music.
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It's sort of inspired by the area.
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It's a fantastic place and a great music scene as well.
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It's fantastic.
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Yeah, fantastic.
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Yeah.
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Are you learning to speak Welsh?
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Well, my landlord and landlord lady, they're English, but they do speak Welsh fluently.
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I've learned about four words so far.
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It's a pretty hard language to say the least.
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Yeah.
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But it's an amazing language, you know, and where I live in Carnarvon, that's the first language.
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So you've got a very interesting story about how you started out playing harmonica.
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You can maybe share that with us now.
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Yeah,
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absolutely.
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So I was brought up in the folk scene but sort of the main reason that I got into it ironically wasn't through the music itself, it was through health reasons.
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When I was tiny I had open heart surgery twice, sort of when I was four days old and when I was four years old and as a result of that I had sort of not great breathing.
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As a result growing up so I had some breathing difficulties I mean it wasn't you know horrendous but it was great either so and I was always sort of short of breath growing up you know so when I was about 10 I had a friend of mine Ted Crumb who suddenly passed away during the pandemic he was a harmonica player and he's great and my dad and doctor they sort of encouraged me to pick up the harmonica and I was at first I was a bit like okay well I'll give it a go and I I'm so glad I did because you know I just immediately enjoyed the sound of it and you know and obviously there was the health benefits I just absolutely loved the sound and you know I guess with some people they got into it because they've heard a certain player or you know a musician who plays harmonica or a track that has something you know in it like the Hollies or something like that Ian Harry's My Brother or you know something along those lines where it was like you know harmonica's a key feature but for me it wasn't it was literally just this is the instrument which could help your breathing and that was how I got into it and obviously I enjoyed the sound and so I decided to carry on much to my parents I think reluctance at first but it was great and from that moment I definitely thought well I definitely want to be a musician.
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Were you 10 years old when your father gave you this first harmonica?
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Yeah I was about 10, 10 or 11 but I think 10.
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I was always interested in percussion so by that point I was playing percussion, I was playing snare drum and other types of percussion and i remember growing up actually i was always tapping my hands on the desk you know at school and driving my teachers completely insane it's interesting actually because i definitely feel as a result of that i'm quite a rhythmic player and i think that's where it comes from you know that sort of percussive style and always leaned towards musicians that I've collaborated with who are you know quite percussive as well yeah so that's how I sort of got into it was through health reasons and it really did help.
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There's been a couple of books and some research studies done about the benefits of harmonica for people you know to help people with breathing difficulties and COPD and so you know for yourself did the doctor actually say that you know he saw you know definite benefits of playing the harmonica for you?
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Yeah I mean they did and still now you know my fitness obviously I you know I do exercise size and things like that because that's obviously important for my heart i mean it was interesting actually during the pandemic obviously we didn't play as much in sort of gigs and things like that you know what i practice at home it's probably slightly different to when i do a gig because obviously it's more intense isn't it when you do a gig it's like all in one go and it's like it's a gig and and i really noticed it after i did remember doing my first one of the first gigs after the pandemic and i did play you know during the pandemic but doing you know sort of online things but you know it wasn't like a gig where it's like intense and i did this gig with Ellie J at Folk Festival in Suffolk and I almost like, you know, lost my breath because my body wasn't used to that thing after a couple of years, you know, so I have to, you know, so I do keep really going with it and apparently that happened to a lot of wind players as well during the pandemic, you know, so I kind of have had to build it up again.
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I mean, I'm fine now but, you know, it took a good, I don't know, eight months, nine months to get it back up to sort of gig level.
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It takes a long time to sort of get to a level where you sort of don't have to think about it but you know but it's the exercise I now do breathing exercises as well and things like that before I do a gig you know because it does help
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Great to hear that because it's benefited you in that way as well so you mentioned drums as well is that something you still play some drums?
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I'm a terrible percussionist now.
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But interestingly, I have started a project recently with a phenomenal classical percussionist called Delia Stevens.
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She plays vibes and she plays orchestral percussion.
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And it's quite sort of, I mean, the music we play is improvised, contemporary classical, but also there's stuff like The Planets and The Lark Ascending, so Holst and, you know, all manner of classical composers.
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And, you know, I'm not from the classical world, so, you know, but a lot of her play obviously is percussive given the nature of the instrument and so that kind of really drives me you know it kind of makes me challenge my percussive knowledge to the extreme it's great
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You also said that you started playing obviously for kind of health reasons and therefore you didn't necessarily draw on the same sort of harmonica influences did that mean that you kind of learnt to play the harmonica yourself without really any you know harmonica background or listening or you know kind of tutorials and maybe have you learnt in a different way because of that do you think?
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Yeah absolutely that so basically what happened is yeah I got into the sound of it but I wasn't interested in other players or anything like that I just liked music so I just listened to lots of different people playing you know different instruments so I guess like what I really thrived upon was going well this is a really cool sound that the harmonica makes I wonder if it can make this sound that's like a I don't know a saxophone or like a a did you do like a violin or, you know, or a sitar even.
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And because I was into a wide range of music, that's sort of what really drew me to the instrument because it is capable of a sort of impersonating some of those instruments, you know, to a certain degree.
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I was obviously into traditional music because of, just because of my background, you know.
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And so obviously Brendan Power did come up, you know, I listened to his new Irish harmonica album when I was about, I must have been about 16.
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you
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know I didn't know about Brendan I don't think until that time so for five years I played and yeah I'm self-taught so I didn't have a tutor going do it this way or do it that way it'd be interesting I've always thought about this I always wonder what would it have been like had I been taught by someone or had some guidance you know into playing to start with maybe I would have played differently you know as to how I do now so it's interesting I don't think there's a right or wrong I just think there's a it's just interesting how our different paths take you know yeah into playing instruments so I think for me it's a technical instrument but it's also a soulful instrument And when I'm playing, I don't necessarily think I'm playing a harmonica.
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I think I'm singing into this thing.
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And like, so I'm just thinking of different singers like Ella Fitzgerald or like Nina Simone or like great singers.
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And, you know, how would they, how would they play this tune?
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How would they express the notes?
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And also I was brought up with a great love of jazz, trad jazz particularly.
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So, you know, that's kind of what I guess was going through my mind at the time.
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And obviously it's developed over the years, but I guess the main thing is I wanted my own sound.
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and that was one of the ways I could do it.
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And so you didn't listen much to blues harmonica players, did you not?
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Not at all.
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No.
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I mean, to be honest, my knowledge of blues harmonica players is fairly limited.
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And that's with no disrespect to those players.
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It's amazing.
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When I hear it, I go, wow, that's absolutely fantastic.
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That's so cool what they can do with their instruments and how they're getting the effects by the use of their hands or their mouth or whatever.
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When I hear something like that, I get inspired and I go, this is cool, right?
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I'm going to try and have a go using that particular technique on something that I'm using.
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But I guess growing up I didn't I didn't think of it that way it's interesting because I would have listened to blues obviously I would have heard some blues harmonica playing while listening to different artists but I didn't go specifically looking for a blues harmonica player that I wanted to listen to and you know like Sonny Terry and go I want to be inspired by that which is interesting because I do know that Brendan told me that you know that was one of the first artists that he he was inspired by that you know so it's interesting how people you know different people get into it you know
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yeah and again it gives you you a nice unique approach because you know probably i don't know at least 90 percent of harmonica players probably do start listening to blues and come in that way so yeah it's nice like you say to have a different angle and a different approach to your playing so as you say though you're um you know we've talked about you being a folk musician but you play other sorts we'll get into that when we talk about the music that you play but um
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yeah
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so what got you into folk music you know you grew up around just sort of the midlands just south of birmingham in england and you know was there a good folk scene there and your parents and influence and that or
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Yeah, basically, so I was born into, it sounds always strange, like a cult.
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No, I was born into a Morris team called Kinnerwood Morris, which is my mum and dad's team.
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As a result of that, obviously, sort of English folk music was quite a prevalent thing.
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And so that's sort of what I grew up with.
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So I went to folk festivals from a very young age, you know.
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It's probably worth explaining to the non-UK listeners what Morris dancing is.
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So Morris
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dancing is different regional dancing from different areas of England, particularly.
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So in different areas, you would have a certain type of what they called Morris dance.
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So in the Northwest, which is the style I was brought upon, it would have been a tradition of clogs and, you know, flowery hats, and it was done by men and women.
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It was part of a percussive style of Morris, amazing uniforms, you know, and it was from the cotton mills.
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That's the sort of background, historical background.
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It was part of the Industrial Revolution and the teams would come out and dance as part of you know the celebrations May Day celebrations and things like that and it was it was seen as a hobby you know dance and then there's what they call Cotswolds Morris dancing which is from the Cotswolds and they're called Cotswolds and so on so on so there's actually about five or six different types of Morris dancing from the different regions
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obviously you do get music with Morris dancing and I have sometimes seen a harmonica play with Morris dancing it's not a typical Morris dance music though is it having harmonica is it
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no it isn't although interestingly I do have a couple of harmonicas from a musician called Arnold Woodley and danced with a traditional team called Bankton Morris.
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Now, he was a fiddle player, but he also played harmonica.
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There are recordings of, you know, in fact, there is a Cotswold tradition which lists harmonica as the main principal instrument, which I've sort of seen.
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But no, it isn't sort of seen as an instrument that was used widely within Morris dance, which is ironic because I did an album using harmonica, of course, through the seasons, you know, and a melodium as well, my instrument.
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So, yeah.
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so
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And it's interesting, though, because I wonder why it wasn't used more, because it's a very portable instrument.
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So you would have thought that would have been great, and it's quite rhythmic.
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So you mentioned the melodion there.
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So you also play the melodion, and that's something that you record with.
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So it's kind of your second instrument is definitely the melodion, yeah?
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Yeah.
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So again, so a melodion is a sort of squeeze box with reeds, right?
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So has it got certain similarities to the harmonica?
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Yeah, it works exactly the same way.
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So I play two types of accordion.
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I call it...
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an accordion or a melodion so I play the diatonic system which is effectively it works exactly the same way as a diatonic harmonica so you have one note in one note out and so on and so on and it's brilliant because you know basically automatically meant when I picked up the box it's called the box for the first time I had a bit of an advantage because you know I already played harmonica by that stage and I was like oh it's just the same as that right great let's go but it has chords and it has melody and there's two sides to it so it's a bit maybe slightly more complicated so yeah I played diatonic and I also played what they call the BC system which is the Irish system which is chromatic so it works like a chromatic harmonica so yeah so I played both systems I mean BC I'm less experienced in you know I've only been playing it for about I don't know two or three years or something but the other system I've played for years now
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So did you pick up Melodian I think after you started playing harmonica didn't you so was that a consciousness decision to think that you needed a second instrument you know in the folk world to give you more?
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Well really I just like the sound of it I mean that's the thing I guess for me one of the main things I love about it sounds strange but I love about music is sound and what sound can do and also what can you do with that instrument that is I don't know a bit different so it's not just about playing the notes and learning you know to be a great player it's like what can I bring to this instrument that can make it sound a bit unique the same way that I treat the harmonica, you know, I treat the melodion the same.
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So I might play it very percussively or I might try and figure out how to make it sound like a certain other instrument.
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And also, for example, I get really obsessed by it.
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So the diatonic instrument that I play, my melodion, I play in every single key on it.
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I guess in the same way that Howard Levy plays the harmonica, he sort of like tried to figure out every single scale on it and how to use that and utilize it.
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So I've done the same thing with the melodion, really.
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I've just sat down with it and done about six or eight minutes of practice on my scales you know quite focused but it's great because it means that you can progress that instrument and it's interesting I definitely feel that as because I've become over the years a bit of a better player on the accordion that's helped my harmonica playing as well because I've come up with some compositional ideas on the box but then transfer them to the harmonica and it makes me play it in a different way you know so yeah so I kind of view the two instruments equally now but I mean I I'm probably more proficient, I would say, in harmonica just because I've played it for longer.
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You know, if people were interested in picking up the Melodian Accordion, you think that would be a reasonably easy transition because of the similarities to harmonica?
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Definitely the diatonic harmonica.
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Well, actually, the BC as well, thinking about it, because it works the same way.
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It's just, you know, it depends what you want, really.
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It depends, you know, whether you want a more rhythmic instrument or whether, because the chromatic one, you know, is slightly less rhythmic, but it depends on the kind of play well you know i've got one of my favorite musicians of that instrument is someone called mashina connor who's an irish he was in river dance actually it just depends what you want
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and i noticed on uh seeing some of your videos you've made that you play the harmonica and the melodion together
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yeah
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but you the video i saw you you were holding the harmonica in your hand and playing the melodion with one hand
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so
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Is that something you do, you
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don't use a rack when you do it?
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No, I've never been interested in that.
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There's a reason for this, a musical reason.
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So if I was to use a rack, and have both hands available basically that would be great and you could do loads of stuff with it but what I like is the less is more thing so I have to then be more innovative in terms of using the bass and using the harmonica I have to think a little bit more about how am I going to make this song interesting how am I going to use the bass how am I going to use the harmonica and I kind of think if there's slightly more boundaries then that kind of can help the you know the progression of the music you know so and it's because it would sound totally different if i had you know it's also an image thing it's for me it's not for me you know it's i prefer being a bit more freer in that sense so like i love like the sort of like limited you know it's quite limited in some ways but i kind of like that because it means like well how am i going to use the voicing on this bass how am i going to make that work with this harmonica and it's interesting you know certain harmonicas work better with that you know certain keys work better so and it's just like yeah I find it really fun sort of like the limitation of it you know because obviously if I was able to have the rack and you know and just play use both hands and you know where's your oyster you know
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because you're playing one in each hand are you sort of playing piano analogy like the kind of right hand in the in the harmonic yeah
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a little bit yeah totally it's like that left hand right hand thing and also what's cool is is that I'll play some pieces where i'm playing a different time signature on the bass than i am to the melody on the harmonica and i do wonder whether whether if i was using both hands and using the harmonica i don't know maybe it would work as well but i don't know there's part of me that kind of likes this just the sound itself of just the bass and the harmonica because obviously i've got cool haven't got just bass on the you know in the left hand i've got the chord as well yeah and you know so i can do different voicings so i can make lighter chords i can make you know basic chords and i don't know yeah i don't just kind of like doing it that
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way so is that combination something you usually do when you're playing solo
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yeah so if I'm doing solo gigs I'll do a mixture of like solo harmonica uh some solo you know accordion um and also yeah like the the mix you know using them both at the same time and what's cool is that I when I do my solo concerts I don't sort of stick to a particular genre I'll go from playing you know some Irish trad music to playing like Sousa to playing like French musettes to playing Arabic music or Bulgarian folk music and so on and so on or Glenn Miller yeah I'll do a bit of everything just to kind of cover all bases I guess and to keep people interested you know because it is you know as an instrumentalist it can be sometimes quite challenging to do a solo concert with harmonica and melody but I kind of like that I kind of relish the challenge and so now I've got a set list which does all sorts of things and keeps people interested and I also talk about the instruments during the gig as well usually if it's a non kind of folk audience you know people are interested they're like how does this instrument work and why does it sound like that when you're you know if you're playing a Bulgarian folk tune they're like what the monkey you know what's going on here
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I'm not aware of any other harmonica and melodion combinations are you aware of anybody else doing that the two instruments
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I haven't seen I've seen Constantino and harmonica done
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yeah Rick Epping
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yeah it's awesome I've seen I've seen that but I haven't come across yeah I'm sure there's someone on YouTube
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I'll let you know if anyone contacts me.
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So then, obviously, you've done very well in the folk scene in the UK.
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You've been nominated three times for Folk Musician of the Year.
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To what point did you decide to really work as a full-time musician and do so well with it all?
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So I went to university in Newcastle to do a folk music degree.
00:22:25.188 --> 00:22:26.729
And I didn't complete the degree.
00:22:26.989 --> 00:22:29.392
I mean, I wasn't a very good academic, to be honest.
00:22:29.392 --> 00:22:32.034
But I loved the music.
00:22:32.173 --> 00:22:39.661
You know, what I learned up there was so useful, you know, working with other musicians and, you know, it was just brilliant.
00:22:39.980 --> 00:22:46.426
And so when I was about 21, that was when I left university and I went full time.
00:22:46.487 --> 00:22:50.750
So I had a duo with a fantastic banjo player called Dan Walsh.
00:22:51.151 --> 00:22:58.917
And we'd been sort of playing, you know, in Newcastle a bit over a course of like, I don't know, eight, nine months, you know, just working on material, playing open mics.
00:22:59.394 --> 00:23:01.055
Things like that, I think they're really important.
00:23:01.215 --> 00:23:04.057
You know, I mean, we'd learned our craft kind of there at the Open Mic's.
00:23:04.317 --> 00:23:05.759
And then we just started gigging.
00:23:05.980 --> 00:23:09.803
You know, we had an agent and a manager and we just started working on the scene.
00:23:09.883 --> 00:23:13.926
And luckily we, you know, we've managed to get enough work to survive, you know.
00:23:14.126 --> 00:23:22.114
Well, I remember the first time I became aware of you was when you played at the National Harmonica League Festival in 2009 with Dan Walsh.
00:23:22.413 --> 00:23:23.434
And, you know, it was a great setting.
00:23:23.454 --> 00:23:25.215
You know, like you say, you were pretty young then.
00:23:25.296 --> 00:23:29.359
You had a great song called Turkish Delight, which I think is one you wrote.
00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:29.681
isn't
00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:41.880
it?
00:23:41.900 --> 00:23:57.566
Yeah so that's kind of how I got into yeah playing music full time and you know obviously it's challenging especially as an instrumentalist of an instrument which is I guess you know not very I mean it's prevalent but it's sort of It's quite niche, isn't it?
00:23:57.586 --> 00:23:58.327
Particularly in the folk
00:23:58.930 --> 00:23:59.029
scene.
00:23:59.049 --> 00:24:01.397
One question about, again, the Melodian Accordion.
00:24:01.618 --> 00:24:06.193
Because you've done so well, let's say you were nominated three times as Folk Musician of the Year.
00:24:06.374 --> 00:24:12.840
Do you feel that you know, having the Melodians help you with that, do you think you would have got that recognition if you were just a harmonica player?
00:24:13.101 --> 00:24:17.770
Well, the first time I got nominated, I, had I played Melodian on an album?
00:24:18.071 --> 00:24:26.650
Well, the first album I did, solo sort of album was above and that was all harmonica.
00:24:26.670 --> 00:24:26.750
Okay.
00:24:33.538 --> 00:24:35.539
And that was how the first board came about.
00:24:35.799 --> 00:24:37.602
And an interview actually on BBC Breakfast.
00:24:37.682 --> 00:24:42.925
And that was through my publicity person called Jane Brace, who's been an amazing support.
00:24:43.006 --> 00:24:43.686
You know, she's brilliant.
00:24:44.126 --> 00:24:47.890
And so I guess from that sense, like that was the harmonica that did that.
00:24:48.290 --> 00:24:55.376
But obviously, yeah, I used the melody in gigs and, you know, since I was about 23, 24, I think.
00:24:55.616 --> 00:24:59.540
But I definitely think harmonica has definitely been the more prominent instrument.
00:25:00.121 --> 00:25:07.828
I mean, my most recent album, which is, you know, due to come out in February is you know predominantly harmonica but there are a few melodic tracks on it
00:25:08.088 --> 00:25:26.509
and you know it's unusual isn't it in that setting in many ways that helps it stand out more doesn't it because you know you don't have lots of harmonicas in folk music so you know it makes you quite unique absolutely back to Dan Walsh you released an album with him in 2009 do you say and that was great you and a band you play are you only playing harmonica on this album
00:25:26.808 --> 00:26:07.893
yeah I was yeah and you know that was it was really interesting as well because obviously me and Dan were kind of we really loved music from all over you know all over the world yeah like you say I wrote this tune called Turkish Delight and that was kind of inspired by yeah the music from that part of the world and you know and then we played more traditional music from Ireland and from England and from Scotland at that stage I was still learning a lot about how you know what harmonicas work best for what you know in terms of the different tunings and things like that I think at that point I wasn't even playing what I play now which is the Paddy Richter tuning which is what Brendan Power invented you know it's So I actually only started using those about six, seven years ago now.
00:26:08.653 --> 00:26:16.321
So up until that point, I'd played just normal diatonic instruments and sort of learned to get around it by bending a lot.
00:26:17.502 --> 00:26:23.910
But when I started playing Brendan's, that tuning, it revolutionized things for me and it's helped.
00:26:24.691 --> 00:26:28.193
It's interesting you say that because I play quite a lot of traditional stuff myself.
00:26:28.234 --> 00:26:31.678
There's traditional sessions around where I live and I play the Paddy Richters as well.
00:26:31.738 --> 00:26:33.359
I love that tuning and that's pretty much it.
00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:36.202
exclusively what I play them on and it works so well doesn't it?
00:26:36.564 --> 00:27:05.215
It's what I exclusively play and actually when I now have people come up to me you know after concerts and they go you know what how are you doing you know those fast Irish melodies or whatever you know or different tunes and I go well actually it's a particular tuning system that I'm using in fact I don't apart from one harmonica which I have now I don't actually use the normal diatonic at all anymore just because of you know the music I'm playing You know, I could still play it.
00:27:05.336 --> 00:27:09.179
You know, if you picked up one that wasn't Paddy Ritter, I could still play it.
00:27:09.219 --> 00:27:10.259
Because obviously I played them for years.
00:27:10.339 --> 00:27:12.821
But I think also they're not just good for folk.
00:27:12.883 --> 00:27:13.442
That's the thing.
00:27:13.502 --> 00:27:14.723
You know, they're great for bluegrass.
00:27:14.763 --> 00:27:15.704
They're great for jazz.
00:27:15.765 --> 00:27:16.164
They're great
00:27:16.605 --> 00:27:16.665
for...
00:27:16.685 --> 00:27:17.145
Absolutely.
00:27:17.306 --> 00:27:18.968
I mean, basically it's one note, right?
00:27:18.988 --> 00:27:20.669
It's the sixth of the scale in that bottom octave.
00:27:20.729 --> 00:27:24.332
And it's just, it's incredible about how useful it actually is to have that note or not.
00:27:24.532 --> 00:27:25.794
Oh, it's phenomenal.
00:27:25.953 --> 00:27:27.535
Kudos to Brendan for doing that.
00:27:27.615 --> 00:27:28.635
It's absolutely brilliant.
00:27:29.017 --> 00:27:30.798
And, you know, Brendan's great.
00:27:30.917 --> 00:27:44.069
You know, Brendan's also been a great support to me, you know, of the years as well and I actually now would represent his harmonica tuning you know always send people to his website you know when they want you know a harmonica like that and that kind of thing
00:27:44.329 --> 00:28:00.604
no absolutely yeah no he's done a tremendous job yeah so going on to the second album you released which is a cut above which you say got you a lot of recognition on what nominated for the first folk award so yeah you've got lots of different musicians on this album right you've got Eddie Jay also Martin Simpson
00:28:02.965 --> 00:28:03.006
is
00:28:12.354 --> 00:28:17.325
How did you get together with all these well-known folk musicians, which would be quite early in your career?
00:28:17.525 --> 00:28:21.594
I guess kind of primarily, I sort of got to know them over the years.
00:28:21.694 --> 00:28:26.625
And I played in Martin's band for a little while, Martin Simpson Big Band.
00:28:26.705 --> 00:28:30.493
And that was around the time I was playing with Dan, actually.
00:28:30.657 --> 00:28:34.401
I just chatted to, you know, these musicians and said, I'm doing an album.
00:28:34.441 --> 00:28:35.221
Would you like to play on it?
00:28:35.241 --> 00:28:35.962
And they said, yes.
00:28:36.242 --> 00:28:44.009
You know, and in that sense, the folk community is great because, you know, you know, obviously I was fairly early into my career at that point.
00:28:44.170 --> 00:28:45.730
And, you know, but they were really good to me.
00:28:45.790 --> 00:28:49.775
And, you know, there was great, you know, Chris Drever from Laos, fantastic.
00:28:49.835 --> 00:28:52.457
And Andy Cutting, Andy was fantastic.
00:28:52.537 --> 00:28:55.900
And I wasn't really interested in showing people what a great player was.
00:28:55.960 --> 00:28:56.980
I'm not interested in that.
00:28:57.580 --> 00:29:03.086
For me, it's about the music and it's about how can I, I, you know, give joy to people through my music.
00:29:03.287 --> 00:29:15.039
And so, you know, that's why I chose these particular tracks because I felt they were joyful and also working with those musicians would help me become a better player.
00:29:15.140 --> 00:29:19.726
And it did, you know, it's inspiring to work with musicians who have a lot of experience.
00:29:19.806 --> 00:29:25.952
And so, yeah, someone like Martin or someone like Andy, you know, they were really supportive and made me a better player.
00:29:32.066 --> 00:29:33.951
Thank you.