However
his latest and first tour in Spain wasn't very much
noticed though memorable songs like "These
broken Wings won't Fly",
"Ready for
the Storm" or
"Caledonia"
could be heard in these concerts. We spoke with him about
some aspects of his work and about Scottish music.
BNM: What's the
role of Scottish roots within the framework of your
music?
Dougie MacLean: It's
very important. Someone once told me that
the tradition
is not necesarily the material, is the spirit of one to
sing and one need to make music,
which is the great tradition which we have in Scotland,
we have these great tradition in wanting to sing and play
fiddle and music. I sing with my grandfather who sings
gaelic songs, very ancient songs; my songs are much more
contemporary, but my slower songs are still very much in
that way of gaelic songs. So it's very important, it's a
very big part of it.
BNM: How do you
compose your lyrics and songs?
DM: I do it all at the
same time; I record, I make the songs and the music
altogether. It's a magical thing, something I don't even
know how it happens, all of a sudden it's there... I do
not write as if someone said to me "I want you to write a
song about that bottle of beer", I wouldn't do that, it
has to be something which means something to me, at the
time, because I can't always enjoy singing it, like a
mechanichal songs.
I'd like to think that that
was part of the tradition as well, the people who wrote
their own songs, and there were no charts, there was no
music industry, there were no hit singles, they wrote
songs from their hearts, of something that was happening
in their work in that day; and I like to think that so is
how I compose my songs, they're
not made for audiences really, they're made for
myself.
You can see my whole life in
all these records. It's a kind of cut of all the things
that go through your head over the years, it's very
interesting to look back at the old songs and see how
much your ideas may have changed since you wrote the
song. It's an interesting process, you could do an
University thesis on it, on the actual process of putting
your life down in songs.
BNM: Which, among
all the versions lots of artists have done of your songs,
do you like most?
DM: (buffs and a makes
a pause) There was a group called Galleria,
they did a version of a song of mine called
"She loves me
(when I try)" and it is the
only version of my songs that I really really wanted to
have; I said "Jesus, it sounds as the same song that I
wrote!", they improved so much just in the way that they
did it... They're an Irish group. But there many other
groups which have made versions that people like,
Mary
Black, De
Daanan, a very famous country
singer [Kathy
Mattea] made a couple of
versions of my songs, but these group Galleria made a
version... Normally it's difficult to hear other people
sing my songs, it's a good privilege and a compliment,
but it never sounds the same to me. But this one was
actually better than the way I had it, and that is a
great thing, a great thing. Galleria: they're an
acoustic, folk, maybe more poplike, with a good
singer.
BNM: What do you
think about the young Scottish musicians and groups
appearing nowadays?
DM: There are a lot of
good Scottish groups around, but sometimes I think maybe
they follow too much the fashion; they
should be more corageous to be
themselves. Suddenly, it's
became a kind of fashion within pop music; it's a very
dangeous thing when a lot of the younger bands see it
more like the rock band scene and can be dangerous too
because they start to think along in a more kind of
corporate image, which is happening in Scotland and it's
a real shame. But there are some great bands, some great
players, that as long as they don't want to be like the
rock and roll fashion too much, they're safe.
There is a danger, because
there is the rock band, and the folk band, and the rock
band are doing things this way, so the young folk band
wants to do things like the rock band, with all the
publicity and the height, and you loose the integrity.
It's fashionable one year and the next year is not
fashionable, and it's a mistake, you have to stay away
from fashion, because it goes in and out, in and out and
so many
things get broken because of fashion...
BNM: Which Scottish
and Celtic artists or groups would you
recommend?
DM: Hmm... It's a
difficult questions... kind of personal...pass onto the
next...
BNM: Do you think
somehow celtic music is related to an independist cause
of the so-called "celtic nations"?
DM: Yes, it's very
much so. Now in Scotland we have a very big independence
movement, that's been helped along by the music. I was
involved in groups when I was very young, in my late
teens, and at that time playing fiddle, playing in
traditional bands wasn´t a very appreciated thing,
and we all helped by playing traditional music and songs
to regain, to give confidence to the Scottish people;
whenever
there is a political change music goes with the political
change, helping people to indentify themselves and have
confidence in theirselves.
'Cause for many years we've
been part of that colonnial thing, and we came to be
embarrased to be Scottish. The image of Scottish people
abroad is with the kelt, we're supposed to be very mean,
we don't spend any money... you get an image of yourself
that you don't like, and young people feel embarrased ,
but that's changing, there's a lot of people connecting
with the real expression and the real art of the culture
and with that growing confident.
BNM: Have you found
many links between the country American style and celtic
music?
DM: Yes, there are
connections; because so many Scottish and Irish people
went to America, the older country music has many origins
in Scottish and Irish music. They naturally took their
music with them and mixed it with the music of all the
people there; so country music is a mixture of
everything. There's also a lot of crap, there's a lot of
terrible country music, but there's also very good stuff,
when you look underneath the corporate record company
stuff and all that nonsense... and at
the old kind of country music,
Hank Williams, the origins of country music
you recognise
more the Scottish and Irish ballad,
the connection easier than if you look at country music
now, wich is a big industry, it's the same song that
keeps singing and singing.
top
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