Eye on the Prize

JULIE FOWLIS has had a bit of a roller-coaster year since we last spoke to her early in 2005. Northings catches up with the Dingwall-based Gaelic singer as she prepares for this month’s Hebridean Celtic Festival in Stornoway

WHEN JULIE FOWLIS was announced as the winner of the prestigious BBC Radio 2 New Horizon Award 2006 at the BBC Folk Awards, it came as a pleasant surprise to a lot of people, not least the recipient herself. It was an unprecedented recognition not only for the young singer, but for Gaelic song itself.

Picking up the Gaelic Singer of the Year Award at the Scots Traditional Music Awards in December was a bit more of a predictable win for the North Uist-bred, Dingwall-based singer. Julie is a graduate of the Applied Music degree course at Strathclyde University, and a member of the highly-regarded young band Dòchas, where she plays pipes, whistle, and occasionally oboe or cor anglais as well as singing. She released her debut solo album last year to considerable acclaim.

Northings: Julie, we opened our last interview with you be saying that you had been very busy – I guess that has accelerated in the wake of the BBC award?

Julie Fowlis: Absolutely – things have taken off a bit, so I’m not spending much time at home. It was a real honour to receive that award, and I was really chuffed to win it. It was a great night as well, with lots of celebrities from the folk scene there.

I’ve done Heb Celt quite a few times, and it is possibly my favourite festival in the whole world. It has such a great vibe, and you are always incredibly well looked after when you are there

N: When did you know you had been nominated?

JF: I heard around November or thereabouts, I think, and I didn’t expect that at all. It was a shock just to get that far, and people at the time were saying to me, well, it’s a big thing to be nominated in itself, but don’t get your hopes up too high for actually winning it. I was really looking forward just to going down and seeing it all, because it is a big event and quite exciting in its own right.

N: Is it fair to say you took them at their word and didn’t go expecting to win?

JF: A little bit beforehand I was asked to perform at the ceremony, and that was bit of a worry – playing for that audience has to be one of the most daunting gigs imaginable. As a result I was so worried about performing that I hadn’t really thought much about the award itself, and needless to say, hadn’t prepared a single word to say.

N: Nothing at all?

JF: Not a word. I remember thinking afterwards why didn’t I give it even five minutes of thought, just in case! I started talking in Gaelic to give me time to decide what I was going to say that everyone there would understand.

N: Obviously you didn’t know in advance of the announcement even on the night?

JF: No, nothing at all until that moment. They make up the awards as a replica of the person who is getting it, and they are all sitting on stage there under wraps, so you can’t see them until they are presented. It looks very cool.

N: How significant is that award proving to be?

JF: I can’t really explain how much it has meant in terms of work. I’m being asked now to go and play concerts at places I’ve never been invited to before, lots of them in England, and even beyond. There is a huge status attached to these awards, and people do take notice of them, even if they don’t know much about you. In terms of the mainstream folk audience, Gaelic singing is fairly out on the edge, and this has been such a useful thing in encouraging people to be open to it and give it a chance.

N: In that sense it is a big win for Gaelic song as well as for yourself, isn’t it?

JF: Massive. I didn’t really realise that at the time – it has only been since that it has become obvious to me. I think the whole thing really started when I got the chance to play one of the showcase slots at the Cambridge Folk Festival last summer. There are only five or six of these, and you play not only for the public audience, but also for lots of agents and promoters and record labels and so on. A lot of people saw me then, and it started to take on a bit of a snowball effect, and I think that helped with the BBC award.

N: A lot has now been said in the wake of the award about you being the first Gaelic crossover star and so on – has it left you feeling a bit of a weight on shoulders?

JF: I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a bit of pressure, especially in respect of the next album, but basically I don’t but into any of that. I have always just done what I do, and never tried to be anything I’m not, and that won’t change.

N: Do you get a sense of a new audience opening up for Gaelic song?

JF: I would say that is definitely happening. I reckon at every gig I play now people come up to me afterwards and say they have never heard Gaelic singing before but they really enjoyed it, and it didn’t matter that they didn’t understand the language. I always try and tell people what the songs are about, so that even if they can’t follow the words, they know the story and the sentiment behind it.

N: I guess the thing now is for some of the other young Gaelic singers to take that on and push forward in the way you have done?

JF: Absolutely, and there is so much music out there to do that with. In my own case I have been very lucky to get the opportunities I have had, but it is down to hard work as well, and getting out there and playing as much as possible.

N: You mentioned that difficult second album earlier – where are you with that?

JF: I’m getting the music together, and I’m nearly there with that. I’m hoping to record at the end of the summer, and get the record out at the beginning of next year. I’ve gathered pretty much all of the material I’m going to use, and that is the hardest part for me. From there it’s a case of grabbing the musicians I want and trying to find dates where everyone can make it into the studio at the right time, which is a major challenge in itself.

N: Is the focus going to be on songs from Uist again?

JF: A lot of the songs are Uist-based, yes, with a couple of songs from other islands and the mainland. They are often songs I get from friends and family at home.

N: How about accompaniment this time?

JF: I felt on the last one we had a good mix of scaled-down numbers with bigger scale ones, and I’ll probably be looking to do that again, but it will be essentially an acoustic album. I like to be able to reproduce what we do on the record when we go on stage – recording projects are about different things, and maybe at some point I will want to take a different kind of approach, but on this one I want to do it the way we would do it live.

N: Have you had more time to prepare this one?

JF: Definitely. On the first album it was all a bit hit-and-miss. We hadn’t gigged any of the material, and it was really something I wanted to do as a recording project, rather than something that I intended to tour. When it took off a little bit and I started getting a lot of gigs for it, it was only then that we were able to start developing a live sound and feel for the music, and I would like to capture that on the new record.

N: Do you feel that audiences, especially those new to Gaelic music, need to have that more contemporary accompanied feel, rather than straight unaccompanied singing?

JF: In many ways I do, yes. People can be really impressed by unaccompanied Gaelic singing, but I think there is a question about how you get them to come and hear that? Instrumental accompaniment can maybe give them a way into it, and from there they will move on to other artists and other approaches to the music. I usually do a couple of unaccompanied songs in a set, though, and people do respond very well to it. Whatever the accompaniment, though, I feel very strongly about not changing the songs – I don’t think you need to do that to sell them.

N: How are things working out with dividing your time between your solo work and Dòchas?

JF: It’s only tricky on a diary basis. The group has always had problems with people juggling lots of other commitments, whether it be a full-time job or teaching or involvement in loads of other bands, so we are used to working round that. We had a really good run of gigs last year, and have been a bit quieter this year, but that was partly by choice. We are trying to plan further ahead now, and arrange runs of dates.

N: Is there a Dòchas album in the pipeline? I seem to recall you ended up making the last one in tandem with your own record?

JF: We are thinking about a new album as well, but I’m definitely trying to avoid ending up making both records at the same time again! That was a bit mad. We’re looking at recording toward the end of the year.

N: You are performing both solo and with Dòchas at the Hebridean Celtic Festival this month – is that an event you look forward to?

JF: I’ve done Heb Celt quite a few times, and it is possibly my favourite festival in the whole world. It has such a great vibe, and you are always incredibly well looked after when you are there. It’s a lovely event with lovely people running it, and I’m thrilled to be going for the whole week this year. It is very different from any of the other festivals.

N: You play oboe alongside your more customary folk instruments – I wonder if you had considered a career in classical music when you were at Strathclyde?

JF: I never actually considered a career in performing at all, to be honest. I found it so nerve-wracking as a student – it made me ill every time I had to do it. I definitely felt that I wanted to be involved in music, but probably in some kind of behind-the-scenes role. I don’t have any happy memories of performing when I was at University.

N: Is that how you came to work with Fèis Rois at one point?

JF: Yes, and that is what I planned to do. I was lucky to get a job with Fèis Rois working on traditional music development in schools around Ross-shire, but I was doing a few gigs here and there just to keep my hand in. I reached a point where I was gigging as much as my pals who were full-time musicians, and holding down a job as well. It was getting to be silly, not to say very bad for my health and sanity! I had to make a decision, and I stopped listening to my sensible side and plunged into the unknown!

N: I guess you haven’t done too badly, then – presumably you managed to overcome the fear factor?

JF: I still get nervous, but I can control it much better now!

© Kenny Mathieson, 2006

Links

• Julie Fowlis
• Hebridean Celtic Festival