In conversation with folk party band from Estonia
TRAD
ATTACK
Tell us how the trio came about
In 2014, I (Sandra, bagpipe player) and Jalmar (guitar
player) felt that Estonia needs one instrumental hard-
core folk party band. So we decided to make one.
The idea was to make this party band and make no
rehearsals and only few concerts in Estonia. But the
reality turned out totally different - we made lot of
rehearsals and on our first year we already started to
tour internationally.
How do you describe your sound to someone who has never heard
you before?
Estonian folk traditions meet rock n roll and pop music.
Tell us about your song writing process
We have different approaches. Since we are using old
archive recordings, sometimes we get inspiration from
the recordings and create our own music around it. But
sometimes one of us has some kind of musical idea and
we start to develop it further.
How do you make music in general? What are you inspired by?
We are inspired by so many things! Of course from the old
Estonian folk music, but also some classical composers
(for example Arvo Pärt). We also listen to lot of pop music -
Coldplay, Mumford and Sons, Muse etc.
But making music can also be inspired by some other
source - for example when I go and run in the new city or
when we see some theatre play etc.
We see many of your songs are inspired by different things
such as soft butter and grandmother sentiments. How do you pick
your themes?
Yes indeed we have topics from very different areas.
Actually we are looking for interesting and inspiring
archive recordings and the topic is not always important
to us. Because everything the old folksingers sang about
was really important to them.
Tell us about your musical equipment used for your music?
We have our acoustic instruments - Estonian bagpipe,
whistles, Jews harps, 12-string guitar, and drums. And
then we also use different effects for vocals and lope
station to loop the guitar and to playback the old archive
recordings.
What are your plans for India?
We would love to come to India! By the way one of our
songs (Precious Cream) has been played in India when
Sanda and Jalmar where participating at INDIA ETHNO
folk music camp. There we thought this song and all the
people sang it.
In 2016 we had already plain tickets to one of the
showcase festivals in India, but the one week before the
departure this festival got cancelled. Currently we have
been talking with different organizers and we hope that
soon something works out :)
Upcoming projects
The main project we are working at the moment is our
new album which will be released in Spring 2020. But we
are also touring and next concerts will take us to Finland
and Taiwan.
20
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Score Magazine
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