This month, one of our featured albums is Open Airs by Kyrre Slind (read our review here), an artist who is originally from Norway. In Neil’s review he made the observation that it was Kyrre’s intense love of landscapes and their inhabitants, more than anything, that fuels his passion for music. A look at his biography will reveal that passion not only fuelled his music but also some big decisions such as quitting his job, buying a banjo and taking off on a Vespa to Ireland. I asked him why…
“During a holiday trip to Ireland I very honestly and profoundly fell in love with Irish music and the whole session system, this great way of coming together and sharing tunes. There was this terrific Banjo player at a session in Galway, and after the 2nd night I knew I needed a Banjo, so I bought one on my fathers credit card :-) Coming back to Norway I missed the Irish music so much that I rented a cottage in Co Kerry through friends of friends, resigned my post as a music teacher, prepared my things and hit the road one lovely autumn day in September. 2000 km, 3 ferries and 3 weeks later I landed safely in Ireland. I simply figured it would all work out nicely and didn’t consider practical matters too much.” The idea seems crazy in hindsight maybe and he admits “It was a bit mad maybe, looking at it now, but it made perfect sense.”
Whilst he concedes it made perfect sense at the time I was curious as to whether it continued to make sense over the time he spent in Ireland, when the grim reality of getting by from day to day and finding work would possibly challenge him. “I wanted to get a job somewhere, anything would do really, while getting into the music scene and play as much as I could” he admits. “I didn’t think of the recession at the time and that jobs were scarce to come by. It was actually quite fun to notice that when I arrived at the cottage and packed out my stuff, my first thought was: ‘OK, so what do I do now?’ I realized I didn’t have any precise plan at all, it felt a bit like if life had just thrown me over to Ireland and there I was, figuring out what to do next! So ‘next’ was to find sessions and start looking for work.”
The other thing that intrigued me was how Kyrre travelled with all he needed on a Vespa, it’s not known for it’s spacious luggage compartments after all. “I sent some parcels with instruments and a bit of gear by post and packed my clothes on the bike. It’s amazing what fits on a small Vespa! The rear box held spare fuel, oil, plugs and tools. I strapped a bag onto the seat behind me with clothes, the little room under the wheel took road maps, water bottle and a small thermos with coffee and I had camping gear on the front rack carrier.”
Whilst Kyrre was daring he was also a realist and he admits that he quickly realized that he wouldn’t make much of a living as a session musician if he insisted on living in the countryside… the city beckoned. “So I played the language card and got a 3 month contract in Cork City in the IT sector. Then I hit black ice and the poor bike was off the road for a year.”
As Kyrre found, life can often throw curve balls when you’re least expecting them, but it can also present us with some opportunities… as he soon discovered. “I then had the fortune to join a lovely band in the Kinsale pubs 2 nights a week and I loved it! Even though it wasn’t enough to pay all my bills, it was the dream come true. It was my first residency and I found it honed my skills like nothing else, providing constant playing and expansion of repertoire. The use of the flat pick added a sense of rhythmical drive which I then translated to my fingerstyle playing. Coming from classical guitar, I find this strongly adds to my tool case.”
Another influence soon arrived in the form of Gerda Stevenson whose album ‘Night Touches Day’ was also a featured album on Folk Radio UK. One song that sticks in my mind was Machu Picchu on which Kyrre’s guitar playing is particularly memorable. Kyrre met Gerda whilst he was a musician in residence at the Feile na Greine festival in Waterville. “The organiser, Fíona de Buis, asked me if I could accompany a scottish singer on a couple of her songs, she would send me the songs beforehand so I could prepare something.” As before another twist of fate played its hand. “The songs never came through however, and we started rehearsing shortly before the gig. Then we just hit it off, it was one of those great moments of mutual musical understanding and after the festival we decided to stay in touch for future projects. I actually developed my walking bass/picking technique on the spot, inspired by her song Machu Picchu. I’ve never played like that before, it was great fun! In this way you can legitimately say that the Scottish songs of Gerda Stevenson have influenced my playing.”
In a manner of speaking Kyrre followed Gerda back to Scotland, or, as he puts it, he forgot to go back… “We were lucky to get a number of gigs last winter following the release of Gerda’s album Night Touches Day, notably at Celtic Connections, so I had to come up during 2 months so we could do it all properly. Then more projects came along, I decided to finalize my album and I somehow forgot to go back.”
Having covered Ireland we naturally move on to Scotland and its influence on his music. “What impresses me with Scotland is the richness and openness of the music scene. As I enjoy jumping between styles, Scotland gives me many opportunities to experiment and play with musicians from various backgrounds, like Rob MacNeacail of Miasma who plays bass on 2 tracks on the album. We are about to develop some great live version of other tracks, it’s just amazing to see how well the fragile renaissance lute works with a 6-string fretless electric bass run through a rack of effect pedals. Who would have thought!”
On the press release for his album Kyrre mentions a northern tradition of painting musical landscapes, something he’s happy to expand upon. “Norwegians are closely related to the outdoors, and both the Norwegian and the Sami music traditions often evoke nature in various forms by describing it, imitating it or playing it directly, seeking to manifest its presence through music. The arguably most powerful example of this is today found in the Sami tradition of Joik where you don’t sing about e.g. a mountain, you sing the mountain. It’s a profound difference.” He goes on to expand upon a theory of how music is linked to nature, something I’ve always felt myself when listening to other forms of music. He goes on to make an interesting contrast between the landscape and music of Ireland and Scotland. “I think every country’s nature is reflected in the music, just like it is reflected in the sounds of the language – we can’t escape it. Ireland has a more friendly nature scene, even with some mystery to it. Scotland appears more rugged and rough. I find it’s very interesting and rewarding to get to know the music of other countries the way you do when you live there for a while.”
Also mentioned in his press release are some other musical influences including 60’s baroque folk, classical guitar and dance music of south-eastern Europe. I was naturally curious as to whether these were also swept up in earlier travels. “Although I have travelled in most of Western Europe and studied in France and in India, musical influences have been picked up mainly through records and concerts” he admits. “My parents listened to folk, jazz and classical music, and I had access to great music libraries, record shops and a rich concert scene where I grew up in Trondheim. I delivered newspapers for 2 years in secondary school and bought records and concert tickets for the money. Anything from Einstürtzende Neugarten to Bulgarian choir music, Bach and Led Zeppelin, Abba and Mongolian throat singing. I think I have listened to most musical styles over the years, broadly speaking, most of them with genuine interest. :-) The flip side is that it makes it impossible for me to really specialize in any style, as I so much want to play them all.”
Whilst Kyrre admits to being fond of living abroad he reveals that there are other benefits. “You adapt to different mind sets and get to know yourself in new ways and I also feel this develops my music.” Despite this he’s quick to add “But I need my refill at least twice a year, it’s my home country after all, with family and friends. And the nature – there’s something about these vast spaces where you can just lose yourself, nothing beats a bonfire out in the woods a winter night and the easy living during the 24 hour summer days are fantastic, not to mention spring! The change from winter to summer goes so fast up north, it’s physical – a fantastic time of the year.”
I move on to ask about future plans and whether he has any other adventures planned. It’s that final word ‘planned’, the idea of regimentation or a list of ‘next-steps’ that seem alien to Kyrre’s life so far, he concurs by revealing “The funny thing about adventures is that they don’t announce themselves. They knock on your door one day and inspires you to do something you never thought of doing before.” Despite this he admits to having some plans. “I still want to go to Spain at some point, there’s some flamenco to be learned. And sailing from Gibraltar to Cape North would be fantastic – I did my leisure skipper certificate this winter. That would hopefully inspire some great tunes!”
Whilst Open Airs was only recently launched and an album tour in 2016 is being planned he reveals that he’s simultaneously working with Gerda Stevenson on two projects… “a Scottish-poetry-and-Indian-sitar project and a chamber music cycle written by her late father Ronald Stevenson. We hope to present them to the Scottish audience in 2016.” But that’s not all, he’s also working with “folk cellist Seylan Baxter on an early music project with French and Scottish music and I’m about to establish a music tuition practice in West Linton, passing on the joy of plucked strings to the next generation.”
You can’t help but come away feeling uplifted and inspired by Kyrre’s great sense of purpose and optimism. He certainly keeps himself busy, something he reiterates by adding “I love being in Scotland and hope to keep myself as busy as possible.”
So do we, and if you haven’t yet filled your ears with ‘Open Airs’ then here’s just a small taster…
Open Airs is available via Bandcamp (Digital / CD) – Released 15 Nov 2015