Thirteen years and five albums on from their formation in 2005, award-winning folk three-piece Lau (Orcadian for ‘natural light’) remain restlessly creative and continuing to push boundaries. I caught them on tour in the UK ahead of their new album release (Midnight and Closedown out on 8 Feb 2019) and put the questions to Kris Drever (guitar, vocals), Martin Green (accordion, piano, electronics) and Aidan O’Rourke (fiddle).
How did you get together in the first place?
We knew each other from different music sessions and trad festivals/gigs etc and we were playing together in three separate duos, writing what we thought of as new music in the trad idiom. Ultimately it seemed like a time saver to make one trio and focus on pooling those compositions.
What were each of your musical influences?
We all come from similar backgrounds in terms of playing repertoire, so the big names of traditional Irish music like Planxty, Bothy Band and so forth, plus Scottish bands like Capercaillie and The Easy Club. Outside of the instrumentalist mindset it all gets broader and murkier – Cream, Aphex Twin, Amon Tobin, Paul Simon, Kyuss. We’re a listening band: the van journeys are pretty constant sessions of introducing one another to new things.
How does the writing process work for Lau?
Slowly. Usually, there’s a spark or a device that sets us off. Then it’s a permutations game. ‘Have we tried everything?’ We’ll just keep ploughing away until something moves us. Songwriting often works best when minutiae are used to make the story, and the same is true of instrumental music. A very small idea can yield an awful lot of material.
What drives your creative experimentation that seems to regularly expand the boundaries of your music?
The desire not to repeat ourselves is strong. It’s not great for morale or mental health to do the same thing over and over. Plus there’s such a lot of fascinating possibilities in music. We’re learning all the time. When you love something as complex and as vast as music it’s endlessly thrilling. Why stand still?
While Lau albums have received critical acclaim, it seems to be live performance that excites you most – is that a fair observation? Is your music at its most authentic ‘in the moment’ in front of a live audience?
Maybe so – a lot of it is quite complex compositionally and learning how to perform it in a simultaneously stable and expressive way takes time. We maybe do end up performing the pieces live with more intensity than is possible on record. It’s down to repetition though rather than intent. Recorded performances can often suffer from overplaying too, so it’s a bit of a different mindset/discipline.
Most memorable gig?
Aidan: There’s been many absolutely lovely shows but the one where a huge bolt of lightning split a tree a few feet from the stage just as we reached the climax of Hinba is up there as one of the most memorable! This was at Calgary Folk Festival in 2008. There was a huge flash and a bang and all the power was cut. It was pretty terrifying but I think a lot of the audience thought it was part of the show. We were just happy to be alive. Martin’s been trying to recreate it ever since.
You’ve performed and collaborated with a wide range of top artists and musicians already – but who would you love to work with in the future?
Aidan: Our line-up has no designated bass player or drummer (though we can all adopt these roles when needed) so that means we slot into collaborations very well. We’ve been fortunate to work with many great musicians and fantastic characters and many have left an imprint on the music we now make. There are many more we’d love to work with.
Bjork’s always been in the list. Brian Eno. David Byrne. Liz Fraser. It would be great to play with Tinariwen again. We joined their set at Lau-Land Bristol a few years ago and it was great but too short. We invited a fantastic Egyptian magician called Nadah El Shazly to Lau-Land Edinburgh and I’d love to spend some time making music with her in the future.
Folk music looks in rude health across the UK. Do you agree that it’s flourishing, and if so, why do you think that is?
It’s an interesting point. And – at risk of sounding contradictory in this answer, because Lau have always been about pushing boundaries and finding new sounds – I’d love to hear more of the stripped-back essence of folk music being respected. A lot of the recordings I’m hearing these days sounds over-produced and compressed to hell, which kills the life in it.
It does seem that there are more technically excellent folk musicians and singers out there than ever before, and the sphere of music that is now considered ‘folk’ has widened hugely. There’s a lot of folk rock. I feel the datum changing. What we have is an evolving music, which is fundamentally a good thing because that means the music is alive. But for Lau, the starting point was always Planxty and The Easy Club, Swap and Vasen: all innovators who had a deep understanding of the tradition.
For progress to be meaningful, we have to care about where we’ve come from.
Who are you listening to these days?
Aidan: I’ve just produced the brilliant Skye piper Brighde Chaimbeul’s debut album so I’ve been listening to that a lot recently! Lisa O’Neill’s new album is brilliant. As is Anna and Elizabeth’s ‘the invisible comes to us’. I’m loving Aldous Harding’s new record too.
What’s in the pipeline for Lau in 2019?
As I write this we’re in London rehearsing the album and we’re about to play that at some gigs over the next few weeks. We’ll be focusing on that through 2019. I think it’s the most festival-friendly set of music we’ve had in years so we’re looking forward to the festivals of 2019.
Lau’s new album Midnight and Closedown is released February 8th, 2019
Pre-Order here https://laumusic.bigcartel.com/
LAU – MIDNIGHT & CLOSEDOWN TOUR 2018/19
NOVEMBER
24/11 London Union Chapel
25/11 Canterbury Gulbenkian
26/11 Hindhead Grayshott Folk Club Village Hall
27/11 Shoreham-by-Sea Ropetackle Arts Centre
29/11 Sheffield Abbeydale Picture House
30/11 Saffron Walden Saffron Hall
DECEMBER
01/12 Skegness The Great British Folk Festival
04/12 Pocklington Pocklington Arts Centre
05/12 Gateshead Sage Gateshead – Hall 2
07/12 Edinburgh The Queen’s Hall
FEBRUARY
15/2 Derby Guildhall Theatre
16/2 Lancaster Grand Theatre
17/2 Frome Cheese and Grain
19/2 Norwich Arts Centre
20/2 Birmingham Glee Club
21/2 Bristol St George’s
22/2 Cardiff Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama
23/2 Portsmouth The Wedgewood Rooms
24/2 Wavendon The Stables
26/2 Leeds City Varieties Music Hall
27/2 Bury The Met
Tickets here http://www.lau-music.co.uk/gigs/
Photo Credit: Genevieve Stevenson