Marlais is the stage name of Michael Culme-Seymour, who has been living and working in Berlin since 2011. After gaining a following on Soundcloud for his remix’s of Alt-J and his folk-sampling beat-driven instrumentals, Marlais consolidated this style into his debut EP “Dreams of Jarvis”, inspired by the literary fantastical folk worlds created by Dylan Thomas, whose middle name Marlais adopted to be his moniker.
Set for release on 17 September 2020 on Treibender Teppich Records, “Meeting Is A Pleasure” is the first official release since Marlais’ debut album “Warm at Last” in 2016, which hosted a mixture of traditional folk songs from Britain and Ireland intertwined with his own experimental compositions. Listen and read our recent interview below in which he chatted about his own folk influences and more.
“Meeting Is a Pleasure” is an incredibly popular traditional song found on both sides of the Atlantic. It goes by different names, different melodies and different texts. It’s a shapeshifter. What lies at the heart of these various versions is that it’s a love song. A song of unrequited love; the moment you realise your lover has eyes for someone else. Then there’s the part of bottle sharing. Is this song about drowning your sorrows? Perhaps it’s a parting gift, perhaps it’s poison.
“The version found on Nic Jones’ Penguin Eggs has accompanied me through many moody moments in my life but the raw a capella version of the Watersons sisters Norma and Lal singing it on the compilation “River Of Song”, has influenced this recording me the most. A very special moment can be heard where Margaret Barry and Jean Richie compare versions on a recording session in London made by Alan Lomax in 1953. “
Elements of Marlais’ 2016 debut album put me in mind of Sam Amidon‘s more minimalist recordings. Like Marlais, he uses a lot of traditional material but brings a very personal and refreshing interpretation to those songs which offer a modern lens through which to draw in new audiences to songs that they might not have otherwise heard. As Amidon said in a recent Folk Radio UK interview “the distinction between more ‘modern’ versions of folk music versus ‘traditional’ forms has dissolved compared to previous eras”, this is becoming more apparent now as musicians like Sam Amidon, Stick in the Wheel, David A Jaycock, Lisa O’Neil, Lankum, Sam Lee, Ye Vagabonds and Marlais, to name just a few, offer fresh reinterpretations.
Did you study music or composition?
No, I didn’t. My younger brother once brought home a guitar and he taught me to read tabs and it kind of went from there. I did study Drama though, which in a way is a study of the human experience and the expression of that experience through ritualistic means, which I suppose has connections to folk music.
What drew you to traditional folk music in the first instance and was this a directional change (musically)?
In my teens I was really into the Beatles and all the 60’s/70’s stuff, which was pretty uncool at the time. I had my Libertines and Strokes phase too, playing guitar in a band. I think I just drifted towards it, originally listening to Bob Dylan and to his influences, always digging further and further back till years later I found myself sitting in the library listening to the “Voice of the People” compilations. I couldn’t get enough of it and still can’t. There is an intensity to the music. I didn’t grow up listening to this kind of music so for me it was like unearthing a secret, it was incredibly attractive, for want of a better word. The history behind the songs was another part. Also the fact that these songs can encapsulate complex human emotions in a couplet completely floored me: “I went to church last Sunday, my true love passed me by / I knew her love was changing, by the roving of her eye” Insane.
Can you maybe talk about some of the traditional folk singers/musicians you were drawn to and why – and how does your own music responds to those influences?
I obtained a CD in my teens which was a compilation of Led Zeppelin influences: on it was Renbourn and Jansch, Davy Graham, Joan Baez, John Fahey, these kinds of people. My best friend’s dad was (and still is, hi Tom) an excellent guitar player and taught me how to play “Running From Home” by Bert Jansch and that led to discovering and learning more. I was really fascinated firstly just by the music itself and then later by how traditional songs received new life with the interpretations and reworking they got by bands such as Pentangle and Planxty but also how fiercely traditional they still were with people like Martin Carthy, Anne Briggs, The Watersons and of course, Shirley Collins. Peter Bellamy, another great example of someone finding their own stylistic approach and yet sounding timeless. They showed not only innovation in their take on this but also a respect for the songs. A display of sensitivity without being kitsch. I think that’s what really drives me when approaching these songs: treading that fine line of actually enjoying the songs without trying to make a fanfare out of them. There are so many fantastic musicians/bands doing the same thing now, people like Lisa O’Neil, Lankum, Sam Lee, Ye Vagabonds, Stick in the Wheel, the list goes on. At the moment I am listening to a lot of Paddy Tunney.
With your latest single, you seem to have delved a lot deeper in your interpretations. It has a different feel to your last release, although drones still play a part it was interesting to read about some of the smaller nuances you’ve picked up from traditional folk music such as the arpeggiated flutes, inspired by the melodic playing from Irish Uilleann pipers which provide a whole new feel to your music.
I think it becomes very tricky when you start to fuse musical genres and especially with folk music of all origins, it can quickly turn into a corny “world music”, in my opinion. For me, capturing the emotional force of a folk song is very important. Music has always had a very emotional impact on me. If I can make a person feel the same way that I felt the first time I heard the song, then I think I’ve done something right. I have a duty to the song not to abuse it. These songs don’t belong to me, I am merely inhabiting them for a brief moment: so I try to carry them without trying to show off too much. I don’t come from a family of traditional folk singers, so I try to tread softly. I think subconscious musical influences always surface somehow. I find the Uilleann pipes an incredible instrument and the virtuosic playing completely transfixing: the drones, the up and down scales, the chords that chirp in now and then, it’s so complete.
Can you talk about some of the developments you’ve been through and how that may have changed your musical approach?
Learning to make music using software was probably the biggest change that happened to me musically. It opened up many possibilities. I made a lot of different electronic music for a long time until it dawned me that I just wanted to sing. I had started off as a singer in my teens and at some point I was drawn back to it. I missed it. I think anyone who sings will understand this. I was once messing around in Ableton sampling a Wagner piece and I started to whistle the tune of Shirley Collin’s “Polly Vaughan” over the top of it, which was kind of a eureka moment for me. I ended up recording myself singing over the sample and it went on my first album. I wrote to Shirley asking her permission to use the melody, which she kindly gave but also (and this might be my greatest achievement so far) she told me off for singing it too slowly. But my voice got the thumbs up from Shirley and that was another thing that spurred me on. I have moved away from sampling now and am much more into arranging things. I’m kind of obsessed with the sound of fake (digital) instruments.
The latest single called to mind some of Oliver Cherer‘s work, especially Gilroy Mere (Clay Pipe Music), which has an almost nostalgic pastoral feel…the sort of thing you maybe hear from musicians drawn to and influenced by hauntology. Is that something that has influenced you and can you talk about some of your more contemporary influences that came into play along with any non-musical touchstones that influence your output?
I love Clay Pipe Music so much! Much to the detriment of my bank account. It was Vic Mars and his “The Land and the Garden” album that hooked me on the mellotron sound which is so present in the single and was definitely an influence. I wouldn’t really say hauntology has played a large part in my music-making, I am more focused on trying to capture my emotional response to the songs I’m working with. The live recording of Ravi Shankar in the Kremlin, for example, has some incredibly uplifting, spiritual moments that have been a great influence. I really like Pep Llopis’ “Poiemusia La Nau Dels Argonautes” album, definitely a strong influence on the sound; lots of busy flutes. I really enjoy composers such as Ellen Arkbro and Kali Malone for pieces on the organ, deep, slow-moving chords that shift in a dreamlike state. Of course, all the contemporary folk acts that I mentioned earlier are also a big influence. It’s really exciting to see so much good stuff coming out. I have a new album of nearly fully baked songs that probably do justice to these influences better: there are lots of woodwinds and brass, strings, fuzzy drones etc; it’s more a cohesive sound than the last album. A friend of mine once called my music “the sound of longing” but it’s also been called “mystical dystopian melancholic folk”, so you decide.
I remember on a trip to Wrocław once I saw a theatre performance in which the company sang a lot of incredibly moving liturgical polyphonic pieces from places like Georgia and Albania. I was talking to one of the performers afterwards and he said that when he sings, he stands in “a column of air” and that’s stuck with me. I sometimes envisage this parallel universe time-space bending column of air running through me when I sing, that connects me to the same air of past and future singers. Singing a folk song on its own can be a close as it gets to a spiritual experience for me.
Of course, the biggest influence and sometimes the one most easily forgotten, are the people around me. My family and my friends are everything I have and ever could want.
‘Meeting Is A Pleasure’ is out on 17 September 2020 on Treibender Teppich Records
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