In a pre-Covid world, you could capture Trad.Attack!’s high-energy folk-rock in one of the four corners of the world, on the stage of a festival or an independent music venue. Today, international touring may be restricted but the same relentless energy flows through Make Your Move. The fourth studio album by the Estonian trio is another journey in time and tradition, which sees them explore their sound even further.
But the band’s inventiveness goes beyond the music. And just a few weeks after they receive the Cultural Award from the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – a recognition they share with composer Arvo Pärt and street artist Edward von Lõngus – I catch up with bagpipe player and vocalist Sandra Vabarna to find out more.
With a mixture of ingenuous enthusiasm and natural charisma, she shares the concept behind Make Your Move, how the band have connected with fans in the pandemic, and how travelling inspired them to become more planet-friendly.
In 2013, Sandra Vabarna (then Sandra Sillamaa), guitarist Jalmar Vabarna and drummer Tõnu Tubli were all successful musicians. So when they founded Trad.Attack!, there was no pressure to succeed; they could take an experimental approach to their songwriting. With Sandra already familiar with traditional music, having studied it as a degree, they dug into the archives to find recordings of folk songs, spells and rhymes, then sampled them, amplified them, transformed them, adding their own instrumentation and vocals.
The result is a fearless fusion of old and new, where guitars, drums and bagpipes carry mantra-like lyrics about daily life, nature or the magical world, sung in Estonian or Estonian dialects. An original approach which resonates with audiences and music critics alike.
The last album, Make Your Move, explodes with the energy of a live performance, relentlessly defying the boundaries of genre with distorted guitars, floor-filling beats and manipulated bagpipes, all filling the audio space completely.
Behind it was the idea of exploring “how big a three-piece band can sound actually”, but to make it work “in live situations, not only in the studio, because you know, in the studio you can sound like an orchestra as well”. One of the steps was to draw different sounds from instruments: “For example, me, as a bagpipe player, […] on this album I am using different guitar effects pedal boards and stuff like that. And Tõnu, our drummer, is using different drum triggers.”
The quest for bigger sounds then progressed to recording: “We wanted to make a pre-recording before the re-recording”. Co-producer and mixer Silver Lepaste could then start mixing and in the next studio session, the band “could already change something with the recording process, like use different mics… or different rooms to get bigger sounds for the drums, and so on…”
But it’s also a guiding principle that the music should work acoustically, with no amplification, no effect. “If the song works just the three of us, then it will work with all this stuff around it”. You never know also what can happen on stage. Case in point, during a concert in the Czech Republic, the electricity went out. “We were on stage, and we were like ‘Oh my God, what do we do?’ And then, we went really on the edge of the stage and we played totally acoustically, but there was like 1500 people and they just came really together… and they were so, so quiet… It made a totally different feeling and atmosphere.”
After some hesitation, the album was released in April, during the national lockdown. “You know, as a musician, if you have worked with it for two years… you have recorded everything; everything is ready and now they say you have to wait? It’s like… It’s such agony! So we decided: ‘no! we have to get it out’ because in two years probably, we will already, you know, record a new album” And it worked. After a month of staying at home, people were craving something new and even with reduced touring, the music travelled to audiences around the globe. “That’s the positive side, you know, of the internet and the virtual world, that you can actually reach people.”
The last single Armasta Mind (Love Me) also came out in lockdown. In stark contrast with the effect-rich Pass Pass and Tehke Ruumi, the love incantation brings a breath of organic serenity to the album and sees drummer Tõnu Tubli return to his first talent. “His father was a conductor and he decided before they were born that each child has to learn a brass instrument. So, when Tõnu was born, he was the first one and he got the trombone…”. It’s as a teenager, when braces stopped him from practising easily, that he turned to the drums “and now, he’s one of the best drummers in Estonia. He really is this musical genius: he can pick up whatever!”
Although not the original plan, the video for Armasta Mind uses footage from a secret single launch party, shot on a boat in Tartu. “During the time the song was released, people were separated in their houses and then this nice cosy video with this little fire thing and people being together and hugging… it brought lots of really nice memories.”
It was a few months before the musicians could reconnect with fans physically, at least in Estonia. “In July and August, the outside events could be like 1000-2000 people, so we could play 7 or 8 festivals or shows, so it worked really good for the Estonian audience. And we got still the feeling that we could play the new songs, you know. That’s another thing… you can release it but then you really want to play the songs as well!”
One of these seven concerts was their own Trad.Fest, an intimate festival advertised only on a secret Facebook group, which brings together fans and local musicians in a beautiful wooded site near Viljandi.
Other innovative ways to connect with fans during the pandemic include inviting them on a hike – a fun initiative which may become a monthly meetup – and keeping the newsletter going, though it has now assumed the form of a travel blog, where the band members reminisce on past travels and cool experiences on tours. At this point, Sandra confesses how much she misses travelling. “I was looking at all these old videos and photos and I was like ‘Oh my God! I want to go to Japan! I want to go to Canada!”
A constant source of inspiration, travel plays a central role in the last album. What has really struck a chord is “travelling to different countries and different festivals and these folk and world music festivals, where you see so many different bands, you know, representing cultures, or so many different approaches, like you wouldn’t actually see in a rock or pop festivals.”
Travel and touring also triggered an environment-focused philosophy, especially Woodford Folk Festival, run as such an ecological affair with renewable energy and returnable plates and cups. “It’s just so cool to see that in such a big festival, you can actually do it”. Performers at Woodford are expected to bring or buy their own reusable bottles too. “This is kind of a cool way of thinking because I think we are all responsible. Because it’s not like we are the stars, and we don’t have to care, they have to care. We are also humans and we are also living here, so we have to take care where we get our water from”. At their own Trad.Fest, plates and glasses are made of compostable materials.
“Whatever we do, we kind of try to think how can we, with our actions, be more environmentally friendly”. Trad.Attack! CD and vinyl covers, as well as all the merchandising, are made of 100% recycled materials, with no plastic packaging. The Jew’s Harp sold on their website is handmade and supports the local artisan. Under investigation is also a way to actually print records on recycled materials, a process which currently exists in Holland but has yet to make its way to Estonia.
To offset the travelling footprint, the band had plans to gather some of their fans and all go and plant trees together… another plan sadly postponed by Covid. Instead, “from every CD and every vinyl people buy from our web page, we donate some of the money to this organisation [Koosloodus Foundation] who actually do plant the trees”.
Another stroke of genius was to ask a venue to use only green energy for their gig. This was due to happen this year but again, due to Covid restrictions, the gig was cancelled. Hopefully it will all happen next year, and we will all be living brighter days.
Until then, there is lots to look forward to: as well as a new addition to the Vabarna family, on the horizon are a mentoring project with Linkin Park’s former manager and a collaboration with a start-up director, to find new ways to keep going while touring is restricted. Anticipation is also building for the release of the Grammy nominations… Make Your Move has been shortlisted… so fingers are crossed!
What can fans look forward to? A few live shows for those in Estonia, a live album of Make Your Move, and a behind the scenes release, full of the ideas, music segments and snippets of inspiration behind the brilliant album.
Watch this space as Trad.Attack! make their next move!
Photo Credit: Jelena Rudi