Ross Ainslie, composer, folk musician, well-known for his talent on pipes, whistles, and cittern, is back with a new album, Vana (reviewed here). This multi-talented musician has, over the last few years, become somewhat ubiquitous on the Scottish music scene, having played as part of Salsa Celtic and Treacherous Orchestra alongside his releases with Ali Hutton and Jarlath Henderson. In late 2018 though, he took some much-needed time out, and Vana is a result of that breathing space. Late in October 2020, Folk Radio UK got the chance to have a chinwag with one of Scotland’s most exciting musicians to discuss personal wellbeing, collaborations over Zoom and the perils of solo improvisation.
The weather of a cold, rainy, October day in Scotland is in striking contrast to that of an Indian summer, which is what Ross experienced back at the tail end of 2018 when he visited the Indian city of Dehradun to spend time at the wellness retreat Vana. “The reason I went was for mental health, I suffer a bit here and there and have done for years. I stopped drinking about 8 years ago or so, and I’ve been kind of up and down all the time, I was on the burnt out, and it was the place I needed to make some changes. Anything that’s good for your mental health, I’m open to all. The problem I think is not sorting it, and not doing anything about it, and it’s the typical male thing, especially Scottish. We’re really bad for digging our heels in and leaving it to the back burner, and thinking you’ll sort it eventually and as the years go on it gets harder and harder. The worse you get in your head the harder it is to speak about these things. It’s a knock-on effect, all that kind of stuff. Having a pint – it’s the easy way out, I found, you’re just putting it on the back shelf to deal with later, but the hardest thing is trying to deal with why you had been drinking in that way in the first place. Stopping drinking’s not actually that difficult, it’s dealing with all the other sides of why you’re doing that. And I still struggle now. It’s a long road, long journey that’s tough, you know.”
Ross has always been open about the struggles he has faced with mental health issues as well as alcohol and a chat with him is always open and honest, as well as inspirational. He never shies away from exploring, and acknowledging, the darkness and it’s a topic he is willing to discuss, knowing it can help others. “It’s a challenge. Do you know Mischa MacPherson, she’s a Gaelic singer? She’s been working on a programme recently about mental health, and I did some filming for that, and we were talking; when you’re not feeling good, you kind of just want to be on your own. I think honesty’s the best thing, people appreciate if you actually say, look, I’m not feeling good here. It’s being able to … having the balls to go to that place. You don’t want to be the one bringing folk down. The more honest you are with these kind of things, it’s surprising the more people come out of the woodwork, in private, and it does help other people, it’s why it’s important Mischa is doing this kind of programme, because it will help, especially younger folk, just so people know they are not on their own, you know.
“So that’s the whole reason I went to Vana, to get my head cleared. I don’t know if you’ve been to a wellness place, I’ve never been to one before, it’s a place that just allows you to take stock, and just relax, just recharge. I’d love to go back. Beautiful place.”
India has, in fact, become something of a second home to Ross, at least spiritually. It’s a place he knows well having been a regular visitor to the country for a number of years. “I’ve been going to India since about 2006 with this band called India Alba: two Scottish musicians and two Indian, so I’ve been going to India at least once a year, sometimes two or three times, and the boys from India would come to Scotland once or twice a year, so we’d swap tours and stuff, so I’ve got this real love for India, especially for its holistic and spiritual side.”
“I hadn’t really heard any Indian music before I went there. It was through Nigel Richard, he’s a pipe maker, it’s his pipes I play, and he invited me on to play in this band, India Alba, and it was getting to hang out with guys like Sharat Srivastava, he’s the violinist, and Gyan Singh. And we’d stay with Sharat, and he would show us around, and we’d be listening to Indian classical music at home and just being able to learn first-hand Indian classical music, I mean I’m a beginner still, I understand it a little, but I’m still dabbling, but what I like about it, is it’s so free. It’s still called Indian classical music but about 90% is improvised.”
As someone steeped in the pipe band tradition, which is where Ross began, improvisation can be an unfamiliar bedfellow. “I’m a piper, so I’ve learnt to read music, you memorise it and you play like that, and that’s it. So militarised. But I’ve always loved folk fusion stuff, Shooglenifty, Martyn Bennet, Wolfstone, all that kind of stuff, I grew up with that, so I’ve always wanted to play pipes with a band, or other instruments, it’s always been my first love I suppose.”
“I was in a band called Salsa Celtica, so that’s when I first got to dabble a wee bit with improvising, but not much. I remember I had a setlist, and I must have just started, so it had all the A, B, A, B, break, or whatever written on it, and then there was my solo and I’d just written ‘fuck about’ in my notes, and that’s what it sounded like to me! Just go make something up! Improvising for me, then, was just flapping your fingers and filling a space. Then as you get older, you realise, there’s far more to it and it’s complex and very hard to pull off well.
“So, improvising’s an interesting thing to learn, for me, and I’m still learning! I just try and write a nice melody, on the spot, and if I get stuck I’ll just take a break, and try and weave about a bit, so I’m still just dipping my toes into these kind of things.”
Vana follows on from Ross’s last album, the well-acclaimed Sanctuary, and builds on his experiences working on that album. “Sanctuary was a big album for me. I worked on it a lot, we spent a lot of time on it, me, and Steve Byrnes, who plays guitar and drums, we worked together on Sanctuary and Vana. So we did Sanctuary and I liked the band I was playing with, I felt I’d found the musicians I’d like to play with and it seemed to fit, you know, but then only having the Sanctuary album, 45 minutes or so, if I was going to do a tour, what to do with the other half? So, I thought it would be great to get another album, so you have two. Two albums, full gig and you can just blast them, and both albums run quite seamless, rather than a couple of sets of tunes.”
“We’ve played Sanctuary now, maybe five times live, and it always seems a bit of an occasion, because it’s quite a full-on thing to do straight through, no stops. I wanted to have these musical journeys, that could be more for an art festival kind of thing. I always try and work on a schedule of doing an album every two years, of my own, then between these years I’d do another project if I can, so I’m a bit late with this one.
Sanctuary marked a new transition for Ross, an album that was as much a journey as a set of separate tunes. But it also marked the formation of a new group of musicians with a similar mindset. Vana is the second album with Ross’s band, the Sanctuary Band, constituting of Ross on whistles, pipes, cittern and bansuri, with Greg Lawson on fiddle, Steve Byrnes on guitar and drums, Hamish Napier on piano, James Lindsay on bass, and new recruit Paul Towndrow on sax. Both Sanctuary and Vana are characterised by some tasty world music sounds and very much follow in the tradition of folk fusion; a genre Ross is much admired with.
“I met Greg when I was, maybe 17, through Dougie Maclean, so we played for years, and I’ve always wanted to do something with Greg. He’s amazing at the klezmer stuff, and a monster classical guy, but he’s also right into world music. And everyone else are open minded musicians, everyone gets on really well. It’s quite nice to find a group of people that works. Musically, Scotland, generally, is always up for fusion. We’re lucky.”
For Vana, Ross has also managed to enlist a remarkable guest list: “Eric Alfonso, my pal from Salsa Celtica, the timbale player, great conga player as well. Then Shahbaz Hussain on tabla, he’s a great player. Also, the sarod player, Matthew Noone (recently featured on the FRUK Folk Show along with Ross here). The sarod is an Indian instrument. And Steve Cooney, I’ve loved Steve’s work for years and years. Duncan Chisholm’s been a hero of mine for as long as I can remember as well as Runrig guitarist Malcolm Jones. I’ve been really lucky with guests.”
Vana is a true labour of love for Ross, the album marks a personal journey, both into his future as well as his past. Whilst most tunes were written after his return to Glasgow, he also took the opportunity to retrace some old favourites.
“‘Rapa Nui’, we did with Treacherous Orchestra years ago as ‘Easter Island’. I wrote that tune with Dougie Maclean’s son, Jamie, when I was maybe 20 or something, so the version that’s on the album is that version, just with a band. I always loved the version we did with Jamie; it was done when we were kids really. Then there’s a tune, ‘Absinthe in Aranya’. That’s a tune called ‘Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder’ which I wrote, same again, maybe 21st birthday I think it was. So, I recorded it with Jarlath Henderson on our first album (Partners in Crime), but then Hamish and James did a jazzier version of it, maybe 10 years ago, and it’s a really good arrangement.”
The album also sees an interesting development in Ross’s writing: “‘Maybe Another Time’, that last track, when I came up with that. Normally when I’m writing, I’ll play something, then I’ll try and work it all out by playing it. ‘Maybe Another Time’ was written just by whistling it, and I don’t normally do that. And I like how it came out because it sounds like a song to me.
“It came really late at night, I couldn’t sleep, I was whistling, I had the chords on my phone. And I wanted the whistling to be on the album, ‘cos that’s the way I wrote it. You can hear it, over Jock, when he’s speaking. It’s quite subtle, in the background, but I wanted that to be in there.”
“That track also features my old pal and poet Jock Urqhuart, I scribble all these thoughts down, because I’m not good with the words, I get Jock, who provides the words on the track, to come up with a wee script at the end, so I give him a load of ideas and then he puts it together.”
Vana is a natural follow on from Sanctuary, much deserving of a wider audience. On that note, talk naturally turned to the future, a difficult subject in the time of Coronavirus, but Ross is optimistic, and busy, although not always with music. “I really wanted to do a tour with the two albums, and I’m sure it’ll happen, but since the lockdown I’ve basically been a labourer, up in a place called Barrisdale, on and off for 3 and half months. Such a remote place, an amazing place. I came back to finish the album and stuff, but it’s been a bit of a godsend to be honest, to get the job, because a lot of people are really struggling, you know. The labouring thing, it’s good for you, you know, and I wouldn’t normally have had time for it.”
“I might be doing an album with Tim Edey next month. I’ve also been working on Duncan Chisholm’s new album with Hamish Napier, so that’s been on the go, and just trying to keep busy and make some money, and let it pass. There’s an album with Brìghde Chaimbeul, a smallpipes player. We’ve been doing some work and stuff for a couple of years now and not managed to record, but we’ve got enough material, and we were actually meant to record in April, so we’ll get round to that at some point. Apart from that, work on some ideas for the next album, when I’ve got the time!”
Pre-Covid-19, Ross was also exploring the attractions of a new writing process, once which promises an exciting and evolving direction for the tunesmith. “Normally I would write on my own really, and when I’ve got the ideas of the tunes then I’d get Steve round and we’d get them in order, but with Duncan and Hamish, and I’ve never really worked like this, it’s like a writing team. So everyone is open with suggestions, and at the end of the process, everyone has went through every bit, so once it’s done the music has had three people analyse it, and it becomes this really complete thing. When I’m writing I just like to do it quite quicky and I don’t really want to hear any other options, I don’t know if its laziness, or I just can’t hear any other way, but having three people there, it means the end product is really edited down. We’ve been coming up with some really cool stuff.
“I might actually try and do some projects in a writing team, just invite a few people on Zoom and say do you want to work on some music. I’ve never thought about writing with people before, but the process is good, and the results are good. When there’s no gigs, the best thing is to start writing. That’s my favourite thing anyway; writing, rather than the performance thing, I prefer the writing and recording thing myself, so it suits me!”
Vana is a dazzling album. Designed to be listened as one whole piece it naturally requests the mind of the individual listener. It is in this intimacy that it flourishes, soothes, and excites, not just for the listener but Ross himself. The value of music in wellbeing is well recognised, and something we need especially in these strange times, as well as the everyday, as Ross notes: “Albums are wee messages to myself. Personal messages to me; to get a grip, or look after yourself, but then I like that people can take what they want from it as well. I got so many messages about Sanctuary, about how it helped people get through things. I’m not really into the speaking too much, I just have to do it through music. I like getting personal through music because it does help. … Music is a healer, it’s my medicine really, it’s why I do it.”
Order via Bandcamp here: https://rossainslie.bandcamp.com/album/vana
Website: http://www.rossainslie.com/
Read our Album Review of Vans here.