PERFECT HARMONY

1993 has been a pretty good year for trad outfit, Dervish. The Sligo-based six-piece made a significant impact with their self-financed debut album, Harmony Hill and their summer residency in Whelans had the punters queuing enthusiastically around the block.

Successful tours of Germany and Norway, and even a visit to Majorca a couple of weeks ago, have further gelled their reputation with the growing roots/acoustic audience eager to sample a taste of their infectious dance tunes and haunting ballads. Described by Folk Roots magazine as “ . . . a younger, fresher De Danann,” they’ve also been compared, not surprisingly to early Clannad and Altan.

Singer Cathy Jordan, mandola plucker Brian McDonagh and accordion player Shane Mitchell are comfortably gathered around a rake of pints in the Central Hotel, Dublin, reviewing their progress to date and discussing the plan of action for the year ahead.

“Our aim is to take traditional music out of the corner of the pub and present it to the wider public.” declares Shane. “Younger people are getting more into the rhythms of Irish music these days - they see the possibilities that are in it. But you have to present it to them in a certain way, so they can fully appreciate the rhythmic qualities. “I always thought that Irish music could be like reggae and become popular on a worldwide basis.”

Brian agrees, though he admits that the music has been seen as elitist in the past and believes this sort of snobbery has impeded its development.

“Trad music became a bit inaccessible to a lot of people a few years back,” he says. “It became kind of like jazz. One thing we’ve always tried to do is to make it as accessible as possible. We’re very conscious of putting on a show and giving people value for money. The old idea of all the musicians sitting on stools with heads down and eyes closed is, thankfully, long gone. We try to give the music impact and to convey the dynamics of our sound. I don’t think we could ever be accused of being subtle – we tend to get a lift out of any changes in tempo or key and the audience respond accordingly.”

Dervish are unequivocal in their approach to what they see as real Irish music and have strong feelings on what, in their opinion, constitutes genuine traditional music. Not surprisingly they don’t have much time for hi-tech embellishments and electronic wizardry of any kind.

“We’re totally acoustic,” says Shane, “No synths or drum machines or any of that kind of electronic gimmickry. The whole ‘unplugged’ thing was a reaction to the over-reliance on technology anyway but we’ve always believed in being unplugged,” he adds.

Cathy agrees: “A lot of people have been feeling a bit cheated as regards music lately. With rave and rap it’s all become a bit synthetic, which is fine in its own way, but people like to see real musicians playing real instruments.

“Though having said that,” she continues, “some friends of mine who are into going to raves were saying that it’s the rhythms of the dance tracks they like, not the songs or melodies, so when they came to our gig they thought the rhythms were similar and they found they could move to it in the same way.”

The band are also highly critical of Irish music being mixed and blended with other musical genres, which they see as an attempt to disown Irish culture and dilute the music for mass consumption.

“We really do believe that Irish music should stand on its own and shouldn’t be mixed with Cajun or country or anything like that,” says Brian. “Some bands feel they have to bring in these outside influences to make their music acceptable, but it’s almost a vote of no confidence in the music. Even though I play the mandola which is hardly an Irish instrument, the important thing is playing it in an Irish fashion and style.”

Dervish are sensitive to suggestions that trad music is simply regurgitating the same old tunes with a bit of variation here and there and that it’s generally stuck in some kind of timewarp. A valid criticism in some respects?

“It’s a ridiculous argument,” says Brian. “It had to have been done before, otherwise it wouldn’t be traditional music. It’s a music that is handed down from generation to generation and of course it’s going to sound similar but it’s no different from, say, blues or reggae in that respect. There’s really no such thing as a cover version in terms of Irish traditional music – the tunes are part of the heritage of a particular area or region and they get swapped around and changed slightly that’s what it’s all about.”

Dervish’s debut album Harmony Hill released last August has more than fulfilled their expectations in terms of sales and they are well pleased with the reaction. Nevertheless, having done the rounds of record companies to no avail, they still had to finance the record themselves and release it on their own label.

“The funny thing was,” says Brian, “we couldn’t get a record deal so we put it out on our own label. But since then we’ve had five or six demo tapes from people wanting us to sign them! We hadn’t figured on that happening,” (laughs). “We barely scraped together the money to put our own album out, so it’s weird to think that people might expect us to finance their album. But the possibility is always there in the future.

“The album has now paid its way,” says Shane. “It’s sold really well, in fact the amount we sold on our tour of Germany alone paid for the recording costs, so we were in the black by the time we came home. We have an austere approach to the business side of things anyway and that’s something that has stood to us.”

Having got this far without major label backing, Dervish are not particularly pushed about getting involved with a record company but they admit that going it alone has its pitfalls and they’re trying to set up a licensing deal to assist distribution in the U.K.

“The real problem,” says Brian, “is that the record shops will only deal with the bigger labels, so getting the album on the shelves can still be a problem. And even if we do get the shops to stock it, they’ll still put A Woman’s Heart at the front and hide ours at the back. We’d find that the album was selling very quickly and then there was a gap while they were waiting for the next batch to come in, but it’s been a learning process for us all.”

Dervish, along with many other Irish trad outfits of late, have found that they get a bigger reaction abroad than they do at home – something they feel they will have to get used to. They are still pleasantly surprised, however at the reception they can sometimes receive in Europe.

“The Germans for example,” says Cathy, “don’t have any real indigenous music themselves, so they seem to have latched on to Irish and roots music in general which is great for us. The promoters abroad are beginning to put Irish trad bands into rock venues instead of the usual sit-down concert hall type venues. It’s much better, because people like to go out and have a few drinks and let themselves go a little rather than just sit there.

The great thing about us,” she continues, “is we just go to a festival and we carry our instruments and that’s it. We support rock bands quite a bit and it’s unbelievable the amount of stuff they haul around – stacks of flight cases and truckloads of stuff. You see these drum kits with 6 mikes attached. It’s totally ridiculous Sometimes we make a bigger sound anyway!”

With a gigging and touring diary for next year, already filling up fast, Dervish are not thinking about a second album just yet.

“There’s still plenty of mileage out of the current one,” says Shane, “especially abroad, so we’re taking our time with the next one, though we’re always looking out for new tunes.”

“Or old ones,” laughs Brian!