Lau

Dirty Linen

This is an excerpt from the print edition of Dirty Linen #139 (December 2008/January/February 2009).
The full article is in the magazine, available on newsstands, by subscription, and at the Dirty Linen webstore.

Lau

Tripping the Light Fantastic

by Kerry Dexter

The three members of the band Lau play traditional Celtic music -- sort of. "We take it in different directions. It has a bit of a twist to it," said Aidan O'Rourke, who plays fiddle with the group.

"I think we're all sort of on the same page musically," said guitarist and singer Kris Drever.

"We were in two duos, and three duos -- we were all doing music together," said Martin Green, who plays accordion. "It just seemed to make more sense to become a trio and work together."

It's not as though any of the three was exactly looking for something to do, though. Even before joining up to tour, write, and record together, each of the men had easily half a dozen projects going, and they are as varied as the musicians' backgrounds.

Martin Green grew up in the south of England, in Cambridge."My dad plays concertina and flute, so I was always kind of around music, but I took up the accordion when I was 10, because I thought it was funny," he said. Anyone who's ever seen Green play will have no doubt that some of that idea still carries over into his work today. "During the teenage years when a lot of people stop playing because it's too uncool or for whatever reason, I got a few jobs in ceilidh bands. That pays better than most of the jobs you can get when you're 15, so that kind of pulled me through," he said. A lot of the music he was playing was Irish. "Cambridge, like many cities in England, has a large Irish population, and a very healthy Irish session scene. If you play traditional music, you probably end up playing Irish music. I think that's true of a lot of England, because you have the music and it's a social kind of thing, too; you want to go to sessions. I fell in love with the music when I started going to sessions, and I carried on playing in the ceilidh bands, and got into a bit of folk-rock, for want of a better term."

That background prepared him for his next step. "I met Eliza Carthy when I was about 20, and that fell into a real job where I got paid more." Green recalled, laughing. Carthy, known for her eclectic approach blending folk and world music, eventually released a duo album with Green, Dinner. She lived in Edinburgh, and Green would travel north to rehearse for her gigs. Learning his way around the music scene in Scotland's capital would have an impact on his own music, as well.

Kris Drever grew up in Orkney, a group of islands off the northeast coast of Scotland. Orkney is influenced as much by its Norse history as its Scottish connections. "It's a beautiful area, an area with a lot of spiritual connection with it," Drever said, "and then you're given a lot of space. Places like that -- you're given quite a broad horizon." Drever's father, Ivan, is a musician who is known for combining folk and rock elements in his work, both with the group Wolfstone and in his solo career. "My family are musicians, and I felt a great affinity for music," Kris Drever said. "I did all the normal things that other kids do, but I got a guitar quite early; I was 13, I think. I just clicked with it and found that I spent most of my time playing it. You know, with some kids it's football, and for me it was guitar.

"So I suppose by the time I was in my late teens, I knew I wanted to play gigs," he continued. "I moved from the Orkney Islands down to Edinburgh and just started meeting up with musicians down here."

Aidan O'Rourke got his start in Oban, in Scotland's western Highlands. "I was taught by a local fiddle teacher in the town, got some lessons from him," O'Rourke said. "He lived nearby and was a good music teacher with numerous students, and my parents just asked me if I would like to play the fiddle, and I went along, and it was great!" Like many other families in that part of Scotland, the O'Rourkes had Irish connections. "My mom is from Donegal, and my dad's grandfather was from Donegal, so both family sides go back to that part of Ireland. In the house, my dad's record collection was always full of Irish fiddle music, so that's what I listened to most as a child and in my teens. That's come out in my fiddle playing a lot. There's a load of Irish fiddle players: Frankie Gavin, Tommy Peeples, and from Scotland, Aly Bain. Through my teens there was a lot of that."

[cover #138]