Hope you all have had a great summer! It’s been a successful few months over here in Breabach land. June and July saw us take in great coast to coast tour of Canada visiting some amazing festivals and meeting friends & family, old and new – thanks to all that helped make it happen. You can check out our photo album from the trip over on the Facebook HERE. Since returning we managed a quick trip to the Lorient Interceltique Festival which was brilliant but mainly we’ve been hidden away in rehearsal rooms all of August preparing material for our new album…
New album ‘Astar’
We’re delighted to announce our next album entitled ‘Astar’ which translates from Gaelic as distance or journey. The album reflects on the travels we have been fortunate enough to make over the last few years, the people that have inspired us along the way and the influences that we have carried back home with us. For the recording sessions we are returning to the brilliant Castlesound Studios in Pencaitland where we recorded Ùrlar back in 2013 under the watchful eye of engineer supremo Stuart Hamilton. The studio space is just perfect for the way we work and will once again allow us to record in our natural environment – live. In the producers chair we are delighted to welcome in Greg Lawson. Known for his work as principal violin in the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as well as genre bending group Moishe’s bagel Greg has been inspiring us for many years now. In January 2015 Greg premiered his newly orchestrated adaptation of Martyn Bennet’s GRIT to critical acclaim and as part of the orchestra, Calum experienced first hand what a driven, enthusiastic and excited musical director Greg was. We’re all very buzzed up about where he will take the Breabach sound.
We begin recording at the end of September and will be bringing the album to your ears early 2016. Stay tuned for more news and pre-order details in the next couple of months!!
Upcoming Shows
We are heading out for a few festivals this month before we head into the studio. Hope to catch some of you at these concerts (see below)! Our next run of shows will then start in November as part of the Highland Blast tour in Germany before returning home in December for a few wintery gigs.
September 2015
11th : Bromyard Folk Festival, Bromyard, United Kingdom BUY TICKETS 12th : Swanage Swanage Folk Festival United Kingdom BUY TICKETS 17th – 20th : Ceòl Cholasa, Colonsay, United Kingdom BUY TICKETS 25th : Southdown Folk Festival, Bognor Regis, United Kingdom BUY TICKETS
We are just off the back of our uk-wide tour which has kept us busy for the past month. It’s been really great and what better way to round off the whole thing than getting to play a few of our favourite venues in Scotland - The Ceilidh Place (Ullapool), Universal Hall (Findhorn) and Gaddies (Oyne). Thanks to everyone that made the gigs possible and to all the lovely audiences! Thanks also to Mark Harrison for the photo from London King’s Place above.
Canadian Coast to Coast Summer Tour
Next Monday we head over to Canada for a few weeks of shows. Very exited for what is set to be a really fun tour of festivals across the country. Our first stop is Prince Edward Island for the Festival of Small Halls where we will be spending our time dining on the finest sea food (and doing some gigs). As well as this we are hoping to get to hang out with our pals Rura and Ross & Jarlath who are also over this summer!
Last week we were on BBC Alba as part of the Seirm series. Filmed during Celtic Connections 2015 it features a load of different artists that were performing at the festival. It was a very cold January evening with the snow coming down outside when we filmed this, but good craic and music inside! Here’s a clip of us performing ‘Bowmore Fair’ from Ùrlar. Stay tuned for more clips throughout the series, including James & Megan joining the mighty Danu for a few tunes!
Summer Festivals
The remainder of our summer will be taken up with rehearsing new material for album number 5. We’ll be headed into the studio early Autumn to get to work, but more news on this soon! However, we will have time to fit in a few festivals in uk & France. Hope to see you out at one of these!
The past two months have been totally brilliant for the band and we feel incredibly privileged to be able to play our music across the globe. In March we had a great three weeks in Australia/New Zealand – a few Koalas, lovely coffee & food, good shows, good pals and we got to spend a couple of days making music with members of the amazing Black Arm Band, Horomona Horo and Bobby Singh. It was a very inspiring experience!
On our way home we stopped off in Doha, Qatar. We played in the beautiful Alrayyan Theatre in the Souq Waqif (See above picture) and we were joined on stage for a few tunes with a fantastic local musician – Mohamed Al Saegh. Very enjoyable few days, very hot, some dust storms, went on a boat and bought some spices!
The climate was about to dramatically change when we headed west to Newfoundland and the East Coast Music Awards, St. Johns. After a couple of delayed flights (28 hours, door to door) we were hit with the bracing dry cold of the Canadian east coast but met with a really warm welcome at the festival. It turned into a great weekend of music and great craic with our pals Ross & Jarlath and got us excited for a return visit this summer (Full details of this will released soon).
May/June Tour
We’re now getting geared up for our next tour which kicks off this May. We start with a show at Labadoux Festival, Belgium before kicking off the UK leg the following weekend. All the tour dates are below. Hope we can catch you along the road!
We have just returned from an amazing tour of Austria with the Maeve Mackinnon Trio where we were incredibly well looked after by our host Dietmar Haslinger (Weltenklang productions) & brilliant sound master/driver Martin Zetner. Great gigs, crowds, food, drink; we love this place. Here’s a few photos from our gig in Katau (courtesy of Diana Horvath) - Scottish Colours.
Australia/New Zealand
Now it’s time for us to repack the bags in preparation for our return to Australia & New Zealand this November. We’ll be taking in three shows in Australia (as well as some workshops, keep your eyes peeled for more info…) before hopping over to NZ for some more gigs, culminating in St. Andrews night in Dunedin! To celebrate the trip will also be releasing our track ‘Scotland’s Winter’ as a single (on STEM Music/Planet Records). Hope to see you at one of the shows, and please spread the word if you can! Check out the dates here.
We are delighted to announce we will be performing at Celtic Connections 2015 alongside our friend, Maori traditional bearer and fellow ‘Boomerang’ collaborator Horomona Horo as well as sharing the bill with the great Alan Kelly Gang. Our show takes place at the Old Fruitmarket on the 22nd of January. We are really looking forward to the festival. Tickets can be purchased here.
Martyn Bennett Prize
On October 14th our bass player James Lindsay was awarded first place in this years Martyn Bennett Prize for Traditional Music Composition. His piece ‘Hebridean Terrace Seamount’ was selected amongst five other beautiful pieces which were performed at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh. You can hear all five piece here:
Dublin Marathon
Megan is taking part in the Dublin Marathon this weekend to raise money for Chest, Heart & Stroke Scotland. She would really appreciate your support and there’s still time to donate, so head over here:
Well, what an amazing summer that was; Sark, Italy, Moonbeams, Ely, Warwick, BOOMERANG (Lewis & Glasgow), Bø¸ Norway, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Warwick, Balloch (with the great Ceilidh trailers!), Knoydart Games, Live on BBC Radio 3 & Culture Studio @ Pacific Quay, Sidmouth & Mull of Kintyre Fest. It’s been quite a couple of months for the band and we are incredibly grateful to everyone that has been a part of our summer tour. We’re getting a bit of down time at the moment so we thought we’d send you a wee update with the news.
@ Kelvingrove Bandstand Glasgow for Festival 2014
Boomerang
Photo by Leila Angus @ Brighter Still
It was a pleasure to welcome the Boomerang crew on to our home soil this July. The trip started on the isle of Lewis where we spent a few days together at the Black House village, Gearrannan, before our performance at the Hebridean Celtic Festival. It was brilliant to allow our friends from New Zealand and Australia to experience a bit of real island life as well as showing them the local sights (see us at the Calanais stones above!). The gig itself was amazing fun and the response was just fantastic.
We then headed south to join the party at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. It was an eventful and challenging week in the city for us, but we pulled through the hardships and put on 3 great shows culminating with our big performance at Glasgow Green for Festival 2014. With the conclusion of that final show came to end an amazing journey that we have been on since the start of the year. So much has been learned and a much greater understanding of one another’s cultures has been gained, but most of all we have made close friends with people from the other side of the world who we may never have encountered had it not been for this project.
A massive thanks needs to go our producers Lisa, Emere & Rhoda who without their unique vision and vigour this project would never have happened, Bob Buchan for his amazing pr work on the project, Iain Thomson & Tim Matthews for making us sound good as well as lugging our gear all over the country, Drew & team at Womad NZ and Caroline & team at Heb Celt for believing in the project, everyone at Festival 2014, Jenny, Jone & everyone that supported the project!
Songlines essential scottish albums
This month Songlines Magazine have featured us in their 10 essential scottish albums. We feel very honoured to be in amongst such amazing music and even more so to be placed alongside one of our heroes Martyn Bennett. If theres any of these records you haven’t heard yet, get your lugs around them!!
7th Scottish Colours Tour
Later this month we are headed out to Austria to jump in the van for the 7th Scottish Colours tour. We are sharing the bill with the brilliant Maeve Mackinnon Trio and will be appearing all over Austria, Switzerland and Italy. It’s been a few years since we last took part in this great tour and we are delighted to be heading back out for the music and schnitzel.
More info: www.weltenklang.at
Down Under November
This November we will be heading back to Australia & New Zealand for a short run of shows. Final details are coming together and we will have an announcement for you soon. Please keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter for up to the minute info!
Photo by Leila Angus @ Brighter Still
