Gadarene will be getting us dancing around our living rooms on Friday 26th November. We caught up with them to find out more about what’s in store!
We’re so thrilled to have Gadarene playing for us! For anyone who hasn’t come across your music before, what can they expect?
Thank you, we’re thrilled to be playing for you! People can expect a fun, lively set with moments of acoustic beauty and other moments of electronic mayhem. We draw on influences such as reggae, funk, rock and jazz, but all underpinned by glorious seventeenth and eighteenth century English folk tunes. There will also be some clogging and some Dartmoor stepdancing.
Sounds great! You’ve taken an innovative approach to modernising traditional music – do you think innovation is important for the future of folk?
Well… that’s a subject I could talk about for a few hours. Our approach is to try and have one foot in the past and one in the future. We respect the old tunes, and it’s a real thrill seeing audiences dancing to music that last had people on their feet 300 years ago. I know we’ve introduced new people to this material which is brilliant. The truth is that most of what we do in Gadarene refers to older music such as reggae and even 90s electronica; I guess the innovation is how we put them together. I think it’s great that we and other people are bringing traditional music to wider audiences in this way, but at the same time some of my favourite folk musicians play in a very traditional style and I think it would be a shame if that was lost as we’re chasing novelty.
“Our approach is to try and have one foot in the past and one in the future. We respect the old tunes, and it’s a real thrill seeing audiences dancing to music that last had people on their feet 300 years ago.”
Your latest album, Butchers of Bristol, came out a few months ago. Tell us all about it!
We’re really excited by Butchers of Bristol; it feels like a big step up from our previous recordings. It’s the first time we’ve made a studio album and we had so much fun really polishing things and adding extra sounds like pitched percussion and a whole horn section. There’s such a range of energies, from a pretty heavy rock number to something based on Acid Jazz. There’s also one track with just mandolin, fiddle and flute playing really simply; it’s one of my favourite moments on the album. We’ve been touched by what a lovely response the album’s had.
It’s been an incredibly tough time for musicians over the last couple of years – what did you get up to when you weren’t able to tour with Gadarene?
We had a CD launch tour planned for Butchers of Bristol last year. We managed the first night, then everything else was cancelled. When we realised it was going to be a while before we could get back on the road, we organised an online launch event. It was a lot of work to get the videos together, but it was really well received. We also had a post-launch party on Zoom which was silly and really great fun. Jon set off a confetti canon in his studio to launch the album and is still finding confetti eight months later!
What’s next for Gadarene?
We played at a few festivals over the summer, which was glorious, but other than that we haven’t really had a chance to perform the material from the album yet. So we’re working on festival dates for next summer and tour dates for late spring. We all love being on stage and can’t wait to bring our brand of Old English Funk Reggae Rock Electronic Disco Jazz Folk to more audiences!
Gadarene will be playing for us on Friday 26th November at 8pm GMT. Fancy joining us? Find tickets here!
