Gaelic Storm: That's Steve Twigger second from the left.
Like Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in the blockbuster movie, Titanic, Gaelic Storm went down with the ship. However, it worked out well for this Celtic group, that started out playing gigs at a friend’s Irish pub in a Santa Monica, California. Their screen time in the film—they’re the Irish band that gets DiCaprio and co-star Kate Winslet dancing on the tables in steerage—garnered them so large a following that since then they’ve spent as much as 200 days of the year on the road.
They appeared on March 24 at The Colonial Theater in Phoenxiville and writer/photographer Brian Mengini caught up with them. Here, his interview with Steve Twigger, GS’s Coventry, England-born guitarist and singer.
Your music definitely has a down home southern kinda feel to it. Where does the inspiration come from?
Over the last 10 years or so much has changed. I live in Austin, Texas now; I’ve been listening to a lot of the southern bands. Ya know there is a lot of connection with the blue grass players as well. Irish music has an influence in a lot of bluegrass music. So I think perhaps that connection exists.
You guys just raised over $16,000 for St Baldricks Foundation which is for children’s cancer research. As a result, Pete and Patrick shaved their heads bald. How did GS get involved with this foundation and how did you raise the $16,000?
Some time ago, we connected with some friends in Green Bay, St Brendan’s Inn. Larry Fitzgerald who runs the place is an Irish fella who got involved himself with the St. Baldrick Foundation. Whenever we’re in town there, we stay at their hotel. They run a great little hotel there with an Irish bar. We actually play a couple of gigs right there at the bar. It’s the only bar we play in America. They wanted us to participate in this and they explained it to us. We’ve seen the operation around the country but this was a chance to get involved and Patrick jumped straight on board. I think it’s been three years now, three straight years that Patrick’s shaved his head and Peter Purvis joined in this year. We sort of took it out on the road and every night just asked for donations which all literally just went into a bucket. We counted up the money to the penny every night. We’re finishing it on St Patrick’s Day and I think we’ll be up to about $17,000. People have come up to us after shows and explained how that foundation has helped them also when his 4-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia and he lost his job, the foundation funded him and kept him afloat for six months.
The song “Green Eyes, Red Hair” is that inspired by a true story?
Ya know, I think, there’s many true stories in there. We’ve been on the road now for 15, 16 years and we’ve certainly met our fair share of fiery red heads.
What is the music scene like over in England versus here in the States?
Ya know, we’ve been out here so long. When I was playing way back when in England, it was a completely different world. So we really don’t know. We’ve travel more in France and we were in Spain last year, more then we have in England or Ireland. There’s a vibrant Celtic scene in the north of Spain and also in the northwest of France. We’re hoping to get out to France and Spain again this year to play. It is different. It’s a lot more traditional, I would say. I think they are starting to enjoy the sort of crossover now and the more contemporary feel that bands like ourselves bring to what they consider to be their music.
What is your favorite GS song to play live?
Strangely enough, we’ve been doing an old children’s song from Belfast that we’ve been doing since the first time we started playing together called “Tell Me Ma.” I mean it’s a very popular song in the Irish community–every Irish band plays it. No matter what happens, we tend to throw it in at the end of every night, especially when there’s a really rowdy crowd. It just seems to close the night up perfectly.
Speaking of rowdy, what’s the rowdy’s place or show you’ve done?
We get up to northern Minnesota, up in Minneapolis. Up there in the winter, ya know, their winters are severe. I think people get a bit of cabin fever. We were up there just a few weeks ago and the crowd’s crazy up there. But like I say, I think it’s a bit of this cabin fever.
GS has a really wonderful outreach program with Pub of the Month, Storm Chasers, etc, which I think is great! People love feeling like they are a part of something – that sense of family or more intimate communal circle! How do you come up with the ideas for these initiatives?
I come from an advertising background. I have an art degree and was an art director in advertising for about 12-13 years, doing advertising in Los Angeles and London. Everybody throws in their ideas and we just do them, ya know. We don’t think too hard about it. As far as the pub of the month goes, we pretty much try and get out and meet our fans at the pubs at most places. We just sort of put a name to it. Storm Chasers is our version of our fan club. It’s not that unusual, we just put a name to it.
How long are you generally on the road for?
We all have wives or significant others. We try not to be out for more than three weeks or so. This tour is about three months long and in that three months, I think we’ve been home for about ten days. So it’s a sort of grueling tour.
What makes Cabbage different then previous albums?
We don’t sort of set out to make anything a bit different. We don’t have a preconceived notion of reinventing the wheel. We let our influences take over and then don’t hold back. I think if there was an effort, it would be to get closer and closer to the feel of our lives shows.
How long did it take you to make it?
It’s all studio time. 6-8 weeks. There are all kinds of writing sessions and pre studio sessions. When you are coming down to it I guess about two months.
For someone who hasn’t been to a Gaelic Storm show, what can they expect?
Ya know, it’s a question I get asked a lot. We’re known for our live shows. It’s a lot of energy, a lot of participation from the audience. We’ll put together a set list that brings famous songs from all of our CD’s. We have 7 studio CD’s. We’ll involve the audience and get them out of their seats!
What advice do you have for a band wanting to progress from a local band to a national or festival band?
It’s a hard transition to make because it’s an expensive proposition to head out. It does require funding. It’s easy to perhaps get gigs on Friday and Saturday nights but to then stay out on the road of course you have to be working Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. You end up making your money on the weekend then losing it during the week. So most bands start out just doing short runs until they build up a reputation then they can push their Friday and Saturday night shows back in the week when they get popular. Just in general to any band, make sure you have a story, make sure you have something that is of interest to people.
