Basco is a fiddle-scraping, box-belting, cittern-smacking
folk/roots band with members from Denmark, Sweden and Australia. They are
performing in Settle on 22nd January and we got to speak to Andreas
from Basco ahead of this live gig.
How would you
describe your live set?
Our music is Nordic but when we tend to play domestically
– in Norway or Sweden – people tend to hear us as more Celtic, so basically it’s
a mix of these two worlds. Two of us are pure blood Danes, one is from Sweden
and our fourth guy – Hal - grew up in Australia, his dad’s Scottish and his mum’s
English, and now he lives in Denmark! He’s written most of the music up to now
and he’s influenced by wherever he’s been and where he’s lived. I’d say [our
music] is like a melting point of lots of different things.
Our instrumental music is all original then on top of
that we play some English folk songs, primarily, which Hal was brought up with,
songs that his mum used to sing to him. Just to add to the confusion of the
diversity, we tend to have four or five English folk songs.
What is about folk
music that attracts you to playing it?
It’s different for all four of us. My approach was
originally classical music. Hal has been interested by both folk and classical
music, but his parents listened to a lot of folk music. Ale is very much into
folk music and Swedish traditional music, whilst Anders is very much influenced
by jazz. He plays the accordion as well as the trombone and plays with a big
band. The inspiration is many, and our interest in folk music, if you say one
general thing for all of us, was a spring board or starting point. The melodies
are very important to us, and our roots are based in traditional melodic tones,
and they’re the core of our songs.
Does having all those
influences make your music more unique and distinctive?
I’d say yes, even if it sounds like we’re thinking high
thoughts of our own music! I think it does add something. When we go abroad to
England people think it’s Scandinavian, and when we play here people think it’s
Celtic. I think it’s pretty good as we sound as refreshing over here as with you
guys, but at the same time there’s always something to refer to. It’s not
completely unusual but it at the same time it’s new, and that’s what we get. A lot
of the time we get inspiration from pop music, rock music, jazz music. That
takes the music new places.
In terms of
inspiration, your biography says that all your music is ultimately about sex.
Is that correct!?
It’s not all about sex! But I’m not lying when I say that
some of it is inspired by personal experiences. Some of the English folk songs
are very much centred around sex. One song is about a horny sailor who tries to
get in bed with a noble woman, and we sing a sea-shanty called ‘The Hog-Eye Man’
which is about a man getting into bed with lots of women! Some of the music is
about sex, or at least it has a big part of the story. Even the instrumental is
sometimes inspired by sex! It’s not like [our live set] is like a freak show or
an orgy but some of our entertainment is referring to the subject of sex!
You have a new
album out in 2017; how is that coming together?
In the beginning of February we’re going to record two or
three more tracks and then we’re going to decide what goes on the album, and
the plan right now, it’s not official, is to have the release on 4th
May, which is also going to take place in the UK through Proper Music
distribution.
Has any song stood
out as a potential lead single?
We haven’t talked about it but a good guess would actually
be an English folk song we’ve recorded. The music has been newly written by Hal
but it’s an old Scotch song and he re-wrote the verses, and added things. It’s
a song about Patrick Spens. We’ve already played it this Autumn so when we come
over in January it’ll be our English debut for the song.
Do you have any
plans for videos to go with the album?
Yes! We haven’t finished that but we’ve written a new
tune for our set. It’s a Swedish inspired tune, but it’s not been giving a full
title yet. I think the plan is to make a crazy music video for that and release
it together with the album, to [help with] publicity.
Do you have any
real big ambitions for 2017?
We are going to accomplish one of them – which is we’re
playing a tour with the Danish Radio Big Band, which is unique. It’s on the
last weekend in March and we’re going to play three gigs with those guys and
they’ll be three real big concerts! We’re aiming for some of the English
festivals. We are dreaming of playing the Cambridge Folk Festival, Folk East,
Dartmoor, Sidmouth, some of these festivals. We already have two confirmed
festivals in August and September but they’re not official yet! We will be back
in June playing more gigs in the Borders area between England and Scotland.
We’re trying to actually bring the whole Big Band project
to England and we’ve been talking with the band about it. In the end it was put
aside, at least for now, but we might be able to take it over sometime in the
future!
Finally, your logo
features a flat cap. Is that to help appeal to the people of North Yorkshire?
I hope it will! When we’re over there, it’s always a
genuine pleasure. We love the musical culture which you have, and we feel at
home. It’s just a great place to go and part of going over to [North Yorkshire]
is to be part of that fantastic atmosphere!
Basco perform at Settle Victoria Hall in January. Click here to buy tickets.
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