Glasgow: We catch up with Deirdre Graham and Eilidh McCormack at Celtic Connections Brew and a Blether

National World - LocalTV

Getting to the heart of what Scottish music is, the Gaelic language in song, and retaining Celtic culture at a Celtic Connections event.

Transcript

00:00Are we just redoing the interview without the others now?

00:04Now they've gone, let's talk.

00:07I'm Eilidh Cormack.

00:08And I'm Deirdre Graham.

00:11We're both from Skye.

00:13Both singers from Skye.

00:15I'm in Sheehan, a band which has been at Celtic Connections quite a few times,

00:19but our second gig, ever gig, was at Celtic Connections back in 2017.

00:26And we've been playing most years since then, I think,

00:30and we've been given such amazing opportunities at the festival

00:34just to play loads of different venues,

00:36collaborate with different bands from all around the world,

00:39so we've been very lucky to be a part of Celtic Connections all these years.

00:45I think it's probably fair to say as well that Celtic Connections is a bit of a,

00:49it's a big part in the folk musicians' calendar each year,

00:53and it's a very supportive festival for so many musicians.

00:57I mean, the festival lasts about two and a half weeks,

00:59so there's a lot that goes on in that time,

01:01a huge number of musicians and other artists involved in it,

01:05and so it becomes a huge part of your calendar every year

01:09in different guises and different set-ups.

01:12Something that Celtic Connections is very, very good at is,

01:16I think, anyway, is allowing for really amazing collaborations to happen

01:22that wouldn't otherwise happen for a number of reasons,

01:26and one of them, I suppose, being financial.

01:30And almost without question, you know,

01:32it's incredible that Celtic Connections allows, well, like,

01:36Sheehan to work with...

01:38Musicians from Mali.

01:40There you go.

01:41And Brittany.

01:43Yeah.

01:44People from all over the world and different languages as well.

01:48Different languages and cross-genre.

01:50Yeah, the folk from Mali didn't speak English,

01:52we didn't speak French, but we could make music together,

01:56and that was really beautiful.

01:58And there's an understanding through music and people there of what you're doing.

02:02Yeah, I think for folk music across the world,

02:06it's an amazing opportunity to come together.

02:09And then for, like, bands to collaborate with orchestras, jazz orchestras,

02:16you know, it's not an everyday thing, so it's very important.

02:21And a huge creative outlet then, you're not just picking on your normal gig.

02:24Pushes the boundaries, doesn't it, of what you think you could do.

02:28Yeah, it's a very creative environment.

02:31So, yeah.

02:33We're very thankful for it and very excited to be a part of it.

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