Delhi 2 Dublin: Hot Canadian Dub Masala

Delhi 2 Dublin: as Desi
as they wanna be

09 February 2018By Christine Leonard 

Delhi 2 Dublin serve up tasty sub continental turntable/tabla pop.

What happens when you slam together all of the most visceral dance music you can find? You get Vancouver’s Delhi 2 Dublin, a world-binding fusion of Bhangra, hip-hop, Celtic reels, and electronic. That’s exactly the kind of spicy Canadian Masala that the five-piece have been serving up since the group’s inception at the Vancouver Folk Festival over a decade ago. Following that fateful meeting, tabla player and beat wizard Tarun Nayar, dhol/dholak virtuoso Ravi Binning, and vocalist Sanjay Seran, have been steadily churning out groove-filled albums, including the bombastic ‘We’re All Desi’ (2015), and bringing electro-clash dance parties to festivals around the globe.  

“The whole ‘Where do we fit in?’ thing has been really hard for us,” says vocalist and lyricist Sanjay Seran.

“It’s a blessing and a curse. We fit everywhere, so we’re able to take a lot of gigs and we’re always booked. And, we’re grateful for that, but the curse is not fitting here, there, nor anywhere. It’s a constant battle. We’re coming up on 12 years as a band in March and the core of the band is still together and getting along.” 

The same identity crisis that makes their offerings so unique as feeds back into the band’s own internal culture.

“We’ve done a lot of self-reflection and soul-searching about the confusion of being born in Richmond,” Seran continues.

“It’s a pretty affluent suburb of Vancouver, which means I grew up pretty sheltered, yet I grew up as a Brown kid born there. I didn’t experience a lot of racism, but most of it had to do with the embarrassment of hiding my culture – from the smell of the cooking to the clothing. So, you’re walking through life, trying to figure out who you are.” 

The journey of unraveling that age-old mystery has revealed some important truths to Delhi 2 Dublin. And while their mid-career identity crisis is not entirely resolved, the turntable-and-tabla outfit has emerged from the conversation with a renewed sense of purpose.  

“We do have a lot brewing under the hood. We’re hard at work on writing a new album right now and we’re stoked. We’re scrambling like mad to get a single ready to drop in February, but otherwise, we’re working on trying to get the best songs we can,” says Seran, who welcomed violinist Serena Eades into the trio’s touring compliment.

“Lately, we’ve been honing in on the idea of ‘Sub-continental Pop.’ Delhi 2 Dublin really resonates with this. We spent a bunch of time talking about and I feel like we’re more focused than ever.

Finally, we feel like we fit into this weird world we’ve been juggling. Everything’s getting better and better. Maybe we were ahead of our time. I will reflect on that.”

Delhi 2 Dublin perform at Block Heater on February 16 (Calgary).

The Joy Formidable Interviewed by Christine Leonard-Cripps

Chorus of descent

The Joy Formidable generates its own gravitational field

The latest “it” band to emerge from the U.K. is The Joy Formidable, an emerging Welsh post-rock trio with its own Celtic cross to bear. Hailing from “the land of song,” the genre-shaking trio holds its nation’s reputation true for producing nonconformist choral arrangements, but in this case the unconventional vocal harmonies are baptized in a font of feedback and swathed in robes of electro-synth magnificence.

The girl-boy duo responsible for the band’s frenetic bipolar frequencies and lush Jesus and Mary Chain reverberations are sonic-soulmates vocalist-guitarist Ritzy Bryan and bassist Rhydian Dafydd, who originally met during their school days. Recording together in London, the burgeoning group produced an admirable effort in the 2008 single “My Beerdrunk Soul is Sadder Than a Hundred Dead Christmas Trees,” but really hit the mark a year later with the launch of the corpulent EP A Balloon Called Moaning. Granted the Radio 1 nod of approval, the airplay The Joy Formidable’s stormy grunge-pop received enjoyed a warm zephyr of acclaim that carried their austere amplitude around the U.K. and eventually across the pond.

“I think we’re an oddity in that we haven’t relied on hype,” says Dafydd, the band’s bassist. “The people who come to our shows are genuine fans, and it is honest word-of-mouth promotion that’s gotten us to this point. People are definitely catching up with our stuff as it gets released in various territories and even though it can be a bit strange visiting various places and people for the first time ever, we embrace the challenge. One of the reasons we’re so excited about our first trip to Calgary is that we’re always itching to get out further afield. I love the feeling when people sing our songs back to us, because it shows they’re emotionally invested in our music.”

Acquired by Canvasback Music via Atlantic Records, the freshly signed ensemble’s full-length debut, The Big Roar, hit American shores in January of 2011. While some bands might consider the sizable collection of eight tracks presented on A Balloon Called Moaning to be a full-fledged LP, Rhydian asserts that The Big Roar is the realigned trio’s official coming out party.

“Balloon is essentially just a snapshot EP; a real bedroom album. We’d prefer that people notice The Big Roar as our debut because it offers something more substantial and enduring,” Dafydd says. “Ultimately we were striving to create a debut that covers all emotional ground we occupy. The Big Roar’s nature is not contrived, but it is conscious of the need for peaks and troughs. Everybody enjoys ups and down, so rather than thematically stringing together 12 singles, we embraced our desire to explore our range.”

Linking up North American tour dates, the inimitable Joy Formidable, which shares its nationhood with fellow musicians Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia, Super Furry Animals and Bonnie Tyler (to name a few), has found a fan in the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl. Currently, working with the Foo Fighters’ noted producer Rich Costey for its forthcoming single “I Don’t Want to See You Like This,” Rhydian and company’s melodic melancholia came to the ears of the former Nirvana drummer as he was cruising the freeways of California.

“The tour with Foo Fighters is a very nice deal for us,” Rhydian says. “Dave’s a super guy and it has all happened naturally and organically. Apparently, he was driving when he heard one of our songs on the radio and wound up humming the tune the whole way home, trying to remember it. Later he found out who it was and tracked us down old school. Since then we’ve met up when doing a couple of the same festivals and started a neat little relationship that’s grown into this huge tour. He’s very down to earth and there’s a mutual appreciation that arises out of the belief in steering our own ships as artists. From day one, we’ve been involved in dictating anything that concerns creative choices or our band’s ethics and principles. You could say it’s all part of our gangbang mentality.”

He chuckles, and then adds, “We’ve always felt like we’ve got blinkers on. You need to block out the chatter to see the real truth in what you’re doing and people’s perception of it. It goes hand in hand with our way of thinking. Being a success is more than a matter of interpreting whatever you think the scene is needing. To be shit hot live band you’ve got to deliver something more than just a tune that’s easy to dance to. Believe me, being anti-formulaic isn’t easiest thing.”

The Joy Formidable
Republik Monday, September 5

by Christine Leonard

Published September 1, 2011  in FastForward Magazine.

The Mahones interviewed by Christine Leonard

THE MAHONES SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL

"Pogue mahone!" is a variant of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse"

Keelhauling ancient tradition and giving it forty lashes with a punk rock twist, The Mahones are a notoriously Irish band that just happens to harbour some very Canadian roots. Conceived in Kingston, Ontario one fateful Saint Patrick’s Day, the long-running outfit can proudly boast a 23-year history of music and mayhem. Running the gambit from dirty ol’ town murder ballads to hard-charging hardcore fisticuffs, The Mahones have come to embody the respectable revolutionary. With his ninth album on tap, the quintet’s lead singer/guitarist/mandolin player, Dublin-born Finny McConnell, admits he had a difficult time penning an album that could contend with their previous effort, 2010’s The Black Irish. He decided it was time to for The Mahones to raise the bar, instead of just polishing it with the sleeves of their coats.

“We started working on Angels & Devils almost as soon as we had finished recording The Black Irish,” McConnell reports. “There was no break, which is odd for us because we usually take a few years off between records. A couple times we’ve taken as long as five years in between. Of course, I was drinking a lot more back then. Now, things are coming out much faster for us. We wrote the songs for the new album around springtime, recorded in the summer and we were absolutely thrilled to be able to release it in November of 2012.”

The Mahones, Finny McConnell and his lovely wife Katie “Kaboom!” McConnell (accordion, vocals), Dom “The Bomb” Whelan (drums, vocals), Sean Winter (mandolin, banjo, vocals) and Paul “Cuzo” Mancuso (bass, vocals), each came to the table with big ideas for the dichotomous follow-up.

“You could say that Angels & Devils is a really big production. We felt it was the only way to take things further than we had already gone on The Black Irish,” he confirms. “We moved to Montreal two years ago and the best part is that the studio I work at is just across the street from our house. I get to just roll-out of bed and roll-in to work. That’s what allowed me to put so much time into the album. I worked closely with our producer to engineer and spent a lot of time in the studio adding more layers into the sound. I knew I wanted two things. One: really fucking big stadium sound. And, two: no shortcuts. Up until now, I’ve always wished we’d done more on each record we’ve put out. This time, I made sure we did things the right way and put the cherry on top.”

Applying their love of classic Celtic arrangements to their equally evocative politico-punk railings, The Mahones arrived at the crossroads of good and evil, where saints and sinners reconcile over Guinness and boxty. From the frenetic celebration of “Shakespeare Road” and the spirited “Spanish Lady” to the live off-the-floor feel of “The King of Copenhagen” and “Whiskey Train,” The Mahones throw an enthralling party. Purists can rest assured, pipes and strings a-plenty festoon the inexhaustible céilidhs that comprise the reeling hub of the album’s heady track list.

“I don’t remember the ’90s very well, the drunken heyday when we started up the band. It was all about ‘Drunken Lazy Bastard’ and ‘Paint the Town Red.’ I’m happy to say that I’m very focused on my music at this point. I’m married, I’m a father and I’ve matured a lot over the years. I’m a positive thinker and I think that, despite the fact that there’s a lot of darkness in the world, we’ve got to motivate people to reach for the stars. I always tell people that they can do anything and never to let anybody hold you back. I’ve had teachers who told me I couldn’t sing, let alone lead a band, and I’ve toured and performed all over the world. Never take ‘no’ for an answer. And, most importantly, follow your genre. I knew I was an Irish punk, so I followed that road… past the pint of no return.”

Catch the Mahones at the SAIT Gateway on January 18.

By Christine Leonard

Originally published in BeatRoute Magazine 14 January 2013

WINTER HARP

Winter Harp plucks up the spirit of the season!
 

WINTER HARP
Thursday, December 12, 2002
MacEwan Ballroom (U of C)

Combining medieval Christmas carols with their own vibrant musical compositions, Winter Harp is a Vancouver-based troupe of troubadours that performs and records music using painstakingly reconstructed traditional medieval instruments.

The heavenly reverberations of the classical Spanish and Celtic harps, plucked by multiple-award winners Lori Pappajohn and Jill Whitman, have a commanding presence. Lauri Lyster is Winter Harp’s heartbeat, providing what Pappajohn refers to as "the oldest source of music" – percussion – while Joaquin Ayala and Kenichi Ueda augment the company’s 190 strings with flute, bells and chimes. Poet and performer Alan Woodland animates each show with tales of winter that, according to Pappajohn, are carefully selected for their ability to tug at your heartstrings. They signal that the Yuletide has truly begun.

"Winter Harp gets together in the fall to plan out our next show," says Pappajohn. "We have a hard time deciding what not to include. Alan Woodland travels to England every summer and visits libraries to do research for us on Christmas and winter. He comes up with so many wonderful pieces of literature. No matter how often I hear some of them, they can still bring tears to my eyes."

Resurrecting music that in some cases has gone unheard for centuries is no easy task, but Pappajohn and her associates have discovered that having authentically crafted instruments to perform with makes that music sound even better. Her first inspiration for the customized construction of a specialty medieval replica was the bass psaltery, a haunting instrument with ancient roots.

"The bass psaltery goes back thousands of years," says Pappajohn. "The Sumerians and Babylonians used them. I have one bass psaltery that is about a foot-and-a-half tall. And I thought, ‘Wouldn’t this sound fantastic if it was five feet tall?’ So I went to the best instrument crafter in Canada, a man named Edward Turner, and he laughed at me like I was crazy. But I said, here’s the deal – I’ll pay you. So he made it for me. It’s a five-foot obelisk and the sound it produces is amazingly ethereal. I can only describe it as the sound of sunlight shimmering on the surface of water."

Her next flash of creative genius came when Turner showed her a picture of one of his other original creations, the organistrum. Far from the grating trumpet of its sister crank-handle machine the hurdy-gurdy, the organistrum’s four bowed-up strings have a more harmonious disposition. Its deep tonal voice originated in 12th century Spain and then migrated across Western Europe. Turner copied Gothic cathedral sculptures to perfect his design – there are only two such instruments in existence in the world (the other hangs in the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa).

"I was ordering my bass psaltery and Ted said, ‘By the way, I made one of these, too.’ The picture was so breathtaking that without even hearing it I said, ‘I’ll take one.’"

For Pappajohn, the realization was beginning to set in that there were dozens of "lost instruments" out there waiting to be rediscovered. Looking at the Christmas carols we all know by rote, she points out that we are reciting lyrics that were written two, three or four hundred years ago. Taking people back to that long-forgotten time has become the theme of Winter Harp’s mystical performances and recordings. Clad in Pre-Raphaelite gowns and surrounded by candles, the members of the ensemble embody the spirit of the season, and convey its message of good will through cheerfully interactive songs and stories.

"We focus on the myth and legend surrounding the darkest time of the year, when people traditionally gather," says Pappajohn. "The Celtic bonfire festivals were an opportunity for everyone to share warmth, companionship, their hopes for the return of the sun, and the coming new year. For centuries it’s been a time when people pause and examine their lives…. There is a time of darkness within all of us that anticipates the returning, the rebirth. For us, it’s a journey. Whether you believe the Christmas story or treat it as a fable, it’s a fun and magical time of year for all."

Winter Harp has recently received a grant from Bravo, which has allowed the troupe to produce its first music video, entitled "Avalon." Filmed on location in England in the pouring rain, "Avalon" will be in rotation on Bravo and is also available (along with more information about Winter Harp) on the group’s Web site, www.winterharp.com.

By Christine Leonard