The Imagined County?

Q: As people on this board know I thought that Benjamin Zephaniah's Tam Lyn (retold) was the most powerful piece of music I heard last year. Thanks.

A: And thank you.

Q: Are there any plans afoot for a follow up?

A: Yes indeed, we spent 3 days at the end of May sourcing material for the next album whilst rehearsing at Real World for the Wychwood Gig. I also spent a couple of days in April at Chris Woods place in Faversham doing some writing but we ended up spending most of the time bird watching and walking his dog. The spring migration was in full swing so we had a great couple of days watching Nightingales, Short Eared Owls, Lesser and Common Whitethroats, Garden Warblers, Bearded Reedlings, Sedge and Reed Warblers plus a good selection of waders. Unfortunately we dipped (bird watching speak for ‘missed’) on the Male Garganey.

Q: How far would you go to integrate music styles?

A: Probably not much further than my own musical back yard, maybe down to the end of the road but no further. There’s no point ‘integrating musical styles’ unless you have a musical and emotional bond with an aspect of what your doing and you feel rooted and connected. I hate tokenistic musical tourism: “I know lets get a traditional Chinese guqin player together with a Salsa percussionist and a South African Township choir then get it all re-mixed by a really famous New York DJ then claim we saving the world, just think how amazing the photo session would look”. This isn’t music for the Global village its music that globalizes the villages and advertising executives love it. There is nothing wrong with musicians stepping out of their immediate culture and roots but it has to be done with integrity and respect. And yes I know this is what some critics accused the Afro Celts of doing in the early days but at the end of the day we had some of the best traditional players in the band from the African and Irish music diaspora who found an amazing empathy and common language playing together within the band. I wasn’t African or Celtic but added my own roots music -the electronica- and this helped provide the common ground for the collaborations to happen.