Interview

Interviewer; "Was there much music in your home when you were young?"

 M.D.   "eh, not really, although, my father was an artist he was also a  very musical person, and introduced me to a lot of recordings of all types of music, from classical (Bach for example), to old recordings of the Corries, the Chieftans, and also a lot of Jazz, so that gave me a very good, all round education if you like. So all these early influences reflected my musical taste. Obviously my main thing is doing traditional music, so that was my first taste of traditional music. Also my father did sing and play guitar sometimes. He also bought a recorder consort for 3 recorders for my mother myself and him, we planned to be the 'Duff Consort'! But aye, funnily enough the tables turned as I ended up influencing my parents to get more into music themselves, that was through me playing with Capercaillie for a few years, and they enjoyed the music so much they wanted to get involved with it. So my mother had played Viola when she was at school, she had got to quite a good standard, so she took up the fiddle, and even does a few gigs now herself. So that's been great that I've encouraged them, as well as them encouraging me."

Interviewer; "I remember being in your family's house in Glen Lonan during the 80's and 90's, there was no television, and it always struck me how much people interacted with each other in that house. In your family's homes before that, was there always no TV?, or was it just the nature of Glen Lonan?

M.D.     "It was just that you literally could not get a TV signal in Glen Lonan, so yes we did have T.V. When we had lived in Glasgow. But I see you're coming from the point of view that we might have had more informal ceilidh's in the house rather than sitting round the T.V. which did happen, more so than if we'd had a T.V. "

Interviewer; "Why do you think you first took up the whistle?"

        M.D.; "Well the whistle came relatively late, the first instrument I played was actually a recorder, as a lot of us did in those days at school, and the whistle was a natural progression from playing the recorder. My main instrument up until the age of 15 was actually the trumpet, which I'd got into from listening to jazz recordings when I was younger, Bix Biederbecke, Clark Terry, Maynard Ferguson etc. and really enjoyed playing the old style jazz;  Anyway, I got into whistle from playing the recorder.

Interviewer "What were your earliest musical influences in terms of folk bands"?

        M.D. "Well as I said, probably the first was the Chieftans, I enjoyed their arrangements of traditional tunes, following that I would say in my teens, the Bothy band, Tannahill weavers, Boys of the Lough actually were a big influence to me, as I used to go to their concerts when I went up to Skye on holiday, going back to your question 'why did I get into the whistle' - Cathal McConnel was a huge influence on me after hearing him play at Boys of the Lough concerts, him and I used to have a tune together after these concerts, we'd have a jam session with the whole band, which was really exciting, the equivalent of getting to play with the Rolling Stones if you're a rock fan or something!. So yea, I'd say in terms of Scottish Music the early recordings of Battlefield Band but particularly 'Home is where the van is' is a very good album, oh and Planxty, ultimately I'd say Planxty were probably my favourite band, and still is, just very clever arrangements, particularly the album 'After the Break' - a fantastic album.

Interviewer; "What musical direction did you take as you went through High School and did High School itself have any bearing on it"?

        M.D. "High School did actually, the good thing about Oban High School, well for a start they had quite an active music dept, there were all sorts of musical genres covered, the normal ones you'd find in most  high schools like a wind band and a school orchestra, I played trumpet in both of these. Jazz was a big thing for me, in the wind band we played quite a few jazz big band type arrangements, that certainly helped continue my interest in Jazz. In terms of traditional music, Donald Shaw was also in the wind band, and he also played accordion so we played informally sometimes - there was a group called the 'Cambridge Buskers' so we had a sort of similar idea to them! Donald vamped chords & I played the recorder, we actually did one gig - Tayvallich Inn about 1983. In terms of traditional music - there was the Reel & Strathspey group, but there wasn't a formal traditional music group - there may well be now. Certainly what I'm doing here now in Falkirk running this traditional music group is certainly something I would have appreciated back then"

Interviewer; " I remember some of the kids got chanter lessons"

        M.D. "How could I forget - I did as well, I was about 14 - 15 by that point I'd got reasonably proficient on the recorder, and that seemed to interfere with learning the chanter, I really regret not continuing, I'd love to be able to play the pipes. "

Interviewer; "How did you find the Guildhall experience, and was it beneficial or even detrimental to your traditional playing style"?

        M.D. "The Guildhall was only part of the whole musical education I had moving to London, in the Guildhall I was primarily studying Early Music with the recorder as first instrument. It was certainly an eye opener for a young guy from the sticks to suddenly arrive in this college, slightly daunting actually. Certainly the tuition I had and the techniques I learnt to play Baroque music helped my traditional playing a lot, but as I say the Guildhall was only a small part of my musical education - going to a lot of the Irish sessions particularly around the Camden area of London taught me just as much in terms of traditional music as anything, I was influenced a lot by that, and got good experience playing in these sessions.  The other thing in Guildhall I ended up doing one year on the Jazz course, on the recorder (which sounds bizarre) but it actually worked quite well."

Interviewer; "What about that perennial chestnut you sometimes hear; was the classical approach detrimental to your traditional playing style in any way"? 

M.D. "No. but I think it varies from instrument to instrument as well, I'm not talking about any specific person here, but sometimes some singers for example, who have been classically trained - their vibrato style in particular can be detrimental to singing traditional music. Overall it was beneficial, the style of some Baroque music can work quite well in tandem with playing traditional music. The musicians in Scotland in the 18^th Century, Neil Gow's time and earlier, particularly in Edinburgh, in order to make a living, played both Baroque music and traditional music for dancing to. For example Neil Gow's cello player would have been a Baroque player as well as playing with Neil Gow. Consequently because these musicians were playing both traditional and Baroque music some of them either composed music which combined the two, or composers were influenced to write music which was a fusion of the two styles, it produced some very good music, I'm intending to record some of that on my new album."

Interviewer; "So there's always been that duality of styles amongst some players"?

M.D.        "Yes, there still is, I mean take players like [fiddle player] Pete Clark for example, he's a very fine classical player as well as being a good traditional player

Interviewer; "How did you get started with Capercaillie"?

        M.D. "You phoned me!" (laughs) yea, yourself phoned me and Donald Shaw, that's right, we met up in a session at the Mishnish pub at the Mull Music Festival in 1983? I always remember I had my English Higher at 9 a.m. the next morning and I failed it! Which I put down to my first experience of a late night and playing into the early hours, but it was all worth it in the end."

Interviewer; "What was the best aspect of playing with that band"?

        M.D. " I think there were lots of positive things about playing with Capercaillie, the chance to play with other good musicians, and going back to the thing that playing with other good players is an education in itself, and just I'm so lucky to make a living from traditional music, and tour the World and see places that I probably never would have done otherwise."

Interviewer; "Do you see much difference in the traditional music scene in Scotland now, as against how things were when you started with Capercaillie"?

        M.D. "Yes I do, and one of the main factors in that is the introduction (around about six years ago) of traditional music courses in some of the colleges, particularly the Royal Academy in Glasgow, which is a good thing, although I feel there are so many musicians who have trained to a very good standard looking for work, and in some respects there's not enough to go around really, and I think you have to be really dedicated these days (not that we weren't) but the overall standard in traditional playing has improved, and the colleges are one of the main reasons. I would also say festivals like Celtic Connections have really raised the profile of traditional music amongst the general public, which is another big change from back in the eighties when Capercaillie started out.

Interviewer; "A great fiddle player we both know - Simon Bradley - said to me once that he felt that traditional music should be taught in the old ways, but to my mind, you had a formal piping college in Skye, hundreds of years ago, prior to (lets say) political events, there was formal tuition of traditional music within old Celtic society"

        M.D. "That's true, I take his point though. Going back to the issue of changes in traditional music in the last 20 years, looking at bands such as the Bothy Band, Moving Hearts were a band who made big changes in terms of introducing traditional music in a rock format. Capercaillie itself, lots of different ideas fusing with traditional music, all these bands would not have come about if all these players had been brought up without any other influences other than traditional music. Speaking for my own musical education, I think it's benefited me having jazz and classical influences on my music anyway. I think traditional music has to evolve, I mean by the very nature of traditional music it's a constantly evolving thing, and if it fuses with other styles then so be it. As I said earlier on, back in the 18th century these musicians in order to make a living were playing different styles of music which naturally brought about a fusion of the Baroque and the traditional. I've got absoloutely nothing against purely traditional music, it can all evolve in tandem, if that makes any sense!

Interviewer; "Do you think there is sufficient career security for young traditional players coming up now"?

        M.D. "Well, one good thing about a course like the Royal Academy's, is that part of the course involves the business side of being a professional musician, and I think it's extremely important to get that aspect. You have to be savvy about the way the whole music industry works, and along with that you have to be really determined in order to make a living from it. Younger bands like 'Back of the moon' for example do well, but they have to work extremely hard, and they do, and that is why they are successful. I think in order to have some level of career security in traditional music you have to try and cover as many aspects of it that you can, combine performing with recording & teaching etc, just try to find as many different avenues as possible. 

Interviewer; "Do you think the future is looking good for traditional music in Scotland"?

        M.D. "Yeah, I would say so, although I said earlier there are more young players now than there were 20 years ago, the overall standard of playing is excellent for the most part. Take Celtic Connections again, that has grown immensely in the last ten years, which is a good thing because festivals like that have formed a better opportunity for the larger number of players out there. It all brings a better awareness of traditional music in Scotland, not just the music, but it's part of the whole culture of Scotland, I think it's very important that Scots in general feel a stronger identity with their culture than they might have done in the past."

Interviewer; "A stronger 'cultural intelligence' to borrow a Wynton Marsalis phrase."

        M.D. "yeah."

Interviewer; "What musical activities are you currently working on?

        M.D. "Well, I am traditional musician-in-residence for Falkirk, and I've been asked to collect traditional songs and tunes from the area, and collate those into a publication and a recording of the music, which will primarily be used as an educational resource for the schools in the area, but I'm also hoping it will be available to the public as well. Going back to identity, I think Falkirk has lost a lot of it's traditional identity particularly with music, which I think probably stems from the start of the industrial revolution. Before that there was a lot more traditional music alive in this area. So I hope this is going to contribute to bringing some of the area's identity back. I am also going to be demo-ing some tracks from my new album in the next few months. That's going to be a mostly traditional album, although I will be recording other types of music for example I will be recording some of these 18th century pieces which fused traditional and Baroque music. Now that I've got a rough track list for the album I'm getting quite excited about it. Other things ongoing are; Playing with Dr Fred Freeman's Robert Burns collective, although we have been doing some Robert Tannahill songs as well. Fred has just recorded the first of five Robert Tannahill albums, there are lots of wee projects, I'll be doing a concert with Iain Morrison, a young piper from Back in Lewis who is now resident in Greenock. On the 29th Oct in (used to be 3rd eye centre) it's now called CCA? on Sauchihall street, I'll be accompanying him on various songs etc. Also I'm dep'ing with Deaf Shepard for a tour in October and some concerts with them at the Edinburgh Festival. The other main thing I do is teach traditional music in Falkirk here, along with Angus Lyon we run a traditional music group, there's some very good young players, bagpipes banjo, accordion. I also teach at a similar project down at inverclyde."

Interviewer; "What would be your tips/advice to whistle players new to the studio and/or playing live"?

        M.D. "One of the first extremely important things about the whistle is the intonation, not only making sure the whistle is in tune with itself, because of the high pitch, it's very noticeable if the pitch is at all 'out' with the other instruments who you are playing with. In terms of recording situations; I would experiment with the way you mic the whistle, remember the sound doesn't come out the bottom of the instrument (like a saxophone) the sound from a whistle comes out the 'windway' and that's where it should be mic'd. With low whistles, it's sometimes a good idea not to mic directly into the windway, but just slightly off it, so that you don't pick up too much 'breathiness' from the instrument, that's not because of breath going on to the microphone, it's just because some low whistles are quite 'breathy' in their sound. Anyway, it's worth experimenting with microphones in order to get a good sound."

Interviewer; " How do you incorporate bodhran and bouzouki into what you do"?

        M.D. "I started playing the bodhran by accident, I bought a second hand one in London for my father  years ago, by the time I gave it to him for Christmas, I'd become hooked on it, and bought my own, I've bought numerous ones since. Hearing what Donal Lunny was doing on the Bouzouki in the Bothy band was very inspiring, one reason I took up bouzouki was because I wanted a 'chordal' instrument to be able to do arrangements, although I did piano as a second study at college, I could work out arrangements and keys, I wouldn't class myself as a piano player, but I used to work out chords on the bouzouki and then transfer them to the keyboard and vice versa, so that's been very helpful. Also bouzouki can be more percussive, than for example guitar, particularly for driving instrumental music, and I just really like the sound of it.

Interviewer, "I think when a lot of people hear your whistle playing, most of the audience is not aware that you have (in my view) a very good 'chords' brain, so you saw the bouzouki as much as a vehicle of expression for chords then"

        M.D. "Absoloutely, going back to security for younger players, I think it's very important to be diverse, that doesn't mean you have to be a multi-instrumentalist, you can also be diverse stylistically, or different jobs within the traditional music industry, I don't like using the word industry, but in effect that's what it is, you have to approach it like that - in a professional way. The whistle didn't used to be looked upon as such a major instrument - like fiddle & pipes for example, but I'd like to think I've helped change that - through the work with Capercaillie and everything since.

Interviewer; "Tell us a bit about the wind synthesizer and how you make use of it?"

        M.D. "I saw the predecessor of to-days wind synthesizers on 'To-Morrows World' when I was about ten years old, it was called a 'Lyricon', in those days it was used  by a very good sax player from the States called Tom Scott, it was also used in a variety of recording situations where people who heard it probably assumed it was a keyboard synthesizer, for example the theme to 'Starsky and Hutch'! is a very good example, another one being 'Einstein a-go-go'! I can't remember the name of the band. Then I kind of forgot about it for years, and then I think yourself gave me a copy of the 'Steps Ahead' album 'Magnetic', where Michael Brecker, an amazing sax player, used the prototype of Akai's EWI to great effect on that album, that was what inspired me to go out and buy one. Although they didn't actually arrive in the shops until two years after I'd heard that album.  I also saw the wind synth as another vehicle into more jazz situations, in a broad sense of improvisation, I guess in some ways I regret giving up the trumpet, so the wind synth is a route back into having fun in that idiom. 

3:8:06

N.B. This interview and all photos are non-copyright, and permission is 

here given for subsequent reproduction, commercial or otherwise.