Cinder Well burning bright ahead of Velocity gig
Folk group Cinder Well make their way to Velocity Café on Saturday night as part of a tour that celebrates the release of new album The Unconscious Echo. Ahead of the show, Kyle Walker grabbed Amelia Baker – the US folk-punk artist at the heart of the group – to talk about the project, the first trip to Scotland – and the time they played a gig in an old mausoleum...
Hi Amelia, hope you’re grand! Are you looking forward to making it up to the Highlands for a show here? Have you ever been this far north in Scotland before (it’s prime folk music territory up here after all!)?
"Hi Kyle! Actually, there are four of us playing in Cinder Well on this tour, and only one of us has ever been to Scotland. So we’re actually really looking forward to it, and hoping that we get to hear and play in some sessions, and see some of the epic landscapes."
So, talk me through Cinder Well – how did this solo project come together for you? What were you looking to explore musically after previous work with Blackbird Raum and the Gembrokers?
“Cinder Well is a place for me to expand on my songwriting, in a pretty much constant collaboration with other musicians and friends.
"I started the project by playing mostly solo, but quickly found that I definitely prefer to be playing and performing with others. Our new album features Marit Schmidt on viola, Mae Kessler on violin, Pete Olynciw on bass, and Magnus Nymo on drums and vocals. I wrote the songs, but then we spent a week collaboratively arranging parts leading up to the recording.
"Everyone in the current incarnation of the band is into different kinds of music - noise, punk, in addition to Irish, Turkish, Norwegian, Klezmer, and other types of traditional music! We’re always bringing different types of tunes to each other and feeding off of those influences."
What/who inspires your music? How did you get involved with writing and performing? And how would you describe your approach to music?
“These days I am inspired by a lot of the amazing folk acts coming out of Ireland – Lankum, Ana Mieke, Landless, Ye Vagabonds, Stick in the Wheel – to name a few. I’m really interested in how people reshape traditional songs and tunes in a modern context.
“I grew up with my family listening to a lot the legends like Joni Mitchell, Neill Young, Bob Dylan, and you really can’t deny how great their song writing is. I started writing songs on a guitar when I was in high school and have been slowly churning them out ever since!
“Everyone in the band has been touring in DIY and punk scenes for years, so a lot of our performance experience has come from playing in those settings.”
You released new album – The Unconscious Echo – last Friday, big congratulations! How did this album come together for you from a songwriting perspective? How did the recording go? And how are you feeling about it now it’s out?
“Thanks very much! We’re really excited about it finally being out – we recorded exactly a year ago in a old church called the Unknown Studios in Anacortes, Washington.
“Recording was extremely fun – we quickly became buddies with the engineer, Nich Wilbur, and spent the days recording and the evenings checking out the pubs and beaches and lakes on the island, and singing karaoke in the studio.
“We’re really happy with how it came out, and from a songwriting perspective, I couldn’t be happier with how the rest of the band made the music come to life.”
Coming over the Atlantic to tour Europe, I’d be curious to find out how audiences respond in different countries to Cinder Well? How have audiences responded to your music?
“Magnus and I did a few weeks of Cinder Well shows in Western Europe in 2016. We played mostly in punk spaces and radical social centers, and even though our music is super folky, there was a great response.
“We are looking forward to having a great mix of venues on this tour and performing as a full band. We’ll let you know how it goes!”
Over the years and across all of your projects, what has been the best gig you’ve played so far? The worst? The weirdest?
“Hmm...that is a great question that gets a whole lot of memories stirred up! One amazing gig was in Oslo, Norway in 2017, in the Emmanuel Vigeland Masoleum. The space was designed by Vigeland himself to be filled with his art, but eventually decided that it would also be his tomb.
“There are marble floors and a domed ceiling, and the walls are covered with his paintings. There is an extreme echo throughout the entire room – like if you sing one note, you hear it sustaining for about five or 10 seconds. You can almost harmonize with your own voice! It felt like I was playing underwater.
“To be honest, we have been pretty lucky with Cinder Well gigs, they’ve all been pretty tame. With Blackbird Raum, we’ve played gigs in Poland where we don’t go on until three in the morning, followed by trying to sleep through a seven-hour Abba dance party before we’re supposed to cross the border into Ukraine the next morning. That’s when it gets weird.”
What can Velocity expect from Cinder Well when they arrive next Saturday?
“A very friendly traveling crew in which everyone has brought their own fiddle or concertina, and songs in minor keys.”
Now that you have The Unconscious Echo out into the world, what plans have you got for the rest of 2018 and beyond?
“I’m currently living in Ennis, Ireland while I complete a Masters in Irish Traditional Music Performance at the University of Limerick. After tour I’ll get cracking on my final performance for September. After that, I’d like to tour in the states, and start working on the next album!
“Everyone in the band has a lot going on, from being a therapist to learning Norwegian hardanger fiddle, to apprenticing In instrument restoration, but here’s to hoping we can do all of it together.”
Cinder Well play Velocity Café on Saturday night. Support from Brian Ó hEadhra and Fiona Mackenzie. Doors 7pm, tickets cost £5 – go to www.velocitylove.co.uk
