08.MUSIC IN IRELAND

I believe that after Uaithnia, it seemed like I gained momentum. I had really believed that the feeling was like  water, spreading away from its pump towards every direction and ravaging everything that it passes by. I was feeling liberated and that all these thoughts that I had during these 15 years, keeping them inside, suddenly rushed out and filled the whole place. Only that these thoughts weren't just words, but they were combined to notes and music. They were the stories that wanted to get out of me. It was the journey, that I started along with Johanna, but there was no map, nor a destination. It was our common journey, which although had no common beginning and evolution, somewhere on its way would overlap.

When the album was released, Johanna told me: "What do you think? Will there be a second album too?"

I totally agreed with that, because not only did I enjoy writing music with my sister, but it also gave me a great sense of freedom. Most bands make a record and then they leave on a tour. However we didn't do that, exacly because I was still in school and furthermore I didn't feel ready to appear on stage at all. So, Johanna suggested -as long as Uaithnia had now officially become our band- we made a small tour three years later, when I would have graduated from school.

However I was given the opportunity for a live appearance sometime later, completely by chance. During that semester at school I was dealing with a project, called World History through Asterix comics. As goofy as the topic might sound, I adored it, because since I was young my favourite comic books had been Asterix and Donald Duck. The teacher who arranged the project asked us to look through all these comics (of course, everybody had them!) and each of us had to choose one culture that they liked, so we could work upon that one. However I didn't need to do this. My mum always used to say that the Gauls were of a Celtic race, that's why I took this as a foundation to my research. Thus, I decided to work on Celtic music. The best choice for me. In a nutshell, I searched a lot for Celtic music, not only from Ireland, but also from the other islands.

I had installed several albums on my phone, which I had randomly discovered. After school I used to walk to Elvenes, almost to the borders, listening to Celtic music. I slightly started to distinguish the genres between them. To start with, I could distinguish whether the music I was hearing came from Ireland, from Scotland, from Wales, from the Isle of Man, from Cornwall, from Brittany or even from Galicia. Then, I could distinguish the kinds of dances and the instruments between them. I learnt about the types of pipes, at least about those played in Ireland and Scotland, as I didn't know much about the medieval or other kinds of pipes. The traditional pipe, that is the pipe that you all know, which is a woodwind instrument and has a more metallic sound, is the Scotish bagpipe. The Irish kind of pipes are named uilleann pipes, because in Irish uilleann or uillinn means elbow.* (It is spelled Ee-leen in the dialect of the village I live in,  whereas in standard Irish it's spelled Ee-lee-ayn). As you can understand, the second kind of pipes isn't played by blowing with the mouth, but you press its bags with your elbow, so that the air comes out. That's because the Irish pipes have a mechanism that causes the air to get out, when your elbow presses it. However the sound is slightly different. Irish pipes have a mellower sound and you can use it, while playing music at home. On the contrary, if you try to play Scottish bagpipes at home the glass windows will smash and you'll be lucky if your neighbours don't call the police. I had furthermore bought an album with Welsh songs and I was trying to play it myself. I had loved that album so much that I promised myself that someday I would arrange it in my own way.

After Christmas, 2011, I phoned Vivian, who was already living in Dorset. She was so glad to hear me again and of course I forgot to mention that, although I had never been again to Ireland since 2006, I used to visit Vivian in the UK, where she was hosting me and I was playing with her daughter. I told her about the project in the telephone, the one we presented at school and how much more I had fell in love with Celtic music. Then, I couldn't hold myself back and unconsciously told her what I was thinking:

"Ohh, I wish I could also play Celtic music in Ireland"

"And why don't you do it?"

"It's so difficult", I sighed. "I live thousand miles away in the North. The only thing I could do here is either play Black Metal or sing pop and Sámi music just like my sister".

"But, no. You didn't quite understand", she insisted. "I was about to invite you at the festival in Ireland, but once you said that to me, you could also..."

"Which festival, Vivian?" I interrupted her sharply.

She laughed. "Well, let me tell you the whole story. 15 years ago, in 1997, a group of Gweedore residents, including myself, founded the Association of Friends of Celtic Tradition. As you can see, we were indeed trying to spread the interest for Celtic tradition in other countries all over the world, however this had nothing to do with nationalist ideologies nor did we try to enforce our own traditions to other counties. We just knew that there are also other people out there, just like you, that love Celtic stuff and we wanted to give them the chance to get to know us and our culture better. And personally, I find this to be much more important, as people might have only watched Braveheart and then claim that they have learnt anything about the Celts.

"What I want to come to is, that in 1997, when our association was founded, we started organising several events, like bazaars, meetings and small concerts. However we never managed to play on a big festival. Our greatest aim was to gather musicians from all over the world, who love Celtic music, in this little village and organise a big Celtic music festival. And 15 years later, we did it!"

"Did you arrange the festival?"

"No, darling* (*Vivian had this habit of calling all the girls darling - probably because she was living in England. Anyway it was fun and later in Yorkshire I was doing that too). This is what I'm trying to tell you. We are now scheduling the show and it will take place in May. We are still gathering people who will take part. You can also come, Ingrid, and play the harp".

The smile on my face instantly faded away.

"Me?", I said. "But I'm too young for that and moreover I have school lessons".

"But this isn't an issue! Come during Easter holidays for the rehearsal and... is it going to be a big problem for you if you skip school for a week?".

I sighed. "Yeah, but everybody is going to be at least ten years older than me"

"Oh, stop fussing around with such stupid thoughts. Go and buy your flight tickets and you'll stay at my parents' house".

"Vivian, may I bring along my friend Lulu, too?"

"Of course!"

I knew that Lulu would be really glad about that.

                         *************************

In January 2012, when we presented our projects at school, our Literature teacher (who was the one who arranged this project after all), said to me:

"Ingrid, your passion for the Celts is immense. Probably later you should move to Ireland and stay there forever".

I laughed and unconsciously told her about Vivian and the music festival in Gweedore.

"Then you will be away from school for some time", she told me.

"I might probably skip one week after Easter holidays, but I believe this journey is worthwhile", I answered in my attempt to defend myself, as I expected a lecture from my teacher, for instead of being at school, I would fool around in Ireland, playing Celtic music and long-drinking whiskey and beer.

The truth is that I had never ever thought of my future as a professional musician. On the contrary, as I have been mentioning again and again, I would study Geology, probably in Tromsø University. But my teacher's words made me think through again whether I really wanted to work as an earthquake scientist in the future. Yes, this is something I would study for sure, and there isn't any single objection to that, because I have always been a science freak, and I have always believed that no matter if your dream job is to become a musician or an artist, in general, you should anyway go and study some kind of science, in order to keep your eyes open about what is going on in this world and in general to acquire a methodic education. However, concerning my own future job, would this be something that I had always dreamt of? I never dared to talk to anyone about my thoughts, because I was afraid of their reactions, even though both my own siblings were professional musicians and my parents were actors.

I talked to Vivian and she sent to me by e-mail the festival's programme. "Look, your name is there, too".

"Should I play specific songs?"

"No", she said. "Play anything you want and you could also sing".

The following days I was trying to think of which songs I would play at the festival. I ended up in seven: A song with harp from Wales, which in fact consists of two airs and its name is Melangell/Megis Sybylltir. Stolen Child by Loreena McKennitt. Sí Do Mhaimheo Í, which was an Irish jig. Érin Grá Mo Chroí by Dervish. Éirigh is Cuir Ort Do Chuid Eadaigh by Clannad. The Monaghan Jig which was mingled with Dunmore Lasses. And finally May it Be by Enya, which although it isn't a directly traditional song and is featured only in Lord of the Rings film, I wanted to honour Enya, because my first ever live appearance would take place in the village, where she comes from.

So, I informed Vivian about the songs and she replied to me that they were splendid. "Well, the festival is on the 17th of April and I think that this is going to be the time when schools will start again".

"Well, alright", I answered. "It doesn't matter to me. Lulu and I will come, as soon as we break for Easter, that is on the 30th of March".

I knew how I would be prepared for that. I was constantly practising the songs on my harp. Fortunately I would be given a harp for the festival. And a few days before we set off, I dyed my hair a completely orange colour, just like the fur of a fox. I did some bangs too and my haircut really looked like the one that Grace Slick had in the '70s. Sometimes I would dress myself like a hippie and I would absolutely fit in the style of that era. It might have been my teenage reaction, but I always loved red shades on my hair, and what is more I later had purple hair for 5 long years. I always wanted to be special, without wanting to make a show-off, of course. I just didn't want to be another copycat of those Scandinavian girls walking down the street.

With my foxy hair and Lulu, who was actually accompanying me, as she was the only adult, we set off to my beloved Gweedore. Monica didn't come along, as she didn't want to.

We reached Letterkenny Airport and Vivian was expecting us there. When she saw me, she was overexcited and touching my hair, she said: "Ingrid, orange hair? That seems cool!"

"I know!" I replied in the same enthusiastic way. I also touched her own hair. "Your own hair seems kind of weird. When I last saw you, you had sort of reddish hair. Now your roots seemed to be white, and some hairs are white and some grey. What the hell have you done?

Vivian cracked up: "Well, as soon as I noticed I was turning white, I started doing grey highlights".

I remained motionless looking at her for about a minute with wide open eyes, because I didn't know whether she was telling the truth or she was pulling my leg. When she saw my reaction, she started laughing and tousling my hair, she said: "Come on, naive kid!" Ok, that was a typical behaviour of Vivian's! Nine out of ten times she speaks, she's joking around with you."Then, this is how we will appear at the Celtic festival. And I would like to you my friend, Lulu, who's playing the drums".

"Oh, such a smallie".

"She's not a smallie, at all", I said laughing. "She's indeed three years older than me! It's only that she's tiny".

"Who's tiny?", Lulu burst out, pretending she was angry and then started laughing heartily. The truth was that Lulu always seemed to be too young, in contrast to her real age and was too tiny and small, whereas I was almost 1.90.

"Well, come on", Vivian said. "Ingrid, do you remember Gweedore?"

"Clearly. It seems like yesterday".

Indeed, Gweedore was a village, where vast meadows and big trees were spreaded in, as you can see in the picture. People had their own granges and farms with animals and they used to grow fruits and vegetables. Vivian's house was one of those huge blue buildings that you could find every now and then and you would gaze at them amazed. At Vivian's house I met her mother too, whose name was Christy, just like my grandmother (only that Granny's name was spelled Kristi). As soon as we left our luggage at home and had a small snack, Vivian suggested we go and meet the others in the tavern.

"What kind of tavern is this?", I asked in the car.

"It's our own tavern", she replied to me. "The owner is the father of our friend, Adelin, and many gigs are held there too. This is where our rehearsals are going to take place, and of course the festival as well".

The tavern's owner was a cute white-haired old man and there was his wife there, too. I really loved both of them, because they were telling stories and they reminded me of my own parents. I met Vivian's so-called company, which consisted of...Celts! And by that I mean that they were red-haired guys, who were singing, drinking whiskey and they were telling stories. I was in the most beautiful place in the whole world.

What seemed weird was that all this time that we were in this tavern, the music played by the stereo wasn't Celtic at all, but old-school rock music, just like Grateful Dead, Camel and Cream. Vivian moved on in introducing me to the company:

"This is Ingrid, who lives in Norway, but her origins are from several places. She is an excellent musician, learns Irish by herself and loves storytelling".

As soon as they heard the latter, they all turned towards me screaming: "Come on, tell us stories! Tell us stories!". When I finally agreed, I told them the story of Tariner and then the story of the Dead Tiger. They were listening to me devotingly, like I was holding a speech on the Parliament. Then, the applaud was immense.

"Tell us a real one now", they were saying.

I didn't know which story I should tell them next and nothing would either come to my mind. However, I put my thinking cap on and I decided to tell them how my sister and I put Uaithnia into life. I told them everything to the slightest detail. I started talking to them about the 9-month abscence of my parents and I ended up saying that the project was created, mainly because Johanna was going through this terrible writer's block. This time the applaud was even louder and sounded like a huge roar through the whole tavern, something that made me feel really confused and rub my fingers.

Then, Vivian stood up and said: "I met Ingrid in 2006, when she was such a small ten-year-old kid. Now she's only 16 and can play three or four instruments. Well, let's drink to her health!". And we all drank empty our glasses.

Rehearsals would take place in the same tavern and, as Vivian promised, I would be given a harp. However, when I beheld the instrument for the first time, the smile on my face instantly faded away. That was a small harp, not the classical harp that I had been used to playing. I didn't have any issue with the harp's size, it was only the fact that I had never ever played in anything similar and two weeks before the concert, I was really nervous about how I would make it. Vivian reassured me that everything would be fine: "It's a Celtic harp, so don't feel scared. The difference between a Celtic and a classical harp seems as if you compare a grand piano with a synthesizer. Therefore it's the same instrument".

I was only like: "Hmmm", because I had my own doubts about the latter. A piano and a synthesizer were definitely NOT the same instrument! I started playing and singing the songs that I had chosen. In the beginning, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable, because I had never been used to singing before others, at least not in this formal way, and moreover most songs were sung in the Irish language. Imagine you are with Irish people, who know all these songs from their mother and you, as foreigners, try to reproduce them. It reminds me of the band Pyramidos, which consists of Japanese musicians, who try to play Greek urban music (called Rebetiko in Greek). It was the most uncomfortable moment of my whole life, because fifteen people, including middle-aged ones as well, were watching a 16-year-old kid attempting to perform for the first time their own music.

However, as it seemed, everything went perfect. Vivian was left with an open jaw. "Ah, I didn't even expect that", she said. Then, they started playing their music too. There was every kind of traditional instrument: flutes, fiddles, pipes. The show was incredible for me, because, even though I had studied Celtic music, when we did Asterix, I had never ever seen musicians playing Celtic songs before me. The sound was grandiose, it could be heard from side to side and one could distinguish the melody of each instrument separately. Furthermore, the way that Vivian would play was so extraordinary. I won't comment on the fact that she can play any guitar-shaped string instrument in the world, apart from saz. That's why, if you think that she's the girl who plays the guitar in our band, I can reassure you that you're totally mistaken. However, the way she would play was so different than any other musician in the room. Vivian's style of playing was obviously inspired by progressive rock music, especially Pink Floyd. She would always make me feel that I listen to a Pink Floyd sound, even when she was playing the Irish bouzouki. Sometimes I tell her and she replies to me that she's more inspired by Planxty, whenever playing Celtic music, but this identification will never leave off my mind.

A reason why I consider Vivian to be my "third sister", is exactly because she would step on my deepest desires and dreams and also my oldest reminiscences. Pink Floyd has always been my favourite band, since I was 5 years old. I was so inspired by them that even a book that I wrote bears its name out of an album of theirs. And Vivian would step on that fact and we would sit listening (or even covering) Pink Floyd. She taught me to put so many things into existence, she taught me to live my own life and not others' lives, she would buy me books and help me educate myself, for this was one of my greatest desires, she made me overcome my fears and believe in myself and stop being such a shrinking violet. And most of all, she introduced me to the love of my life, even though this might sound too corny. Therefore, it's completely natural for me to acquire such feelings for Vivian.

Vivian wanted me to play another song too. "It's from Wales", she said. "Could you sing it? I'm playing the bouzouki and another guy is playing the banjo. If you like, I can help you with the language". The song's name was Y Ddau Farch, the singer was Julie Murphy and was also included in the album with the Welsh songs that I owned, so I already knew it. It was really hard, concerning the language, but everyone helped. And of course, nobody should be excluded, so we invited also Lulu, who played the bodhrán!

The festival in the 17th of April started with a lot of hijinks. I was getting myself ready in the bathroom, trying a dress with butterflies and flowers. I was thinking of tying my hair in two long braids, but it would be better if I didn't overdo it. I walked out of the bathroom, only to find all the musicians having gathered around a table, while Vivian was sitting in the middle, wearing a dark kerchief around her head, like some astrologers and she was reading the cards, foretelling the future. The whole moment was extremely hillarious and I was laughing so heartily that I was afraid that my make-up would be ruined.

"What the cards tell me", she said in a pompous way "is that this show is going to be remembered".

We eventually got on stage and the first song I ever sang was Y Ddau Farch. And of course, there is a video on YouTube, because you know what happens whenever you make a show. Unfortunately the only thing that everybody does is shoot videos and photos, instead of directly watching the show and not their own screen, and thus they miss the magic of the actual appearance. On the other hand, it was really nice that someone was there to film this moment, when I would perform live for the first time in my whole life. The festival was even more beautiful that I had imagined it to be. There was a lot of food, books, workshops and the music performed was from all the British Isles. Furthermore, between the songs a girl would make her appearance in order to tell stories. However, in later years, she moved to the States and, as you all know, I was the one to replace her by getting this storytelling task.

The festival thriumphed. Lulu played bodhrán for the first time ever and I can tell she had a really good time. We eventually stayed up late eating and drinking and the party was probably so splendid that the only thing I remember of myself is that I woke up the following morning in a bed at Vivian's place with a terrible hungover.