Celtophilia

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Steve, Pam, and Gillian of Haggis Rampant have been kind enough to take time from their busy schedules and join us for an interview. You can get lots more information about the band at their website, www.haggisrampant.com but for those new to Haggis Rampant, they are a husband, wife, and daughter trio. Steve and Gillian (dad and daughter) play bagpipes and Pam (mom) plays a variety of drums. We hope you enjoy their witty responses to our ridiculous questions half as much as we did. Because really, that will be a lot of enjoyment and quite enough for the likes of you. Without further delay, here’s Haggis Rampant.
Celtophilia: I know it’s shocking, but some people actually don’t like the sound of bagpipes. Which of your songs do you think would be most likely to change their minds?
Steve says: Something they already know, like Amazing Grace. If they are open-minded at all, something like Steam Train would probably do the trick.
Gillian says: I would think Amazing Grace. People generally like that song, so hearing it on the bagpipes might make someone realize that the bagpipes can be beautiful.
Pam says: I like to tell people to not feel bad if they don’t like bagpipes — they’re a very loud, distinctive and musically-limited instrument. But I would also encourage anyone to not judge pipes based on one occasion: Maybe the pipes they heard (and didn’t like) were out of tune. Or maybe they heard only one type of piping tune — a piodbreachd, for example, the classical music for bagpipes, is not pleasant style for a lot of people. Give pipes another try or two. Amazing Grace might work, but I would go with something happy, a jig or a reel. Probably the Clumsy Lover set. Annie’s Excellent Sannies, the second in the set, is one of my favorite tunes.

Celtophilia: How old was Gillian when she started composing harmonies for the group?
Steve & Gillian say: 12
Pam says: What? I couldn’t hear you…there’s all of this droning in my ears….

Celtophilia: What are the best and worst aspects of playing in a band that consists of your immediate family?
Steve says: Best: it makes rehearsal easy. “Hey guys, let’s play a bit before we all go to bed” Worst: it makes rehearsal hard. “I can’t right now, I have to wash the dishes/cut the grass/floss my teeth”
Gillian says: Well, the best thing is that there aren’t schedule or transportation conflicts, and the fact that we’re used to each other so the band can’t break up because of some random falling out. The worst aspect, well I know that for me it’s that I live with my teacher, so I can’t get away with not practicing.of course, that’s just my inner lazy teenager talking.
Pam says: The best thing is that it’s something we’re doing together as a family, which keeps us close. Anyone with teenagers can tell you how important that is. And it puts me, Steve and Gillian on equal footing — we’re all professionals in Haggis Rampant, not parent/child or any of the other family combinations. We learn to really respect each other as musicians, and deal with each other on that level. Of course, when the gig is over, I go back to washing Steve’s clothes and reminding Gillian to clean her room. The worst thing for me is the competitiveness. Steve and Gillian have a lot of father/daughter butting-heads going on, and as pipers they are very close in skill level. Sometimes it’s not pretty. I have to try hard to not step in and smooth things over — they just have to work it out themselves usually.

Celtophilia: Have any of the three of you ever suffered any piping or drumming related injuries?
Steve says: Only when Pam hits us with a mallet….
Gillian says: In my early years of piping, the blowstick would come out of my mouth forcefully and unexpectedly, which really hurts. But that’s pretty much it for me.
Pam says: Nothing big. I get blisters on my finger from my tipper — usually at the beginning of a long performance run like the Renaissance festival. And then there’s the loss of hearing from hanging with pipers…

Celtophilia: Y’all are based in Louisiana, which has an incredibly rich musical tradition of its own. Do you feel that has influenced your piping style at all?
Steve says: Not really. We live in an area that is almost void of piping except for what we and a few other scattered groups do, so we’ve had to attend schools and listen to CDs and Renfaire bands like The Rogues and Tartanic, and in some ways Clandestine to understand Celtic music. But we don’t play jazz or blues - to me it somehow just doesn’t fit the pipes. I find I’m almost too traditional when it comes to pipe music. Fortunately, Gillian and Pam make me stretch a bit.
Gillian says: Not that much. It’s hard for a culture to influence something else that is made up of a completely different culture. It’s not really possible to play anything but Scottish music on the pipes.
Pam says: Well, I guess they’re forgetting that they’re learned to play “When the Saints Go Marching In” on the pipes… But like Gillian said, pipes are from such a separate culture that Louisiana music doesn’t really influence us much. When you have an instrument like bagpipes, that has only nine notes with no sharps or flats, you don’t have a lot of room to be influenced. What it usually means is that we don’t get to jam with other musicians, which is too bad.

Celtophilia: If Haggis Rampant had to fight an alligator armed only with your instruments, how would you win?
Steve says: Well, the last time it happened I just stuck a chanter down it’s throat. Horrible sound, the alligator choking and the chanter sounding like someone eating live cats. Ruined a good chanter, too. Next time I’ll use a bass drone. Or maybe Gillian.
Gillian says: Well, I can’t think of a detailed description, but it probably involve whacking the gator with the bagpipe drones and dropping the 27 pound bass drum on its head.
Pam says: Oh, right. Sacrifice the drum.

Aren’t they more fun than a barrel of monkeys? Don’t you just want to buy them all an age appropriate beverage? Sorry Gillian, you may play the pipes better than a lot of 21 year olds, but we still don’t think your parents would thank us for filling you up with Scottish whiskey.
You can buy Haggis Rampant c.d.s at CD Baby.com, or see them perform live at the Louisiana Renaissance festival, and we highly suggest you do both!
Thanks again to Steve, Pam, and Gillian for being extremely fascinating and awesome in general.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.