Celtophilia

Welcome back, we're glad you're here!

When we did the review of Poitín’s CD Hot Days, I admitted that the envelope from Czech Republic is one of my favorite pieces of Celtophilia memorabilia. In light of that, I wanted us to talk to these guys a little bit about being a Celtic band in their country, and about their style in general. The band was so excited to talk to Bonnie and I that they got together and had a big Celtophilia Answering Party, (okay, that’s not what happened, but that’s what I like to pretend.) They put together some amazing answers, and I hope you all enjoy them as much as I did.

Slainte,
M

1. I’m not aware of a huge Celtic heritage there, so how did you guys decide you wanted to be a Celtic band in the Czech Republic?

Otik: Right! At first sight it does seem a bit strange, but the roots are here. The area of the Czech Republic where we’re from is called Bohemia, which is actually named after a Celtic tribe. The original form was “Boiohaemum”, apparently meaning “Home of the Boii” in the old Germanic dialects, and the Boii were the Celtic tribe who inhabited the area from around 400 BC. Later Germanic tribes forced them out –across Europe to Spain, France and of course the British Isles. And we have bagpipes here – they’re a traditional Czech instrument, and there’s even a bagpipe festival in the town of Strakonice not far from Pilsen every two years which brings together pipers from all over the world!
Jeremy: Otik even wrote an instrumental piece, ‘Vladař’,  on our first album, which was inspired by a Celtic hill fort perched on the core of an ancient volcano which rises dramatically up out of the Czech countryside a few miles from Pilsen.
Otik: Sure, but I was also inspired by hearing the Chieftains sometime in the early nineties when there was a big influx of Irish and Celtic music in general to the Czech Republic, and I was hooked. Some other bands, like Dun an Doras started up then too, incorporating Czech and Irish musicians.
Sasha: My dad gave me a Chieftains CD for a birthday present a few years back- I was studying the flute at the time- and that was my way in to Celtic music.
Honza: Me and Kuba attended a Czech folk music and dance school in Pilsen from a pretty early age- the Czech’s are very proud of their folk tradition - so we’ve been involved in folk music for as long as we can remember, so it was only a small step to playing Irish and Scottish music.

2. As a follow-up to that, do you find when you play gigs in your home territory that people generally know the songs you are playing, or are you introducing many of them to Celtic music for the first time? Does that have much effect on your performances?

Jeremy: Some and some. I remember a few gigs in tucked away villages where the audience weren’t exactly hostile, but they might heckle a bit with stuff like ‘sing in Czech’ and so on, but it’s really satisfying to see them after a while clapping along and cheering and really getting into the swing of things. But we also play at pretty big Celtic music festivals in the Czech Republic where we’re already preaching to the converted and there are fantastic dance companies and other bands also performing there. In fact there are loads of Celtic music festivals here – so, sure tons of people love it! Country and Western music and bluegrass is really popular here too – in fact C and W sessions are something of  an institution here (I’ve played bodhran at a few) and a lot of the songs are based on Irish or Scottish folk songs, and then translated into Czech (I’ve even heard a Czech version of Johnny Cash’s ‘A Boy Named Sue’) so I’ve had surprisingly warm reactions to some songs- ‘Lily of the West’, ‘Sally Gardens’ and ‘Rosin the Bow’, for example.

3. How did you decide to incorporate the didgeridoo into your music? That’s quite a departure for a Celtic centered band.

Jeremy: Right, the didge…well, unfortunately we’re not the first to use this amazing instrument with Celtic music – Altan and the Chieftains are a couple of iconic bands who used it way before us. Not sure who came up with using it in Poitin, though. Jakub had one kicking around his flat but nobody could work out the circular breathing – I tried long and hard without success- and then we found Tomáš Machalík who guested on Hot Days for us and then we were lucky enough to meet Dick Savage , a master of many talents, who showed us how it was done at one of our sessions, and he’s become a regular member since then. I guess the didge provides a bass drone which is usually supplied by bagpipes or a hurdy gurdy.

4. I count at least 12 instruments being played by the members of the band. Do you find that it’s difficult to work that much stuff in, or do you enjoy the versatility of being able to pull out pretty much anything at any given moment?

Otik: Definitely not- it’s not a case of forcing it – the instruments lend themselves naturally to the tunes- or is it the other way round?
Jeremy: Looking back, it’s true we’ve been lucky to work with loads of great musicians- a harpist, an accordionist, a native French singer who sang Breton tunes and sometimes doubled up on cello, dozens of whistle and flute players, a genius saxophonist, and we have Honza who plays bouzouki, banjo, whistles and has a lovely singing voice too. But it was never a case of ‘How can we fit such-and-such an instrument in there?’ It’s more like, ‘Let’s try a low whistle in that section with the bouzouki, then get a counter melody happening on the tin whistle, bring in the bodhran and fiddle, hit them between the eyes with the didge and guitar and before you know it, you’ve got a mini orchestra going!
Otik: It was even more crazy in the past with the accordionist (who managed to break a chair from rocking too hard on it) and our harpist (who has been known to do things like leave for a tour of Poland literally without a shirt on his back….). So, yes coming back to your question, I think it’s the versatility of having so many different sounds at our fingertips that we really enjoy.

5. If your band had a mascot (think person dressed in a ridiculous costume) what would it be?

Jeremy, Otik, Honza, Kuba in unison:-  Jimmy!
Otik: Jimmy was an infamous character up until a couple of years ago who we’d blame for any kind of excess or outrageous behaviour in or around the band. Jimmy wore a kilt and one of those Scottish tartan hats with ginger hair sticking out around it and was permanently drunk, aggressive and swayed menacingly while he sang bawdy Scottish songs. He disappeared after Poitin’s tenth anniversary gig, never to be seen again , along with Jeremy’s bodhran…he was actually Jeremy’s alter ego…

Again, massive thanks to all the members of the band for taking a moment to answer our questions!  If you want to find out more about Poitin, and you happen to speak Czech, you can check out their website at www.poitin.cz If you happen to NOT speak Czech, you’re probably better off hitting their myspace page.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 2:13 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.