Celtophilia

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

Those of you who have read this blog for any amount of time will know, Bonnie and I LOVE Three Quarter Ale. We’ve been watching them perform for years, at various venues, and think Rivka (Rosemary Quench), Becky (Ariana Pellayle), and Dolph (Wicked Pete Speakeasy) are probably three of the nicest band members in the known universe. We hang out on their forums quite a bit, and generally can’t get enough of their “ren-rock” sound. So, we wanted to do an interview to talk with them, and share a little more about them with the world-at-large. All three of the band members took time out of their busy schedules to answer our questions, and we can’t possibly thank them enough. I can guarantee you, you’ll enjoy the answers. Yes, that’s my personal guarantee.

Slainte,
Mike

Celtophilia: What is the wildest/funniest thing that has ever happened while you were performing at Faire?
Rivka: Hmm… there are SO many things, it’s hard to pick one. I loved when Pete stood up at Pub Sing as usual to say, “A Toast!” and the fans threw toast slices at him; or the time Pete made up a “Move Over” verse about Joni Minstrel that ended with him pulling her bra out of his shirt. Lindsay (Joni) leaves her car unlocked, and Dolph knew she had her change of clothes in the back seat. Not a single day goes by out there where one of my bandmates doesn’t make me laugh… it’s a pretty wild ride in general.
Becky: Other than trying not to lose it over every little funny thing that comes out of Dolph’s mouth? I don’t recall anything crazy or any more out of the ordinary than usually happens at Faire. I do recall jumping off the Pub stage after a set, and having a patron comment to me, “Wow, you are REALLY short! You look a lot taller on stage!” and I turned to him and said, “Well, I AM part hobbit!”
There are quite a few funny “Big Bits Day” stories, but most of those happened during Pub Sing, not necessarily while we were performing. Rivka and I did take part in a “Missing Maidens” prank one year, where I dressed as String (with wig and standing on a milk crate) and she dressed as Michael Starr (complete with blond curls and everything!)
Dolph: Wow, that’s hard… there have been things that I found personally funny, like particularly good “Move Over” verses from Joni Minstrel (such as one where she suggested she was going to auction Pete off to the highest bidder, for example), or some of the Pub Sings with Prisoner Punishments such as “Mud Hugs” or “Making a Sculpture with Faire Foode”… I’ve laughed until I cried at all of those. There have been the what-just-happened crazy moments… for example, I was playing with the Lost Boys at CRF, and we were sharing a stage with the Tortuga Twins, one of whom suddenly burst backstage during one of their shows with a woman who wanted to show us all her extremely private tattoos. There have been the par-for-the-course “that’s show biz” moments, like the day King Henry missed his cue at Front Gate, so Wicked Pete jumped up and declared himself second-in-command of Newcastle to the audience… the entertainment director presented Pete with a crown the next week, which I wore all day. Stuff like that.

Celtophilia: Which song on Intertwined did you have the hardest time getting exactly the way you wanted it?
Rivka: Probably “Stranger in the Pub.” We STILL haven’t quite gotten that one where we want it LIVE, though I quite like how it turned out digitally. I found the harmonies for “Intertwined” difficult… but thankfully, most of that material was stuff we’d already perfected (I use that term with the understanding that you’ll have a mouthful of salt when you read it) in our live performances, so there wasn’t much to do except get it a bit more polished, and add some bass or additional sounds to it.
Becky: We had a lot of trouble with Barmaid’s Tale-I absolutely loved the second take I did, and don’t think I could have possibly gotten the performance and emotion any better. The problem was that you could really hear the “room” in the recording. I think Dolph did an excellent job with the mixing and much of it was fixed in mastering as well, but you can still kind of hear it if you listen.
Dolph: From a recording standpoint, the ones that were by far the hardest were things that proved to be nearly impossible to mix, like “The Barmaid’s Tale”, where we had a really bad room sound permeating the recording of the lead vocal, or “1001 Nights”, in which we realized in the eleventh hour that we’d been singing different notes and lyrics than were on the sheet music, which necessitated an emergency recording session to pick up, like, one syllable per phrase through the whole song. Argh.

Celtophilia: Is there anything you guys would like to do as a band that you have yet to achieve?
Rivka: Part of the reason we don’t tour overmuch is because - being actors as well as musicians - all three of us are frequently committed to shows at various times in the year, which means that we don’t have weekends free to go travelling hither and yon. But we have discussed the idea of possible taking a year off of shows to tour, planning that year WELL in advance so that on day one, we’d have already sent out press packets and lined up gigs across the country, thereby making the most of our time. I still haven’t written this idea off… the three of us travel exceptionally well together, and we may yet follow through with this.
Becky: World domination!!! Just kidding (mostly). Hmmm….finishing that holiday CD. Making our DVD. Touring to Ireland as a band.
Dolph: Oh, criminy… I have pages and pages and pages of ideas. Movies, stage musical, action figures, comics, Saturday morning cartoon…

Celtophilia: Can you give our readers a little idea of what the next TQA album is going to be like?
Rivka: I don’t want to give TOO much away, but I feel safe in telling you all that it’s a Holiday CD. What we mean by that (as opposed to saying, “A Christmas CD”) is that, well, Rosemary celebrates Channukah, Ariana celebrates Christmas, and Wicked Pete is attached to no religion in particular, but gets into the spirit of things nonetheless. So there will be ALL of that represented on the CD, to make it not just another Christmas CD but a very TQA-specific thing. Of course, we are planning to put all of these tracks up on i-Tunes like the Intertwined songs, so folks who really just want music for one specific holiday can download those and leave the rest. But what we’re hoping is that our many fans and friends will just want to invite Three Quarter Ale (our voices, anyway) into their homes as they’re baking cookies or trimming the tree or wrapping gifts, and that they’ll take joy in whatever we as a group are celebrating, regardless of denomination.
Isn’t that the spirit of the Holidays anyway? Love and peace and unity and friendship?
Becky: It’s going to be a holiday album, featuring some old favorites, traditional tunes, and a few originals! It will probably be a lot simpler in production and execution, and hopefully will feature some of TQA’s friends guest performing!
Dolph: Awesome, hopefully. Simpler but sweeter is my mantra on this record. Not stripped down, just less happening sonically than the last record… more of a timeless feel, I hope. I want it to be the record people put on while they decorate their houses for the holidays.

Celtophilia: If each member of TQA had a super power, what would it be? What would happen when you combined your powers?
Rivka: I think Rosemary’s power (which is alluded to in The Story) is that she has the ability to “sooth the savage breast:” with her harp and voice. In The Story, there are several instances where reference is made to angry, unhappy, beligerent people being calmed and even made joyful by Rosemary’s playing. That much, to a small extent, is based on Rivka’s actual experiences, singing Christmas Carols in airports and playing the harp at busy mall openings and such.
If it was an actual SUPERPOWER, I imagine that it would be much like the harp and Fluffy, the three-headed dog from the Harry Potter Books. Rosemary would have but to sing an enchanting melody or strum on the harp, and evil beings would fall into a peaceful slumber or become incapacitated to do their nefarious deeds so long as they stood swaying with a soppy smile in response to Rosemary’s voice. Now, the effects would last only so long as Rosemary kept singing or playing, but maybe that would buy one of the other two time to escape or otherwise work their own magic. Becky: I’ll let my bandmates answer with their own superpowers, but I think I’d be able to stop conflicts with just a little trill on my flute. I think when we combined, we would, of course, bring harmony (pun intended), peace and prosperity to the land. And an unlimited supply of Ale (or your drink of choice).
Dolph: Pete’s super powers would be the abilities to play the guitar like crazy, and to drink gallons of beer with no ill effect. So, then, I guess Pete’s already got super powers (except for maybe the play like crazy part). When we combined our powers, 3/4 Ale would, incredibly, become 4/3 Ale, for the sum would truly be greater than the parts. Maybe that’s too abstract and mathematical a power to capture the public’s attention, though. I dunno.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 8:34 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.