Getting to the heart of what Scottish music is, the Gaelic language in song, and retaining Celtic culture at a Celtic Connections event.
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00:00Are we just redoing the interview without the others now?
00:04Now they've gone, let's talk.
00:07I'm Eilidh Cormack.
00:08And I'm Deirdre Graham.
00:11We're both from Skye.
00:13Both singers from Skye.
00:15I'm in Sheehan, a band which has been at Celtic Connections quite a few times,
00:19but our second gig, ever gig, was at Celtic Connections back in 2017.
00:26And we've been playing most years since then, I think,
00:30and we've been given such amazing opportunities at the festival
00:34just to play loads of different venues,
00:36collaborate with different bands from all around the world,
00:39so we've been very lucky to be a part of Celtic Connections all these years.
00:45I think it's probably fair to say as well that Celtic Connections is a bit of a,
00:49it's a big part in the folk musicians' calendar each year,
00:53and it's a very supportive festival for so many musicians.
00:57I mean, the festival lasts about two and a half weeks,
00:59so there's a lot that goes on in that time,
01:01a huge number of musicians and other artists involved in it,
01:05and so it becomes a huge part of your calendar every year
01:09in different guises and different set-ups.
01:12Something that Celtic Connections is very, very good at is,
01:16I think, anyway, is allowing for really amazing collaborations to happen
01:22that wouldn't otherwise happen for a number of reasons,
01:26and one of them, I suppose, being financial.
01:30And almost without question, you know,
01:32it's incredible that Celtic Connections allows, well, like,
01:36Sheehan to work with...
01:38Musicians from Mali.
01:40There you go.
01:41And Brittany.
01:43Yeah.
01:44People from all over the world and different languages as well.
01:48Different languages and cross-genre.
01:50Yeah, the folk from Mali didn't speak English,
01:52we didn't speak French, but we could make music together,
01:56and that was really beautiful.
01:58And there's an understanding through music and people there of what you're doing.
02:02Yeah, I think for folk music across the world,
02:06it's an amazing opportunity to come together.
02:09And then for, like, bands to collaborate with orchestras, jazz orchestras,
02:16you know, it's not an everyday thing, so it's very important.
02:21And a huge creative outlet then, you're not just picking on your normal gig.
02:24Pushes the boundaries, doesn't it, of what you think you could do.
02:28Yeah, it's a very creative environment.
02:31So, yeah.
02:33We're very thankful for it and very excited to be a part of it.