A Musician In Her Landscape- My interview with Julie Fowlis by Steve Gladwin

 

Julie Fowlis is a multi-award winning folk-singer who performs in her native Gaelic. She won the BBC Folk Singer of the Year Award in 2008, has been nominated for and won several other awards and now co-presents the Folk Awards with Mark Ratcliffe. She also presented the first BBC Folk Prom in 2018 with fellow folk-singer Sam Lee, in a line-up which also included The Unthanks, Jarleth Henderson, Welsh folk group Alaw, and the BBC Concert Orchestra which was when I first became aware of her and her unique voice which has been described as 'chrystalline' and 'intoxicating' Her career has spanned five studio albums and she has been involved in a number of high profile collborations in the last few years, the most recent and well-known of which is probably her involvement in The Lost Words CD with fellow folk musicians, presided over by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane. I am delighted to be talking to Julie about that project, her life and music, and the importance of preserving her native language which she first learnt on the Hebridean island of North Uist, where she was born, and which still has such a significant influence on her music. 

 

https://www.juliefowlis.com/julie/

 

 

Julie, thanks for agreeing to talk to an awfully big blog adventure.

It's a pleasure.

The main theme of these blogs is 'Landscape',so perhaps you could start by telling us about the landscape in which you were born? I usually ask people to describe it as if they are seeing it from their front door, or observing it in a walk'

I spent my formative years on the island of North Uist, before moving to the mainland in my teenage years. That landscape had a profound effect on me - those enormous skies, the countless shades of green and blue sea and endless white beaches. And the wind! The prevailing westerly which almost never stops - even on the nicest of days you are aware of the wind coming off the warm Atlantic, scouring the low-lying islands before heading towards the mainland of Scotland. The space, the wild, those colours and most importantly the Gaelic community which surrounded me were what shaped me and my music.

 

My first experience of hearing your voice was on the quite wonderful BBC Folk Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in 2018, which almost single-handedly turned me back on to folk and its whole variety. For those not fortunate enough to see it, you were co-hosting it with Sam Lee and it included performances from both of you, as well as The Unthanks and Alaw. It was a primal enough experience hearing the Unthanks in that space, but, but when you sang it was as if your voice in Gaelic added that extra timeless element. It felt almost as if you were singing your homeland. Could you tell us about the first song you sung that night, and about the reactions to the prom as a whole? 

Funnily enough the first song I sung in the Royal Albert Hall that night was a traditional song from Galicia, Spain, which a great friend of mine, (who is a wonderful singer) translated for me into Scottish Gaelic. I sang this song bilingually in Galician and in Gaelic. I love how songs can travel and be shared within different musical communities. Us human beings inevitably sing about similar things, the same things move us to music, no matter which language we express them in. One of my favourite things is collaboration and to share, and this song came out of just such a project, celebrating the shared connection between two minority communities with a rich and ancient cultural heritage. The performance of that song actually ended up going viral in Galicia - people were really kind about it.

Could you tell us a little more about your language, the preserving of it, its particular nature, which so seems to lend itself to that spare, unaccompanied style of singing. Is it possible, perhaps, to describe the way it makes you feel, to sing in it?

 

Gaelic has been spoken in Scotland for 1500 years and more, and is part of a family of languages which include Irish, Welsh, Manx, Cornish and Breton. Only a little over 1% of the Scottish population now speak Gaelic. I feel very strongly about protecting the language and using it wherever possible and have made sure that it is my daughters' first language. It is the language that we use at home. 

The unaccompanied style of singing is the traditional style of singing - many of our traditional songs are work songs for example, songs may have been sung whilst rowing a boat or churning butter or milking the cow. There are also songs of love and loss, of clan and conflict, war and politics. Old history is documented through the songs - many, many centuries of life in our community are within the texts of the songs. It's incredible when you think about it. Many of the songs I sing go back 500 years or more.

That's' fascinating. What a heritage.

So, Julie, you're a young girl and you open your mouth to sing for the first time. I recently interviewed Jackie Morris, and she told me the moment she saw - as she put it, her father, 'make a bird land on the paper', she knew that that was what she wanted to be able to do. Was there a similar moment with you?

Not so much. I have always been a keen singer and I remember singing a lot as a youngster in school. However I was always a nervous performer and although I always had a deep love of music, I didn't always want to perform in front of people. I have battled with nerves all my life and sometimes performing can be very tough - but ultimately I love to express myself through the music, and that is what fuels me.

 

 

How important is the landscape where you lived, or have lived. Do you think it makes a difference to the way you sing, as presumably what you sing about. Where is home?

Ah, now this is where I 'am' comfortable. I love to be in wild landscapes and spend a lot of my time outdoors and exploring either by foot or on a bike. It's the landscapes where I grew up and where I live now that are my biggest inspirations really. It definitely makes a difference to the way I sing and also indeed to what I sing about. I spend a lot of time researching local history and inevitably place names, local stories and suchlike come out through the learning of their songs and indeed the writing of music.

Fairly recently you were involved in the creation of The Lost Words CD with Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris and a whole host of other musiccal names. How did you become involved and how important was the initial cause for you?

I have long admired Robert's work and had been in contact with him before the Spell Songs project had started. We had talked of collaborating in some way - and the opportunity through Spell Songs happily appeared early on in our conversations. Its been such a privilege to work with both Robert and Jackie and to connect with them through their work.

I understand you had been due to get back together, but were unable to for obvious reasons. Did you have a new goal in mind? It must have involved a great deal of skills sharing with the various collaborations.

 

 

We had hoped to get together to record a new album, a follow-up to Spell Songs and to accompany the little sister book to The Lost Words, The Lost Spells. We were sad not to be able to get together but have started to inch the project forwards working separately from out homes.

Are there any special words in the Gaelic language which you are fond of, or feel are paricularly expressive.

My goodness, there are so many. I don't know where to start. I quite often reference the simple phrase Co as a tha thu. Which means where are you from? But literal translation means 'who are you from?' Which is lovely. There is a real sense of belonging and history loaded into that single phrase.

Now one of the songs on your last album concerns a selkie woman  - who, for those of you reading who haven't come across them - are the seals - either man or woman - who can turn human once they come out of the sea. It is the song from your album Altera that spoke to me the most deeply when I first heard it. In Celtic Myth the song of the seal represents the idea of soul loss and a detachment from the person or home. Hiraeth is the similar phrase in Wales which can't really be defined, but what comes closest is a sense of unresolved longing. What does the selkie mean to you as a figure and how was this reflected in the song.

I think the song of the seal is meaningful on lots of levels for me. Jackie talked in her blog about liminal spaces and these places mean much to me also. The idea of the Otherworld in Gaelic is very strong. But it doesn't necessarily mean another world far away - other world can exist within the world we see from our back door. Also the idea of the line 'between worlds' - I'm very aware of those places - and time - where those lines are thin. Perhaps this is to do with being brought up on an island where you are surrounded by coastlines but also by the world of the sea. Or perhaps it's from speaking a minority language where you speak and exist in one language but have to continually shift to another cultural space.

Was there an early connection with the seal, or in your own childhood? Did you sit by the fire as someone told you these stories, and what kind of stories were they?

 

 

I remember the stories of the seals from my childhood, yes, but I'm afraid they were not by the fireside as you might imagine, like in a children's book. These stories are often quite dark, as was much of the folklore I learned when I was a little older.

What do the seals mean to you - or other animals for that matter? Do you have such a thing as a totem - or an animal that you feel led to, or particularly inspired by?

The seals occupy that liminal space to me, they exist in both ther worlds of sea and land and truly belong to neither. Or is it both. They exist in a way we cannot and that makes them fascinating. Also, when you look into their eyes they definitely hold much expression and emotion, and when you hear their call they can often sound just like a human cry.

Now the folk-music circuit has clearly been as hit by Covid as anything else. Apart from online concerts, has the last year given you the chance to engage in other projects, or has it just been difficult, as it has been for so many.

I have actually found this last year both difficult and extremely rewarding both at the same time, there has been space and time to think about music that I haven't had for many years, and I'm grateful for the time I've had with my family. I've spent a lot of time out and about exploring around us which has proved hugely inspiring and which is directly informing the work I do now.

 

 

Obviously projects like The Lost Words involve a great deal of collaboration, and it's clear seeing the film of the Lost Words Blessing just how much you all enjoyed each other's company. Is collaborating with people important to you, and can you tell us about a few of the people you've worked with, and on what?

Yes, indeed, a project like the Lost Words is right up my street. Collaborating is what I love most and especially with a bunch of such talented and inspiring individuals one couldn't ask for better! Other projects which I have loved over the years include the Transatlantic Sessions and Hebridean Women. Currently though, myself and my husband Eamon Doorley are busy working on a follow up album to 'Allt' with friends Zoe Conway and John McIntyre, which is focussed on creating new works in the Gaelic and Irish languages, inspired by traditional and contemporary poetry in both languages.

Finally, Julie, what are your hopes and aspirations for your own language, and what do you feel you are able to do to preserve it?   

To not just survive, but to thrive. I hope for the Gaelic language to have wider recognition for its cultural importance, and not just in Scotland, but throughout the wider world.

Thanks, Julie. It's been fascinating talking to you.

My pleasure

 

All images her were taken in North Uist or near Julie's home and are her sole property. You can find the link to Julie's own site, including a longer biography and much more, at the top of the article.

 

In the next few months I will be interviewing a number of people about the group called The Inklings, the group of Oxford based friends, among whom were J.R.R. Tolkien, CS Lewis, Charles Williams and Owen Barfield, particularly about landscape, but with a selection of other things. These will include.

 

Katherine Langrish on C.S. Lewis and Narnia on 'From Spare Oom to War Drobe' her new book of essays on the seven Narnia books.

Brian Sibley on Tolkien and Lewis, the 1980 adaptation of Lord of the Rings and his biography of Peter Jackson.

John Garth, author of 'Tolkien in the Great War' and 'The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien' on Tolkien's landscape and where it came from.

Grevel Lindop, biographer of Charles Williams, and co-editor of the most recent collected poems with John Matthews.