Katherine Moller was interviewed by Mark Kilfoil on CHSR's (97.9FM) program "The Lunchbox," on July 17th, 2018.
MK: It’s good to see you again, Katherine. KM: Good to see you. MK: We spoke on a couple different occasions, once by phone while you were working down here once when you were preparing another Christmas album quite a few years ago. It’s exciting to see you here in the middle of the Barracks, we’re in the casemates downtown, you’re another artist in residence. It’s not your first time doing this, how many times have you been at this? KM: I believe this might be my eight time. MK: Yeah it's getting to that number where you can't really remember exactly how many its been. So is it like putting on an old pair of shoes on or is it like finding a whole new pair of shoes in a style you liked before? What's it like coming back to the casemates for you? KM: Well I mean it's a bit of both. This is where I tend to do most of my writing, because I find through the year I have the best intentions of writing new jams. Life gets in the way, and here, there's nothing else to do, so I like that, and it always takes me a day to kind of get back in to the routine of writing new tunes. But then every year we have a different theme, so every year there's something different to think about. One year the theme was about challenging yourself so I bought a looping pedal. I brought it down and I was playing around with the looping pedal. This year, our theme is the river, so I've been looking for stories about the river, the people who have worked and lived along the river, thinking about that. So there’s something very familiar and very comfortable about it, but with our themes, there's always something new to to think about. MK: So this is your primary writing time. The last time we talked, you were down here and you had what sounded like to me an ambitious goal of something like 20-30 (tunes), at least ridiculous to me. But now I clearly see, if this is your writing time, you saved up all that energy for the entire year just to spend it all at once when you're here, so do you kind of have that goal again of around 20 or 30 different tunes? KM: Yeah, the goal is five a day. MK: So you're looking at this theme. How is it working into your thoughts so far? are you looking at mimicking the river? I know a lot of people were talking about the flood which was a pretty big event this year, a few people look at the river as a sustaining element. What's your take on it so far, what are your initial thoughts on it? KM: The way that I write, it tends to be around stories. My music is not strictly programmatic, I do like to have little elements. So for example, the first time I did a residency, we were over in the museum, and so I did a tune about the Coleman Frog. And there is just one moment in the tune where it went <hums a tune>. So you had this kind of frog hopping, so it's not kind of smack you in the face programmatic music, but there's like a little element. Like for example yesterday I wrote one about log drivers, but specifically the log roll, the competition that they have, and so it has this real repetitiveness like <hums tune> because that's the log rolling, and periodically it stops as they're trying to knock each other off. MK: Now I've got to say, with the log rolling, you must have seen the classic Canadian short The Log Riders Waltz. Did that creep into the back of your head and are you trying to consciously not mimic that when you're working? KM: Yeah, I will not be writing any waltzes about log drivers for sure. MK: We should say that you are a musician, a performer, and a teacher of music as well. I see you have a violin behind you, or do you have a fiddle behind you? I always ask because some people take it very, very seriously. I think with you, you said it was okay either way. KM: Yeah, I really don't care. This one technically I refer to this one as my pub fiddle because I do have a pickup on it, and this is the one I take when I'm going to pubs. I do have a separate violin that I use for symphonies that is my classical violin but really there's no difference. I do use different instruments. MK: So that one not only has the pickup, but on rowdy pub nights there be a lot less crying at the end of the night if it were damaged? KM: Yes, that's exactly why. MK: I spoke to a cellist who is in this space as well, and she was talking about the price of cellos and obviously, physically, there's a lot more material involved, but also you kind of need to have the performance cello, practice cello, the on the road cello, and I'm assuming you have a similar thing with the violins and fiddles. KM: I do, yes. MK: So are you going to be performing some of the work as you go along? I think we talked a little bit about how you work before, and I'm kind of trying to figure out if its carpet before the horse or if its note before the fiddle. Are the songs just running in your head and you run them through enough times that they become real or what? KM: So many answers to that. a lot of times I'm just sheer noodle in around and something pops in that sounds cool and I have my phone with me and I record whatever snippet. Could be a couple notes it could be a whole part of a tune. Sometimes they come out fully formed. normally I write with my fiddle in my hands but having said that on Sunday I was driving home and an entire tune popped into my head. Which is pretty cool because that's not normally the way I work. This year because I am thinking about the theme, there's been a lot of writing down ideas and not actually writing music to those ideas. Whereas a lot of times I'll write tunes and then put names to them later so it can go either way. MK: You’ve been doing this for a while now. This is not something you’re brand new at. How long would you say you’ve been at it? Since you were very young, I’m assuming. KM: At playing, or? MK: Well playing, composing, being exposed to music. KM: So yes, playing, it’s been forever. I started playing violin when I was six. MK: And then the composing? KM: I started dabbling in composing around the year 2000, so that’s been eighteen years. MK: So do you find it difficult to find something new? I mean, there are a limited number of notes, first of all, and there are quite a few different arrangements those can have, so technically there’s a huge number, but not every combination of notes is going to sound pretty good, and there are certainly some patterns that are established by the hundreds and hundreds of years by thousands and thousands of performers. Do you find it difficult sometimes to find something new or is it more of a combination of the familiar that you like to put together? KM: Well I am always looking for something that’s different. So if you listen to my fiddle tunes, they aren’t like the old time tunes that Don Messer was collecting and that Ned Landry wrote, even those that <indistinct> writes. They’re not the same because I do have that influence of classical, of baroque, I love the sound of gypsy music, I love that minor sound. So my challenge, it’s not so much finding sound that aren’t the same as other people, it’s not falling into the same sound for every one of my pieces. Because It’s good to have your own signature but you don’t want it all to sound the same, so for that reason, sometimes I’ll sit down and give myself a challenge. If on day three say I notice that I’ve been writing mostly in G Major, let’s say, then on day three I’ll say “okay, today you’re going to write in C Minor,” or whatever. I’ll pick a key, I’ll pick a type of tune, just to make myself explore other directions. Because if I do just do doodling, I’ll be attracted to the same sounds. MK: I can imagine too because, as a performer, you have to practice a lot and you’re getting to be the point where it’s muscle memory, where when you’re performing, you’re not really having to think about that. Do you ever find yourself “nope, I already composed this one?” KM: I do, and I actually brought a binder that has all of my other music in it. MK: That’s a thick binder. KM: It is, I was pretty shocked when I put it together, how thick that is. And that doesn’t actually have my material from last year in it yet. MK: Oh, wow. KM: And so sometimes, when I write something and sounds familiar, I’ll go “okay, that’s a jig in D,” and I am obsessive, so my list of music there; I have three different <indistinct> CDs, I have one that’s alphabetical, I have one that’s by key, I have one that’s by tune type. So I can go through and say, “okay, this is a jig in D, have I written this before?” And sometimes you have, but sometimes you can use it to your advantage, because if you’ve written two tunes that have the same, say, A part, normally a fiddle tune will have an A part and a B part, you can take those and put them together as three parts. So it’s not necessarily wasted time if I catch myself composing something over again. MK: Have you ever intentionally taken a song you’ve already done and say “okay, we’re gonna do this differently.” Ever do that before? KM: No, I haven’t. MK: Now, you had the great album Storm Queen come out, was that last year? There’s a lot of very different takes on that song, in particular the Storm Queen song itself is a much bigger song in many ways, production-wise especially from what was on the rest of the album. Was that specifically a challenge to yourself to say “okay, are we going to bring in the rest of the orchestra and the guitar band and all the other people you know and say ‘let’s get them all in one room and make some noise?’” KM: Well the genesis of that project was interesting, because I decided that I wanted to work with a producer, which I had never done before, and so when we were talking on the phone, we talked about doing a Natalie MacMaster kind of sound, like very slick production. And we talked about it, but I was never in love with it. It works really well for her but I wasn’t totally in love with it, and then I took my music to him, and I was working with two different producers, a producer and a ranger, and when they heard my music, they were like “okay, so let’s forget that plan,” because it really wouldn’t have suited it. So it was their idea to go with this orchestral sound, which is really neat because it incorporates everything that I’ve been doing through these years, and it was really interesting to have them pick that out of my sound without me saying “this is what I’ve been doing.” So that was a really interesting experience. MK: So as an experience, as an experiment, was it interesting but not something you want to return to? Or is it a new facet you want to explore more of? KM: The orchestral, or working with a producer? MK: Both, because it sounds like this your first time with a producer, and it showed you something you hadn’t realized before. Is that something you wanna continue to work, is that something where you find a whole new freshness can come from, an external perspective? KM: It can. I don’t quite know. I’m sure I will go back and work with a producer again at some point. They weren’t wedded to the way that fiddlers normally work, which is, with fiddlers, I normally play a fiddle tune which is A Part twice and B Part twice and then you do it again, A Part twice, B Part twice, and then you move on. So that’s your typical way that medley’s are set up. And so working with them, we didn’t arrange things that way. So right now, it’s time for me to play around with my own music and see where I can go with that, but not return to a producer just yet. MK: So using the perspective but not necessarily having that perspective active while you’re working on stuff. KM: Right. MK: Now it’s not like you aren’t busy anyway. Can you list off the groups that you’re currently part of? Because I’ve lost track. KM: So currently, I’m a member of Symphony New Brunswick, I play with two early music ensembles, Ensemble 18C and Collegium Musicum, and with both of those groups, we use period instruments. So I have a violin that was made in the early 1700s, we use period bows. MK: Is that to be authentic or is there something about the sound which is lending itself to that kind of music? KM: It’s both, it’s to be authentic, but for the sound we use gut strings. Our instruments are quieter than modern instruments, and the way that I describe it, if you have a modern violin with modern strings, modern bow, all of that, it produces a beam of sounds, so it’s really good for concert halls. With baroque music, it wasn’t meant to be played in concert halls, it was meant to be played in salons, or in living rooms. And so the sound sort of envelopes you without being this kind of beam of sound, and so it’s really neat, it’s a very different sound, it’s a very different way of playing as well. MK: So I interrupted your listing here, there’s a lot more to go. KM: I play with a duo called Atlantis, and we play pop covers. MK: Are you playing the violin with Atlantis or? KM: No, actually I’m playing cello with Atlantis. MK: Is that a newer experience or something you’re returning to? KM: Well, kind of both. I took lessons for several years; there was someone in the Charlotte Street Arts Centre who was teaching cello, and so I took lessons from her for several years, and then Sarah Beth, who’s the other member of Atlantis, approached me and said “I want to do this, I want it to be cello and violin, and you’re playing cello.” MK: So you’re doing covers of pop tunes then? KM: Yes. MK: Okay, that must be quite an interesting challenge. KM: It is, it’s very different from everything else that I do, but it’s fun. It’s something different. And then I have my own, kind of solo career, and that takes whatever form, so a lot of times I play with Tom Richards in a duo. I’m playing with The John Fiddler Band, so he used to have a rock band called The Suspects, so that kind of music kind of creeps in every now and then, so I get a kick out of because I’m playing Bryan Adams. It’s interesting. MK: Were you performing yesterday? KM: Yes. MK: Okay, because I know the drummer for that band was playing in an outdoor retirement centre. Do people do a double take when they see you in a rock band? KM: They do, and I get a lot of people coming up to me and saying “you’re playing here too?” And then the band that most people think of me with is Different Folk, a Celtic band with my husband and Will Toner and Don LeBlanc. MK: Was it recently you put out the album with Different Folk? That was just here, right? Tell me a bit about the album. KM: So our album came together very, very quickly. Signature Sound has done a lot of work for the Highland Games, and also a couple other gigs that we’ve been doing. So they had recorded our sets, our live shows, and had sent us the mp3s, and we were listening through to them more for learning purposes, and my husband said “hey, this sounds really good.” And so we went through three different shows we’ve done over the years and picked out which pieces were the best, and then the guys at the recordery did the mastering for us. So we decided in January that we were releasing a CD, and by March it was ready and out to the public. So it was a quick, quick turnaround. MK: It’s almost the accidental album among all the work you’ve done. That’s probably the easiest way to do an album, is to use the stuff you’ve already got rather than trying to go to the studio and record something or purposely record a live performance. KM: Well that was the beauty of it. We did these live shows not even thinking about the fact that they’d be recorded, so there’s no pressure, there’s just the regular pressure of a live gig. Because if you’re trying to record a live CD, it could be brutal. MK: And you find yourself getting self-conscious when you’re doing the recording and every little, I won’t say mistake, but every little variation that comes, you’re hyper aware of it. KM: Yes. MK: So having recorded that live album, accidentally or retroactively depending on how you look at it, do you think going forward you’re going to want to go to the studio or is that the way you want that sound to be represented? KM: Well, I imagine that we will go into the studio because we have five tracks that we’ve recorded previously in the studio, just to have a demo to be able to shop around. And so I imagine we’ll go back in and actually finish that project now that this one popped in the middle. MK: It should be said that you mentioned it as a simple thing, but your own band of you appears quite often. You’ve done some of the noontime concerts, I think you just did one recently, or one coming up? KM: Nope, I’ve got several shows coming up next week. I’ll be at the Garrison Night Market on Thursday the 26th (July), and then at the Christ Church Cathedral News Hour on the 27th. And then I’m heavily involved in the Highland Games, and so my trio (Atlantis + husband) will play on Saturday and then Different Folk will play on Sunday. So next week is a busy week. MK: Now, you already have or are you coming up to being the Officers’ Square performer too probably? KM: Nope, not this year. Last year I performed in Officers’ Square, and I brought a string quartet, and that was fun. So that has been an offshoot of doing of the CD. The Storm Queen CD is that I’ve arranged my music for string quartets, so I’ll have my three-piece band and string quartet, so that’s been a lot of fun, playing with those sounds. MK: It’s gotta be interesting to be around this web of performers and musicians that you know now, have you ever thought of sort of just randomly picking up and putting together a group to see what would happen? Because you’ve got the rock performers, the pop performers, the classical performers, the Celtic performers, and all of those different things, or even getting them all into one place and see what kind of crazy noise you can make at that point. KM: I really haven’t. Last year with my CD launch we did a show at the Playhouse, and Symphony New Brunswick came to back up me and back up my band. But it was very structured as far as they had sheet music. The problem with me knowing all these musicians is that I know what everyone is capable of and I know where the limitations are. Seeing how they would actually work together; I’m sure it would be interesting. MK: So the work you’re doing this week, are you composing just for yourself or are you thinking “hey, this would be a cool quartet piece,” or “hey, this would be a more upbeat, say a rock or pop piece.” Are you thinking that way or is it really you’re composing for yourself right now? KM: I’m composing for myself. MK: Is that a practical measure because you are here and the rest of them aren’t here to give the feedback? KM: Yeah, I guess. I mean, in the end, my heart is really in the Celtic fiddle. I mean, it’s not strictly Celtic, but that’s where my heart is. The pop and the rock, those are interesting projects to do, but they’re not where I’m going with my music. MK: Well, I gotta say, it’s been a delight to talk to you and there’s one more question I have. You have a little pamphlet here on your table that says “Want To Host A House Concert?” What’s that all about? KM: So house concerts are all the rage right now, and it’s such a perfect setting for me. I’ve done a couple of house concerts, I love the intimacy of them. I guess just to explain what it is, it’s exactly what it sounds like. It is someone opening up their house for you to hold a concert in your house. Normally they invite their friends, family, anyone they know who would be interested. Because they are opening their house, because they don’t just want whoever walking in off the street to come and hear a performance. So they are introducing you to an audience that probably wouldn’t come to your show otherwise, which is a lot of fun. You don’t need a sound system, it’s just an acoustic show in someone’s living room and there’s no separation of a stage so, in the concerts that I’ve done, sometimes people pipe up and ask questions during the concert, and so there’s a really direct interaction that’s not only beforehand. Because normally you do some kind of meet-and-greet, but even during the show there’s a real interaction, and it’s a lot of fun. And it really suits my music, because my tunes, and this is something that really surprised the producers when I went to work with them, my fiddle tunes all have stories about people I’ve met, or places I’ve been, or experiences I’ve had. And so if you’re playing in a pub, no one cares, no one cares about your stories, no one cares about your rituals, they just want to hear Wild Rover and have fun. And there’s nothing wrong with that, and we do that, and that can be fun too, but with a house concert, you have that ability to take the time and tell your stories, and then draw people in to your music, because the music always means more when they have that story behind it, when they know what it’s about. MK: So you want to encourage others to do the house concerts so that you also get a chance to play at the house concerts and have that experience. Very cool. Well, I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your composing madness sprint for the week. Where’s the best place people can find out more about you and samples of your music, buy it, and invite them into your house for a concert. KM: The best place is my website, so my website is katherinemoller.ca, and Katherine is K-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E M-O-L-L-E-R, and from there it links out to all my social media, and there are samples of the music there that you can listen to, and you can feel free to send me a message. MK: Sounds great, thanks a lot, Katherine. KM: Thank you. Listen to the full interview here.
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