tweety stuff @ronanfromcork
A shorter version of this was first published in The Evening Echo [Cork] on 2018-8-16, text under the photo of article
All the musical roads that Camilla Grieshel has travelled will connect at The Everyman Theatre when the Swedish born, West Cork based singer performs ‘Mamasongue’, which she premiered in Skibereen in April to a tremendous response. Camilla doesn’t consider it simply as a concert, “it isn’t just a setlist, it’s not about a song and applause, another song and more applause, it’s not about that at all. It’s about telling a story, a soundscape that goes through a conversation. Where you realise things about yourself based on my experiences. I share what I’ve learned through a lot of life, but it’s not my life story. It goes from childlike innocence to fear, exploration to adventure to pain; it’s all about finding balance. The show and the music is well rehearsed but it weaves and there is room for improvisation within the structure.”
Any artist who lived in West Cork over the last two decades would have known Fergus O’Farrell – the singer, songwriter, and lynchpin of Interference, who passed away in February 2016 – and Camila had a very close connection to him, “I’ve been in Schull for 15 years now, I moved here with my late husband, Colin Vearncombe [who had an international hit under the name of Black with ‘Wonderful Life in 1987. He died in January 2016 after a car accident en route to Cork Airport]. I met Fergus and the rest of the Interference people when we first got here, and then we started our own band called ‘Dog Tail Soup’ – Me, Colin, Fergus and Maurice Seezer – who plays piano and keyboards in Interference and is also very much part of MamaSongue as musical director. Other members of Interference who were also part of that set up included Paul Tiernan, Bertrand Gallen, and Marja Gaynor. Bertra and Marja both also play in The Swell Season with Glen Hansard, and they played on the album for ‘Once’. So it is one big family, with Colin and Fergal dying so close to each other the rest of us have bonded even closer together.”
Camila sees a clear defining line between her work singing with Interference now and Mamasongue, “they are separate projects, but I do sing some Interference songs in the MamaSongue concerts as well, as they are part of my life here in Ireland. MamaSongue is the name I’ve given to the language of being beyond words, it’s what we are all born with. Anyone will understand this concert, it’s powerful, the songs will connect, the emotion in there is what’s important, and we have that innately from childhood in our mother’s womb. My wish with this show is to connect even more people, I believe musicians really have an important part to play at the moment. The world is full of fear, and I’m bringing something towards that conversation, and that might make some sort of difference.”
There was no one set way for Camila to select songs to perform in ‘MamaSongue, “I’ve been collecting ideas and songs throughout the years, I’ve been singing in all these different places and the trips, styles, travelling and the different projects here, there and everywhere have all had an influence. Then sometimes someone recommends a song and ask me ‘have you heard this’, or I might just hear it on a soundtrack, it’s all about how it hits me if it makes me feel a lot of things! Then some of the material is original material, I’ve some great musicians alongside me who have brought songs to me, such as Niwel Tsumbu on guitar. We play one of his songs and it has become very much a part of the concept of the show. I also have Concord Knabinde on bass – he played with Colin and I when we toured in South Africa and we became great friends. We are joined by Eamon Cagney on percussion and Diego Joaquin Ramirez on drums, I chose the musicians very carefully, they all bring something to the group, everyone is contributing. So there’s a lot of things happening over the phone, over the internet, despite us not seeing each other as we all live in different places!”
There is also quite an age range between some of the songs played, “one of the songs is from my childhood, a Swedish song, which in fact my mother asked me to sing from her funeral, she died quite shortly after Colin died, that is the oldest song in the set. The newest song was written by Concord called ‘Mama’ – and it’s a homage to the mother. I can tell you when I first heard the song, all the men in the band were sitting around the kitchen table singing these beautiful harmonies and I walked in as I’d been away doing something else and they were rehearsing their vocals, “Mama… Oh, Mama”. I’m nearly in tears talking about it. It is gorgeous.”
Mamasongue shall be performed in The Everyman Theatre on Saturday 15 September, tickets available at www.everymancork.com