Interview with Tara Novak and Ciarán Nagle

Ciaran Nagle is the founding member of the internationally recognized Three Irish Tenors, with whom he toured for nearly 2 decades. Ciaran focuses most of his time now on solo work or performing in a trio with his wife, violinist/vocalist Tara Novak, and their pianist. Taking things a bit closer to his roots, he can also be seen performing in his Irish folk band, Ishna.

Connect with Tara and Ciaran:

WEBSITES: www.taranovak.com, www.ciarannagle.com, www.ishnamusic.com

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/taranovakmusic, www.facebook.com/CiaranNagleTenor

INSTAGRAM: www.facebook.com/taranovakmusic/

0:31
Welcome to the Confidence in Singing podcast. This is Aideen, my guests today are Tara Novak and Ciaran Nagle, thank you so much for joining me guys.

0:43
Pleasure. Nice to be here.

0:45
Let me introduce you a little bit and you guys can fill in then any extra details about yourselves and I’m absolutely honored that you guys are on the show. I’ve known you both for quite a long time. And I’ve been following your music and so it’s really wonderful to have you guys on on the podcast today. I’m just gonna read a little bit of your BIOS and we’ll go from there. So you’re on Ciaran Nagle is a founding member of the internationally recognized three Irish tenors with whom he toured for nearly two decades now focusing mainly on solo work and performing with his wife Tara. And in a trio Yeah, that’s her if you’re watching the video. Tara is a classical violinist and composer turned pop singer and songwriter performed for years with topics such as river dance, three Irish tenors, Disney’s Aladdin, etc. and is now primarily writing and performing original songs. She has four singles out and another is releasing very soon. And with her husband, and Tara also performs with their contemporary Irish folk band ish now. And ah, now I have to say, is a wonderful project that you guys are working on. Would you like to tell us a little bit about that?

2:04
Yeah, absolutely. So it is a project that is born out of love. So many years, we’ve been touring and performing other people’s music and different styles. According to what’s popular demand, even the three Irish tenors was, you know, something kind of that was, again, it was it was this product that was of the moment. And we wanted to do something that fused our love of classical music, our love of Irish music, our love of of Americana, and how all those fused together and create something that was uniquely ours, that spoke of our deep passion and love for all the musical genres that we enjoy in her life, to enjoy it to the fullness of our company, and the dynamic that we have on stage which is, which is something that that is just really unique.

2:59
Absolutely. And I love when you know partnerships, like you know, married couples or partners in life do music together, because there is something special when two people you know, they love music, but they also love each other. And I don’t know when I heard you two guys performing with Ishna and I heard those those types of songs and the types of arrangements that you did, I was mesmerized and enthralled and enchanted. So I love what you guys are doing with us. But tell me when Ishna began and how Tara and yourself kind of worked together on that.

3:35
So we started Isha in 2009. And it’s actually kind of it’s morphed as we have as our relationship has and as our own taste in music has changed. So it really started as like a Celtic rock project, we wanted something that wasn’t three Irish tenors that wasn’t classical book Still, we could use like orchestration and great arrangements within it. Just with like more contemporary groups. As we have, like, been together longer and our tastes and mood music changed a bit, etc. Internet has evolved to and it’s more of a contemporary Irish folk band now rather than Irish rock still has a lot of that groove based stuff. But instead of a drum kit, it’s world percussion. And, and the percussion is doing a lot of the baseline stuff as well. And we’ve added guitar and all sorts of mandolin and all sorts of other sort of folk instruments to it. So what

4:43
that’s Yeah, that’s great. So tell me a little bit about your, your, your journeys with with singing so Ciaran, you were a founding member of the three Irish tenors? I mean, yeah. When did you like did you start singing with Feis Cheoil, I’m kind of guessing, in Ireland that we have like a competition. Every year of all the kids learn their traditional Irish tunes and, or Irish dancing or different Irish instruments like the tin whistle. And there’s like a, you know, you perform and compete as, as you get older, that’s where a lot of the great Irish dancers and you know, they really, they find out whether they’re, you know, whether that’s their passion and to get them to that level. What what brought you through

5:35
a really early age, I mean, I knew from, you know, as early as six, seven years of age, that music was just in my DNA, it was just an integral part of who I was. And I would just lock myself in my room, I just listen endlessly to whatever music was playing. And I was really fortunate that my both my parents had a great great love of music of every genre from classical to jazz, and everything in between. So we were really exposed that my dad and we would play these games in the car, recognize the singer recognize the song, what style is that and we’d all be singing along to all these these different songs. And when I went to school, proper at the age of seven, went to school called Willow Park School in Blackrock, and they’ve great tradition for music and music, education. And part of that thing on the school choir and then they were put on these productions operetta productions every year. And I was mesmerized by mesmerized by these I thought they were just fabulous. At our music teacher was a priest by the name of Father Dowling. And I’ve rarely met a human being to have as much love and passion for music, then this this man and his classes he would play I remember him playing Mozart’s The Magic Flute, for example, that him describing the characters and the and the characterization through instruments in a way that was just profound. And it just struck on my imagination. It was my Harry Potter, it really was. And so I was determined to get into singing. And he had auditions for the choir, which I auditioned for at the age of seven. And I failed. I didn’t pass my audition. I was just crestfallen because it was everything to me to be in this. And he took me aside and he, you know, he said, Look, you have a really sweet voice, but you’re just not ready. It’s just not ready yet to be in the choir. And I’d like to help you make that step. And he did. And, you know, he, he taught me He gave me some lessons, he took me under his wing, and I practice like crazy, like a maniac. And the next audition, I got in, and he continued to keep me under his wing, and build my confidence, and teach me the basics of how to stand up and perform. And eventually, you know, got me to a point where I was getting principal roles, these operators, and his choose ledge and guidance. And in that early stage of my life, teaching me the self confidence that I would never, ever put otherwise have, I would not be the person that I am today. nor would I be the musician or singer without that influence in that moment in my life. And from that I knew was always going to be part of me.

8:30
That’s wonderful. And it’s so important that I think sometimes, you know, adults when they start to learn to sing, or they admire singers, they think that there’s just some God given gifts, they’re gonna know you’re definitely an interest and possibly some talent from a young age. But when we get that interaction with music when a parent is asking us what do you hear what you know which singer is that? All those things create… they’re all the way of studying and learning I mean, I learned from from listening to TV shows like I learned the theme song to Skippy I can still think that I’m like, No, nobody here in the US knows what that is. But it’s basically like Lassie but with a kangaroo from from, from Australia with the kangaroo solves crimes. But it was amazing. So So never underestimate having fun with music and listening more intently. Joining in and encouraging your children to do the same is so important. And that idea as well of that you did an audition but that even the Father Dowling he said, You know you’re just not ready. And I think sometimes we get told if we don’t sing really well as young age that you’re just not a singer or that you’re no good.

9:45
Right? Right.

9:47
Which is very sad.

9:48
You make a lot of points to this terrible I mean I think everybody should sing whether you have the voice of Pavarotti or the voice of your pet dog. Everybody should sing. You know, it’s so Important to people are so shy or embarrassed that you’re not going to be brilliant. You know, you watch TV and everybody who goes on TV is live shows, sing shows everybody’s a superstar is amazing. The production values are amazing. How about it’s just grateful? How about we sit around the fire and roar out of song totally out of tune because it just is such fun. How about that?

10:24
You know, when it comes to the heart? Yeah, really, there’s something very special about someone in a room with you singing a song. And when you can feel that they mean it. And I prefer to listen to someone do that, then listen to any top singer on a recording, because there’s an energy then it creates magic.

10:45
Right? I give you an example. I mean, just recently when I was back in Ireland, this past September, and it was with a group of guys from the States, touring around beautiful parts of Ireland entertained the principle that we’re in the town of Dingle, and I was there in their company to sing songs, tell stories, and kind of what sort of stuff and we’d end up in pubs and just start singing, right, and I would sing some songs and blah, blah. But it was amazing to watch all the locals just joining. So when I could just total randomness, just total strangers out of nowhere, coming into the room, open their mouths, and singing songs, telling stories reciting poetry out of nowhere.

11:34
But you see, they understood something. And in Ireland, because it’s quite recent, you know, that, you know, even television has come in. And, but in Ireland, we have this belief that everybody has something to say, and everybody has something to give in an entertainment perspective, whether that’s a poem, and what that teaches people and or what they understand deeply is that their voice has value. Right? Don’t get that in America, and not a lot of other places.

12:02
No, I would agree with you. I think, you know, I find this quite difficult being here on occasions where there are parties and all that sort of stuff. And there isn’t that spontaneous want to just express yourself in that performance

12:21
Yeah. Oh, no. Sorry, Tara, go ahead.

12:25
Oh, no, no, it was fine. Um, on the spontaneous music. You were talking about parties. So we had a 40th birthday party for me in our barn here.

12:35
Happy Birthday.

12:38
It was a while ago, but you know, hey, yesterday, obviously, it was back when back when big groups of people could gather. And so we have many people in this barn. And Ciaran had set up all of these, the sound system and a keyboard and a guitar plugged in, and all this stuff just sitting there. And people kept asking us, well, when is the band showing up? We all went, Oh, no, that’s just a word. There is no fan that’s just there for anyone who wants to make any music at any point. And in true kind of Irish party style, the most of the musicians that were there were from other parts of the world. And they had come up from Boston. And the music didn’t really start until after 10 o’clock, maybe 11 o’clock. Several, quite a few guests had left before that, because they’re like, Oh, I guess no one’s gonna make any music. Okay. And then the reports went around our little town The next day, until the sun and and once the music started everyone, everyone performed everyone jumped up and played something saying something. And, and it was great. But it wasn’t a performance. It wasn’t a band. It was just like, Oh, I want to share this song right now. So

13:56
well, that’s amazing. I’m so glad you gave people that experience.

14:00
Right? Yeah.

14:04
Oh, sorry. I go ahead, carry on. But I’m gonna ask Tara for her story of her beginnings as well in a second, finish your thoughts Ciaran?

14:13
No, I was just saying it’s just that the concept of a sing song here is very different to what we’ve just been describing, where we’d be asked to come to somebody’s house to perform the sing song you’re going that’s not how it goes. It’s not planned. You know, it’s just just, you know, we’re gonna hire you and you’re going to come to this private event and you’re gonna, you’re gonna have to sing songs for us. Yes, we do. So so you have to print up books. And you know, it’s a very formal,

14:43
oh, I’ve done something similar, but it’s usually at Christmas.

14:47
Right? But you know, hey, it’s all good.

14:50
You know, we’re educating people around the world. This new way of sharing, each sharing something from the heart, through music or through whatever you have, I mean, I would tell people, you get your words and printed out in bold, so that you can have it in your pocket. And you can check, you know, so that you don’t have to be professional, you don’t have to know everything, but you’re prepared to share something. So let’s come back to you, Tara.

15:16
Oh, okay,

15:17
where did your love? I’ll shut up. It’s really great, because we’re talking about exactly the thing that I love talking about, which is that everybody’s voice has value, and that we can share something of ourselves. And when things open up a bit, obviously, it’ll be a bit easier. But Tara, you obviously you didn’t grow up in Ireland, you’re from Nebraska. And I know that, I don’t know if singing was your first love or the violin fiddle. Tell us about your journey with music and when you started to build confidence in your own musical ability.

15:51
So I was lucky, my parents are both musicians professionally. So I grew up in a house that was just full of music all the time, from piano lessons that my mom was teaching to choir rehearsals, to my dad’s band practicing, or my older sisters practicing their instruments, etc. So I don’t remember a time honestly, when I didn’t love music, and when I didn’t sing or didn’t want, I’ve always wanted to be involved in music. And I sang and played violin equally, from a very young age. And kind of all the way through high school. And, and that was it, there was always this push and pull. I always had different teachers tell me like, Well, you can’t be good at both. So you have to pick one and focus your time. And I always really thought that because I went, why can’t I be good at both? Why can’t I just do both? Why? Why do I have to not sing if I want to play my violin. And then that battle continued in college. When again, everyone told me I had to stop singing to focus on my violin, eventually left me moved me out of college, I left college because I just this division was too much for me. And I took a couple years off entirely, and came back to everything. And that was the first time in my life with no music. I was 21 then. And at 23, I decided I was going to start playing again. And at that point, my focus just went to the violin. And I took orchestra auditions. I started playing in an orchestra. I moved to New York City, and my violin career sort of took off at that point. Which I’m really grateful that it did. And it was maybe 10 years later. One day I sort of went Wait a minute, I haven’t seen in forever. And so I started taking lessons with a teacher in Ireland with Deirdre Masterson.

18:00
I know her

18:01
Yeah, and, and started working some vocals into our shows, and trying to find a reason to perform again. But at that point, then I had this new block, which was really interesting, or difficult, however you want to think about it. I had reached a certain level or status as a violinist. And I, and I was not very forgiving of myself as a singer to like, make any mistakes. And maybe not be that same level, even though I’ve had years and years and years of performing as a soloist. And I was only just now stepping out on stage as a singer for the first time since like my teen years. And that made that very difficult. I think as adults mistake Yeah, you’re terrified of making a mistake

18:59
completely of there’s very few things that adults will take up like fresh beginning, like you know, we tend to stick to the skills that we did learn as kids but what’s but a lot of people forget that I tried to remind them is that you know, when we’re kids, we are playful in our thinking, our left and right brain works more together. We think more creatively, and we’re very, we’re very interested in the process. And we’re not as focused on just that end product that we’re supposed to be doing. We want to go to the singing class. We’re not going Oh, if I don’t do well at the singing class you know it’s going to be bad later so we’re not comparing, contrasting as much. So it can be really difficult to put aside our inner critic to do something like that. And I’m really pleased that despite that inner mental conflict you persisted.

19:54
Yeah, it’s it’s been a long journey and I my whole life, I’ve wanted to put out my own music and my own show, not Irish, like pop folk, kind of a fusion of everything that I love in music. And, and that also has been a journey to work on writing songs. And to be able to be to allow myself to write maybe about a terrible song, you know, maybe a song I never want to sing in public at all. And that’s okay. It doesn’t have to, you could write a terrible song was really funny that you sing over coffee at breakfast like that, that’s good enough. That’s what he does every day.

20:37
Yeah, we started singing in the car about the things that we’re just doing at that particular moment. It’s like, sometimes, we’re driving, you know, it’s like Elf you know, I’m singing, I love my dad. So it’s cute.

20:51
Yeah, so I think it’s this long journey of learning to recognize your own strengths. And believe in your own strengths, and to find like, their own quirks about your own voice and the own idiosyncrasies, things that you aren’t going to sound like Adele, you’re not going to sound like Aretha Franklin, you’re going to sound like you. And, and, and that’s the beautiful thing about it. And when you can let go of any other like, maybe training that tried to put you in a certain like, make you sound like a certain way or certain classical singer or certain pop or whatever, when you can really start just exploring, just enjoying singing with your instrument. I think it’s, it just opens up so much in the world.

21:40
Yes, I agree so much. And I think that’s one reason. I mean, I definitely did a lot of choral stuff as a kid, you know, and, like, always sung by high notes a certain way. And it was only when I studied music in the US, I did Speech Level Singing, that it was like, Oh, that’s how I can just sound like I’m speaking almost Well, it’s it’s speech I was singing because it sounds more like your speaking voice. And so there’s, there’s a lot of value to exploring, and trying and having a bit of fun with it and pretending to be like this person or that person just to see what it feels like. So what advice would you give to someone who’s maybe has been a musician their whole life, or maybe has never done much music, but they’re starting as an adult to try to sing.

22:32
just have some fun with it, put on some music you like and see if you can learn the song. You know, see if you can sing along to it. See if you can sing it to someone and they know recognize what song it is, you know, like, just have enjoyed it’s important to have passion and joy in your singing.

22:55
Yeah, and follow your own.

22:58
Yeah, I would echo that I mean, really, it is I mean, it’s it’s our greatest expression of joy, and emotion, not just joy, it’s sadness, it’s, it’s the pathos, it’s whatever you’re feeling. And we really express that we can express that in words. But singing the singing voice does it in a whole other way. And that’s very cathartic. It’s really cathartic.

23:23
Yeah, because it’s your whole body. It’s you’re creating this depth of right tone. Right? I think a lot of people are shut up as well, like, not shut up, but they’re told to be quiet a lot, right? When it’s never never really given permission to scream and yell the way some of us got the chance as kids. Right?

23:43
Right. Singing is an opportunity to do that.

23:47
Well, and I would say that singing is essentially one of the first sounds that we as humans make if you think about like, baby’s cries, etc. And, and all of the first sounds that like infants make, they’re really closely akin to a lot of singing, right? And, and it’s just vocalization, it’s pitched vocalization. Absolutely. And your body is resonating that and a baby doesn’t think about like, Do I have enough breath to scream? They just breathe and scream?

24:19
It makes the biggest sound of the world you know, and

24:23
there’s no fear they just scream. So yeah, I think there’s but it’s this elemental like bass, the human thing that I think we all do. And it’s so important to connect back to that right?

24:39
Definitely. I call them primal sounds actually like their primal instinctive sounds like you know, like it’s kind of like you know that it’s like a cry or you’ve got Hey, you know, where you just have to shout it out the way you would to your friends at the other side of the street. And kids who have you know, some kids are obviously introverted versus extroverted, some kids are going to naturally express their voices more and some kids are naturally going to be a little bit more shy, but it depends a lot on that environment as well.

25:11
Yep, yep. Two ways about that. And you said something kind of interesting as well. I could have you emulate your stars, you’re in your bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, whatever it is, and you can be bono for a moment. You know, you take a wooden spoon and you rub it never, or you can be Pavarotti, or you can be you know, Joan Sutherland or someone more contemporary, more contemporary. Ciaran? No, these are reusable stars.

25:37
They’re real stars around for a long time.

25:42
You could be Ed Sheeran, Okay, there you go. Whatever. The current point is, you know, you do take on a persona, just you just be big, bold, have a paddle, just laugh at yourself, learn to laugh at yourself, enjoy it.

25:58
Exactly. That’s really good advice. And I’m sure anybody’s listening. Just get into the car, you know, somewhere, not as many people are going to notice you’re doing it and have a laugh and have a bit of fun. And so would you say that there’s that that singing but has bring it brought you on any kind of kind of a personal development journey, like in terms of confidence in general? Or empowerment? How would you say, maybe I’d start with you, Tara, how do you feel that you’re taking this journey with singing has, has brought you along as a person?

26:37
Oh, it’s so interconnected as you I still, by the way, I still study I have voice lessons every week. So I continue, I think, learning to connect my thoughts, to my words to my, to these muscles, and this whole, like, I use the word infrastructure, but I don’t know, whatever you want to call it. To connect, all of that is such an amazing gift as a human to be able to do that. And I feel like we’re never done on that journey. And I grew up very good at writing down my words, I wrote poetry since a kid and I’ve written lots and lots of words, but I wasn’t always good at speaking my mind. So that’s all connected as well to singing and, and being confident in vocalizing. I feel like if you have confidence in your singing in your performance, it it just kind of spills over into everything, feeling a little bit more connected, emotions, expression, etc. I don’t think I summed that up very well.

28:00
I love it. I love it. So Ciaran what would you say? What were his singing brought you?

28:08
It’s brought me from being a most painfully shy, individual, believe it or not as a as a kid, as a young kid. I was painfully shy

28:19
to this guy who won’t share the mic with me. All right. That’s right. You got to work for it.

28:30
You need two, you need two mics now in fairness.

28:34
But it has it has profoundly affected every part of who I am. Without a question in terms of just being, how to conduct yourself in a public crowd, how to socialize, how to publicly speak. So that people that would be in the corporate world, say, you know, I’m terrified to stand up and make a zoom call in front of 10 people and I’m terrified or go stand up in front of an audience of 10 or speak to the board of directors and I’m terrified. And I would have been that that person that had not been for my singing. There’s no two ways about that I would not be the human being that I am today. And, and it’s really it’s great and I also find mentally. It brings you into a whole other headspace a whole for the world of meditation, of reflection. So people get out of exercise or running hear about real runner’s highs and stuff like that. When you’re in zone when you’re singing, you’re just transported into a whole other world. And I find for your just mental state of great health. It’s a great, great place to find yourself. Hmm.

29:50
I would definitely agree and I just love that message. That you know that singing it really it is. I mean, first of all, when do people listen to you for Three minutes at a time unless you’re giving a speech. So when we stand up to sing a whole song, we’re basically asking people to give up their time for us. And we have to believe that that time is not going to be wasted. So we need to get to a point where we feel we can be almost like the boss of the room for that period of time. I would say a lot to my students as well that rather than focusing on Oh, I’m doing this but more so the song that I’m singing is about this. And I really believe this, I really believe in the message of this song and choosing songs that resonate with you as a person that are part of your soul. And that’s where a lot of magic comes into that communication then with the listener, and that makes it worthwhile for anybody to listen to you for three minutes.

30:50
But I think that’s the vital component. I think you need to truly and utterly get into the soul of the song. Understand what that means to you. What the poetry in the song what the music in the song mean to you, and express that, honestly, honestly, what it is to you. You know, you hear that from from artists to artists to being their people with great voices, not so great voices.

31:14
Bob Dylan has a terrible voice. And he has some of the greatest song repertoire in the world,

31:20
right? Right there.

31:22
Sorry if I offended anyone who likes his singing, but as you say, I mean, I like his singing. I like his singing for his, for his personality and for his honesty of what he’s saying. But he wasn’t blessed with Pavarotti voice.

31:37
Yeah, or even good pitch.

31:39
So no, none of that. But

31:42
that’s not what’s important. It’s the singing.

31:46
It is. It’s the intention behind the singing of Yeah, I

31:51
mean, he was a he was a social activist as well. So his his songs, what they spoke to was it was very current for the times and people, they get got support from that they felt understood by that. So there’s, there’s a lot of great reason to sing a song. But if anybody’s listening and you’re not usually a singer, that’s the key. Choose the song that matters, choose the one that matters to you. And then other people will enjoy listening to that. And I would say also, take some feedback, I do a song a jazz song called Skylark. I would go to the pub, and I sang it once. And that’s the one that my friends would want me to sing again. I don’t know exactly why that one is more reaches them more than some other songs that I do. But that when something like that happens, that’s what they know. There’s something magical happening if someone says, Oh, please sing that song like, how often do you get asked to sing something specific? They must like it.

32:52
That’s exactly right. Yeah. Right.

32:55
So tell me a little bit about the projects you both are working on at the moment. Ciaran, what do you what? What are you doing right now?

33:05
So we are gearing up to booking concerts. Amazing, finally. So super exciting time for our band, Ishna. So we have our first Christmas shows since 2019. First

33:24
six shows booked since 2019? Yeah. Oh, wait, I think we did one show in February 2020.

33:30
Yeah. Yeah, you got in just in time.

33:34
So that’s really yeah, it’s really exciting. And it’s really even more exciting, that we’re doing a big Christmas show in our little town in Peterborough, New Hampshire. So 18th of December. That’s super great. And so we’re programming out that into the new year. So updating websites, social media, stuff to go with that getting our band together, knocking off the cobwebs, and getting into performance mode, so that that feels really good. It’s nice to be talking to promoters, again, theatres again, in real terms. So that’s that’s super exciting and it is also super exciting to watch Tara for me creatively it’s a beautiful thing to watch Tara write her album and her music and put it out into the world. So those two projects for me are it are

34:28
you contributing to Tara’s project at all Ciaran?

34:33
moral moral

34:34
report

34:36
Tell us more Tara, tell us about the new project.

34:42
Um, so I mentioned earlier I I always wanted to put out a like my own sound, but that’s taken years of figuring out like, well, like, I spent so much time playing other people’s music and you become good at playing everyone else’s music. You almost have to, like, peel away the layers of the onion to figure out what is your music? What if you can play this and you can play that you can play that? What do you actually want to sound like if you don’t have to sound like any of that, which is both

35:18
liberating and terrifying

35:20
and Exactly, exactly. So that’s been like many year process literally the when I met Ciaran one of our first conversations was about this project, this future project of mine, he’s like, Well, what do you want to do, and this is what I talked about. And I was 25 then So, um, so this has always been there. And then I reached a point where I went, well, if I don’t just start doing it, it’s not going to happen. So So yeah, I just started writing and I’ve slowly been piecing together a team of people around me a producer, a co arranger, a vocal coach, like a design team, like it’s been a very slow process of piecing things together. And sometimes you find a piece and it’s not the right piece so it’s it’s also a very like, self exploration like journey of going like no, I don’t like that. Oh, I do like that. Oh, I want it to look like this. So I’m seven songs for the album are done now. And we’ve got three more to go. So

36:32
congratulations. Yeah. And we’re gonna finish up now in a moment and I’d love to hear if you have anything else that you’d like to say to our listeners. And then tell us a little bit about the piece of music that I’m going to be playing at the end

36:47
well i think the theme for today is sing America sing

36:50
Sing America sing please at every given opportunity

36:57
not not enough singing in the world not enough singing in the world definitely not in this country right now. Sing Sing sing.

37:05
That brings so much joy in every which way even if you bring people to tears. Beautiful still cathartic

37:13
It is, that’s it perfect.

37:15
Fantastic and the song that you guys have chosen for me to play tonight is called, hang on, I wrote it down. Cunla

37:25
Cunla Cunla traditional Irish

37:27
It’s a ghost, a ghost, the name of a ghost

37:33
see Halloween

37:34
witching saw we had we had to choose it.

37:38
I need to make sure that this this podcast goes out just before Halloween then.

37:41
There you go. It’s a traditional Irish song. It’s actually really kind of scary. It was a song and nursery song like sung to put children to bed, which is really scary. It was like more like a threat. It’s like this ghost is knocking at the window and it’s going to basically come get you if you don’t go to bed. So but Ciaran sings the song in Irish so no one will know that the words are that scary. So there

38:12
was a lot of scary lullabies that one, you know, Rockabye Baby is scary as well.

38:20
That’s true.

38:20
Exactly Cunla is a lot, a lot of fun. I mean, it’s a great intermingle of vocal patter. So you’re not just like doing this beautiful melodic line stuff, it’s very much vocal patter, it’s percussive, the band has a great opportunity to play along there’s great interaction between the vocalist and the band.

38:41
It is one of these very interesting Irish songs that is both a stand alone stand alone vocal song and a standalone traditional five part instrumental Jig. So it and and that is very unusual to have this overlap of like you’d have it would come up in a session for instrumentalists and not be sung, or it could become it could come up as a vocal tune. So we took both the instrumental version with all the extended parts and the vocal part and kind of interwove them together with all sorts of interesting like contemporary world percussion and different grooves and etc.

39:22
Wonderful and you were involved in the kind of the arrangement Tara, Is that right?

39:27
Yes, yes, I I take irresponsibly responsibility for my dance arrangement I’m

39:34
playing as well. Your fiddle Yes,

39:36
I’m playing I’m playing

39:37
Now that Tara is doing more singing might be bit more sympathetic towards singers because up to now the challenge is every arrangement for the vocalist, ie me has been like, what how difficult can I make this? How difficult? many words can I put into this? How fast can I make it go? How can I change the time signatures etc. To make this just as difficult as possible,

40:04
I know that Tara studied jazz music so that is a problem that jazzers tend to have. They want to make everything sound cool. And you do have to say that again.

40:17
She succeeds it’s cool. It is That’s it. That’s it.

40:25
You’re up to the challenge and I am absolutely delighted that you guys were able to come and meet me and and do this podcast and thank you to everybody who has been listening I hope you feel encouraged to start trying something sing nice things sing American sing. And let us know what you think of the show and and you know, you know, just go for it. And like a Tara saying that she has a vocal coach, like taking lessons is a great way to start or starting in choir or to sing at home. And we would love to see more people singing no matter what stage you’re at with it. So coming up, we have Cunla. And it’s by the your group Ishna. Correct? Correct. Yeah. Thank you so much, Tara and Ciaran for joining me tonight.

41:16
Absolute pleasure. Thank

41:17
Sing America Sing