When most people hear the words ‘Irish music’, their minds go to one of two extremes: Riverdance or U2.
But what if there was a middle-ground where contemporary music meets with thumping traditional Irish in a glorious union of song and dance? Enter Sásta (Gaelic for ‘happy’), an Australian band that does just that. Led by frontman, vocalist, guitarist, bodhran and bouzouki player, Mick Hughes, this ultra-talented ensemble of multi-instrumentalists are reshaping preconceived notions of Irish music. “There’s different types of Irish music,” Mick explains.
“You’ve got your typical Irish band which is the old guy singing the ballads, singing ‘The Wild Rover’ and sloshing his pint of Guinness up in the air and there’s a place for that, it’s great and there’s guys that do that around Australia and they do it well. Then you get the other guys who do four guys sitting in a row, pretty lifeless, but the music is very good, playing traditional Irish music.”
Sásta strikes a happy balance between the extremes by seamlessly blending traditional Irish music with contemporary songs and styles to create a unique fusion of sound that has seen them take on everything from classical, to rock and even The King Of Pop. “We do an Irish version of ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, for example, so you’ll hear that riff in the tune all the way through it. We also do an Irish version of ‘I Want You Back’ by Michael Jackson and we drop from an Irish tune into a reggae beat for 30 seconds then pop back into our Riverdance stuff.
“We’re kind of trying to sexy it up a little bit really, I suppose,” he says with a laugh. “We play a bit more of a Mumford & Sons type of beat with Irish music but it’s a lot more folky and a lot more Irish because we want to stay true to our roots.”
Anyone feeling the urge to connect with the little bit of Irish blood we all claim to have, especially on St. Patrick’s Day, can get their fill of Sásta during QPAC’s Front Yard Music programme on Friday evening, featuring food, wine and free music on the Melbourne Street Green.
“We’re really looking forward to the QPAC gig, it should be really good fun,” Mick says. “We’ve played a good few of these world music things before: we’ve played in King George Square at Christmas time and done all that kind of stuff. So I’m really looking forward to it, they’re always great fun and it’s a little bit different.”
Sásta perform Queensland Performing Arts Centre's Front Yard Music Programme, 12 June.
