2020 is Year Of Scotland In Australia, the largest celebratory showcase of Scottish music and heritage in Australia, and Glaswegian folk favourites The Langan Band can't wait to get in on the party.
The Langan Band have developed a fierce reputation for their live shows, embracing their sense of spontaneity and surprise to keep audiences on their toes.The band was formed by John Langan not long after he won the prestigious Danny Kyle Award for new artists at Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow. John is joined by classically trained violinist Alastair Caplin and double bassist David Tunstall. Together, this trio concocts a potent distillation of traditional and progressive folk with the in-your-face attitude of alternative rock.
Ahead of their trip to Australia, we catch up with The Langan Band for a wee craic about life, music and what they're bringing to the table in 2020.
What's been happening for The Langan Band in 2019?
Dave: Well funnily enough, after a decade of touring, festival madness and shenanigans, we took our first ever sabbatical year this year. It’s been a nice change to not be travelling to the other end of the country every week, and to get into different projects.
John's been building his epic boathouse, and getting asked to build other people's boathouses 'cause he’s getting good at it. Ali got married and has been tearing into all kinds of composition work for films and stuff; and me, after living the bohemian life in London for a fair few years, I’ve moved home to Scotland and enjoying the Edinburgh life and it’s great music scene doing regular local gigs with some new projects I’ve got going.
Over ten years into the project, what have been some of the highlights of playing in The Langan Band?
Dave: That would imply that there were highs and lows, haha!
Seriously though, there’s so much fantastical imagery that recalls when I think about it all. What a blessing. So many places with so many grinning, lovely people dancing their absolute arses off, like really having it like there's no tomorrow.
There’s been some milestones in terms of achievement, like playing the old fruit market in Glasgow, our home city, where we grew up going to see so many awesome gigs in that legendary atmospheric venue. So to play for 2,000 fans singing along to our songs was emotional to say the least.
There was also being asked to perform in London’s famous Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare’s plays were first performed. All the music in there is usually period Elizabethan music, and we were the first and I think still the only non-period act to be asked to perform there.
I think the booker had been dancing his socks off to us at some festival, haha. We got it filmed really nice so there’s a lovely YouTube of it for anyone interested. Search 'Langan Band Winter Song' and it should come up.
Then I have to mention That Secret Garden Party gig. It’s a huge festival in England. We played there for the first time in 2011, in a kind of circus marquee. I’d just woken up in time for the gig, as I’d gone at it pretty hard the night before, like I did in those days.
Still rubbing the sleep out my eyes after the first song, John announced to the crowd that we were going to remove an item of clothing after each song! Aw naw, I thought! No way! But we did, and we got the entire crowd naked. During the last song, there was a stage invasion, and you couldn’t have fitted any more naked, sweaty bodies on that stage.
People heard about that all over the place, and for a while folk were turning up at our gigs and asking us to get our kit off. It got a bit weird, haha, but that would be why, when we were stuck for any ideas for our album art, John had the idea to pose for a life-drawing class.
Do you see yourself moving on from the band to a new project?
John: I think this band will always be my main project. Although I can see our style evolving as time goes on. We have always been well known as a late-night party band, which we do very well. But we also have a softer, more emotional side which both us and our fans love.
On our previous albums we have squeezed songs like 'The Winter Song' and 'Djelem Djelem' to break up the oompa. I can see us heading down that road a bit more.
As Dave said, we have all taken a year off this year to focus on other projects. Mine being of a very un-musical nature. It has been quite a journey and I’m learning a lot, but the days when I’m covered in rust dust and tripping out on the fumes of noxious paint I find myself missing the stage more and more and now I can’t wait to get back on it and start sweating over my guitar again instead of an angle grinder.
We are all currently involved in another musical project called Band Of Burns. Directed by our very own fiddler, Alastair. It’s a 12-piece band focusing on the works of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. It’s a really nice project to be involved in.
I love the fact that I am not always centre stage, and it’s not all about the party. The audience are sat down and completely engaged, so singing becomes more about the tone and subtlety, and I really enjoy those kind of gigs as well as our all-out dance parties.
Needless to say, it’s a pleasure and an honour to be on stage with such a plethora of amazing musicians. We’re very spoiled with who we’ve got working together with us on this one.
Any Australian folk acts you listen to?
Dave: Unfortunately, very few Australian bands seem to make it over to the UK or get much exposure over here. I’m really curious to know what’s going on over your way, so checking out other acts is something I’m really looking forward to doing on this tour.
I’m not a massive folky to be honest. I’m not a genre listener. There’s a small percentage of every genre that I think is the real cream, the real artists, the seminal stuff. That’s what I like to hear, across all genres. So there’s some folk stuff I’ve heard that I love, and there will be plenty more out there I’m sure I need to hear.
There’s is a really nice progressive kinda folk pop band I'm aware of from Melbourne, who some of you may be familiar with called Oh Pep. I only know them because Pep resides in Scotland during your winter, our summer, and she absolutely tears it up at the gypsy jazz and bluegrass on both the fiddle and mandolin.
I play with her regularly at a weekly gypsy jazz night I run in Edinburgh and we’ve become good pals. I’m playing with her tonight as it happens.
Your upcoming Australian tour – is it the band's first trip to Australia? What are you hoping to get out of the experience?
John: Yes, it’s our first trip down under. Well, the tour is happening near the end of our long, cold winter so I’m hoping to get a tan and some heat in my bones.
Seriously though, we’re all very much looking forward to playing for a completely new audience and seeing how our tunes go down with you guys. I’ve always wanted to go to Oz and what better way to do it than an epic tour. Hopefully we will go down well and put down some roots that will allow us to come back again and again.
What's something stereotypically Australian you'd like to do while here?
John: For a start, I’ve promised my son I’ll bring him back a boomerang. We’ve got to have a day with a barbie on the beach, do some surfing and get third-degree sunburn.
Dave: I play bagpipes, and I’d love to find an awesome didge player to jam with; reckon it would be awesome if they have one of those tuneable telescopic ones and could tune into the drones of my pipes. Like a drone, but grooving along to some banging pipe tunes. That’d be so much fun; wanted to do that for years but it’s hard to find a decent didge player in Scotland!
How did you come to discover Nannup Music Festival?
Lisa (Showcase Scotland): The band were part of an event in 2018 where 25 Australian music professionals and industry came to Scotland. Nannup were one of the festivals. Those festivals had an idea to create A Year Of Scotland across Australia in 2020.
Since then, the year has grown to be the largest ever presentation of Scottish music and culture with over 300 concerts expected in over 100 towns and cities with over 200 community groups involved and 30 plus festival partners.
Why are regional events such as Nannup Music Festival important to The Langan Band?
John: I can't speak for Nannup, as I've never been there, but these kind of events are important everywhere, for everyone.
As well as a place to be entertained, these events can open people's eyes to a new world of music and art. They can provide a safe space for people to really let themselves go and open up. A place to make new friends and lovers. Festivals can be life changing. I know it was my first one that made me realise that there were so many amazing people out there doing amazing things, and that I could be a part of it too.
Tell us what a live show from The Langan Band is like?
John: This spring I was at a beautiful little festival in Wales called Fire In The Mountain. When the headline band were playing, I decided to get right down the front of the stage.
The band were going for it and the crowd were going absolutely wild in response to the point where the whole crowd we’re in a complete frenzy, a writhing, sweaty mosh pit of bodies. I saw my friend who knows The Langan Band well and I asked him 'is this what it’s like to be at one of our gigs?'. 'This is nowhere near as mental as one of your gigs John,' he said.
Our gigs are very high energy, but also very dynamic. We like to try to take the audience on a journey.
Dave: We hope that after our gigs, the audience feel like they’ve just watched a very entertaining and touching movie, but one that they’ve danced like crazy all the way through haha.
What's coming next from The Langan Band as we head into 2020?
John: We’ll be picking up where we left off starting with a headline show at Celtic Connections festival, Glasgow, in January. We’ll have a couple new songs under our belt and over the course of the year will be putting a new album’s worth of songs together.
After a year off, I’m really looking forward to jamming and getting creative with Dave and Ali again, and seeing what new music we come up with.
The Langan Band 2020 Tour Dates
Sat 29 Feb - Settlers Tavern (Margaret River)1-2 Mar - Nannup Music Festival (WA)
Tue 3 Mar - Fremantle Fibonacci Centre
Thu 5 Mar - The Spotted Mallard (Melbourne)
6-9 Mar - Port Fairy Folk Festival (VIC)
Thu 12 Mar - Smith's Alternative (Canberra)
13-14 Mar - Blue Mountains Music Festival
