On their third album „Fiannaíocht“, CELTACHOR went through notable changes: It is the first record that sees the Irish folk metallers using clean vocals and their folk parts are much more prominent. In the following interview with drummer Anais, singer Stiofan and guitarist Daithi you can read more about their member changes, Irish mythology as their source of inspiration as well as their ambitions behind their latest music videos.
Your first release with CELTACHOR, the demo „Signs Of War“, came out exactly ten years ago. What comes to mind when you think about it?
Anais: I only joined the band in 2010 myself, after „Signs Of War“ and „In The Halls Of Our Ancient Fathers“ demos, so eight years ago. The musical adventure we have had so far is incredible! If back then someone had made me listen to our last album „Fiannaíocht“ and told me we were going to write this, I would never have believed it.
Stiofan: We have done many great trips, gigs and festivals over the last ten years to be frank, though we only really became a working band since 2010 with a proper full line-up but the band was started ten years ago definitely. Very few people actually have a copy of „Signs Of War“, at the time it was really to test the waters with some ideas, only when we recorded “In The Halls Of Our Ancient Fathers” did we truly develop the sound we wanted. It has been an amazing few years, lots of great memories, spreading the word and stories of Irish Mythology!
Daithi: I think about the massive steps we have taken as musicians and as a band to get this far and achieve the goals which we have. „Signs Of War“ will always be where we started CELTACHOR. It is not pretty and clean, it is dirty and gritty. It has an attitude about it that has stuck with us and which I feel we can be proud of. CELTACHOR to myself is individual and at the same time unifying. I always wanted our music and songs to be able to stand apart from each other and yet complement each other.
When you look back at the history of your band, what was the most exciting experience for you during your time with CELTACHOR?
Anais: Personally I would say the recording of our last album… hearing this monster building up in the studio, layers after layers brought me tears of joy. There were also some unforgettable gigs like our second Warhorns, Zobens Un Lemess in beautiful Latvia, and Darktroll in Germany!
Stiofan: Plenty of times to choose from but I think between Latvia and Netherlands, they were some of the best experiences, and our time in France too! Hard to simplify down to one experience… so many great times!
Daithi: I think being asked to perform outside of our country was a huge step, but also being asked by your peers to play alongside them is a brilliant feeling. I think that now we excel playing live and that people really get to see and experience our music the way we have wished them to.
Have you also had periods during which it was difficult for you to keep the band going?
Anais: Like any band, we had our difficulties, the worst was probably when life happened to all of us, and we nearly all moved in a different city. Meeting up to write music together became difficult, and we had to rethink our way of doing it. At the beginning it was frustrating, but I believe we found our balance now!
Daithi: For sure every band goes through changes, we have had very few line-up changes but when it happened it was always for the better. As Anais said, life happens to everyone, you kind of think “ok, this might be the end”… But our drive and ambition is such that we didn’t want to let everyday life take over.
After your last album „Nuada Of The Silver Arm“ you got a new bassist and a new violinist. How did it come about and why did you choose Robert and Liam in particular?
Anais: Our old bassist Oliver Deegan had left the band so we did need a bassist. I knew Robert for a long time and I even had a band with him for a couple of years, I knew he was motivated and that he had his interest in Irish history, mythology and language. He was the perfect candidate. The violin was different, we felt our music was missing something, we wanted the violin sound, not the usual Irish folk violin one, something we even had trouble describing, really. We looked for a violinist, we tried a few people, and Liam showed up, with his energy and his classical training, he took up the challenge.
Daithi: Yup, that’s it, these two guys are very energetic and that works great for all of us.
Was this accompanied by a big change in the band’s dynamic or did you rather quickly get used to each other?
Anais: It took a while, for the violin especially, since all our old tracks had been written without violin in them, for Liam it was certainly not easy to write his part on top of them. Writing together took a good bit of discussing, trying out ideas, again and again. It took a lot of patience and thankfully Liam had it. There were some issues live at the beginning also, Liam needed to get a series of gear to be able to hear himself on stage, which took a while as all instruments and gear cost an arm nowadays. Now I am 100% happy to say we got our balance live.
Daithi: It was certainly a challenge, we had tinkered with ideas before, but found it hard to include some of these elements for a while. We didn’t want to have a part here and there in and out of the music, if we were to add a dynamic then it had to be all or nothing. We took our time and we learnt how to work together, which benefited us massively I think. Our sound and performance are better than ever before, and it is so much more enjoyable to play than ever.
Your latest record „Fiannaíocht“ is your third album. Were Robert and Liam also involved in the songwriting?
Anais: Absolutely, we all write together. Everyone brings ideas, everyone discusses everyone’s ideas. It sounds messy, but somehow that’s the way it works for us.
Daithi: As part of the introduction of them to our band we needed to involve them 100%. You cannot just be in this for the sake of being in a band, you have to get involved. So from the first days we wanted them to become fully part of CELTACHOR. That means being involved in its creativity, ideas and decision making.
On the new record you use more folk elements and clean vocals. What led you to this stylistic reorientation?
Anais: It all came naturally; we are open to anything in the band. Stephen, our vocalist, started to learn clear singing a few years ago and discovered his deep powerful voice and surprised us all! Robert took up his Irish harp and his bouzouki, we absolutely love these layers in our music.
Daithi: I think, at the beginning of writing the album we wanted the folk element to be more prevalent in a way. We have always toyed around with acoustic instruments to see what we could add, and with recording a new album we had the ideal opportunity to do so. We have never held back on the folk side of the band, I know people might think we did with “Nuada” but the elements are there.
Were there listeners who were sceptical about your latest development or did you receive positive feedback throughout?
Anais: There has been a huge majority of positive feedback for this album. You always get some people who didn’t get exactly what they wanted, but we cannot and won’t please everyone. But once again, I can only remember one bad review in all those I saw.
„Fiannaíocht“ tells the story of the group of warriors of the same name from Irish mythology. How did you come across this tale and why did you choose it to be the concept of your new album?
Anais: This album is focused on the life of Finn of the Fianna, which is a fascinating part of Irish Mythology. As a tradition in the band, it is Stephen who decides on the subject of the next release, and he decided on this one. I believe he knows everything about Irish Mythology, and he could probably give you an unprepared lecture about it for two days and two nights without a break.
Stiofan: One of my favourite stories and sagas in Irish mythology, his story from his youth to his death is absolutely huge in scale, with our most recent album we barely cover the beginning of his whole life and training to become the leader of the Fianna. I think we have really captured his first major moments of his life, and set up all the other stories and adventures to come! Generally, I would come up with a rough concept from Irish Mythology either focusing on a pivotal battle or important king, the concepts gets worked on by the whole band and we really try to paint a picture into the mind of the listener. Try to make them feel that they are living and breathing in that same time with the heroes and warriors of the mythological cycle.
What do the legends of Ireland in general mean to you? Is it perhaps even more than simple curiosity and interest?
Anais: It is a beautiful part of Irish tradition, unique to this country, that is sadly slowly getting forgotten. Everyone today talks about Vikings and about Scandinavian Mythology, which are obviously wonderful subjects, but Irish mythology should not drown under it.
Stiofan: It is the only reason CELTACHOR exists! We believe that the tales need to be told fully and really fleshed out fully, we don’t believe these stories can be told properly and catch the listener’s attention if they are condensed into one song. The bands whole ethos is to tell the stories of Irish Mythology and keep the ancient traditions alive, as to have them lost to the past would be a fate too terrible to comprehend.
Daithi: It is heroic, romantic and tragic… all in that order. I think it gives a sense of belonging to the myth and legend of our country. In a way, you get an idea of how the heroes or villains react to each other and how their society worked around them. So we, when we write, try to portray a sense of the stories through our music. It is incredibly hard to tell a whole story in one song, so sometimes it can be a tiny but important detail of it that we will choose to develop into the entire song.
Did you find it difficult to incorporate all the necessary lyrics into your songs and still maintain a certain flow in the vocals?
Stiofan: Not at all, it is a very simple process, it just takes a bit of time to visualize how the end result will form and sound. Also the flow of the vocals can change dramatically depending on what is happening in the story itself.
I have the impression that you wanted to underline your storytelling even more through the use of interludes and the general structure of the album. Is that true and do you think that this has resulted your most consistent album to date?
Anais: I see what you mean, and you could think so by listening to the album, but it was not something we did on purpose, it just happened this way.
You even turned the opener „Sons Of Morna“ into a music video. What was it like for you to shoot this video?
Anais: It was a huge amount of work, a huge amount of help needed, a huge amount of money when you have no budget… But the result is a million times worth all of this. In the end, videos are probably the best way to tell Irish Mythology and get some interest, I wish we could make more. I think we will.
Stiofan: Anais and Fiona did some incredible work with this and all the help of the cast and crew who made it possible! It really does the beginning tale of Finn of the Fianna justice and the Druid Finegas with the Salmon of Knowledge really works so well in terms of adapting the source material perfectly.
Daithi: Anais did it all, she’s super like that!
Why was it important to you to give a song a visual adaptation and why did you choose exactly this track?
Anais: We chose this track a lot in advance, and when we did the album was maybe only 60% written… but it was necessary: you need a lot of time to make a video, and we wanted to have it ready for the release. I absolutely wanted to use the summer time also, as I knew we would shoot outside mostly. You also have to think of which track you CAN make a video of, and of course we would all love to shoot a battle, but you would need so much more people, time and money to make it! I still think „Sons Of Morna“ was the best choice.
You also created a music video for „Tears Of Aoife“, although this is only an instrumental interlude. What was your intention behind it?
Anais: Since the first time I heard this recording sent by Stephen, I could see the imagery behind it. The mountains of Wicklow, the wind in the leaves, the solitary Irish whistle player, the echo of battles past. I really wanted to make it happen. It was simple enough to do, compared to „Sons Of Morna“, so we just went for it.
Of course, „Fiannaíocht“ should be heard as a full-length concept album. Is there still a song on it that surpasses all the others in your opinion?
Anais: I keep changing my mind about which one is my favourite. That’s the beauty about the album, amoungst the reviewers none seems to agree on which track is the best, I am really glad about this. At the moment my favourite is the last track, „Dubh, Dun Agus Liath“.
Stiofan: I really like „King Of Tara“ myself, but I love the whole album from start to finish. I honestly have not stopped listening to it since we have had it out on CD. I hope our fans enjoy it as much as we enjoyed creating it!
Daithi: Yes it is hard to pick a favourite, and that is a really great thing as well, it means every track can hold its own, and that we made the right choices. But for me today my favourite song is „The Battle On The Shore“.
What are your next plans for CELTACHOR?
Anais: We know what we will write about next, but we will announce it in time. For now we simply would like to play gigs!
Stiofan: Mainly writing and working on some ideas we have for the next release! Hopefully some festivals too? If there is anyone interested in booking us, please send us an email to celtachorofficial@hotmail.com We will get back to you in no time at all.
Daithi: We want to play live as much as possible and wherever possible. We are available and looking for bookings, so people can contact us or get in touch with their local promoter. They can do so via email or via our Facebook page.
Finally, I would like to go through our traditional Metal1.info-Brainstorming with you. What comes to your mind while reading the following terms?
Cruachan: Anais: Lasagna
Stiofan: Gukbley
Daithi: Beer
Guinness: Anais: Frying pan
Stiofan: SHAUN
Daithi: Da Black Stuff
Electronic music: Anais: Oyster
Stiofan: Cocoa Fancy
Daithi: Beep boop
Polytheism: Anais: Mosquito
Stiofan: Tea
Daithi: Aliens
Football: Anais: Raphael Nadal
Stiofan: Tiger Woods
Daithi: Michael Jordan
The European Union: Anais: Tacos
Stiofan: Delicious donuts
Daithi: I’m hungry.
A big thank you again for your answers. I’d like to leave the final words to you:
Anais: Thank you, and hopefully see you soon around your town! And apologies about the last question.
Stiofan: Slainte agus Tainte! Thank you for the interview!
Daithi: Thank you for your time, please enjoy the album, tell you friends and promoters, we want to play and see all guys for a pint.
8. August 2018 Stephan Rajchl