 | INTERVIEW WITH LAUREN MacCOLL
BBC Folk and Acoustic has a quick chat with Lauren with the newly-won Award still in her hands ...
BBC FOLK & ACOUSTIC:
Congratulations, Lauren! How did you feel when you heard the announcement?
LAUREN MacCOLL:
It's still not sunk in, really! I suppose when John was announcing it, he was dropping small hints like "She ...", so he was gradually narrowing it down but even when he said "she" and then said "fiddle player", I still didn't really associate it ... Everyone was so brilliant, the bands and singers, I just don't know how they judged it at all. They had a worse job than us, I think!
Did you enjoy the semi-final, was that a good weekend?
Oh, definitely. It was brilliant. It was the first time I'd ever played in England and the first time I'd ever been involved in any kind of scene like that, especially the whole Folkworks thing, it's not something I've ever been involved in or knew anything about. So that was an eye-opener. Just meeting people, and different bands, the whole thing - they distracted us from the fact that it was a competition, and the group work thing - it was all just a laugh really, and so was today.
You're a full-time student at the moment at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dance?
Yeah, full-time in second year. So that's keeping me busy at the moment with various things.
Because you're busy studying, do you get time to go out and do gigs?
Yeah, we're actively encouraged that playing and even going out to the pub for a tune is vital to what we're doing. I think if we sat in at the books all the time, it's nothing to do with musicianship. No, there's plenty of time for gigs and a lot of gigs have come through the academy. I've been to Oslo, there's a BBC TV programme that we all took part in for MME, that's on just now ... there's plenty of opportunity and they do all they can to make sure that you've got the time to pursue your own interests as well as what's good for them.
Did you have a musical family background?
No, not at all. There was two fiddles in my family and they both came from my mother's uncles who I never met or heard play but there was two fiddles lying about. I played the violin at school, the usual school violin lessons. It was through the Fèisean movement, the week-long summer school that I went to since I was - I think Primary 6 - quite young, anyway. That was just seen as holiday more than anything but gradually got me into playing.
Traditional music is regarded as a bit more 'normal' in Scotland, more so than in England ....
I don't really know the scene but I would say that it is. It's a very social thing as well, it was never a competition in the way that this is a competition, it's a very social thing, playing informally, playing for ceilidhs ....
When you were at school, was it also something you did with school friends?
Never with school friends, there was never any traditional music in the school I went to. It was all outside school and just in that week every year I would go away for the week and just listen to CDs and immerse myself.
What will you do in the summer break?
Last year I combined a part-time job and did a few teaching jobs - I teach quite a lot, quite a lot of my time's spent teaching, which I love, but I think this year there's a few more things lined up and hopefully through this, there will be more ...
Because you're doing music full-time anyway, it should all fit in, more easily than if you'd been doing other things full time.
Exactly. I couldn't imagine really doing anything else!
What are your plans for the future?
Hopefully to just keep going on, and keep up with the teaching as well because it's really rewarding. I love teaching, especially kids ... so hopefully a combination that works. Just try and keep busy really. There's a lot of fiddles here!
What are you going to do now, tonight?
Tonight? The bar! (laughter) Not going to have too late a one because we've got the Scots Trad Music Awards tomorrow night in Edinburgh. I'm going up to support the Fèisean, they've been nominated for one of the awards ... it's Rita Hunter, she's been nominated as Personality Of The Year. She's kind of my surrogate mother - she's kept me going, she organises everything that I've ever been involved in at the Fèisean so I'm gonna go and support her and cheer her on for a change, she's been doing that for the last goodness knows how many years!
At which point we let Lauren off the hook to relax and celebrate her well-deserved award.
| |  | |
| | |
Young Folk Award 2004/5
