A Interview with North Strand Klezmer Band

Daragh meets

 "It all just came out of getting your mind blown, and then thinking, how do you do that?"

Every now and then life kicks out a few surprises, short sharp blasts of the bizarrely unexpected that snap your head back, ease you into calm euphoria and lace a memory with the exotic. If you were in Walter's bar at last years Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures, or on the streets afterwards as band turned buskers, and town turned venue, chances are that unexpected blast caught you right between the eyes, as the Balkan beats of the Romanov Gypsies chalked up another victim.

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The North Strand Klezmer Band are 6 lads from the Northside of Dublin. Up until their appearance at the Dun Laoghaire festival they were buskers, peddling the fast and frenzied music of the gypsy, but when the going gets weird the weird turn pro, and the festival of World Cultures marked a dramatic turning point in the lives of these young musicians. "The one thing that sealed the deal was the Dun Laoghaire festival, when we walked around and invaded Burger King. I don't know how it happened but we were one of the highlights of the World Music Festival. So we got on the highlights (show) because of that, and the minute we did that the offers just poured in. I suppose we did a good job at the right time?"

Promoters took note, the Gaiety booked them as residents, and soon radio and TV followed suit. It was a sudden turnaround in fortune, and one which lead them down a path far removed from the traditional plight of young Dublin bands.

For the North Strand Klezmer Band, things have been different. Rushed into the limelight they have been playing ever since, struggling to find their feet and cope with the increasing pressures of a working band.

Forced to turn professional far faster than the average band, (most try to let music pay their way), the NSKB have in some ways become victims of their own success. In interview it comes across repeatedly, a sense of frustration at the demands placed on a working band, and the realisation that earning a pay cheque does not always leave much time for creativity. "There isn't much new stuff in what we're doing, it all started with getting ready for a gig in the gaiety, and we just rushed a set together. We had two months to rush two hours of material together."

Perhaps however, this departure from the standard band route is fitting, as in these days of angular guitars, sharp haircuts and empowering cool, the NSKB paint a slightly different (and definitely not as glamorous) picture. The core line up consists of clarinet, accordion, saxophone, acoustic guitar, bass and percussion, a far cry from the rigid constraints of the indie scene. "All bands fall into a scene, and we didn't really have one, sure there's a trad scene? but we're not really trad." The music itself is fast and frenzied; the ancient music of the Balkan's it has at its core the wide appeal of all traditional music, yet it swings demented, an unhinged take on the familiar providing the necessary spark of intrigue. To see its effect on a crowd is a strange experience, the Irish Times described them as "Dublin's best party band" but this moniker seems too stoic, restrained. At its best the music combines the excitement of Pamplona, or Carnival, while reeling in the dizzying effects of inverted vertigo.

Attempting to pin down the appeal of the band is often elusive. Essentially they are a trad band, but to steal some trekkies phrase, 'it's trad, but not as we know it.' Most Irish people simply haven't heard anything like this before, a blend of Romanov culture, Jewish wedding music, with the subtle shapings of an Arabic influence. Undeniably this has been a crucial factor in their success thus far, a fact that the band themselves readily admit. "We're so lucky that we're in a country where 90% of the people don't know what the music is, that's why we've been successful, because it's foreign and new, but that can only last a certain amount of time. Shit gets old pretty quick."

The inevitable question as to how 6 Dublin lads became hooked on Klezmer is one the band have clearly heard before? "you tell him the story, I'll grab a pint." Daniel and Luke's (clarinet and accordion respectively) father is the songwriter Wally Page, "and one of his mates Johnny was travelling around Turkey and basically came back with all this stuff. Daniel was starting to pick up the clarinet at the time, and anyone who is any use at the clarinet plays that kind of stuff." Simple, really.

Surprisingly however for such lovers of the sound, the band are fully aware of the genre's limitations, and its potentially limiting factor on their futures? "I've had people coming up after a gig saying, 'jesus it was like you were testing us to see how long we could go, like a bleep test,'" Aware of the hybrid nature of most traditional art, "?travel, mix what you hear with what you know? and that's what we're doing, what we want to do" they seem determined to find their own mark, to stamp something truly Irish on the sound, but that of course, is easier said than done.

Recent support slots and gigs with Kila and Liam O'Maonlai have provided a foothold into the traditional Irish music scene, and so far the response has been good. A fusion of their passion and their bloodline, seems to be the next logical step, and is clearly where the band want to head, as they develop their sound "Sticking to the Klezmer/Balkan back beat, but veering off into other things. Especially trad, because we're Irish.. If we can make a style of music that's that and Irish, then you've got a card up your sleeve."

The recent success of indie kids Beirut has definitely highlighted the potential widespread appeal of this music, if only an original take can be found. Yet that originality is what is missing at the moment, as the band play the standard catalogue of the genre, an act similar to that of countless working bands across Europe. The future is promising, with recent forays into a trad hybrid going down well on stage, and the addition of a part time fiddle adding increased depth and dimension to the sound.
"We're kind of at a turning point now, hopefully it's a wave up and not a wave down, we want to try and morph into something a bit more us, and less a Klezmer cover band which we have been. We're a ballsy Klezmer cover band, but still just a cover band."

Ambition and dreams are all well and good, but only time will tell if this band can get to where they want to go. If the NSKB succeed in putting a distinctly Irish stamp on the gypsy sound, they could enter territory where only The Pogues have gone before, and perhaps more than any other band they have the potential to define the new newly emerging, multicultural Ireland. For now though they remain of the moment, a ballsy Klezmer cover band, and on any given night of the week, that is proving more than enough.

Daragh Murray

Check out a review of North Strand Klezmer Band live in Dublin