Peter Street: Tradition, Innovation and a New Album

Transcript

Episode transcript

Elizabeth Stack: Welcome to In the Building at St. John's Theatre with myself, Elizabeth Stack, the Artistic Director, and we're delighted to welcome John Paul Reynolds from the band Peter Street, who are playing a gig later on in the month here. They're playing on the 26th of August, so get your tickets now. But I'm delighted to have a quick chat with you and just talk to you about your process and your love of music and, you know, the whole thing really. So welcome and thank you.

John Paul Reynolds: Absolutely, thank you.

Elizabeth Stack: So we were just catching up a little bit before we recorded and you were saying you grew up in America. So can you talk to me a little bit about that, that how Irish music and Irish traditional, particularly traditional music, is so important to you? You know, the culture was maybe something that you had to sort of pick up because you were not at home.

John Paul Reynolds: Yeah, absolutely. So it was kind of, it was kind of everything, like whenever I started playing around eight or nine years old, from then on, like my mother was a teacher, my father played, so I played ceilidhs with them. And of course, there was ceilidh bands and Grupa Ceols and fleadhs and different festivals like the Catskills Irish Arts Week was very important. It wasn't as readily available, I suppose, you know, it was very deliberate. My parents bringing me ceilidhs and bringing me to sessions and it was all thanks to them, really, that I had the had the music, you know, I was brought up with it so strongly.

John Paul Reynolds: And yeah, I always looked forward to coming here for the fleadhs or for Willy Clancy Week or whatever.

Elizabeth Stack: Yeah, Willie Clancy yeah. Well, it's amazing you know, I lived in New York, too, for a long time. And so I do think there's actually a thriving kind of scene over there now with, you know, McLean Avenue band in Woodlawn and the various kind of parishes and stuff. You know, of course, you see it on St. Patrick's Day, probably most of all with the different bands. But there is actually like a thriving scene, I suppose, particularly in New York, maybe not all of the states. But we're lucky like that our culture has traveled and is appreciated by second and third and fourth generation, not just recent immigrants like your parents, you know. Do you write your own at all or, you know?

John Paul Reynolds: I've written tunes, yeah, I haven't written a tune in a while, but I used to enjoy writing tunes like a kind of escape. But one of my bandmates, actually, Keelan McGrath, the accordion player on Peter Street, he composes quite a few tunes. And I think he just released a solo album and he has some of his own original compositions on that.

Elizabeth Stack: OK, well, that's great. So you would have known Joanie Madden and all of those, I suppose, over in the Bronx, did you? And there's a huge Pearl River, too, I think. And yeah.

John Paul Reynolds: Yeah. So that was the school I grew up with. My mother was the flute teacher.

Elizabeth Stack: Oh, good. Yeah. Those were my bands.

John Paul Reynolds: And Joanie Madden. Yeah, of course, she's we're lucky enough that she's bringing us on her cruise every year to perform. So that's been an honour to play.

Elizabeth Stack: Absolutely. Oh, yeah. And she's great crack. The shows are huge.

John Paul Reynolds: You know, the show before I even played, like, you know, I knew Joni. She's been very good to us. Yeah.

Elizabeth Stack: And you're going to Belfast for the, for the fleadh I mean.

John Paul Reynolds: Yeah, we're going we're going. Well, this week is Belfast trad. So we're going up. We have a gig at that. Peter Street does. And then the following week at the fleadh, we'll be up to Belfast again. We'll be going up twice. Yeah.

Elizabeth Stack: But isn't it great to see to the whole island of Ireland, you know, with the music? I think the fleadhs have been in Derry and Belfast, you know, so it's an interesting kind of movement forward to see the traditional arts being embraced up there, you know, too.

John Paul Reynolds: Absolutely. Yeah. I attended the Derry fly. So, yeah, that's from the time before I was living in Ireland. Yeah.

Elizabeth Stack: And how do you find living at home? Are you happy to be here, you know, rather than New York in terms of your music development? I know Peter Street are a relatively new band, two years ago, ye founded and we're delighted to launch the album here at the end of the month. So well done on that. But yeah, how are you finding it being at home?

John Paul Reynolds: I definitely found my music developed quite a lot. I attended UL and so did Peter Street's guitar player, Simon Crehan, and the accordion player much before Keelan McGrath. So me and Keelan would have met there. And then Simon came in two years after us and we started playing sessions together. And then Cian had at just his local hall two years ago now, they asked him to put on a concert and he got the four of us together. And then we decided to make a band from there on.

Elizabeth Stack: Yeah. Quite organic. So really, it really was.

John Paul Reynolds: Yeah. Playing with new people, meeting new musicians, done a lot for development and just striving to learn new things and practice.

Elizabeth Stack: Well, that's what I was going to ask you, too, about the traditional music. How, you know, particularly as a young practitioner, how do you find it? You know, everyone talks about the older ways of teaching and learning, and it was an oral tradition passed down. Sometimes, you know, you go to these sessions and there wasn't sheet music. And some people can be very strict about that, too, like that this is a training session or not, you know, how is there room for innovation, do you think, in Irish traditional music especially? Or, you know, how do you find that? Like absolutely.

John Paul Reynolds: The word innovation could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. You know, some people are very passionate about sticking to the tradition and other people are more open to venturing outside of it. But I think you can do both while still being incredibly innovative. I think staying within the tradition doesn't inhibit you from, you know, expressing yourself creatively. I mean, you could take things from a traditional melodeon player and try to adapt that onto the fiddle and vice versa. You can learn things from people who play different instruments and adopt their techniques and adopt their styles. And you can innovate something, you know, that might not necessarily have been done on your instrument, but is already within the tradition. Or an idea that this person explored in this tune, or whatever variation, and you could kind of adopt that thought process or take that idea and apply it elsewhere. So I think absolutely can be innovative. And you can do that while staying within the tradition. And you can also do that while exploring, crossing the line and going, venturing outside. It's just totally up to whoever's playing.

Elizabeth Stack: Well, and we were talking too about your other musical influences that you enjoy. And of course, Irish music, particularly having brought it to America, like in the early colonial era, you know, bluegrass has its roots kind of in Irish music. And then we were talking about the Acadian and Celtic influence, you know, so there's a broader base than just kind of Irish traditional, even within our own music. So I think there's probably and I've noticed in certain sessions, like when people put together, you know, various versions of jigs or reels or horn pipes, I think there's innovation within that, even though we all know the tunes that how they go together. And, you know, the change ups are often very interesting, you know, too. What did you record on your album than any kind of big favourites or?

John Paul Reynolds: Yeah, so Peter Street is the name of the band, but it's also the name of a tune. It's quite an old tune. It was used to be played in dance halls. And I've heard quite a few people knock the tune and say it's a bad tune, so we thought it'd be kind of funny to tackle it. Yeah, there's also a Percy French song kind of adapted into a barn dance, At The Racket played the songs The Darling Girl from Clare. Oh, yeah, that's a popular melody that we like to play.

John Paul Reynolds: And there's some common tunes as well. Like we have a newly composed tune by Damian Connolly, a box player from Clare, but now lives in America in Connecticut. That's called Sally Galley. So that's a new one. But we also play some very classic common session tunes like Old John's Jig and Hag at the Churn. So there's definitely melodies people will recognise, and then there's newer tunes, newer compositions or tunes that are have just found their popularity within the last few years. So there's a mix of kind of old classics and tunes that are popular right now or kind of recent ish in the last 40 years.

Elizabeth Stack: That's great. And do you have kind of like a personal favourite or what's your go to, you know, just to warm up even? I should ask what instrument you play or tell us, you know.

John Paul Reynolds: Yeah, I play the fiddle. Yeah. So there's there's two melody instruments in the band is accordion and the fiddle and then there's two accompaniment, so that's guitar and bouzouki. So, yeah, there was definitely influences in terms of for the accompaniment side, bossy band and harmonic arrangement in that kind of regard. And then melody wise, of course, there's De Dannan, very, very famous. So Keelan picks up the C sharp D style accordion and E flat for some of the sets. And then the other sets plays the B C. There's influence from like Andy McGann and Sean McGuire, both playing with Joburg as well as like Frankie Gavin playing with, you know, Martine O'Connor. So there's a wide array of places we're drawing inspiration from.

Elizabeth Stack: That's great. Yeah. And so then I suppose the last question I'll ask you is how do you think a place like St. John's, you know, its importance in the community or to a young artist like yourself, you know, how important is it to have a space that you can come and, you know, maybe experiment or find a newer audience, you know? Absolutely.

John Paul Reynolds: Yeah, it's incredible. Like we've always talked about wanting to do a concert in the Kerry area, and it's only 10 minutes from me, and I've had the privilege of playing here before with Brian Murphy and attending concerts here as well, and I've very much enjoyed the music here and enjoy playing here before, and it's just incredible that there's such a venue like this local that hosts music and is a venue for live music. It's a great asset to the community.

Elizabeth Stack: I think, you know, in 30 years odd going, you know, the acoustics are great. We love to say. But I think, yeah, it is a lovely kind of intimate venue. And so we're hoping on the 26th, you know, that all of the seats are full. You're more than welcome to book your tickets now, but and enjoy the album launch. So, yeah, any last words for your potential audience?

John Paul Reynolds: Yeah, I just hope to see you there. Yeah, we'll probably have a have a session after two. So whoever's whoever's come in, you know, bring your instruments and.

Elizabeth Stack: Oh, that's great. Well, you heard it here first! Looking forward to it. Thanks, John.