Exclusive Interview with IONA!

Check out our Exclusive Interview with Iona!

This is the 81st post in our Musician of the Day series.

Iona was formed in 1988 and since then they have been combining traditional Celtic music with a modern music in order to create a unique and powerful sound. You can expect modern instruments blended with the sound of traditional Celtic instruments and lyrics. This spiritual band has been through it all, but as soon as you hear their music you can easily find out how they made it through.



Click here to listen to "Strength" by Iona!
[audio http://fansiter.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/03-strength.mp3]


Stephanie Schoppert: Can you briefly introduce the members of the band?

Dave Bainbridge: There are 5 of us in IONA;

Joanne Hogg - vocal / keyboard / acoustic guitar
Dave Bainbridge - electric guitar / keyboards / bouzouki (that's me)
Frank van Essen - drums / percussion / violin / vocal
Martin Nolan - uilleann pipes / low whistles / tin whistles
Phil Barker - bass guitar / electric double bass

Martin is the newest member. He joined earlier this year, replacing Troy Donockley. We're now officially half Irish as Joanne and Martin are from Ireland and Phil's mum is Irish!

Stephanie: How/when did the band form?

Dave: Unbelievably (to me at least!) we've been around now for 20 years! I co-founded the band along with David Fitzgerald (who plays saxes / flutes whistles) in 1989. To cut a long story short, David, Joanne and I first met when we were all working on an album called 'Alpha and Omega' by an English singer-songwriter called Adrian Snell way back in 1986 not long after we were out of our short trousers. We toured together with Adrian and realised we had a lot in common musically. Then when David and I were putting together ideas for a joint musical project, we realised we needed some kind of focus to base the ideas around. That came when we started researching a bit about the islands of Lindisfarne and Iona, two very beautiful islands in the British Isles which both have a very rich spiritual and historic heritage. We discovered the story of St Columba, who in 563, after a dreadful battle in which 3,000 people were killed, and for which he felt responsible, left the shores of Ireland for the last time to be a spiritual exile on the Scottish island of Iona. We discovered many inspiring stories of faith and courage from this time in history that many refer to as the 'dark ages'. In fact it was a time of spiritual awakening, when many courageous monks risked everything they had to spread the life changing news of the Christian gospel throughout the British Isles. So, fresh from visits to both islands, we decided to base many tracks on the first album on these sort of themes as well as other themes contemporary to the time, such as the fall of the Berlin wall and the student massacre in Tiananman Square in Beijing. So, not the sort of stuff you'd hear on X Factor!


Stephanie: Who are your biggest influences?

Dave: I have so many it would take too long to list them all and each member of the band would probably give quite different answers to this question. If you're talking musical influences, I love all kinds of stuff ranging from rock, classical, folk, jazz, world music etc! I suppose as a band, there are similarities in our approach to some of the progressive bands of the 1970's, in that we often write pieces that evolve through different moods and tempos, that are sort of concept based. We also have shorter vocal songs (Joanne loves people like Joni Mitchell and Sting) and also dip our toes into the traditional folk music idioms of Ireland, England and Scotland. I just think music should be adventurous, inspiring, beautiful and make your spirit soar. I hate having to categorise music into different genres - that can lead to people disregarding whole swathes of great music because they think it might sound a certain way.


Stephanie: If you had to pick, which of your songs is your favorite and why?

Dave: That's a very tricky question and the answer would probably change depending on which day you asked me on! 'Encircling' would certainly be up there with the favourites though as this includes many of the elements that make up Iona's sound. It has atmospheric sections, rocky bits, acoustic passages and some wonderful vocals from Jo during its 12 minute length.


Stephanie: Your music has a truly unique and inspirational sound, what do you want people to take away from one of your concerts?

Dave: A handful of cds! But apart from that, we'd love people to feel uplifted by an Iona gig. We're not really interested in just performing for the sake of it. We love interacting with people - sharing the experience with them. We're just back from playing two gigs in Holland and we always spend time chatting to people at the end of the gig. After having been around for so long we now find that many people who come to see us have become familiar faces and in some cases good friends. That is a very nice feeling. We play our music to the glory of God and believe that the 'special' feeling that many people describe at our gigs is His glorious presence - the Holy Spirit.


Stephanie: Your music is very spiritual. How does this affect your writing process?

Dave: Whenever we come together to play or write we always spend time first seeking God's Presence and His guidance and inspiration. That is key to what we do and how we approach things. We seek to be in a place of peace and freedom. It's amazing the difference that this makes! We're not a band that tours constantly, so when we do all get together it is a special time - we always have a lot of fun!


Stephanie: You have very traditional roots within your music, how do you keep that tradition in the songs and yet still put a modern sound to it?

Dave: The roots of our inspiration go back many hundreds of years. The previously mentioned track 'Encircling' for example features part of a text written by St Patrick in the 4th century. However it ends with a text written in the 'Celtic' style in the 1980's by David Adam. What this signifies is that the 'Celtic' Christian tradition upon which we draw is a living and evolving one, not something static and nostalgic for the sake of it. We incorporate the traditional sounds of pipes, whistles and the human voice with sounds generated by the latest technology to push the tradition on. We are always looking for ways to create new textures with the sounds at our disposal and to create unusual and interesting harmonic accompaniments.


Stephanie: What can you tell me about your new album set to release in 2010?

Dave: We had a great day last week demoing a few new ideas. I'd say there are about 6 or 7 great song ideas on the go and we have a great concept for the album, as well as a title and ideas on which to base a few other tracks. We've been playing two new songs live recently and these have been really well received, which we're happy about. We're planning another writing / recording session before the end of the year and will individually continue working on stuff at home. Frank and I both have studio set ups where we'll do the bulk of the recording, but we're also planning to spend a bit of time in a great studio that our live sound engineer Johan runs in Holland which is big enough for us all to set up everything and play and record live together. I think this is necessary to capture something of the excitement and energy of the new tracks. We're hoping to have the album out around the middle of the year, but it's still a bit early to say exactly when.

However, we're also planning to simultaneously release several compilation albums, which will each centre on a different mood and which will include remixed tracks or even just instrumental themes from previous albums and solo releases plus some new music. The idea is that these albums will accompany the main new album release and allow listeners more space to take in the themes expressed there if they so wish. That's the theory anyway! It all sounds very 'prog-rock' but I think it will really work well and maybe introduce some of our listeners to great albums they've missed out on (the solo releases). The compilations would be mid-priced so they'd be great value.


Stephanie: Iona has recently come back from a long period of inactivity, why the break?

Dave: Two years ago I would have said that I couldn’t see a future for the band. Joanne didn’t want to tour due mainly to family commitments with her two young children and it was financially unsustainable to record another cd without doing so, so things were sort of on hold. However in the past 5 or 6 months there has be a real sea-change and without going into in too much there is definitely a renewed vision and purpose within IONA. A sense that we’re back on the track that we first set out upon all those years ago. After a long period following the birth of her children in which she often struggled to come up with inspiration for new songs, Joanne is currently having a real creative outpouring, with two recent solo albums and about 8 new songs written over the past few months specifically for Iona. We have a concept we’re very excited about for the new album too, so things are looking very positive. Jo is also enthusiastic once again about playing live and the recent run of concerts we've done in Europe have been some of the best and most enjoyable we've ever done. I'm really excited about what 2010 holds for us, which we're hoping will include at least one trip to play in the USA.



Stephanei: Tell me a little about your label, Open Sky Records, how did that start?

Dave: In 2000 our US subsidiary record label sent us a letter saying that they had been taken over by Time Warner and that this was a very exciting move for them and all their artists. Six months later, with new staff in place they dropped us! (ha!). We had also been auditing our former UK label around the same time who said we hadn't sold any albums in the USA for 7 years, so no royalties were due. "Er, but we've been there on tour several times and sold loads of albums." was our reply. "Oh no you haven't." "Oh yes we have!". This went on for about a year before we hired a lawyer who found that we were owed about $40,000, which was then soon paid back to us. Also at this time we were able to get the rights back for the first 3 Iona albums. The original record deal we had for these paid peanuts. We thought that there must be a better way to proceed that this, so we set up our own label. As we didn't have a lot of time or money to invest, we decided to work in partnership with a distribution company called Voiceprint, who handle all our manufacturing and distribution. It's worked quite well and we now have all the Iona catalogue available on Open Sky / Voiceprint.

We haven't decided what to do about the next album yet though. The past few years have opened up lots of opportunities to reach a wider audience on the net, but we've also seen income from royalties and cd sales plummet due largely to illegal file sharing. It really affects artists like us who don't have any record company backing and don't have the high profile that some artists have. So we're currently looking for someone to invest in the next recording, so we can keep going and pursuing our dream.


Stephanie: Iona has been around for 20 years now, how do you feel the band has grown since it first formed?

Dave: We've all got taller and use joined up writing now. But seriously, I think the band is stronger today than it has been for many years. We have had many life experiences that have shaped how we are. We are as keen as ever to write inspiring new music and our faith in God is deeper. We have honed our sound and are now much less just a sum of our influences. It's really great on stage as we know and support each other so well. If something goes wrong - as it did on a gig recently when my guitar amp started to sound like it was frying 200 eggs - the others just cover. Martin played a few jigs and Jo conversed and joked with the audience until the problem was fixed. There are no ego problems in this band, which is great.


Stephanie: What are some favorite memories from touring?

Dave: Wow - there are so many! Here are a few off the top of my head.

Touring in Estonia in 1992 soon after the collapse of communism there was pretty special. We did some great gigs there and met some inspirational people. There was one very funny concert though. We travelled miles to this rural village and found we were playing in this tiny theatre. There were no stage lights at all apart from a 100 watt bulb hanging over the stage. However we did find loads of bits of painted scenery - like bushes and trees, so we distributed these around the stage - in front of the keyboards and amps, it looked like a strange jungle scene. Then when the audience turned up we were surprised to see that most were kids of about 6 and under, with their mums! We ended up doing a question and answer session with them via our interpreter - we were asked things like "What is your favourite colour?", "What do you like to eat?". It was hilarious.

Driving for 32 hours non stop to New Brunswick in Canada from the USA on one tour sticks in my mind and trying to avoid hitting moose (mooses?) in the road at 4am. On another tour in the US we suddenly realised that our driver, whom we thought could read a map, had been travelling for 4 hours in completely the wrong direction, turning a 6 hour drive into a 10 hour drive!

Playing in Japan was also very memorable, with gigs in Tokyo starting at 5.30pm so that people could come directly from work. We were actually mobbed on the street there once by fans who recognised us - the only place in the world that's ever happened!

We once played at a festival in the USA called Cornerstone in Illinois on the 4th July in front of 25,000 people. Troy played the Star Spangled Banner on uilleann (Irish) pipes and keyboard just as a firework display was starting. That was pretty magical.

Another time, we played an arrangement of the old hymn 'When I Survey the Rugged Cross' and then just jammed at the end. I'd been playing with my eyes closed. After we'd stopped playing there was complete silence. I looked up to see almost the whole audience lying face down in awe and worship of God - an incredible atmosphere!



Stephanie: When not performing music what do you like to do?

Dave: Being at home with my family / playing with my children (aged 9 and 11) / walking / reading / cycling / swimming (if I get the chance) / spending time alone with God.


Stephanie: What is your favorite place that you have been to on tour?

Dave: That's a tricky one. Often it's so much to do with the people you're with and those you meet. Estonia was pretty special. Back in 1992 it was totally untouched by any western influence. There wasn't a McDonald's or KFC in sight in the capital city Tallinn. In fact, as a special treat one night the organisers bought us 'take-away' pizza. This was from what looked like a hole in a wall - no signs around at all. Mine was a beetroot pizza - very unusual!

I've recently returned from playing is Israel and that was pretty special - playing outdoors in the Judean Hills close to Jerusalem.

Iona once played in the ruins of the 11th century abbey on the island of Lindisfarne, just below the Scottish border for a BBC TV special. That was an amazing place to play too.


Click here to listen to "Strength" by Iona!
[audio http://fansiter.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/03-strength.mp3]


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