The summer of 2018 has been a memorable one for We Banjo 3, the award winning band from Galway, Ireland. With their recently released album Haven hitting #1 on Billboard’s Bluegrass chart for the week of August 13th and the music video for Light In The Sky released last week, we decided to find out a little bit more about the band’s two sets of brothers, Enda & Fergal Scahill and Martin & David Howley.
CN: For country music fans who may not be familiar with you, could you give us a little background?
Enda Scahill: We’re Irish and grew up playing Irish folk music, but we quickly fell in love with American folk, country and bluegrass music. Country music is one of the most popular genres in Ireland so we knew a lot about the big country stars growing up in Ireland. When we started touring in the US we found that a great way to introduce Irish folk music here was to blend it with the tones and grooves of country and bluegrass music. They fit together seamlessly as Irish musicians who came to the US over the generations were very influential in the development of US folk music. Suddenly we had a new genre that has been dubbed Celtgrass!! We’re all about energy, fun, great music, and bringing a great night’s entertainment to the folks who come to see us.
CN: How did the 2 sets of brothers meet?
Enda: We grew up about 10 miles apart. The music scene in Ireland is very small and everyone knows everyone else! Fergal and I were a little older and knew that the Howleys were exceptional musicians, so forming the band in its infancy was an easy thing. It literally started around our kitchen table.
CN: Are you all the only ones within your families in the music business? How did you get interested in music?
Fergal Scahill: Our house was full of music for as long as I can remember, our eldest brother Adrian hosted the local session in our kitchen back in the mid 80’s when I was only 3 or 4. I can distinctly remember sitting under a chair in our kitchen, transfixed by the bodhran player (irish drum). Our parents were great music lovers and gave us all the opportunities that we could have hoped for growing up. Music plays a very important role in our family, all of my siblings work in the music business, my sister as a music therapist and teacher, and my brother Adrian as a professor of music.
CN: You all are very versed on stringed instruments, when did you learn to play and are you self taught or classically trained?
Fergal: We all started playing at a very young age as was the norm in our communities in Ireland. We are a mixture of self taught and classically trained, again in our younger years we all attended formal music lessons, most of us studied classical piano and I studied classical Violin but as our music careers progress, we learn all the time from our travels and from meeting so many wonderful musicians on the road.
CN: You’ve been compared by some to Mumford & Sons, Ed Sheeran, and the Dubliners. How does that make you feel and is that what you were striving to be?
Fergal: We’ve always strived to play music that makes us happy. We didn’t set out to be like any other band, we like to play music that we like!! We get a great buzz from performing live, and we think that energy transfers to the audience. If we managed to get a fan base like Ed Sheeran or a long career like the Dubliners, we wouldn’t complain!
CN: On Haven your bio states that “half is traditional covers, half original material”. Do you all write or is it a mix of the four?
David Howley: We all write. It’s one of the special things about Haven, it’s a totally self penned album, all 11 tracks are our own original music. We gathered up all our collective ideas and lyrics and went to a house out in Connemara, about as far west as you can go in Ireland. It was one of the worst storms of the winter when we were there, it added to the energy of the album.
We spend 3 days pulling the songs apart to their indivisible components and then put them back together using all of our collective creativity and soul. Each song gained more meaning and power with the input of not just one mind but four very creative individuals.
CN: How did you come up with the term “Celtgrass”? Did you organically start playing/crossing the genre combination or was it by happenstance?
David: We all grew up playing Irish music, it’s our native musical language. Bluegrass and American folk had always been an interest, it was only a matter of time before we began to experiment.
At first it was almost unnoticeably, the influences were subtle, but with time now it’s easy to see that there was a progression happening musically. I grew up in a house where there was no division of genres, Michae Jackson, Paul Brady and Garth Brooks all existed on the same mixtapes! Boundaries didn’t suit us so we decided not to have them and just let the music flow the way it wanted to. When ” came out it was hard to deny that “Celtgrass” was its own thing.
CN: You’ve toured overseas and in the U.S. & Canada, is there one area you’ve not been to that you’d love to play?
David: The band has never been to Africa but we would love to go. It, of course, is where the roots of the banjo come from but also the roots of so much music culture around the world. Rhythm is such a strong component of Irish music, it’s the heartbeat within the melody. In an Irish session you can feel with each tune played, the room being lifted higher and higher. We would love to explore the roots of that rhythm in Africa and mix our music with theirs. It’s almost a treat to play to a brand new audience, there’s a game in winning them over!
CN: If you were to open for a tour, who would be the top of your bucket list? Do you have individual desires for a tour partner(s) or is it collective?
Martin Howley: There are so many artists we admire and would love to work with. We love the Punch Brothers and think a double bill with them would be an incredible night of shared music.
We were blown away by Old Crow Medicine Show a few years ago at MerleFest, so much raw energy, would be a great fit for a live party!
CN: It was recently announced that Haven hit #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass charts. Congratulations!! What does having this album, which is also a self-release, top the charts mean to you?
Martin: It’s a huge achievement, it’s a real grass roots success story. Our fans have really got behind us and come on this incredible journey with us. They deserve the credit, so many folks across the US bought the album online or at a show and we love them for their support.
CN: With the new album and US Tour dates set through 2019 – what’s next on the horizon?
Martin: We are very excited to tour this new album and let the music grow organically on the road. We are visiting old friends and new places this fall and through the spring leg of 2019. We have big plans afoot to have a traveling roadshow, plans for collaborations, and new material. All exciting.
For information on We Banjo 3 including tours and music, visit their website: www.webanjo3.com