The Paul McKenna Band: Performing at the 2018 National Celtic Festival

Glasgow’s The Paul McKenna Band have built a solid international reputation for their outstanding live performances and carefully crafted four studio albums, including latest release Paths That Wind (2016). This year, The Paul McKenna Band are back for a 13 date tour of Australia with shows across Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and ACT culminating in a series of shows at this year’s National Celtic Festival in Portarlington. Calling in from Scotland, Paul McKenna chats to Forté ahead of the trip down under.
Hey Paul, thanks for chatting to Forté. How are you and what have you been up to recently?
I’ve just come back from Canada on tour, and now we’ve just been in the recording studio starting on a new album. We started working on it at the very beginning of the year, just doing all the arranging and writing and just trying to get as prepared as we could knowing that it was going to be a busy first half of the year, so by the time we did go into the studio, we had the bare bones of it together. We’ve just started properly and so far, so good.
That’s great to hear you’ve got a new album in the works. How will this album differ to the last release Paths That Wind?
There might be a few different sounds on this on. We’re still going to sound like us, but there’s a lot more original songs on this album and it’s 100 per cent songs this time too; we’re not doing any instrumental music so there’s a couple of changes.
What has influenced the inclusion of more original songs on this upcoming album?
Ever since day one we’ve always tried to include a few original songs on each album, and gradually over the course of four albums so far, we’ve been increasing the number of original material each time. When it came to this one, it just seemed like the right time to do mostly originals… there’s still a couple of other people’s songs there, but mostly original material. It just seemed like it was the right time.
You’re heading to Australia with the band for 13 dates which is exciting, what’s has brought you back to Australia?
We’ve only been to Australia once with the band; I came over last year on my own. Since our very first visit back in 2016, we’ve always wanted to come back. It’s a great place, great music scene and from our experience, everyone seems to receive our music pretty well and we just have a great time. We’re pretty excited to get the opportunity to come back on this tour.
And you’re performing at The National Celtic Festival where you performed solo last year?
I was over on my own for that one and I had an absolute blast! It’s a great festival, I had so much fun last year so being able to come back this year is definitely a big bonus. We’re really looking forward to bringing the whole band there, with a bigger sound and a bigger arrangement and more vocal harmonies.
You’ve performed at many Celtic Festivals around the world, what do you enjoy about these celebrations in particular?
Each one is unique, each one has different things that draw people in and draw the bands and artists in. People are always in good sprits at these festivals; everyone is there for a good time, everyone is there because they love Celtic music or they have some sort of affinity with it so you’re off to a good start right away. They’re always just really good fun places to be so any time we can get to one, especially one like this National Celtic Festival, it’s always very exciting for us.
Thanks for the chats. To finish, you guys have being together more than 10 years and always seem enthusiastic in everything you do, what keeps you guys grounded?
It think it’s just this music, it’s music that we’ve all grown up with… and we enjoy it. We enjoy the experiences, we feel very lucky that we get the opportunity to do this, to travel and to see all these different amazing places; all that keeps us very grounded, and we feel very fortunate.
When & Where: The National Celtic Festival @ WG Little Reserve, Newcombe Street, Portarlington – June 8 – 11.