Talisk
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Talisk

If a celebration of Celtic culture is what you’re after, Glasgow band Talisk are more than capable of bringing it. We had a chat with the group in the lead up to their performance at the National Celtic Festival.

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, how are you and what are you up to at the moment?

We’re just back from a great week at the Shetland Folk Festival and now we’re off for a string of gigs in England before finishing for a couple weeks with a gig in Edinburgh on Sunday.

Your debut album Abyss is out shortly, how did you find the creation process of the longer format in comparison to your other release?

The process of recording an album is a lot more intense and in depth than recording an EP. Partly due to the larger amount of material required but also due to the amount of detail we attempted to get into each of our tracks.

And how have you found your musical evolution up until this point?

I think you can still definitely listen to both our EP and album and know that it’s Talisk but the album feels more developed in a lot of ways.

Talisk is a relatively new band on the scene, do you think you’ve found your “sound”, or do you think there will still be a lot of moving around in that area?

All bands would probably agree that each album or CD can be quite different but I believe we’ve fairly settled into an area of folk music that we want to explore more. We all come from a traditional Scottish and Irish folk music backgrounds but have a love for experimenting with aspects of other kinds of music and I think that’s quite apparent in our sound at the moment!

You’re heading out on the road with quite a few tours, what are you like on the road? Do you have any coping mechanisms for being away from home for so long?

We love touring, seeing new places and playing music to as many people as possible so the pros of touring definitely outweigh the cons. With things like FaceTime and Skype though it’s always fairly easy to keep in touch with home – even when you’re as far away as Australia!

You’ll be heading to Australia as well, is it your first time visiting (aside from Craig of course)? Are you hoping to do/see anything in particular while you’re here?

We haven’t got any set plans yet but as it’s Hayley and Mohsen’s first trip out to Australia we’ll be trying to see as many things as possible!

Part of your Aussie trip is for the National Celtic Festival in Portarlington, what do you think are the three biggest aspects of Celtic culture?

It’d be hard to say three main aspects but definitely the biggest for us would be the shared music of Celtic nations. There’s so much crossover between the music, in particular places like Ireland and Scotland, it creates a connection between each individual Celtic area that’s apparent whenever you meet any other musicians at a festival anywhere in the world.

In terms of your performance at that event, will you be bringing out anything special for onlookers in honour of the celebration?

The National Celtic Festival will be the only place in Australia you can get a copy of our new album before it’s released later in the year, so make sure you get down to Portarlington!

Thanks again for talking with us, is there anything else you’d like to add before we finish up?

We’re looking forward to getting out to Australia, playing music and meeting as many new people as possible, see you in June!

When & Where: National Celtic Festival, Portarlington – June 10-13