Paul Sartin Interview
Ahead of his gig at Cecil Sharp House this month, the multi-talented Paul Sartin (Belshazzar’s Feast, Faustus, Jon Boden & The Remnant Kings, Bellowhead) gives his thoughs on the terror and joy of going solo, re-interpreting material collected from his own ancestors and the future of folk in the wake of Covid ...
You’re well known for your many collaborations over the years but I believe this is your first solo tour. Can you tell us a little bit about what to expect?
It’s thanks to lockdown that I started performing solo, for online concerts, as obviously I couldn’t work with anyone else! I’ve played piano all of my life but have rarely brought it to trad music, so sitting in isolation with a baby grand forced my hand. I’ll accompany myself on piano and violin, throw in plenty of chorus songs, and perhaps some dance tunes.
How does setting out on your own feel? Does it feel like a fundamentally different dynamic as a performer?
It’s simultaneously terrifying and liberating. The former, because there is no-one to share the load. The latter, because I don’t have to think about anyone else and am in complete control. I love the intimacy with the audience, and freedom that going solo brings.
I know that you’ll be drawing on songs connected with both your own family heritage and your home village in Hampshire. Can you tell us a bit about that and how you approached researching the material?
I found out about the songs collected from three of my female ancestors through Bonny Sartin, when I went to see the Yetties in my late teens. We kept in touch, and many years later I took a research Masters in the life and songs of Edith Sartin. The manuscripts of her material, and of my great aunts Marina Russell and Mary-Ann Bartlett are all in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, so I’ve had ample opportunity to rifle through them. With the help of the Library and Roud Index I’ve also sourced 11 songs from here in Whitchurch, noted from Henry Lee, a quarter of a mile from my cottage.
In general, how do you find your academic work as a researcher has intersected with your musical work? Do you find the two disciplines sit well with each other?
It’s certainly helped me to find not only song and tune material, but also to research the lives of the original performers and the context of their music-making, which for me adds an extra dimension of understanding. Once I have found, and if needs be edited and reconstructed the music, I then treat it as a living entity to be moulded and shaped and altered in whatsoever fashion seems appropriate – rather than mere historical reconstruction.
We’re now in a position where something like normality has returned to live music after the restrictions of the past two and a bit years. Have you noticed any fundamental changes in audience behaviour?
Audience numbers have been a little down in places. But for those who have attended, from what many of them have said, to return to live music has been a profound and moving experience. The reception on our return to gigs has been so warm and welcoming.
What do you think the long-term effects of the pandemic might be for the folk scene?
Hopefully the live scene will get back to its previous state, if not a better one. Livestreaming has now become a norm (as it was for other genres before the pandemic – lockdown kicked the folk scene into gear), and many musicians will include online or hybrid gigs in their tours. It’s a way of reaching a wide, international audience.
Folk tends to go in cycles of popularity in terms of its position within mainstream culture. Where do you think it is at the moment? I know that Jon Wilks recently observed that there has been a growing interest in traditions and customs, possibly as a result of the pandemic, with people wishing to reconnect to the land and a sense of folk history somehow….
Jon’s my neighbour and together we put on a few Folk in the Field concerts during lockdown. A lot of our village came out, and this has continued with the Whitchurch Wassail and folk club events. So from my observation I agree with Jon.
And finally; what are you plans after the tour? Will we be seeing a solo record?
Yes to a record. I’d rather gig my material before recording it, so it’s bedded in. Plus I’ve got project work, compositions, and tours with Faustus and the resurrected Bellowhead.
Paul Sartin plays at Cecil Sharp House on Wednesday 15 June.
