Friday, November 17, 2000

Recently, a music criticism student at McMaster University, Amy Brewitt, approached us and asked us if she could interview us. This was for a project at school, and we were happy to oblige. Hey, we get to feel famous for 15 minutes, right? The interview was conducted between our first and second sets at Fionn McCool's on Wednesday, October 11th. Amy was very professional, and we were quite impressed with her interviewing skills. She sent us the completed interview today, and after reading it over, we thought you might get a kick out of it. So here it is, unedited, in it's raw form. Oh, and by the way, Amy got 95%. Not bad!

Someone’s in the Kitchen
Conversing with The Kitchen Party
By Amy Brewitt

     Travis Firth (fiddle, vocals, bodhran), Kevin Young (vocals, mandolin, bodhran, tin whistle, spoons), James MacDonald (guitar, mandolin, vocals), and Jon Gallant (bass, vocals) of The Kitchen Party talk about their music, on-stage experiences, and “The Goat”.

     The Kitchen Party is an East Coast Celtic band with somewhat of a cult following in the Greater Toronto Area. Unless you’ve actually seen them play, you’ve probably never heard of them. But they entertain audiences with a brilliant mix of traditional and popular music, with an energy that gets the crowd on its feet and keeps it there. I met with the band between sets at one of their gigs at Fionn MacCool’s, a pub in Toronto.

     “I met Kevin through friends,” Travis explains when asked how the band got started. “He was into rock and I was into classical music. We met James through work, added a bass part, and started jamming at parties we had. Word of mouth got us playing gigs.”

     And they’ve had a lot of gigs in the three years they’ve been together. Which one was the most memorable?

     “I always think of Lulu’s,” says Travis.

     “Oh sure,” jokes Jon, “the one I’m not in!” Jon is the newest member of the band, and that gig happened before he joined.

     “We opened for Stompin’ Tom Connors one night at Lulu’s,” Travis tells me as he takes a swig from his pint glass, “We were kind of brought in as a band that nobody knew. They gave us…well, nothing. They gave us no recognition.”

     “Actually, they introduced us as ‘The Kitchen Table,’” Kevin says.

     Then James pipes up, “Stompin’ Tom called us ‘The Kitchen Stove’.”

     Travis continues, “But after the show was over (it was a great show!), the crowd really enjoyed it!”

     Kevin agrees. “That was the most people I’ve ever seen on the dance floor in one show! There were 4,500 people there - it was pretty cool! My most memorable show,” Kevin goes on, “is the show that I sliced my hand open in the kitchen on a glass, went for eight stitches, and came to play that night.”

     “Just wrapped ‘er up, didn’t ya?” admires Travis.

     “Mine’s the one at Failte,” James tells me, “where it was just crammed, it was a normal Friday or Saturday night, and these guys were jumping off the stage – stage diving, body surfing…”

      “– Mosh pitting!” interrupts Travis. I laugh and let them know that I picked up on the Adam Sandler reference. The band laughs, too.

     “Oh yeah! We love “The Goat”!” Travis declares, smiling. I get the feeling there are a whole lot of inside jokes behind that smile, but I decide not to go there. After all, inside jokes are never as funny when you have to explain them to someone else.

     What kinds of strange things have happened when The Kitchen Party was on stage?

     Kevin speaks up first. “Well actually, there was the one time at the Manchester Arms, in Streetsville, where a young lady was having a great time dancing. She did a back-flip over the monitor, almost chipped my tooth, wiped out James’ and my mic stands, and we had the bass still going and the fiddle still going.”

     The band laughs. “We’ve had a lot of rowdy nights,” says Travis. “People tend to drink a little.... We’ve had several instances I can think of where someone’s tripped over our monitors, fallen into us, nearly knocked one or two or three of us over, people have fallen off the stage.”

     “That’s pretty common. That’s funny stuff,” says Jon, smiling. I’m pretty sure he means it’s only funny when nobody is hurt. And from the way they’re talking, it sounds like there haven’t been any serious injuries.

     “There was one time where a girl threw a bra up on stage,” James smirks. Not bad for a band that’s not on Much Music.

     Travis goes deeper and explains how he feels on stage. “You see, it’s a whole different point of view when you’re on stage watching the crowd. They think they’re watching you, and really we’re – well, I am anyhow – watching them and watching what’s going on. You see individual conversations starting and the way they end after the night, and it’s a very amusing way to spend your night on stage.”

     Kevin nods in agreement. “Studying human dynamics,” he says, “very interesting!”

     Ok, so we’ve covered “most memorable gigs”. What would be the “greatest gig”?

     “To get to open up for Natalie MacMaster or Ashley MacIsaac or someone.” James answers quickly.

     Travis jumps in, “At a big venue, like an outdoor concert. Beautiful weather, Citadel Hill out in Halifax, the hometown, big crowd of people.”

     I smile and tell the group that I’d been to Halifax for the first time this summer.

     “Lucky you!” Travis exclaims.

     “Fun city, eh?” Kevin added. “Did you get to the whole strip with the bars there?”

     “Oh yeah! And, I snuck into the Citadel.”

     “I think we got all we need on tape now!” James jokes. Ah, such kidders they are. 

     Now that they’re regulars on the pub scene in Toronto, what are the future goals for the band?

     “To keep people dancing and always have fun playing. That’s all we do. Keep your goals simple and you’ll always be happy.” Kevin says sincerely.

     “Yeah, the biggest goal is to always make sure we’re having fun.” Jon chimes in.

     “And that the people we’re playing for are enjoying what we’re doing.” Travis adds.

     “All the good things that have happened to us so far have happened with just us keeping that mindset, so that’s very important to us,” Kevin continues. “We don’t have any expectations of trying to get a record contract, or anything. We’re not out to impress anyone; we’re just out to have fun. And I think that translates, I think the crowd picks up on that too. They have a really good time.”

     Travis nods. “It’s always agreed, too, that if there ever comes a day that we aren’t having fun, we pack it up. We don’t want it to be work; we’re just here to have fun. Whatever happens.”

     So, when people go to see The Kitchen Party, they will be entertained, they will have fun. But what is it about the music that appeals to people?

     “Energy,” says Travis without hesitation. “The energy of the music, our own twist on the music – songs that a lot of other Celtic bands have played in the past that you never really knew could have the energy or the arrangement that we do. We turn a song that no one really knew they could be dancing to, into a song that’s really danceable.”

     Jon adds,  “All the songs have such an upbeat, straight beat that everybody can tap their foot to.”

     “Especially when they start to drink!” jokes Travis.

     “Yeah,” agrees Jon, “people just start to tap their feet naturally and eventually they find themselves really enjoying it. And putting on a good show really helps too. You know, you can’t just stand there like an idiot and play the songs, you have to put some effort into it.”

     And there’s no one demographic that prevails at The Kitchen Party’s shows.

     “The music applies to an older crowd, a younger crowd, whatever. I think of the whole social aspect of our music. Parents and kids can come out and have fun”, explains James.

     “Some people come up to us after and say “I can’t wait to bring my parents to see you guys!”, which isn’t very common, I don’t think, with a lot of live bands,” says Travis. “And with us, it’s a very common compliment.”

     “And a lot of parents will say “I had a great time and I can’t wait for my kids to see you,” Kevin adds.

     But the fact that The Kitchen Party is actually getting a chance to play their music is great. It’s something that might not have happened five years ago. But with East Coast Celtic acts like Great Big Sea, Natalie MacMaster, and Ashley MacIsaac around, that music has become more popular.  How does The Kitchen Party account for the rise in popularity of East Coast Celtic music?

     “Well,” offers James, “when you’ve got Natalie MacMaster doing Tim Horton’s commercials, that’s pretty big.”

     Leave it to Canadians to attribute the increasing popularity of their own music to donuts. But surely, musical acts like Great Big Sea helped the band when they were starting out.

     “When we started, we hadn’t heard of Great Big Sea,” Kevin explains. “But doing some of the stuff they do helped us because we could do songs that lots of people would be familiar with. It made it easier for us.”

     But Celtic music is Celtic music. So what’s the difference between The Kitchen Party and Great Big Sea?

     “We’re better looking.” Travis’ words are met with snickers from the rest of the band.

     Kevin explains the difference in musical terms. “They use more accordion, and they have a lot more harmonies and vocal parts than we do. But the Newfoundland – Nova Scotia difference is something that people from the East Coast would notice, but other people might not.”

     And though the majority of the tunes The Kitchen Party plays are traditional, along with some covers, they do write their own music.

     “We have two original songs on the CD,” Kevin says of The Kitchen Party’s debut album entitled “The Knights at 12 Oaklea”. “We’re pretty big procrastinators – that’s all we could get done in time. We have a bunch of ideas, half-written songs.”

     “We probably have about four or five that we should be performing.” James tells me. When they bust out those tunes on stage, the crowd likes them.

       “Our songs are written very much in the same style of the other music we play. They fit in very easily. A lot of times the crowd doesn’t even know they’re original songs – they just keep dancing.” Kevin says of the band’s original material. “I’ve seen other bands where you know. They play so much pop music all the time, so many songs that are Top 40, and when they play another song, you don’t know it and so you know it’s an original. But I’ve noticed that our crowd doesn’t seem to notice that, it just seems to flow right through. That’s good for us, too, because we get to expose some new songs.”

     Speaking of exposing new songs, it’s about time the band start their next set. What do the four members of the band want people to know about The Kitchen Party?

     Travis answers, “We’re always going to be the same, the guys who after a gig will go and sit down with the people at the bar and talk to them, then move the party back to the house and keep the party going. We’ll always put on a good show, and you’ll always be entertained when you come to see us.”

     The Kitchen Party’s debut CD “The Knights at 12 Oaklea” is available at the band’s performances. Visit The Kitchen Party’s web site at www.thekitchenparty.com  to find out where they’re playing next.