Raven talk about their work as a string quartet and their recent gigs with George Michael and with Madness at the Olympics. Raven will be playing at the Elgar room in the Royal Albert Hall on the 24th of October.
You are quoted as saying Nigel Kennedy is your inspiration, what is it about him, or his attitude to music that you engage with, as opposed to classical soloists, or crossovers such as Bond/Vanessa Mae?
We think what Kennedy was doing musically in his heyday was braver than Bond or Vanessa Mae, who are essentially instrumental pop artists. Kennedy dared to challenge the conceptions people had about classical music, with his appearance, his attitude and his style of playing.
His performances of Vivaldi’s four seasons have a kind of groove and edge that you don’t see very often in the classical genre. We very much like that he looked how he looked, and didn’t worry about what anyone thought of his interpretation, he just played how he felt it should go. We are inspired by other classical soloists too, but when we all watched Kennedy together, we knew that it was his performance style that we wanted to emulate.
How would you describe yourselves/your musical genre? Do you prefer to be thought of as a classical group, a cross over group, or not to be labelled at all?
Sometimes we are frustrated that everybody seems to want to pigeon hole our act as classical/crossover...because we don’t feel we have “crossed over”. We’re not trying to make a statement about classical music or make it more palatable for audiences, in particular.
We’re trying to change people’s perceptions of what can be performed well on acoustic stringed instruments. In our set we cover music from Vivaldi to Radiohead, which means we don’t fit neatly into a genre. We also prefer not to play electric instruments, with no backing tracks, so we are not an electric string quartet either.
However, we don’t sit down and play huge classical works with sheet music either in the way a classical quartet does. We play rock and pop music on classical instruments like we’re in a girlband. See? Easy.
As a group, you seem determined to carve out your own path as opposed to ‘fitting in’. How was that for you starting out? What were the difficulties? What would you change?
It’s been difficult, as it always is for anyone starting out, particularly a group that doesn’t fit into a genre. We’ve played to lots of record execs who are impressed, excited by our performance but unsure how to “sell” Raven, so in five years of gigging, we’ve not been signed.
To be honest, it’s not bothered us because we know we’re a hard sell. Loads of things were hard starting out. Like the fact that we had to fit in practicing with part time jobs and other work and we had no money!
We arrange all our own tunes which is great as we have creative control over what we do musically but it takes a long time and everything is a group decision, which can be painstaking. Starting out is always difficult, but we knew in our first gig in an East End pub that it was all worth it. To be honest we wouldn’t change anything. Every rough thing we’ve been through has shaped who we are and how we play together now. We never expected it to be easy.
Do you think the line is starting to become blurred between classical music and some of the more independent pop stuff these days?
Eventually we hope there will be less of an obsession with “genres” and people are starting to become more comfortable listening to music in the grey areas. We perform with independent pop artists regularly and there does seem to be more of an emphasis on orchestration and instrumentation than there was in years gone by.
Also looking at artists like Micachu, who studied as a classical composer at the Guildhall, and has created two incredible, grimy pop/rock albums, it seems that even classical composers are keen not to be boxed in musically either.
You played at T in the Park this year, how do you feel your different kind of music fitted in?
Well we played on the Main Stage with Steph’s sister, Nicola Benedetti, who is fearless and wonderful in front of any audience. We were all worried about how a rock festival audience would take Vivaldi, Mascagni and Monti on a rainy, muddy Sunday morning, but if their screaming was anything to go by, they loved it.
We did a performance in the Kaleidoscope Tent later on and we did five encores. The audience wouldn’t let us off the stage! It was a fantastic day actually, we said afterwards that we felt accepted, like all the anally retentive arranging and rehearsing we do was worth it. We’re really hoping to go back next year.
What are the benefits for you of performing in big halls vs. intimate venues vs. festivals?
It’s funny, last night we played in George Michael’s (clang) band to 17 000 people in Earls Court and next week the quartet will be performing to around 200 at The Elgar Rooms.....it’s hard to compare to be honest. Earls Court is so big that you can feel oddly invisible. Our families were at the back of the room which is a good few minutes walk away from the stage!
When you are on the stage, under the spotlight, there is a feeling of intimacy between you and the audience, which is obviously easier to feel when the room is smaller. We’ve played at the Palladium though, and in the RAH, and loved it. We’ve also played in pubs packed full of people and had an incredible time on stage. We rely on the audience rather than the venue to make a gig to be honest. If they’re loud and appreciative, we’re instantly more comfortable.
How do you find the difference between taking centre stage and backing other artists? Which do you prefer?
We play for other artists all the time, it’s how we make the rent. It’s lovely, we get to meet big pop stars and perform for incredibly enthusiastic audiences. We backed Madness recently and ended up at the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics, playing to 80 000 people, which was nice.
Also the pressure is off, not being centre stage, and we can enjoy playing nice string lines and playing from music. A Raven performance is all consuming and exhausting, but as we have arranged, memorised and practised all the music, it feels like ours, and we are proud of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.
The satisfaction we get from that is huge and although sometimes its frightening and without much security, it is worth it.
When you’re not working, what kind of music do you like to listen to or go to see?
We all like different things. Kirsty is married to a producer (he recently produced the Mercury nominated Alt-J album, which we played on) and goes to a lot of gigs and hears emerging bands all the time. Nats and Steph listen to classical music and are both Michael Jackson fans. Natalie also works as a composer for film and TV and has very eclectic tastes. Steph likes nothing more than to drive long distances listening to Tina Turner. She goes to see her sister Nicky Benedetti perform when she’s in the country so she’s familiar with all the violin repertoire. Rachael listens to Radiohead and shamefully doesn’t attend many gigs....it feels like a busman’s holiday.
Intrview Lizzie Rogers. Tickets to see them on the 24th October are avaliable HERE
http://www.ravenquartet.co.uk/
