“Jeremy Irons can hold his own at a seisiún ” - Martin Hayes
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How did Martin Hayes’ childhood in East Clare shape his musical foundation?
I'm delighted now to be joined by a a a traditional music legend really and not just a master but a game changer actually. Fiddler Martin Hayes, you're very welcome.
Oh, thank you, Brendan.
Uh Martin you've taken time out from I think the Kilkenny Arts Festival you're stuck in at the moment. Uh so you've taken time out to come in and choose five pieces of music that mean a lot to you. Is it festival season for you right now, yeah?
It is, yeah, yeah. Every August is kind of uh uh kind of an annual uh rotation of of of the same festivals. I I start out in my own local village in Feaklin, East Clare, then I I get to spend a week in Kilkenny and then I I actually go on to Bantry. I do a festival there, the Masters of Tradition as well. So yeah, it's a grand old summer joint feeling it's a predictable in an unpredictable lifestyle. Yeah. No, it's a predictable Yeah, okay, yeah.
And you've stayed loyal to to Fiekal all these years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You grew up down the road. Um Was the house full of music as a child it was, yeah?
Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. There were there were fiddles and accordions and flutes coming in and out the door there. Uh uh, you know, from basically as long as I can remember, you know. If somebody asked me what was the first gig, you know, that you ever had I don't know. I said I was hearing before I could remember, you know.
Yeah. And would would it be in the house a lot of nights like the people were gathering play music? Yeah, it was very it was very common. Yeah.
Yeah, because well, m my father was a fiddle player of course. No, not that he'd be playing every night on his own, he wouldn't, but uh but my relatives were were musicians as well. So they'd never come without the instrument, i if they were coming. You know, my my in laws and stuff like that. They they all brought flutes and fiddles with them and so uh inevitably at some hour of the night he would turn into that.
Yeah. And your your father, PJ, it's so he was he was a farmer. That's but a founding member of uh Tolle Kaley band, wasn't it? That's right. So h he taught you to play then, did he? That's right, yeah. What's that like then? Is is that is there a kind of a sanctity in that of the father passing down the tradition to the son?
I I suppose there is in a way. I mean it it's a very You it was a very basic teaching kind of format. He would just sit across in front of me, he'd play like a bar or two of a tune and say, Go on, give it a try. And that was it really. And uh so I j just sat in front of him and learned.
What role did Martin’s father play in teaching him traditional fiddle techniques?
You just picked up and learnt it that way, like there was the technique and never discussion. It was never never a discussion of anything.
No, it was just like uh person to person transmission in that way, you know. Do that. Yeah. It must be a lovely thing to have had with your father though, is it? It was because we ha ended up having a great friendship all our lives and like having a real common interest and like and shared viewpoints on it as well. You know, it wasn't like you know and we we rarely disagreed on it, you know. We were kind of
Would there would there be philosophical disagreements around aspects of it, yeah? No, there was mostly philosophical agreement. Yeah, but there would be philosophy around it, like issues.
Like such as Well, uh you know, tradition is a very difficult thing to define. Yeah. And some people are very sure they know what it is and and so are others. And these things don't necessarily line up and some people are irked by tradition I think and kind of want to challenge it immediately and others are very concerned about preserving it. So there there are tensions within the music form, you know?
Okay. And d would there have been a particular kind of local, if you want to call it musical dialect then? Uh where you came from, like you with strands, yeah.
Yes, there was, yeah. And uh we we would have played a lot of tunes in minor keys and the tempos were a little more relaxed than they might have been in some other parts of the country. And there was a kind of uh an inclination towards melancholic, uh kind of longing, yearning kind of sentiment in music, you know, that was like something I grew up with and I thought yeah considered it quite natural actually, you know.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Martin Hayes’ childhood in East Clare shape his musical foundation?
0:00–2:25
2
What role did Martin’s father play in teaching him traditional fiddle techniques?
2:25–6:19
3
How does Hayes describe the tension between Irish tradition and jazz improvisation?
6:19–9:46
4
What insights does Hayes share about the influence of Tommy Potts on Irish fiddle music?
9:46–12:19
5
Why does Hayes consider the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” a pivotal choice for his playlist?
12:19–15:47
6
How did the collaboration with jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli reshape his view of “Danny Boy”?
15:47–19:08
7
What does Hayes say about the future of The Gloaming after Dennis’s passing?
19:08–22:26
8
How did Martin Hayes come to work with Paul Simon and why does “American Tune” matter to him?
22:26–25:26