Second Square To None

Niamh de Barra - Potholing (Live) by SSTN Strings

This week we feature Dublin based artist, Niamh de Barra, formerly known as Scurvy Lass. Niamh is a singular talent, using layers of manipulated vocals and cello to create haunting songs that never fail to leave an impression. 

I've been playing the piano since I was quite young, was in a choir from the age of eight and taught myself the guitar when I was fourteen for the whole grungy riot grrrl thing. I studied music in Maynooth, and started playing the cello in my last year of college, to have something a bit more portable than a piano. That's the "traditional" background anyway.

I was in an improv band, John Mary Trilogy, for many years, and that, along with the choir I was in as a kid, was the greatest influence on my eeeehhhh development as a musician. That idea of losing yourself in what you're playing, surfacing after a few hours with a mixture of "what happened?" and "it can't have been bad if it feels so good". It was great to be in a band that just jams, very liberating after years in college of practicing the same pieces ad nauseam (not that there isn't scope for expression in that type of music-making, it's just that it's a bit easier and less scary because the pieces you're playing have already been "endorsed" for years. It's not really your music, you're not laying yourself bare to such an extent), just letting go. Yknow??

I'd like to say that it varies, but it doesn't really. Little melodic or rhythmic phrases pop into my head, generally very simple, and they hang around until I do something with them. Sometimes another tune sparks something, sometimes it's the cross-rhythms between a few dripping toilet cisterns that sends me on my way. Step 2 is sitting down in my room to work, and then whatever happens is whatever happens.

This piece was a bit different, in that I was limited to the cello. Vocals and lyrics are an important part of what I write usually and up until recently the cello was more of an accompanying instrument. Now I'm finally starting to feel that I'm getting to grips with cello technique. I've a load of "horrible to listen to" exercises, but with their help, I've been playing a lot of double-stopped (playing two strings at once) notes and octaves, and having more of a handle on intonation (playing the notes in tune - the cello has no frets). Which helps!

But the basic idea of using loops to build up textures, and manipulating effects to produce different sonorities, remains the same, and probably will for a while.

At the moment, my set-up consists of computer running Ableton, soundcard/mixer, cello and mic, and a midi foot-pedal to control things while my hands are busy with the cello. I've just started using my sister's keyboard with a synth plug-in. Until January I was completely ignorant about the labyrinth that is synthesis, now I'd say I've got ten percent under my belt. It's very interesting, and I'm learning loads about the physics of sound in general; the music's still a bit "Pigs in Space" though...

I'll be updating my Myspace page as and when I find stuff out.

Been using Soundcloud a bit more recently, just because you can put up Wavs, and it just seems a bit more eeehh professional (says she on the dole).

I'll be releasing an EP later in the year, "Cusp", with yerselves at SSTN. There are four tracks on it, kind of a distillation of what I was doing last year. I'm hoping/planning that things will take a slightly different direction now, what with the keyboard and all.

Note: Check out a full liveset from Niamh at SSTN last year here.