Yoko Pwno - Celtic Invasion Gets Manchester in Mood to Dance

Interview With Edinburgh Band @ MoodsFest

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A1M records Ltd

A rekindled and flourishing wave of independent artists, powered by new beats and styles, cloaked with a literary passion for words with meaning are spearheading a renaissance in the “Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester Music Scenes”.

We caught up with the Edinburgh based, totally unique outfit,Yoko Pwono who have been making their own waves North of the Border and recently caught the eye, when they played with the Moods at the 900 capacity Edinburgh venue Stramash at one of the brilliant Yellow Movement Friday nights,curated by David Blair, member of the acclaimed Colonel Mustard and The Dijon 5.

These three musical cities collide on 28th April at the Bred Shed Manchester– an all day Urban festival of music, MoodsFest will see Glasgow, Edinburgh & Mancunia come together for an, "urban gathering of clans", "North of the Border meets Salford and Manchester music".

Question - Girobabies, Twistettes and Yoko Pwno are all coming to play in Manchester at MoodsFest on 28th April – how did you get involved? -

We were booked to support the Moods in Glasgow late last year and ended up playing Edinburgh at one of the yellow movement gigs with them the night before too. As well as being a great band they’re a lovely bunch of people, so we got chatting, and I guess they must have enjoyed our music so, obviously when they asked we jumped at the chance!

Question- The Gallic, Mancunian collaboration appears to be gathering momentum and is even spreading to Edinburgh and other towns in Scotland, do you think the music cultures and styles of Glasgow and Manchester fit together?

As a Dundonian living in Edinburgh I may not be best placed to answer this, but... Both Glasgow and Manchester are big industrial cities with a strong working class heritage. They also have a willingness to take in new people, culture, music and ideas. There's a certain swagger that both places seem to share - a sense of purpose and self-belief perhaps born out of the sense of community in those inner-city neighbourhoods. The ability of music to speak for a community - to give voice to people who feel overlooked - is really important. This is especially true in places where you've got a lot of people living together in tough conditions. That's universal.

Also, such big cities with their diverse populations and large numbers of new arrivals from all over the world are naturally home to cultural cross-pollination. This leads to more interesting music. As a band who mash up traditional Scottish forms with electronic sounds, outside influences are especially important to us. Given recent events it's more important than ever that we reach out to the world and not disappear into ourselves. The fact that all of the bands involved are f****g awesome doesn't hurt either ;)

Question - How did you come up with your unique sound, did it evolve or did you experiment with different instruments before reaching this current eclectic mix?

It's evolved over time. We have been through a few lineups, but in the early years the core of the band was always Lewis on fiddle and Calum on production. The idea has always been to use fiddle as the lead instrument, and back that up with electronic sounds - the weirder the better! Since Lissa and Ali joined the scope of what we can achieve live has increased greatly, with Lissa's vocals and synth playing and Ali's mix of electronic and acoustic percussion. We're big fans of taking 'traditional', acoustic instrument sounds and using them in unfamiliar ways.

Question- Yoko Pwno- how would you describe your own music - in three lines and what van the good folk of Manchester expect from You ?

Yoko Pwno play a genre-violating mixture of traditional Scottish music and electronic beats. Lewis and Lissa's lightning fast twin fiddles are backed up by Ali's percussion and Calum's production to create a tight, fresh and funky sound aimed firmly at the dancefloor. With nods to the likes of 4tet and Daft Punk mashed up with flavours of fellow Scots Shooglenifty and the Peatbog Faeries,

April 27, 2018 12:25pm ET by A1M records Ltd  

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