{"id":2770,"date":"2010-09-01T15:50:52","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T19:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=2770"},"modified":"2010-09-01T15:50:52","modified_gmt":"2010-09-01T19:50:52","slug":"10-questions-with-the-gypsy-nomads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=2770","title":{"rendered":"10 Questions with The Gypsy Nomads"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. I find myself having trouble describing your duo’s sound. The best I come up with is that it’s like a French cabaret, populated with fairy folk, performing on a steampunk air ship. How do you describe your sound?<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Samantha) That sounds good to us! We usually call it Gypsy Cabaret Folk Punk, it sounds clich\u00e9 but it is such a mix of different influences that it does become difficult to pin point. We basically write what comes naturally to us and the combination of both of our life experiences makes it what it is.<\/p>\n

2. Now Samantha, you have a background in art and dance. When did you discover singing? Or perhaps the question is, when did you decide to focus on singing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Samantha) I started singing at a very early age. I come from a musical family and singing was a normal part of our lives. I sang in the school choir in England and a little when I came to the States. After that I guess I was a closet singer, a \u201cbelt-it-out\u201d at home type, using it as a cathartic thing for those soul searching times. Mostly, my stage performances were dance. It wasn\u2019t until 2005 when I started collaborating with Scott that I got back to singing on stage.<\/p>\n

3. The other “must be asked” question is for Scott. Readers may recognize you from your time with the punk bands Deep Wounds and Outpatients, how did you evolve from that scene into the music you’re performing now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Scott) In the mid `90\u2019s the Outpatients broke up, so after years of playing in punk and metal bands I wanted to do something different. I switched from bass to acoustic guitar and started writing songs. The music that came out was more earthy and melodic. I liked the idea of creating a full sound but with layers of acoustic guitar. It seemed like a natural progression to me. With the Gypsy Nomads it has all come full circle, we play this earthy eclectic music that has a lot of fire and punk energy and attitude. When Samantha and I started writing together everything gelled and it has become this amazing entity. There is a chemistry we have on stage and when we write that is very special and humbling.<\/p>\n

4. What kind of process do you use when writing music? As a duo, who breaks a tie if you guys disagree on an idea?<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Samantha) Usually Scott will be riffing on the guitar and when I hear words attached to those riffs I\u2019ll let him know and he\u2019ll just keep repeating it while I write. Then we play around with the arrangement and brainstorm together. I can\u2019t think of an instance when we have disagreed. It doesn\u2019t really happen that way, it\u2018s more like a flowing of ideas and some stick and some don\u2019t. We\u2019re not overly attached to whose idea it was.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>(Scott) Samantha writes all the lyrics and we work on the music together for the most part. Each song takes us on a little journey, it\u2019s a mysterious path the muse guides you on and you never know when an idea for a song will happen. For example, when we were driving through Pennsylvania, Samantha came up with the melody for \u2018Yes! I\u2019m French\u2019. We wrote the songs \u2018Kaii\u2019 and \u2018Le Train\u2019 off of our Eternal Summer CD in a hotel in Kansas. But I do tend to go off on my own to work on instrumentals. For our new CD, Happy Madness, I went away for 4 days, locked myself in a room and wrote the songs \u2018Sombrero Cabaret\u2019 and \u2018Happy Madness\u2019. <\/p>\n