The Lion's Roar / Fernanda Chagas
During her tour in the southern United States, singer Julie Fowlis, the voice of Disney-Pixar’s “Brave” soundtrack, delivered a Gaelic musical performance to the people of Hammond. This was Fowlis’ first time visiting Louisiana. She took the stage of the Columbia Theatre on Oct. 9.
Fowlis was joined by band members Éamon Doorley, her husband and player of the Irish bouzouki, Colin Farrell on the fiddle and Tony Byrne on the guitar. In addition to her singing, Fowlis also played the tin whistle, the bagpipes and a First Nation instrument called a “Shruti Box.”
The whole band came on stage and introduced themselves, expressing their excitement about touring in the Southern states, especially Louisiana, which roused the crowd into cheers. Fowlis encouraged dancing and applause amongst show-goers.
She educated everyone about the Gaelic poetry that inspired their performance and gave background to each song, explaining there was a slim chance of many people in the room understanding the Scottish Gaelic language.
One song, “The Choice,” is about a man thinking about his true love going off to marry another man and how he would change his past mistakes if he could.
Other songs, such as “Nellie Garvey” sounded, according to Fowlis, “very upbeat and happy,” but then Fowlis confessed that the song was sad and tragic. Fowlis said she wouldn’t explain a few of the songs’ meanings to the audience so as not to ruin the mood.
Fowlis then presented her cover of the Beatles’ “Black Bird.” Her record company found it too risky to cover a song by the Beatles, but when she came back with the recording, they were shocked to find she had sung the song entirely in Gaelic.
Her cover of “Black Bird” blended into a faster-paced song that had the majority of the audience clapping in time with the beat. Participants discovered that the fast-paced song was actually about being violently ill at sea, which made everyone laugh.
Fowlis and the band thanked everyone for supporting them and exited the stage. The crowd broke into applause, calling for an encore. The band replied to the audience’s call by playing “Touch the Sky” from the “Brave” movie soundtrack.
Fowlis also recorded the original song, “Into the Open Air,” from the “Brave” soundtrack. She described her reaction to Disney-Pixar reaching out to her as “a very Scottish reaction,” which meant she didn’t believe any of it was going to happen, but she went along with it anyways. The musical process took months.
“We developed the songs slowly, slowly, step by step, and examining every word and every rhythm,” said Fowlis. “That’s because it was going to be broadcasted around the world and it had to have this certain message. It had to represent Merida and her thoughts and feelings at these critical points of the movie.”
Fowlis admired the gradual and in-depth creative process utilized at Pixar during the making of “Brave.”
“It was a slow but deliberate, and a very well thought out process,” said Fowlis. “I guess that says everything about Pixar to me. It’s very definite, very careful, well thought out and striving always for perfection. It was a real blast to work with them.”
Fowlis described her joy at seeing her work in the finished movie.
“It was just unbelievable going into Hollywood for the premiere and sitting in the Dolby theatre watching the film and then hearing the song come on as a part of the film was just wild,” said Fowlis.
Fowlis expressed that her passion for Gaelic traditional music came from growing up with it. Fowlis also finds it important because the use of Gaelic language in Scotland is currently up for debate. She hopes to share the historical culture that the Gaelic language holds through her music and success as an artist. She explained that for the future she wishes to keep making music, touring and also collaborating with other musicians to further her art.
You can find Julie Fowlis and her music on her website, juliefowlis.com.