The Guest List
Thursday October 17th, 2024 with Joe Reilly
Interviews with Ewan Robertson of Breabach, Ben Plotnik of The Fretless and Ellen Froese. Brought to you buy Spaceman Music at 388 Gladstone Avenue - the place to go for all your music making needs!

NOTE: The On Demand version of the Guest List is about 10 minutes longer than the FM broadcast version of the show this week. It contains extra interview segments and the full musical pieces featured on the show today. The interviews and some musical pieces had to be edited to fit the Guest List's 60 minute format on the FM airwaves. The Guest List is sponsored by Spaceman Music, at 388 Gladstone Avenue (not 380 as I said a couple of times on the show today...sorry about that!) Visit Spaceman Music for all our music creating needs! https://www.spacemanmusic.com/ We open the show today in conversation with Ewan Robertson, the guitarist with the Scottish contemporary roots group Breabach. The group is appearing at the National Arts Centre TONIGHT (Thursday, October 17th) and will feature plenty of music from their most recent release Fas. Ewan tells us about the beautiful songs Revolutions and Changing World and what went into their creations. We talk about how Breabach likes to have a focus for each new recording and how the environment and the natural world are powerful themes on Fas. We also talk about how the group works with traditional music forms and injects them with lots of contemporary elements. For tickets to see Breabach at the National Arts Centre: https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/36467 For more information about Breabach and their music: https://www.breabach.com/ https://breabach.bandcamp.com/album/f-s We also talk to Ben Plotnik about being part of a group with strong ties to traditional music and very contemporary influences as well. His group The Fretless is appearing at La Nouvelle Scene - a great, small theatre at 333 King Edward Avenue on Friday night (October 18th.) The group is touring their sixth album, Glasswing, and has worked to create a beautiful, immersive, multi-sensory experience for its audiences on this tour with special lighting and a very special stage set. Ben also tells us about the experience of creating new music with vocalist Madeleine Roger and how happy The Fretless is to be touring her. For tickets to see The Fretless: https://thefretless.com/glasswing-tour-ottawa For more information about The Fretless and their music: https://thefretless.com/ https://thefretless.bandcamp.com/ Finally we check in with singer-songwriter Ellen Froese, who is from Saskatchewan. She will be in town to perform on the Fourth Stage of the National Arts Centre, on Thursday, October 24th. Ellen talks to us about the creation of her last album, For Each Flower Growing, which was released in 2022. She talks about how the death of her friend and musical engineer Jill Mack impacted the project and how Sam Corbett of the Sheepdogs produced it and helped her to complete the recording. We also talk about how technology like drum machines and cosmic themes played a part in the creation of the songs on this album. For tickets to see Ellen Froese: https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/36484 For more information about Ellen and her music: https://www.ellenfroese.com/ https://ellenfroese.bandcamp.com/ Thanks for listening to the Guest List this week. Get out and see some live music this week and support independent music in any way that you can.