SALTAIRE are a contemporary folk/traditional Irish collective.
The band’s latest EP, Only Moonlight, is available now.
The personnel is: Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz a folk singer and cross-genre cellist from New York, now based in Dublin; guitarist Ian Kinsella; bodhrán player Conor Lyons who also plays bouzouki.
This week singer and cellist Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz went under the spotlight to answer our questions...
What are you up to?
When I’m not playing music/scheming for Saltaire, you’ll usually find me working on a slow, bit-by-bit gaff renovation… Right now I’m taking a break from scraping paint off the bedroom walls, getting ready to repaint. Exquisite times.
Which piece of music always sends a shiver down your spine?
The Elgar cello concerto.
Which musician has most influenced you?
Kaitlin - I know this is a bit of a cop out but truly there are a great many, depending on what I’m working on … for cello in folk and traditional music its got to be Neil Martin, Natalie Haas, Sharon Howley; for vocals and songwriting I’d have to say Aoife O’Donovan; as I’ve been experimenting with treating the cello like a fiddle I’d be really inspired by the likes of Michelle O’Brien, Brid Harper, Liz Carrol.
How did you get started in music?
My parents like to say I was singing before I was talking… but I began learning the cello when I was 5. I started kindergarten at a hybrid academic/music school in New York called The Special Music School at the Kaufman Center.
Where are you from in Ireland?
Originally from New York City, moved to Dublin in 2017 and now live in Meath.
What is your favourite place in Ireland?
Probably West Cork, I especially love Allihies in the Beara Peninsula. Inisbofin is a very close second.
Mozart or Martin Hayes?
Mozart has never done it for me, even when I was studying classical music, and I do love a bit of Martin Hayes… If you asked Martin vs Mendelssohn however, that’d be tougher to answer
Have you a favourite line from a song?
Every word of Lungs by Townes Van Zandt. Also ‘Our dreams are the deepest breath we draw’ from The Deepest Breath by Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin.
In terms of inanimate objects, what is your most precious possession?
My cello for sure. But I also have a ring my grandmother gave me when I graduated university that rarely if ever leaves my finger.
What’s the best thing about the place you live? …And the worst?
The best thing about where we live in Meath is the peace, and the fact that we have the freedom to make it our own. The worst thing is that there’s no where close by to get good sushi (yes I am a big city slicker sap, I am who I am)
What’s the greatest lesson life has taught you? What do you believe in?
Trust your gut but be changeable as well. Allowing myself to be moved and inspired and to sometimes have my mind changed by the world and people around me has yielded some of the best moments of clarity. Sounds cheesy but above all else I believe in the power of music to connect us.
What do you consider to be the greatest work of art?
Surely there’s no such thing….but one piece of art that I cherish is a plate I got from a local ceramic artist when I was visiting an island called Naoshima in Japan. It’s beautiful and functional and reminds me of a happy time.
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