Learning To Dance For Lanigan’s Ball: Chasing Abbey

Taken from Issue 001 of The Irish Dance Globe. Purchase any remaining copies here while stocks last.

“The question is, what is the tradition?” asks Chasing Abbey’s Teddy C. For the the trad house trio — which is completed by Ro and Bee — keeping tradition alive and kicking means refusing to allow their genre-pushing music to be bound by rules.

The group, from Tullamore, County Offaly, have had a whirlwind year after their house spin on a traditional Irish tune, ‘Oh My Johnny (Banks Of The Roses)’, became a buzzy hit and went platinum in their home country. The huge response to the fresh take on a song that dates back to the 18th century has shown that there’s an appetite for the classic storytelling of Ireland’s most evocative trad tunes, paired with thumping earworm hooks that you can dance (or jig) to. According to the band, the key to ensuring trad continues to thrive is to keep pushing it forward, as it always has been. “Traditional music in its essence evolves,” Teddy C adds.

We speak to the group over video call from their swish hometown studio about what makes trad music culture so special, how they are bringing traditional Irish music to a whole new generation, and why the genre is going through a similar revival to Irish dancing.

How did you start making music together?

Bee: We all come from musical backgrounds, and we all started playing traditional Irish music from a very young age. We met each other at secondary school and we were in a couple of bands together through the years — trad and folk. And it got to a point where we really wanted to take our musical journeys to the next level, and maybe try and do something different, and also make a career out of it. So we started to learn how to make electronic music and dance music, because that’s what we listened to. And then we did that for a number of years. We released our first single ‘That Good Thing’ [in 2017], which actually does have banjo in it. And then we kind of left that to the side, the more traditional influence, and we went more so [into] house radio music. And then, in the middle of this year, we started bringing the traditional influence back into it. And here we are.

Why do you think trad sessions — where Irish dancers will often participate with a step about — are so unique and important to Irish culture?

Teddy C: It’s something we’ve been doing since we were kids. But I guess when you grow up in Ireland, especially rural Ireland, and your families are from trad backgrounds, it’s just part and parcel of life. You meet up in a pub, sometimes in a house, and you just play a few tunes together and it’s a social thing. It’s a bit of a craic, it’s fun. It’s a way for people to grieve, it’s a way for people to celebrate.

I think, for Irish people, it’s a way of expressing our emotions. It can just be like a healing thing, where people will come together, family come together. It’s a big part of why we’re doing music. If you have a session and it’s going really well, and it’s reaching fever pitch, it’s a feeling that is remarkable. When the energy is high, it’s an addictive feeling.

You started with trad music, then moved into pop and hip-hop, and now you’ve come back around to trad again. Tell us about how your musical journey came full circle.

Teddy C: What actually happened is, my granny turned 100 years old. We went to the pub, and we had a session and one of the songs that was played was ‘Banks Of The Roses’, which has been a song that we’ve been singing for 20 years. It was one of those moments where the session hit fever pitch and it just lifted the place, and it was an amazing moment. We just kind of noted on the night, “Wow, that is some tune. That is an incredible song.”

We went into the studio the next day and we were making house music, but we were fresh off the session, so it was still in our brains. Because of that, we just started singing ‘Banks Of The Roses’ over a house beat. I just went in and threw down the vocals and I was like, “Okay, this actually sounds sick!” So we put it up on TikTok not really expecting much, and came back the following day and it had exploded. There was just a huge interest in this idea, this concept of trad house. There have been fusions before, like trad rock, classical music with trad, like Riverdance was kind of taking that modern influence and putting it with trad. But here we are with trad house.

There’s a viral video on your social media of a girl doing a heavy step and a guy shuffling in the middle of the crowd after you asked if anyone could Irish dance. How did that moment unfold?

Ro: That happened at the Fleadh Cheoil [in Mullingar, County Westmeath]. We had that song, ‘Learning To Dance’, and the song is written about literally people learning to dance for this ball (“She stepped out, I stepped in again”). When we were planning out the show, we had never played the song live. And we said, “This song lends itself to some sort of piece of ‘show’ that we can incorporate.” So before, we just asked if there were any Irish dancers. Given it was the Fleadh, we were kind of expecting there to be someone. I was like, “Just make a circle in the middle of the tent.” That girl and that guy ended up in the middle of it, and it was captured perfectly.

Have any of you ever Irish danced?

Bee: I did it the whole way up through school.

Ro: My mam wanted me to do it, and I did it for a good few years. It just wasn’t the coolest thing for lads to be at back then growing up, it was cooler to be kicking a football. So I gave it up. I did enjoy it, but I just wasn’t confident enough to keep it going.

Teddy C: When I was too young to play an instrument at sessions years ago, my thing was that I would Irish dance as a child. Obviously, as I got older, I started playing music. Now in fairness, I didn’t know what I was at, but it was kind of Irish dancing, I suppose.

Do you remember any steps?

Ro: The first one you do, the one two three, two two three, then hop two, three, four, five, six, seven.

The reel, impressive!

Ro: There were a couple of guys that were a good few years older [than me] who were unbelievable dancers that were properly doing it. I was like, “Ah, that really does look cool, but I just can’t.” To get to the point where it actually looks cool, it just takes too much!

Would you ever feature an Irish dancer in one of your music videos?

Bee: Yes, definitely! I think it’s coming very soon.

Within Irish dancing there’s often conversations about balancing tradition and innovation. How do you approach this with your music?

Teddy C: The question is, what is the tradition? Traditional music in its essence evolves. Banjo and guitar weren’t part of trad music until the ’60s. Now they’re an accepted instrument and nobody will question them. The thing about trad music is, it comes from a place where people sang music to each other, played music to each other, and it travelled ear to ear. And it has to constantly evolve to stay relevant.

So there are purists who believe there is a way that it has to be done and followed. But I think if you look at the history of trad, that’s incorrect because it’s constantly evolving. Now, in fairness to us, we took a drastic leap, and we understand that. We’ve gone as far as we could go. But it’s been done before. There’s so many examples of where it’s been used and evolved and made into the modern era.

While, obviously we respect the traditions, I think you have to keep evolving as well. And that’s why it’s around for so long, because it always changes. Every time someone passes a tune to another person, it’s a little bit different. Trad music is not a rigid thing, and I think that’s a misunderstanding people sometimes think.

Ro: It’s similar with the dancing, like The Gardiner Brothers or Cairde who are dancing over popular music, they’re passing Irish dance on to people who would otherwise never see it. With our song ‘Banks Of The Roses’, literally thousands of people have heard that song now who would have never heard it before. And we’ve met kids who never would have ever listened to Irish music, who didn’t know it was an Irish song. And that, to us, is passing on the culture of Irish music to a whole demographic of people who would never come across it otherwise. And we’ve also had kids starting to learn the banjo, purely because of ‘Oh My Johnny’.

It’s inspiring a whole generation of people. I think the idea of Irish dancing over pop or house music is the same thing. People who like the music realise, “Oh, this is cool to dance over.” But they might not have watched the same dancing over just a normal Irish jig.

What was the inspiration for your new single ‘Learning To Dance (Lanigan’s Ball)’?

Teddy C: When ‘Oh My Johnny’ kicked off, I started to have a lot of conversations with my dad, who is heavily involved with trad music. We were chatting, and he said, “Did you ever hear of ‘Lanigan’s Ball’?” I was like, “No, I’m not sure I have.” He showed it to me and he said, “I think you could do something with the song.” So I came into the studio, and I showed the boys and we were like, “This could be amazing.” It’s such a dance hook.

Where do you want to take trad house in the future?

Bee: After ‘Learning To Dance’ comes out, I think we’re gonna get into the studio with no distractions — the last six months have been a bit of a whirlwind. We’re going to reevaluate where we are musically, and just make some music that we love, and see what happens then. But I think forevermore, there’ll be an influence of Irish traditional music in our music. I think that’s one thing that’s 100 per cent certain now. Because we’ve identified that this is a huge part of us. And it’s a part that is so special, that it can never not be in our music ever again.