Arborea Interview: SXSW 2010

Bringing the backwoods of Maine and a touch of banjo, Arborea will be offering SXSW audiences a spoonful of Americana with their innovative alternative folk rock. Songs like 'Black Mountain Road' off of their 2008 self-titled album reveal the band's knack for producing an inchoate, dreamy soundscape enclosed in the delicate, minimalist confines of banjo, guitar, cello and hypnotic vocals. The husband and wife duo of Buck and Shanti Curran recently wrapped up a tour in Europe in February 2010, and have since been touring the US. Spinner spoke with Arborea while they were on the road heading to SXSW 2010.

Describe your sound in your own words.

Buck: Really, it's an amalgamation of a lot of different things, a lot of musical history. Our sound is informed by blues and archaic folk, but at the same time, we're really influenced by our environment. For most of our recordings thus far that's been influenced by the landscapes of Maine, so you're talking the Rocky coast line and the mountains where Shanti's grandfather has land.

How did your band form?

Shanti: We've been together for a while, and we weren't playing music together. I'm a photographer and he's a guitar builder, and so he's always played guitar and liked the music. I come from a musical family and it was just such a natural part of life that I really took it for granted. I was just more into photography, and I had a dark room and all that stuff, but I just started getting interested in my mid-20s and Buck bought me a banjo for my birthday. For me, the banjo was really kind of a sassy instrument. We put it in this really beautiful tuning and then I just started making songs and writing all the time and it just came out in this huge rush. We decided, "let's record."
Buck: I knew Shanti could sing; she was really shy, so it took a long time. I ended up stumbling on a banjo but we were kind of searching for an instrument for her, and then she really connected to it when I bought it for her birthday. That's why I say the banjo was kind of a catalyst in the dark, mountain, minor, melodic tuning that we use. We started creating music together improvisationally that summer and we had a really good time. We would have constant jams; our music started to evolve rather quickly out of those improvisations. We started thinking about writing songs. Shanti's always been a really good writer. We just put our heads together and started creating stuff.

What are your musical influences?

Buck: We both like a lot of the British folk of the late '60s and early '70s like June Tabor and Ted Bikel, but we also like Gillian Welch and David Rollins a lot. Jack Rose, who just passed away.
Shanti: A lot of the people we've met since we've started playing music -- I love their music because I love them -- I know who they are, I like who they are and that makes me appreciate their music even more.
Buck: We're kind of like an extended family. We all kind of challenge each other to come up with new music. There's a really beautiful kind of new acoustic scene that's happening and has been happening for several years.


How did you come up with your band name?

Shanti: We both came up with it separately. For me, it's a Latin word for a type of tree, and where we live in Maine, it's considered the most forested state in the United States. I love that area, and I feel like our music is inspired a little bit by what we run around in. To me, Arborea seemed like a really cool name.
Buck: It's a long story, but when I lived in Ireland, there was a really eclectic band that did a lot of theater with their music called Arborea but they've disbanded. I just really liked the name a lot and thought it was a little on the mysterious side.

How has making music and being on tour affected your relationship and your family?

Shanti: Oh, it's done nothing but strengthen it and make it the richest life I can possibly imagine. You know you're not going to be rich. Our experiences, even the bad ones -- some of the times we had in Europe where we wanted to strangle each other just from the stress of being on the road or being hungry or tired -- even that, you get through it and it just becomes this amazing bond.
Buck: Exactly what Shanti said. It's been really wonderful. On this particular tour, after we left our show in the D.C. area we stopped at a Civil War battleground. We took the opportunity to stop and visit the site and learn a little history about our country. We're doing that throughout the trip.
Shanti: All the way to California!

What have you learned about yourselves as artists and musicians while on tour?

Shanti: I learned that I want to be a gypsy and always travel with my children and experience new things. I've learned how to not be uptight about places we go to. I've also learned that most people are amazing and really beautiful people. As far as playing, I've learned to really hone in on the feeling that I get when we play music, and I focus on that. I mean, that's just what we do when we're playing our music. It's a very comforting thing to play music live now for me, like getting into the world that we created when we wrote the songs and kind of just existing in that for 45 minutes to an hour every night or every other night is really cool.
Buck: I've really enjoyed the challenge of playing live, because every performance is slightly different. No matter how well you think you know a song, just variations in what's going on or how you're feeling -- it's a challenge and a pleasure at the same time. I just look forward to every show.

What's in your festival survival kit?

Shanti: I've got a blowup bed, some sleeping bags, all of our instruments, batteries, cell phones, lap tops. We just got laptops yesterday, so I can keep doing school stuff with the kids and keep checking our e-mail. We have good CDs. I've got 'The Point!' by Harry Nilsson. Vitamins, organic fruit and nuts and seeds and things like that, because you don't want to eat junk food on the road. You just end up feeling terrible if you're traveling and eating chips and stuff. Nothing exciting, really -- just a good attitude more than anything. You always try to roll into every town that you go in with an open mind and a good attitude, and for the most part, good things will happen.

Jessica Lipman is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.