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May 19th 2008 - Competition
Revolver are giving away two tickets for Vyvienne's gig in Dublin on May 31st as well as an opportunity to meet and greet with Vyvienne before the gig. To enter, answer the following question:
What venue is Vvyienne Long performing at on 31st May?
Send your answer to Revolver by 5PM on May 28th.May 5th 2008 - Dublin Performance
Revovler in Association with Becks Vier presents Vyvienne Long and full band on Saturday 31st May at Radio City, Store Street in Dublin (Doors 8.30pm). Also playing are: House of Cosy Cushions and More Tiny Giants.April 12th 2008 - Shoestring Collective
Cellist Vyvienne Long and Kila's Colm Ó Snodaigh are among the artists playing at this month's Shoestring Collective gig in the James Joyce Centre, Dublin.
Dublin's Shoestring Collective presents 'Saturday Night In', an intimate gig in the James Joyce Centre on North Great George's Street this April 26.
Cellist Vyvienne Long heads the line-up, offering a sneak peak of material from her debut album, which she's working on at the moment.
Multi-instrumentalist Colm Ó Snodaigh will be there playing tracks from his recently released solo album Giving, and classical guitarist Donal MacErlaine will also be on hand, along with up-and-coming stand-up Tomie James.
But the jam-packed line-up doesn't stop there; for the more literary among you, there will also be poetry and short story readings with Boston native Tara Smith, award-winning poet and writer Colm Keegan and the Shoestring Collective's resident poet Brian Conaghan.
And just in case you haven't had enough art for one night – Ciaran Cunningham’s photography will be exhibited around the venue too.
Tickets for the Saturday Night In are €10, available from www.ctb.ie.February 15th 2008 - Live Performances
Vyvienne has two performances coming up. Find Vyvienne at NUI Maynooth on 20th February and at DCU on 24th Febraury.January 17th 2008 - RTE Performance
Vyvienne performs 'The Inheritance' on RTE's 'The View'. Watch here if you have RealPlayer, or see RTE's website.January 5th 2008 - New Vyvienne Interview
Playing side saddle with strings attached
Vyvienne Long's classical training is a rarity on the rock scene, but as well as being Damien Rice's cellist she bridges the musical divide with her own elegant music, writes Tony Clayton-Lea
Straddling the divide between two opposing musical forms is ungainly; riding side-saddle is also unadvised. But when you add certain supposed conflicting factors together and leapfrog over the twin obstacles of snobbery and prejudice you come up with something special. Say hello to Vyvienne Long.
Long's credentials - very much like the woman herself - are short and sweet. As a child, she says, she was learning music before she became truly interested in it or became emotionally connected to it. "That happened a couple of years after my teens, when I started to play in orchestras. That's when the joy of music started to unfold."
Before this, of course, she was a young girl who, through the gentle pressures of her parents ("I was good, not a genius," Long recalls, "but good enough for my parents to push me to continue") started playing piano, subsequently shifting to cello.
Emotional involvement arrived when she became proficient enough to start playing with other musicians. "You can get really involved in it when you're a better musician, and that's when so many other musical options open up."
Having finished her degree in Dublin's College of Music, Long travelled to Barcelona's Escola de Musica for her Masters. On returning home, she hooked up with a rising Irish singer-songwriter called Damien Rice, who at that point was looking for string arrangements to adorn his musically ascetic debut album, O.
Throughout the subsequent years, while sawing and bowing and scraping her way through the Rice catalogue, Long has been writing her own material (showcased last year on the elegant five-track mini-album, Birdtalk) and covering other people's songs (notably her innovative take on White Stripes's Seven Nation Army). The ease with which she tackles each discipline - let alone shaping the songs into appealing string-driven baubles - makes it seem as if her workload is a doddle.
Is it difficult for someone with or from a classical music background to transfer their loyalties to the general area of rock and pop?
"It's a lot more difficult the other way around," Long contends. "I haven't heard of any classical musicians breaking into the pop or rock scene. I don't think it's difficult, however - it's just a different frame of mind, I suppose; and a lot more relaxed and accepting one from an audience point of view. If you understand the principles of music it's not difficult to change from classical to pop.
"It was a very gradual change for me, though; it wasn't a decision that I consciously made, but more through circumstance and what I became involved with, musically. I gradually became more involved with Damien's progress and that instigated my interest in pop music, which was an area I knew very little about. Previously, my entire musical diet was classical."
LONG'S MUSICAL TASTES soon broadened out; knowing little about the denizens of pop music beyond The Beatles, she was introduced, slowly and surely to the likes of - to name but a handful - Led Zeppelin, Sly and the Family Stone, Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell. She was, she reveals with sincerity, "a blank canvas; so much of the music was a discovery for me." Yet discovery or no, only a few rock acts blew her away.
"I wouldn't say discovering some rock music made as huge an impression on me as discovering, say, Prokofiev or Elgar when I was 12 or 13. But then I was a bit older, and more in-depth impressions are made, I think, when you're younger.
"I know there is a lot of rock music I haven't yet heard, but I've caught up very quickly and I reckon I'm ready to take the exam. I can definitely be part of the pop team quiz now."
What did her classical music colleagues think of her gradual drift into rock music's grubby cubbyholes? "None of them has said anything negative to me," says Long cheerfully. "Everyone seems enthusiastic and they enjoy the concerts. Some of them have even been part of my group, and I hope they enjoy that. I haven't cut my ties with classical music and I hope I never will - I want to have the opportunity to play both. Anyway, I think most classical musicians these days are diversifying, working in most areas they're offered work in. I don't think anyone can be really snotty about the work anymore."
With a debut album forthcoming in the first quarter of this year, it won't be too long, surely, before Long's tour dates will be clashing with those of her primary paymaster, Damien Rice.
For the moment, however, she has gigs of her own to play, and album tracks to finalise. "I have to get my skates on, to tell the truth. I've been away on tour until quite recently, and on the few Irish gigs of my own I've been doing recently I've been running through the new songs.
"Playing live dates consolidates the songs you've been writing. I hope the live shows will make it easier for me when I go into the studio, because what I've been practising will be reinforced in my head."
A doorbell rings. A gig to rush to. New songs to play. Seven Nation Army to cover. What does she wish for in 2008? "I'll be happy if I record an album that I'm pleased with. That will be reward enough for me."
Birdtalk is available to download on iTunes
© 2008 The Irish Times
(c) Zöe 2008