AMONG BIRDS, the cuckoo is the ultimate survivor. Often orphaned at an early age, the young chick will evict all other eggs from a host nest and encourage the host parents to bring it more food thus reaching maturity at a more rapid rate.
Cuckoo Savante certainly are a very distinctive presence on the Galway city music scene and with their theatrical and colourful shows down through the years they have won a vast legion of fans. They launch their much-anticipated debut album Lennonstown Lies at Róisín Dubh on Friday January 9 at 9pm.
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
Over a decade ago Jamie Nanci left his native Dundalk to study textile design in Galway. Through that he became involved with local theatre groups and eventually became friends with Morgan Cooke, Ursula De Campos, Steve Maye, and Kevin O’Kelly forming a theatrical music group called Cuckoo Savante. From the start, they set themselves apart, performing with everyone from comedians to burlesque dancers.
“When we first started out I’d a lot of lyrics written but I didn’t play an instrument so Morgan sort of put a melody to my words,” Jamie tells me. “The music I’d listen to would be probably swing music from the 1920s right through to the early rock‘n’roll stuff of the 1950s.
“We have a sort of traditional jazz set-up with drums, double bass, and keys and it definitely comes through in the delivery of the performance. Steve, the bass player, is very into punk and Morgan is a classically trained piano player but sometimes I think his playing sounds a bit like Jerry Lee Lewis. It’s hard to pinpoint any particular style but whatever way it comes out it usually sounds like classic rock‘n’roll.”
After toying around with a few names and guises over the years the band finally settled upon Cuckoo Savante.
“There’s so many different stories around where the name came from,” says Jamie. “The name we worked under initially we found out there was already a band with that name so we needed a change. I initially really liked the term ‘idiot savant’ but I think the rest of the band were afraid that people would take it too literally and associate idiot with us. Morgan then came up with the cuckoo idea and it seemed to work perfectly. It was sort of a play on One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and the crazy/genius concept.”
Having agreed on a name and a style of performing the band set about honing their sound and to this end they hosted a number of residency gigs in various venues around Galway.
“The only way to get the arrangements right was to play them as much as possible,” says Jamie. “We did a summer residency at The Laughter Lounge in Róisín Dubh and sort of became the house band. I think the fact that we have a theatrical element to the shows means that we never took ourselves too seriously.
“Working with the comedians was a bit out of the comfort zone but we did learn different jingles and sort of topical songs. From that and other residencies the songs got really solid and really polished.”
Graveyard of ambition
There is a fear that when groups in Galway reach a certain level of success they somehow rest upon their laurels and never get to the next level. The term ‘graveyard of ambition’ has been bandied around about the Galway music scene for generations.
“I think there’s a risk of becoming very comfortable,” says Jamie. “I was here for 14 years and it was a term I heard quite often. One of the reasons for my moving to Dublin recently was the fear of getting trapped in that situation. I see this as my career, so to be just playing the circuit in Galway and just getting by wouldn’t really appeal to me. I want the band to have a national and international element.”
To that end they have been busying themselves playing many shows in Europe and America over the past five years and it seems to be paying dividends.
“We play in London quite a lot and we’re due to play the Hope and Anchor venue for a showcase gig in January,” Jaime says. “We looked into the South By Southwest Festival in Texas and were planning to play it this year but we heard horror stories about how much it was going to cost. Anywhere that we’re invited to play we’ll go there and play a really good show, and our Myspace has attracted a lot of interest around the world. My ultimate goal is to get on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny for New Year’s Eve next year!”
The house of ill repute
To that end Jaime’s good friend Mary Coughlan may be of help as she has toured with Holland many times and is a close confidant. The legendary Galway jazz diva has been collaborating closely with Cuckoo Savante for over two years. It is a bit of a hero-worship moment for Jamie each time they play together.
“I was obsessed with her voice for years,” he says. “I think she’s very emphatic when she sings and that’s something I really relate to. A friend of mine actually grew up next door to Mary so one night when she was playing in Galway she suggested we come down. We gave her a CD and she really loved it and we’ve worked together a lot since then.
“The title track on Mary’s new album The House Of Ill Repute is a Cuckoo Savante song. Morgan did a couple of arrangements of the album and I sang on a couple of tracks as well. We see each other quite a lot and recently we performed together at a Christy Hennessy tribute night at The Waterfront in Belfast. There also talk of us doing an Edith Piaf tribute show with her in Paris in the New Year.”
Cuckoo Savante have spent just long enough hatching their sound in Galway and Dublin and now set about spreading their musical wings around the world
“We originally envisioned to have the album out last summer but then that got pushed back to October and now finally it’s pressed and ready to go for January,” he says. “We did have a definite idea of what we wanted it to sound like but none of us are particular technically-minded so the recording process was quite organic.”
In recent years the jazzy sound that Cuckoo Savante eschews has very much become ‘in vogue’ with acts such as Amy Winehouse, Adele, Duffy, and Katie Melua topping the charts.
“It’s nice now that there’s a resurgence in rockabilly and jazz and people have sort of gone back to live music with bands and big arrangements,” says Jaime. “There a lot of high-camp and musical theatre elements to our live shows and wherever we’ve gone we’ve made friends and built up an audience.”
Admission to their album launch party at Róisín Dubh is free so go along and have a hootenanny! See www.myspace.com/cuckoosavante
