Q&A with Peter Broderick – Burren

“Multi-genre artist East Forest and composer Peter Broderick have teamed up for a dreamy and unique collaboration! Burren (dropping March 17th) was recorded on the spot over one week in the magical moonscape of The Burren in Ireland with album tracks appearing in the order they were recorded.”

You have worked with many other recording artists during your career. Why do you enjoy these collaborations, do they push you in different musical directions?

Absolutely, each new collaboration pushes and pulls me in different directions, for sure. I love that. Everyone’s got a different approach to music, and working with all these different people helps inform and expand my own musicality. Sometimes, after having worked on a project of your own for a while, it can be totally liberating to go and collaborate with someone new. It forces you to get outside of your own head and work with someone else’s creative approach.

You had never met East Forest (Krishna-Trevor Oswalt) in person before this collaboration, is that correct? How did this project come about?

True, we had never met in person before meeting up to write and record this album. We first connected when East Forest asked me to make a remix for an album he made with Ram Dass (another interesting fella very much worth looking up!). I did that remix and then East Forest asked me to be a guest on his podcast, so I did that as well. And in a podcast like that, you’re more or less just having an extensive chat with someone . . . and I really enjoyed that first chat we had . . . so we kept in touch and eventually did another one of those podcast episodes a couple years later. And then, last year in 2022, he came over for his first European shows, including a performance in Dublin, and he asked if I’d like to meet up, knowing that I’m based in Ireland. So I said, How about if we get together somewhere and make some music?

You said there was “no musical plan” for this album before you met and it was recorded in a week. Is that quite intimidating? What if there was no magic or spark?

I suppose it could be quite an intimidating situation . . . but in my mind, the worst that could happen would be that we’d leave the week without anything amazing, and we wouldn’t have to release it… Of course, that might have been a bit of a drag, but luckily it wasn’t the case at all. The musical chemistry was instantaneous, and the creative inspiration just poured right through us the whole week, in a way that I’ve never really experienced. It was magical!

Can you tell me about the recording process for this album – what was your daily schedule and how did the songs evolve?

Throughout the week we spent together, we remained almost entirely focused on the music. Yes, we did get out for walks and we did take time for nice meals, but the thread of the project was never put aside. While walking or eating, we’d continue to discuss the project, ready to dive in again as soon as we could. From the moment we both got there, we set up our gear immediately and started writing and recording. Some of the pieces on the album are totally improvisational, while others are carefully composed, and everything in between. For the most part, we would focus on a single piece until it was done and then move on, as opposed to going back and forth between different songs and adding little bits and pieces. When the week was finished we had created 12 pieces in total, and these tracks are all included on the album in the order in which they were created. It’s really like a document of the time we spent together there. So the first track on the record is the first thing we ever played together, the evening we both arrived, and the last track is the last thing we did before packing everything up and saying goodbye.

The Burren is a magical location, which feels like another planet. When did you first see it and what were your thoughts?

I’ve been living in Galway for 5-6 years now, and for the last 2-3 years I’ve been in a house out near Spiddal, which is directly across Galway Bay from the Burren. Every day I’ve seen those shimmering silver/grey hills looking at me from a distance for the last several years. My first proper experience in the Burren was in 2021 when I participated in a winterage cattle drive, which is when a whole community there gathers to walk these cattle up the hillside to where they stay for the winter. It’s a really ancient community tradition and has become a yearly tradition now for myself and a group of friends. When East Forest and I met in the Burren to make the album, we didn’t necessarily choose it as the location where we wanted to work. We just found a good place to work and that’s where it happened to be… but while we were there, we were so enamoured by the landscape that it became our main source of inspiration.

What do you enjoy doing outside of music?

My main hobby/passion outside of music is foraging. Getting to know wild plants and mushrooms, learning to identify them, and which ones are edible and/or medicinal, etc… After all the time couped up inside with instruments and computers/phones, etc., spending time outside in nature really helps to balance me out.