We asked Twelfth Day the following questions.<\/p>\n
When did you first start playing music?<\/strong> What are your main influences?<\/strong> Watch their acceptance video!<\/p>\n
\nWe both started playing music around the ages of 5 or 6. The first time we ever played together was when Catriona went to St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh for her last two school years, where Esther was already a pupil. One school concert they were a piece short, so we cobbled together Massenet’s Meditation last minute. Our proper jams started happening when we went to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and shared a flat.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/handsupfortrad\/files\/2017\/05\/IMG_1644-300x200.jpg\")
Did you make a conscious decision to be innovative with your music?<\/strong>
\nThe reason we started having those initial jams in college halls was because we realised we had a similar attitude towards music, and a desire to create new music using the sounds we’d grown up around as a starting point. We are always searching for new ways of using our instruments and ways to develop our playing and musicianship, together and individually. But although we are passionate about being innovative and pushing boundaries, I think that innovation needs musical soul and honesty in equal measure if it\u2019s going to speak to people. We are always aiming for both.<\/p>\n
\nWe were both lucky to have amazing teachers growing up. Douglas Montgomery, Savourna Stevenson and Catriona McKay to name a few. They were certainly huge influences on us. We try to listen to as much music as we can to keep on broadening our horizons. Some of our influences include: Bach, Bj\u00f6rk, Lau, Patti Smith, Chris Wood, Stravinsky, Punch Brothers, Ravel, Brad Mehldau, Radiohead, Schubert, all the music we heard in Malawi, Brazil, Quebec and Mongolia for our Routes to Roots project.. The list goes on and on…..<\/p>\n