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Interview
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RootsWorld, Interview >>
The sound of a fiddle is not an abstract concept for Bob Childs. For 35 years, he has worked with top violinists and fiddlers, creating instruments that will act as their voices, but which still have his mark. Then, in 1993, he was invited to participate in a concert in Washington, D.C.; the organizer eventually mentioned to him that everyone in the group played his instruments and they were calling themselves Childsplay.
“We had such a great time,” Childs recalled, “we said ‘we have to keep doing this.’”
The large group, composed of 15-20 musicians from different disciplines, has become a reoccurring part of the members’ lives, pulling them together for tours and recording sessions amid their busy schedules of other gigs and commitments. One member plays for the Boston Symphony, another is an All Ireland fiddle champion; singer Aiofe O’Donovan also is the lead vocalist for the bluegrass band Crooked Still, among other things.
Given the breadth of the roster, the repertoire can be both wide and genre-spanning. The sound has a foundation in acoustic Celtic music, but it travels the Celtic diaspora and then some. American country is one facet, but the group will go far afield, tackling modern tunes such as U2’s “Mothers of the Disappeared” and Elvis Pressley’s “Love Me Tender.”
“Childsplay has developed its own sound at this point,” Childs said. “I don’t know of any other group doing what we are doing….We’re in our own unique little territory.”
Childs is the group’s artistic director, but the members contribute songs, arrangements and confer via the Internet to create the starting point of its collaborations. Seeing the group live is a particular treat since there are few configurations of such large string orchestras playing folk-based music.
“There’s a real community that’s been created by Childsplay…people look forward to it. There’s a sense of excitement about seeing each other and about what we’re doing,” he said. “There’s an exuberance about it. It’s just a really great feeling to see it come together and be playing with these powerful really deep friendships….To be surrounded by all these people...it’s a remarkable experience, it just fills me up.”
For Childs the collaboration is particularly welcome since his “day job” as a fiddlemaker is a solitary one. “I work in isolation because of the level of concentration this involves. The solitude is necessary to keep your focus, but I’ve been lucky in that all the violins I have been making have been commissions.”
Making instruments on commission means that he is going through the process in coordination with a musician. Before picking up a tool, he meets with the client in his Boston shop to discuss what they want. Childs has been making violins for more than 30 years, working for many years in the seclusion of Maine.
“I’d ask you to describe the sound you hear that you want your violin to speak through,” he said, and then he would show the customer the various possible woods he could use. “There are a lot of decision points along the way…the type of varnish, the thickness,” he said.
Though each instrument is custom-made, Childs said, “The violins sound like I made them. There’s a commonality to the sound….I think it’s like a painter – you recognize their marks even though the image might be different.”
The group recently released a DVD on its own Childsplay Records. The DVD is a recording of a concert the members gave at the Somerville Theater in Massachusetts. The live tracks are interspersed with interviews of the members conducted by Chicago-based Irish-American fiddler Liz Carroll. The group has five other recordings, the most recent being “Waiting for the Dawn”, which features several tracks with singer Aiofe O’Donovan. An all-instrumental release, The Great Waltz, was a collection of waltzes from various cultures.
Childs said that though the fiddles may sound like they are related, the diversity of the players’ backgrounds give the ensemble a singular spark. “Everyone is stretching themselves a little bit,” he said. “They’re out of their comfort zone, not just set in the ways they are doing things.” 02/17/11
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