Finlay MacDonald and Ali Hutton love to combine traditional Scottish tunes with a modern spin.
The duo from Scotland will play a concert at Rotary House in Qualicum Beach on June 19, which will be MacDonald's first time on Vancouver Island.
“We get inspiration from lots of fields — rock, jazz, funk, folk," said MacDonald. "We’re bringing that all together and we’re playing a mix of traditional music, traditional Scottish stuff, always with that modern slant and looking at how we can put our stamp on it.”
Both are multi-instrumentalists, with Hutton a master of the guitar, bagpipes and whistle, while MacDonald is a virtuoso of the bagpipes and whistle. Their concert will mostly feature Hutton on guitar and MacDonald on the pipes.
Hutton and MacDonald have been friends for more than 25 years and first met while studying traditional music at what was then the Royal Scottish Academy of Music. It's been a longstanding friendship that has seen them tour the world, play in different bands and competitions.
“We’ve known each other a long time, more than half our lives and we’ve played together in different settings," MacDonald added.
He grew up with traditional Scottish music in his blood, since his father was a well-known piper who ran the local pipe band and was instrumental in developing the folk music scene.
MacDonald said performances used to make him nervous when he was first starting out.
“The exposure therapy, I think, really does wonders. It’s like the more you do it, the better it gets, or the easier it gets,” he said. “As you develop, you kind of find your path in terms of not only how you’re playing but how you feel on stage and what way you want to portray yourself on stage.”
He and Hutton enjoy small intimate shows which give them a chance to chat with and joke around with the audience.
MacDonald loves to perform, whether its a festival show with a rock band and pyrotechnics in front of 70,000 people, or a small venue with 100 people.
Tour organizer Gord Pollock said there are fiddlers and pipers up and down the Island, and he hopes to foster a traditional Celtic music scene here that brings this kind of music to the people.
“We’re dead keen to try and help that kind of development and that growth in the folk and piping scene," MacDonald added. "And hopefully it’s something we can build up and have an annual event that might become more like a summer school kind of thing.”
The tour will also stop in Duncan on June 14, Victoria on June 17 and Langley on June 22.
The show at the Rotary House (211 Fern Rd.) in Qualicum Beach starts at 7 p.m. on June 19.
Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by contacting Pollock at gordpollock1@gmail.com or 250-732-8250.
