Salt House bassist Euan Burton gave us a bit of insight into this Acoustic quartet which combines four distinct musical minds creating grassroots folk with contemporary influences. Boasting previous winners of BBC Young Folk Awards, a Scottish Jazz Award and many titles at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards, Salt House create ‘a seamless team’ (The Guardian) who expertly rework old ballads alongside new writing.

Q1. Tell us about your most recent album

Our debut album, Lay Your Dark Low, released in 2013 features music and songs composed and/or arranged by the band. Although each of us have worked together a lot, we have very different musical backgrounds and the album aimed to bring a lot of these together whilst still being essentially an acoustic quartet at its core. 

Read a review of the album here

Q2. How long have you been writing music / playing music / playing together as a band?

Although we’ve all worked together for many years, Salt House as a collective has existed since the start of 2013 and has received great acclaim from critics and music fans alike.

Discover more about the rich background of this band’s members

Q3. What is your writing process like? Does one person in the band typically write the lyrics?

Usually one person brings a song or a main idea in and then everyone else comes up with ideas to develop it or arrange it in different ways for the group. It creates a richer process and is great to throw ideas off each other to inspire.

4. What inspires you when writing music?

For me, personally, it’s all about thinking about what it is you love about music and the ways it can move you emotionally, then to try and capture that in your own writing.

5. What other musicians have influenced you?

Everyone I’ve ever listened to. No matter good or bad, what genre or what instrument. Everyone shapes your musical development in some way, informing your decisions on what to practice, consider and include in your own music. 

6. What does Tradition mean to you?

Tradition for me is what has gone before and been passed down. The collected product of previous generations. You have this to study, learn, develop, alter, and continue. You can embrace it, ignore it or anything in between. It really doesn’t matter, for it continues regardless. 

Catch Salt House live at Pleasance Cabaret Bar, Tuesday 5^th May
BOOK HERE