Music from the Hill: The sophisticated Celtic Cabaret of the Gypsy Nomads

One of the most innovative and exciting bands to perform at Java City were The Gypsy Nomads from New Paltz, New York.  Combining performance art and unique music the effect of their concerts on the students and faculty was pure enchantment.  They have now been booked three times and we always receive rave reviews from those who hear them.  They have also performed at other local venues such as the Greener Groundz.  The Nomads are songwriter, artist

Scott Helland, a veteran of the urban punk scene on guitar, drums, and loops and Samantha Stephenson, a French-born British artist/dancer on vocals, percussion and drums.

Scott and Samantha, the last time you played Java City, the crowd really responded to you in a positive way.  Everyone really loved your music.  I am sure that folks here would really like to know more about you.

Where did you get the name Gypsy Nomads?

Scott: I wrote a song in 2003 called Travelin’ Band of Gypsy Nomads, which originally appeared on my solo CD, “Brocade”, and was later re-released on our compilation CD, Thread and Stone. It’s all instrumental and the feel of the music just screamed the title. It conjured the image of nomadic musicians, of the romanticized free lifestyle of a gypsy, a band of people leading that kind of nomadic existence. It’s a feeling that we have always connected with and that has been a part of who we are even before we formed The Gypsy Nomads. When I was doing solo music I used to call it Scott Helland and The Traveling Band of Gypsy Nomads. It was a spoof on the fact that it was just me playing but I use a lot of looping etc so I sounded like more than one person. The name was just too long so when Samantha joined we shortened it to The Gypsy Nomads.

Can you tell us a bit about your personal and musical history?

Scott: I got my start playing bass guitar in punk and metal bands in the eighties and nineties. I played in clubs at 14 and, since I was underage, I had to be snuck in! I was in Deep Wound and the Outpatients, both bands toured around the US and Outpatients toured in South America as well. Our records still sell to aficionados of the punk and hardcore scene to this day. Deep Wound was also J Mascis’s and Lou Barlow’s first band and they both went on to form the indie rock band Dinosaur Jr.

Samantha: I moved to the U.S in my early teens. I was born in France and lived in England as a kid. Music and dance were always a big part of my life. I started ballet school when I was 4 years old at the Royal School of Dance in the U.K and began my singing and piano playing a few years later. The ballet morphed into other dance styles after moving to the U.S. Creative endeavors were always my passion. When I moved to NYC, I was studying sculpture and painting. It was during that time that Scott and I started to collaborate.

How did you get started?

Scott: After the Outpatients split up in…95 I started writing more acoustic based music. I met Samantha at one of her art openings in…98 and we started collaborating in 2000. At first she did some art work on the CDs and lighting at shows then in.05 on a whim she jumped on stage and did some percussion and it just clicked. We had always wanted to collaborate on music and I guess it was just the right time. Her voice is very distinctive; she just has an awesome sound and presence. She brought her French roots and heritage and that gypsy, cabaret feel. I add more of the Celtic, rock and punk energy to it. She is great with percussion accents too. We have an on stage chemistry that musicians are blessed to find.

Who influenced you as musicians?

Scott: Well I grew up listening to the Ramones and heavier music like Motorhead and also at that time my parents used to take me to Jazz concerts so it was an interesting mix. I also love neo-medieval and Celtic inspired music. Loreena McKennitt, Richie Blackmore, Django, the Cure, guitarist’s like Glen Tipton, Wolf Hoffman, Michael Hedges all come to mind as inspirational.

Samantha: My main influence in music is dance and probably the very eclectic musical styles I grew up hearing. We lived in Brazil when I was 5 years old for just one year but I remember falling in love with the samba sound and became a huge fan of drums. I remember listening to Santana in my teens mainly because I loved how the drummer sounded. As far as the singing, we used to sing a lot of old folk songs back in England, some Celtic, some Scottish and also in France. My grandfather, uncle and my mother on my French side all had beautiful voices and it seems that mealtime often came with a side of song! I think many of them stem from drinking good wine!

What is your favorite sort of gig?

Scott: My favorite kind of gig is where the people are spirited, have energy, and like to get up and dance or are just compelled to move! It makes for a highly memorable experience for everyone. We put out a lot of energy so it usually rubs off on the audience and vice versa.

Samantha: The ones where people break out of their shells and just let go and have fun. We’re not “heady” at all; we are all about living in the moment.

Your music is really unique, how do you define your sound?

Scott: We’ve been calling it Gypsy, Celtic, Cabaret Rock. It’s very upbeat and our live shows are very animated and theatrical.

Samantha: That’s a tough one. We are both kind of commitment phobic so doing one type of sound that can be easily and neatly categorized is sort of against our nature. Not good for marketing but ya have to be true to yourself. We’re too punk for folk and too folk for punk, too cabaret for rock and too rock for cabaret…you get the idea. These days we are not the only ones, people are mixing genres like crazy, and it’s just that type of time.

I know you write a lot of your music, where to you get the ideas for your songs?

Scott: Samantha and I write all of our own music. We write a lot on the road so the places and people we encounter when traveling are a big inspiration, that feeling of freedom and being out there and just following our creative spirit.

Samantha: A lot of it is probably unknown. All the things we intake; music, movies, art, past experiences, most times it feels like a big mystery. When it flows, it flows, its best not to investigate the source, instead just go with it and enjoy the ride.

Samantha, I know you sing in French. How do you see language as a part of your music?

Samantha: French was my first language. Like I was mentioning before, the singers in my family were all singing in French so I guess it felt really comfortable to write lyrics in my native tongue. Having said that, it might seem strange since I’ve been in this country for so long and don’t even have my accent anymore! I’ve been venturing into English lyrics too. It’s really whatever comes up; I try not to control it. When Scott plays a riff, I can feel whether it’s going to be a French song or English one, they just have a certain je ne sais quoi!

Where do you want go with your music?

Scott: We love to play live, we love writing songs, we work on getting better and better. It’s a building process. We want to go where ever it takes us. We’d like to do larger theaters and we’d like to get some more music in film. A lot of our songs have a visual quality to them so they lend themselves well to moving pictures.

Samantha: Everywhere!

Tell us about your latest CD?

Samantha: We put two out in 2008, “Eternal Summer” and “At The Carnival Eclectique.” The songs on “Eternal Summer” all have lyrics which are mostly in French. The CD has a gypsified cabaret/pop/folk feel. “At The Carnival Eclectique” is a mix of lots of different styles. It is a pretty good reflection of how varied our live show is. It has the drumming instrumentals we do which have a Taiko/tribal feel, the Celtic flavored instrumentals, a couple of vocal tunes in English and French and some tunes to inspire the dancer in all of us!

Are you working on another recording?

Scott: We haven’t gone into the studio yet, we’ll be on the road most of the spring, summer and fall, but we plan on recording a new CD in late fall and winter and have new music by early 2010.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Check out The Gypsy Nomads at www.itunes.com, www.thegypsynomads.com and of course we’re on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Reverbnation etc! Thanks for reading and thanks Jack for the support and having us a part of the Java City music series!

Thanks so much for taking time in your touring schedule to chat with me. We are looking forward to having you again sometime soon.

Jack Montgomery is a librarian, author and associate professor at Western Kentucky University where he handles bookings for musical acts in University Libraries, Java City coffeehouse. Jack has also been a professional musician since 1969 and performs with a local celtic quartet called Watersprite.