Trinití:irishmusicmail

TRINITÍ~TRINITÍ~1.Rose on Water 2.Voices 3.Scarborough Fair 4.The Water is Wide 5.In a Lifetime (featuring Iarla Ó Lionáird 6.Brighid's Kiss 7.Falling 8.Fields of Gold 9.What you do with what you've got 10.Nocturne 11.Glen of Imaal 12.Kiss from a Rose 13.Now we are free

Trinití are three young Irish girls with attitude, opinions, and a unique sound. Label their music any way you like – the sound of the 21st century new age folk, Enya meets the Sugababes, cinematic soundscapes for movies as yet unmade – so long as you understand what it's all about. The voice.Laura, Sharon and Eve don't use surnames, they sing in their bare feet and they let their voices do the talking. They are three Dubliners who understand their musical roots, where they have come from and where they are going. Their music sounds timeless. Trinití can take an old standard like 'Scarborough Fair', a modern classic like Seal's 'Kiss From A Rose' or even an Irish traditional lament such as 'My Lagan Love' and give it a new twist.The spelling of their name gives a clue. It's a nod to their Gaelic roots, an acknowledgement of Irish tradition, "Calling ourselves Trinití was a natural decision really," explains Sharon. "Obviously there are three of us and our voices gel really well together. Then we decided to give the name an Irish flair and put the fada over the 'I'.""Our music represents what Ireland is now but without forgetting where we came from - our history and our present at the same time. We wanted to tap into our past but also try and bring new filmic and contemporary elements into our music."Laura describes herself as "the granny of the group". She's all of 25, looks 19 and has a pathological hatred of cheese. Her mother's family were passionate about music. Two of her aunts are music teachers and they all sing together in vocal groups and music societies. When she was eight she joined Cantari Oga Atha Cliath (The Young Dublin Singers) which was "where I got passionate about music. We sang everything from early music, Irish music and religious stuff to modern pieces. We won the Irish Choir of the year many times and travelled all round Europe doing competitions.""Growing up I was very shy, I wouldn't sing on my own much at all. I sang with the choir and I loved it passionately but I'm not a showbiz kid at all. I never thought I'd actually get to the point where someone would pay me to sing."Sharon, 22, who confesses to loathing liquorice, always wanted to be a singer. "One of my earliest memories," she says, "is me going into my back garden to make secret wishes about becoming a singer when I grew up. I did it a lot. My dad was into Dire Straits and he'd sing Irish songs down at the pub. After leaving school I went through phases of trying different music in all sorts of groups. I was very into Pop for a while, then R&B, Rock and Acoustic Music – basically if it's good, I don't care which genre it's in. I got lucky the day I met Laura though. Laura and Sharon experimented in a number of groups and with different vocal styles - Irish music, five part barber shop harmonies, Mamas and the Papas style Pop – but it wasn't the sound that they could hear in the heads. "We were fed up with being in a band that just happened to have girls in it and immediately being compared to Girls Aloud," says Laura passionately. "We love Girl's Aloud, they're brilliant at what they do, but we clearly were not singing Pop music and we thought what do you have to do?" The girls knew their voices worked together but something was missing. The sound they were striving to create didn't come together until March 2005 when they met Eve in Temple Bar. "It's the cultural centre of Dublin," says Eve, 21, "at weekends there's live music all over the place. Musically there's only one or two degrees of separation in Dublin so I'd already heard about the girls." Eve comes from a creative family, her father is a guitarist, her mother is a drama therapist, and her younger sister is a ballet dancer. "When I met the girls, I was studying classical voice, piano and music composition in college, though I knew I wasn't going to be a pure, classical singer. It was such a valuable time and I learnt a lot. It's funny how things work out because as soon as we all got together we were all on the same wavelength, talking about fusing traditional Celtic influences and contemporary music." "It fitted perfectly with what I wanted to do. I've always loved the female voice since I was a child. For me, it's far more lyrical than a male voice to listen to, especially in the traditional side of Irish music, which is all about taking a step back and having a moment with the voice."The first song that Laura and Sharon heard eve sing was Eimear Quinn's 1996 Eurovision winner, 'The Voice', a choice which intrigued them. "We all got together at my house" says Laura, "and we taught Eve 'Brighid's Kiss' and we sang it together in three part harmony. It worked out brilliantly because Eve is a soprano, and neither of us are. Sharon has a wide range but she sings the lowest and I'm in the middle."All three agreed what they wanted to do musically. Trinití was born. One of their trademarks is that they always perform in bare feet. It started in rehearsal encouraged by Eve who has studied the Alexander Technique in college. "Being in bare feet helps you become aware of the muscles you're using in your body before you start to sing, while you're singing and it helps maintain your breathing. Much easier than singing in high heels!"The three girls spent months rehearsing songs at Laura's house so when she told her mum and step dad that she was going to focus on a career in music as a singer, they weren't exactly surprised. By that stage Trinití had already got themselves a record contract with Universal Classics and Jazz."We knew we were a little bit different, we're not mainstream but we have a universal appeal. We saw Katherine Jenkins singing opera and Jamie Cullum playing jazz and yet both of them are at the top of the mainstream charts doing what they do best, and we thought that's what we want. So we did our research and found out they were both signed to Universal and we didn't talk to anybody else."Their album was recorded at The River, Ross Cullum's studio in Battersea, London. Trinití met with several producers but Ross was the logical choice, familiar both with Irish music and making pop hits. He co-produced Enya's first hit album and has co-written and recorded with Moya Brennan (the girls' undisputed heroine), Dani Minogue and Paul McCartney."Ross must be telepathic," laughs Laura. "We're so pleased with the album. It sounds exactly the way that we wanted it to in our minds." Choosing the right mix of modern and traditional songs was a hard task. "A lot of people said to us 'Why don't you do 'Harry's Game' or 'Nothing Compares 2U'" recalls Laura, "Absolutely not. Are you mad? No way. There are some songs that are just untouchable. It was daring enough to do 'In a Lifetime'."Each girl has a particular favourite. Sharon's is 'In a Lifetime', which was originally sung by Clannad and Bono. Trinití asked Iarla O'Lionaird, one of the main singers in Afro Celt Sound System, and a particular hero of Sharon's to sing the male part. "I also love 'Falling'," says Sharon, "Moya Brennan wrote it with Ross Cullum. Just coming up to the chorus it has a lovely heartbeat rhythm."'Scarborough Fair' has been given a beautiful 21st Century makeover. Both Seal's 'Kiss From A Rose' and Sting's 'Fields of Gold' were given a new take. "'Fields of Gold' was a last minute addition," says Sharon. "We were just about to finish the album and the record company asked us if it was a track that we would consider. We said yes, but we didn't want to copy Eva Cassidy's version (which we love), so we put lots of intricate harmonies into it to the point where I don't know how we're going to sing it live!""The first single, 'Rose On Water' sums up what Trinití are," says Laura, "It's not a traditional piece but it has those elements... it's imperial, it's beautiful and it's all about melody and voice as well. Everybody that hears it for the first time thinks 'I know that song', but you don't!"Eve's favourite song is the haunting 'Brighid's Kiss' which was originally recorded by traditional duo Lá Lugh almost ten years ago. "We sing some Gaelic in it and I really like that. It's an amazing song. Brighid is a woman who is the essence of Ireland. We're praising her and praising Ireland."The girls are all passionate about keeping Irish traditional music alive by giving it a new musical setting. "Some traditional pieces we picked because we would be silly to leave them sitting there," says Laura. "They're timeless like My Lagan Love, a fantastic piece of music. Everyone can approach that song in a different way and everyone hears it differently. We weren't going to be too proud to do other songs. Its part of what we are and we weren't going to ignore or disrespect that." "We didn't grow up in the country so we're not trying to be traditional singers, because we just aren't. We're taking what we know and we're doing it to the best of our ability. We're trying to create something new, to keep a bit of culture in the music that we really enjoy.""Young people are very patriotic in Ireland, and know how we want to be represented as a nation. There is a fire and passion in their blood. In a way, we're representing young people in Ireland like us who are proud to be Irish and to be from Ireland. If we can spread a little bit of that abroad nothing would make us or our families more proud."Irish music has evolved and changed over the years but the island's love and understanding for its traditional roots music has never waned. When Clannad started they were perceived as fairly radical, but now somehow their sound is mainstream. With their gorgeous voices, ethereal harmonies, their awareness of both their past and their potential future Trinití are the perfect soundtrack for the new Ireland. ~TRINITÍ|9877250|~11661~11666~TRINITÍ~