Today our spotlight falls on a talented duo called afterspark. They are Cate Ferris who plays acoustic guitar and piano and Adam Staff who plays bass guitar, keyboards and piano. Cate has a beautifully haunting singing voice which lifts you spiritually. With musical influences such as the great Joni Mitchell , Nina Simone and Led Zeppelin their debut album sometimes we forget is a wonderful collection of subtle rhythms, sublime textures and soaring vocals which I have enjoyed listening to.
They are on at the Komedia Studio for one night only on Saturday 24th May at 8.20 pm and looks to be a great show. So let’s chat to this talented duo and learn more about them and their music…
1. What inspired you to become a performer and musician?
Cate: I suppose that it has always been. I grew up in a home that had music going on all the time and have played since I was five, that, coupled with the fact that I have always had unstinting support from my family and friends. I remember watching Sam Brown play at a workshop that our school put on when I was 13 and being completely blown away……I think that that was the point at which I stopped wanting to be a marine biologist and started writing songs.
Adam: My mum telling me I could do anything I put my mind to.
2. What is your show about and what should the public expect from your show?
Cate: “View from the Ground” which is the name of the night that we are doing for the Fringe is all about new songs, new sounds and new people joining us on stage. You should expect a hammer dulcimer, beautiful harmonies, looping, beats and possibly mirrorballs!
3. What is your favourite Festival or Fringe and why?
Cate: Hard to say…..I only started going to festivals about two years ago……The Big Green Gathering will always hold a really special place in my heart as it was my first. Last years Brighton Festival was great cos we all got to do a lot of dancing in one of the tents for free……and I was seriously skint!
4. What’s your best advice for aspiring performers and musicians on the Festival/Fringe circuit?
Cate: I hate to quote a clothing label but “just do it”…….book it, sort it and then worry about it.
Adam: It should be made widely known that successful people fail more than everybody else. I’m thinking: Reading, Writing and Rejection lessons in school.
5. What is your funniest experience and also your worst experience performing or attending a Fringe/Festival?
Adam: Funniest: The Hat’s impromptu rendition of ‘I’ve got a picture of your mother’ at the Firegathering Festival in 2006. Worst: The first and only time I didn’t take wellies to a festival, that same year.
Cate: Waking up at Glastonbury to Shirley Bassey belting out on the main stage and being handed a cup of Baileys Coffee for breakfast.
6. As you travel performing to different festivals/fringes, where is your favourite place to vacation/chill out and why?
Cate: Last year I was running around like a nutter playing in lots of festivals all over…..but my favourite place/time of all of it was without a doubt sitting on top of a cliff overlooking Sidmouth Folk Festival with a friend. We were only there for a couple of hours prior to playing a gig but I feel that I had about a weeks worth of holiday in that time……
Adam: Getting home is the most satisfying thing about travel. For all that we develop while we are away, our homes remain reassuringly unchanged, our beds reassuringly unmade.
7. Who is the person you most admire and why?
Cate: There are so many people that I admire……many of them are friends. On a bigger scale, the person who has inspired me musically the most in the last couple of years was Imogen Heap. She played a solo set at the Komedia a few years back and was utterly incredible.
Adam: Damon Albarn. He seems to be one of a rare few who can continue to write relevant songs while exploring the boundaries of music and being massively successful.
8. What is the best tip you have ever been given?
Cate: In the kitchen on the wall of one of my old houses there is a piece of writing by Goethe…..the last line of which is “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it” – I think that this has kept me going. Also…..remember to breathe when you are on stage.
Adam: Play fewer notes.
9. What is the best book or books you have read and why do you like them?
Cate: I unfortunately don’t read very much at the moment and trying to pin point the best book is really tough. Adam bought me “House of Leaves” by Mark Danielewski and so I am currently having my mind and imagination blown in many different directions at the same time.
Adam: ‘House of Leaves’ by Mark Z. Danielwski is everything a piece of art should be: Overfull of what it is to be human.
10. If you could change one thing about the world what would it be?
Cate: Not to be too heavy, but I think that I would like to change humanity’s obsession with finding more and more beautifully devastating ways of wiping us all out.
Adam: Our powers to comprehend it.
