Interview: Willie Armstrong of RED HOT CHILLI PIPERS at Meridian Theatres @ Centrepointe

Haven't you heard? The Red Hot Chilli Pipers are coming to Ottawa's Meridian Theatres @ Centrepointe next week. No, that's not a typo. The Red Hot Chilli PIPERS ... yes, as in bagpipes.

Scotland’s Red Hot Chilli Pipers perform a fusion of pop/rock music and traditional Scottish bagpiping. After winning a BBC reality show called "When Will I Be Famous,” the band became renowned in the U.K. Their live shows have since become popular worldwide, as the band has a reputation for being high energy and putting on fantastic set, giving a new life to a variety of popular songs, including AC/DC, Queen, Deep Purple, and Coldplay.

Ahead of the Ottawa show, I was fortunate enough to be able to ask founding member, Willie Armstrong, about the band's inspiration and songwriting process, as well as what to expect from the RHCP show experience.

What inspired you to create “bagrock”?

You can’t argue that perhaps the bagpipes are a very niche instrument.  People who play bagpipes or bagpipe aficionados would be drawn to that kind of music.

We wanted to bring it to a broader more mainstream audience, so we decided to incorporate elements of Rock music.

What was the first song you bagrocked (bagpipified?)? How was the initial reception to your music?

"Thunderstruck", by AC/DC.  It was at a corporate gig for a Bank in Edinburgh, Scotland, and we blew the roof off.

How do you select your songs? How can you tell which songs will be best transposed into your musical style?

You have to be careful to avoid bagpipe karaoke.  The audience would get very quickly bored of that, as it isn’t very clever.  The band wouldn’t be interested in that either. 
It is very tricky, as the bagpipes only have one octave, but because we incorporate the other five musicians in the rock band element and a vocalist we can use other octaves when needed.  A lot of Coldplay songs fit well on pipes, but you still have to segue the music and not rely on karaoke.

What rock/pop song would you like to convert to bagrock next? What is your number one fan request?

"Sweet Caroline" [by Neil Diamond] is always one, but it is tricky to fit in because of the one octave. The most requested song has got to be "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd… [it’s] requested mostly every single night.

Have you ever tried, but failed, to transpose a song into bagrock? If so, which one?

Yes, "Sweet Caroline", we keep hitting a brick wall with that; you would be surprised how many songs wont’ fit on the pipes, even using effects peddles.

Can you describe what going to a typical Red Hot Chilli Pipers gig is like?

We always say it’s not a gig or a concert, it’s a show.  Bagpipes are a very emotive instrument, so one minute we can have the audience close to tears and the next minute they are clapping their hands, stamping their feet to a jig hornpipe or reel. We take the audience on a journey; we have a fantastic lighting rig and the best sound engineers from Scotland, so it’s a feast for the eyes and ears. We always have feedback from the audience and we never take them for granted as they are the people who pay our wages. That’s why they come back again and again. 

With over 200 live performances every year, how do you keep the energy going night after night?

Great Question! We have to rotate the band and crew, as it would be physically impossible to give full energy to that many performances. We owe it to the audience and the venues to always give 100% every night. 

Your newest record, Back to Roots, contains a mix of traditional Scottish music and bagrock. What can your fans expect from the album?

We called it Back to Roots because we wanted to recreate the earlier sounds of the band but using modern production techniques and a bigger orchestral sound with Brass, Strings, and Vocals, but the Bagrock Classics are still there. 

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Think you can handle the RHCP heat? Red Hot Chilli Pipers are performing at Meridan Theatres @ Centrepointe on Tuesday, April 1st – For tickets visit:  https://meridiancentrepointe.com/en/red-hot-chilli-pipers and for more information about the band and their unique sound, visit https://rhcp.scot.

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