David Colohan, James Rider, Alison O’Donnell, Matt Leivers and Richard Moult are a motley crew of musicians, artists, archaeologists and retail managers aged between 28 and 64.
Hailing from both North and South of the border as well as across the water in England, United Bible Studies have been creating and performing experimental psych folk for the last 16 years. With their passion for creativity and intriguing sound, fans can always expect the unexpected at a United Bible Studies gig.
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How did you get started in the industry?
Alison has the edge on this one, as she started playing folk music in 1968 as a teenager in the Dublin band Mellow Candle. Her album “Swaddling Songs” from 1972 is one of the most collectible records out there, copies passing hands for up to £2000. We’ve all played in a variety of bands, from post rock, to country. As for the band, United Bible Studies was formed in 2001 by David and James. Matt, Alison and Richard have become a huge part of what UBS has become having been introduced through live performance, recording or just being part of the crowd at gigs!
What genre / style do you create in?
People would describe us as experimental, psych folk, drone or ambient. It’s been described as many things, but most importantly for us, it’s important to follow our own musical path. UBS gigs and UBS recordings are very different things. We all love improvisation when we play live, and gigs can end in a very different place to where we intend. We all live around the UK and Ireland so performance definitely doesn’t get bogged down by rehearsal time.
What would you be best known for?
As for being a well known band, we’re probably less than a sum of our parts! Alison would be best known for Mellow Candle, and her folk career since. David performs as Raising Holy Sparks, and recently played Ace Hotel’s Moog Soundlab in London as part of a Robert Moog festival. Richard is a renowned painter and artist, and Matt runs the experimental record label Awkward Formats. James occasionally releases music on his label deadslackstring. United Bible Studies would be best known for providing the unexpected, a new and different offering on each album and live performance.
What would you consider your biggest achievement?
That we’re still making music, releasing albums and performing after 16 years! This is despite the fact that we’ve made very little attempt to be involved in the ‘music business’ whether that be booking tours, doing press or anything like that. For people to still engage with what we do, and for us to enjoy it is pretty big for us. People tend to gravitate towards performing with us too. We’ve had more than 200 contributors worldwide over a 16-year period and a prolific and constantly evolving output.
What would you consider to be the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your industry?
Being in a band, friendship is a more important a quality than musical productivity or career aspirations.
What has been your biggest challenge to date?
We toured America a few years back, and were playing a gig in Detroit. We hit up the satnav for directions, and instead of reaching the venue, we ended up on a bridge to Canada. Convincing the gun-wielding Canadian authorities that we shouldn’t be deported back to Europe was some achievement. We ended up playing the gig in Detroit, which was recently released on Dark Holler records as the album “I Am Full Gibbous”.
Tell us a little about your personal life, are you married, kids, hobbies etc?
Music is probably our biggest collective hobby. Following that, ale and strong whiskey are both welcome. We’ve all a love of the outdoors, whether that be cycling down canal paths in Ireland, running the Belfast Hills, living in the wilds of Western Scotland or tramping through a field in England. We all have an interest in literature, the occult, genealogy, film.
Tell us about your most recent work?
Our most recent releases were “Spoicke” and “Rosary Bleeds” which were both released on vinyl on the label Golden Pavilion. Prior to that we released “The Ale’s What Cures Ye” on vinyl with MIE music. We love releasing music on various formats, whether that be CD, vinyl, cassette or download.
PLUG !! What would you like us to tell people about?
We’re playing Framewerk Gallery on the Newtownards Road on Saturday 8th July at 7pm. We’re playing with our friend Black Mountain Transmitter, and Bible Student Iain Gray has curated a bespoke folk horror film compilation for us to perform to. After that our next gig is at the Sidmouth Folk Festival, where we’re playing on Thursday 11th August. You can check out most of our releases via bandcamp, at https://united-bible-studies.bandcamp.com/
If you had to describe your work to someone who has never heard of you what would you say?
Our album “The Jonah” was described as this on an Amazon customer review, it probably sums up people’s reactions to us:
“I would describe the music as ambient, a bit psychedelic folk meets space lasers. Some bits of track seem to just be the same five seconds looped round and round for ages. It feels improvised and experimental, a bit like prog rock and even reminiscent of progressive jazz. If you like this kind of thing, I apologise for my clumsy attempt to describe this album and there’s probably some correct, artsy terminology but I’ve done the best I can. It’s probably someone’s cup of tea but I hate it.”
What’s the funniest experience you’ve had in your business?
For James, bringing Jedward to the bathroom was a pretty surreal experience in a related field of work.
What would your advice be to young people hoping to pursue the same industry?
There’s nothing stopping anyone making art right now. Technology has moved so fast in the last decade that anyone can record and make music on something as simple as a phone.If you’re starting out in an underground and left field direction in the music industry, harness your skills and emotions and get them on record. But don’t forget to have a bit of craic while doing so.
Anything else you want to tell people about yourself or your work?
United Bible Studies offers a great deal of varied and fascinating music available at united-bible-studies.bandcamp.com. To the uninitiated, United Bible Studies is a collective of Irish, British and international musicians and performers with an extensive, varied back catalogue and a unique live experience.
Who do you look up to and why?
James is short enough to look up to most people in the band, whilst Matt looks down at most being about seven feet tall!
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