{"id":25308,"date":"2024-04-03T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=25308"},"modified":"2024-03-27T14:32:09","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T21:32:09","slug":"coig-explore-confidence-and-romance-through-celtic-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2024\/04\/03\/coig-explore-confidence-and-romance-through-celtic-music\/","title":{"rendered":"C\u00f2ig explore confidence and romance through Celtic music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cape Breton-based Celtic band C\u00f2ig will be making a stop in Victoria this month as they tour Canada. Multi-instrumentalist Darren McMullen is excited to be returning to Vancouver Island for the second time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love being in BC and Vancouver Island, especially,\u201d says McMullen. \u201cWe\u2019ve got great memories from being there.\u201d<\/p>\n

McMullen has been a member of the band\u2014who have a Juno nomination in their accolades\u2014since they first formed in 2010.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
C\u00f2ig will be bringing their Celtic sounds to the Mary Winspear Centre in April (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cRachel [Davis] and I started a band, and we didn\u2019t really get rolling for a few years because we weren\u2019t really supposed to be a band,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were just having fun and playing together\u2026 Eventually, we just started getting bookings as the group, so we had to find a name, and then the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Music as a way of connecting has been a lifelong theme for McMullen, who first found his musicality by watching his cousin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a cousin who\u2019s a bit older than me, but she was a professional musician when I was a kid. So I saw family who was doing it,\u201d says McMullen. \u201cI\u2019m thankful for that\u2026 When you\u2019re younger, it\u2019s almost like there\u2019s rock stars on TV, and then that\u2019s it. We don\u2019t know that there\u2019s a whole bunch of different levels to it. So I was lucky to have an example in her.\u201d<\/p>\n

McMullen is listed on the band\u2019s website as playing guitar, mandolin, mandola, banjo, bouzouki, whistles, flute, and vocals\u2014and that\u2019s just what he does frequently enough to bother writing down. When it comes to the broadness of his abilities, McMullen gives a lot of credit to the piano and the fundamentals he learned through the instrument.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[My cousin] was a brilliant piano player, and she could play any style and all that kind of stuff,” he says. “So I sort of wanted to be pointed towards, like, how do I learn how to just fit in no matter where I am?\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowadays, McMullen passes on the same wisdom to his own students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do teach sometimes, or do workshops and stuff like that. One of the things I always try to tell [my students] is not to learn an instrument, learn music,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you put your head inside what music is supposed to be, the instrument is just a vessel for it. It\u2019s in you, it\u2019s not in there. It\u2019s not on the fingerboard.\u201d<\/p>\n

McMullen says that sometimes what served him best on his own musical journey didn\u2019t seem like big moments at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the things that led me to where I am were inconsequential at the time,\u201d he says. \u201cI could have said yes, I could have said no; I wouldn\u2019t have thought it would ever matter\u2026 What\u2019s the worst that can happen? You have a crap gig, you go home. The best thing that can happen is, I don\u2019t know, if you meet your wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is what happened: in June of 2022, McMullen and Davis got married. From founding the band over 10 years ago to getting together at the beginning of the pandemic, living together, working together, and now touring together, they still find they can\u2019t get enough of each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got together when COVID was starting up,\u201d says McMullen. \u201cSo we\u2019ve been a couple the whole time. But yeah, we got married last June\u2026 We love it. We get along famous. It\u2019s great, no matter where we\u2019re touring, or where we\u2019re working, we still get to be together.\u201d<\/p>\n

C\u00f2ig
\n7:30 pm Sunday, April 21
\n$47, Mary Winspear Centre
\ncelticperformingarts.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cape Breton-based Celtic band C\u00f2ig will be making a stop in Victoria this month as they tour Canada. Multi-instrumentalist Darren McMullen is excited to be returning to Vancouver Island for the second time.\u00a0 \u201cI love being in BC and Vancouver Island, especially,\u201d says McMullen. \u201cWe\u2019ve got great memories from being there.\u201d McMullen has been a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,309],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-april-3-2024"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25308"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25364,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25308\/revisions\/25364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}