Meet the Band that Walked an 870-Mile Tour | S5 E1
Seth and Chris from Filkin's Drift are kicking off episode 1 of the Sustainability in the Live Music Industry series on Earth Care. In this episode, they discuss their transition to sustainable touring in the live music industry. They share their experience of planning and embarking on an 870-mile walking tour, carrying their equipment and facing challenges along the way. The conversation highlights the importance of sustainability and the inspiration they found in meeting people living sustainably. They also discuss future plans for more sustainable tours and offer advice for artists interested in integrating sustainability into their music careers.
Band Bio:
Filkin's Drift weave together intricate melodies from the folklore of their homes, Wales and Gloucestershire. Their music combines the traditional and the contemporary, blending fiddle and guitar with their close vocal harmonies.
The duo take you on a journey from delicate Welsh folk-songs to traditional English dance tunes. Ornate interplay between two instruments conjures up a Baroque soundworld, while their soaring fiddle tunes have been igniting audiences across the UK.
Connect with Filkin’s Drift: Youtube & Instagram
Learn more about: Live Music Now
Episode Transcription:
Sarah Christie:
Seth and Chris, together you make up Filkin's Drift. Thank you so much for being on Earth Care and being part of the sustainability in the Live Music Industry series. It is such a pleasure to have you both. Where are you both tuning in from? I guess recording in from, zooming in from.
Seth:
Thanks for having us on, Sarah. Yeah, I'm coming to you now from Gloucestershire in the south of England.
Chris Roberts:
And I'm in Birmingham in the West Midlands in England.
Sarah Christie:
So right now it's nine in the morning here and coordinating this was so fun. So I do really appreciate your time because your story about your walking tour just blew me away. And before we get into that, I kind of wanna know what a tour looked like for you guys before you decided to walk it.
Seth:
Yeah. So before we were doing a lot of driving around all the time and we realized that wasn't very good for the environment with all the carbon emissions, and it also wasn't very good for our own mental and physical health as well. So it would be a lot of loading up the van, driving hours and hours to play for an hour or two and then reload the van, carry on. And then you end up booking a tour, doing circles around the country and not in very efficient routes.
But we found that through walking, it made us tour in this more linear sense. So we feel like we're on more of a journey. And of course, we didn't get in the car for two months, which was amazing.
Sarah Christie:
Did anyone tell you to go start it just to make sure the battery was still okay?
Seth:
No, we should have done. There were some problems when we got back.
Sarah Christie:
Oh no. So Chris, tell me, was there a tipping point for you guys that you decided, hey, sustainability really needs to be at the forefront of our music moving forward? Or was it, like Seth mentioned, just all of these factors kind of piling on top of one another?
Chris Roberts:
Yeah, I think it was a mixture of all of these, all of these things really. And I think the moment that the idea came, like, should we just walk? I was kind of sitting in a traffic jam, looking over this, these beautiful hillsides in England called the Malvern Hills. Um, and I was like, I'd much rather be there than sitting in this traffic jam sort of thing. Um, So I think that was the moment that we thought
you know, this doesn't feel like the most sustainable, this doesn't feel like the best way that we could be touring and using our time.
Sarah Christie:
As someone who lives in the GTA, have you ever been to Toronto?
Chris Roberts:
No.
Seth:
No.
Sarah Christie:
So just to get, oh gosh, the other side of the city, it can be 30 minutes or it can be two hours. So I feel what you're saying on a soulful level. So you decide, hey, we're going to walk, we're going to walk 870 miles. How did you start planning this? What was the first battle that you tackled in terms of planning this whole tour?
Chris Roberts:
Oh my gosh.
Chris Roberts:
Yeah, so the planning was a massive task. It took about a year kind of from start to finish. And the first thing that I had to figure out basically was how far realistically can we walk each day. But I suppose even before that, actually, we had to choose the route. And so I'm from Cardiff in South Wales, but I've been living in England for a while. So I thought this would be a really nice way
we don't gig that much in Wales, it'd be a really great way of spending some more time there. So we chose the Wales coast path as our route and then yeah, just had to think how far can you walk each day and then once you've figured that out, where in these you know, sometimes tiny villages that you're ending up in, where can you play a gig? Like where is the heart of that community? And that was, it was like doing a big sort of Sudoku puzzle or something like that.
Because you know, you'd go, you know, we're going to stop in Swansea, but then that means that we can't really do a gig too close to that. So where's the next place? Oh, it's the middle of nowhere. So then you've got to rejig your whole your whole plan. So it was quite interesting. Good puzzle.
Sarah Christie:
Yeah, I'm picturing just a board with strings and pins and say all attached across a map. Seth, tell me about the weight of your bags while you're walking from gig to gig.
Seth:
Thank you.
Seth:
Yeah, so we managed to split the load up between us reasonably easily, because I was quite lucky I was playing the fiddle, so obviously Chris had the more bulky thing with the guitar. But that meant that I had to carry the microphones and a few leads. So we were each carrying, it was between 10 to 15 kilograms every day, and had various systems of, I had a backpack, which then I put my fiddle on the back of with a load of carabiners.
and Chris had this nice custom guitar case where he had the guitar on his back and then two backpacks that then strapped onto the guitar in order to carry us. Because obviously we had not only our instruments, CDs, microphones, audio equipment, but the things that we needed for day-to-day life as well. So just warm clothes by the time it got to October in Wales. So the weight and the carrying the bags was...
Sarah Christie:
Right?
Seth:
was actually one of the hardest things. There was a couple of days when, you know, someone might have been passing and they picked up our bags for us on the way and that made a massive difference, to be honest. But we got used to it by the end. I think we built up some shoulder strength, let alone on the feet.
Sarah Christie:
Wow.
Sarah Christie:
Now you have to walk all your tours to keep that going. It really is quite remarkable. I remember seeing the initial picture of you guys walking with your equipment and just trying to wrap my head around everything that must have gone into that. Did you hit any storms?
Chris Roberts:
We did, yeah. I mean, we were considering that we were walking for 60 days, we were like incredibly lucky with the weather, but there were a couple of moments. There was one particular one up in North Wales. We were crossing our first mountain because there aren't many mountains on the coast path. And there's a lot of cliffs and a lot of ups and downs, but this was, yeah, the first actual mountain. And someone had just joined us for that day as well. They were starting their own walk and thought it'd be fun to start it with us.
and we just like crossed into the clouds and it kind of the clouds burst and we were soaked and the winds I can't remember how fast they were they were like 60 miles an hour or something and um Seth and our friend Freddie who was with us as well just had to hold the rain cover onto my guitar case and was sort of pulling me along like I was cattle basically because I couldn't really move myself um so yeah there were a few moments like that but incredibly
given that it was autumn in Wales, not that many, which was nice.
Seth:
Yeah, it was that day that we realised we'd need some more serious waterproofing. I mean, all of our equipment claimed to be waterproof, but with the amount of rain that we had on that day, it was seeping into the guitar and the fiddle was getting a bit damp as well. It was a scary moment.
Sarah Christie:
So how did the instruments hold up for the show that night if they were damp? Was everything okay?
Seth:
Yeah, they dried out by the time, you know, we'd normally arrive at the venue a few hours before and that would give us time to put on our one set of dry clothes and air out the instruments a bit. But we did have a little bit of guitar warpage as we went along, but we managed to nip it in the bud at the right time.
Sarah Christie:
Did your shoes hold up, Chris?
Chris Roberts:
Well, actually, my shoes were the only ones that kept falling apart for some reason. Everyone else's were okay. Mine, within about 10 days, I won't mention the brand, give them a bad name, but within about 10 days, a bit of the sole had fallen off and I just had to go and buy some super glue in one of the sort of the most sort of Welsh speaking areas. I went into this builder's shop.
Sarah Christie:
Oh no!
Chris Roberts:
I felt very out of place and had to go buy some super glue and then about once a week would just glue the soles back on.
Sarah Christie:
Oh my goodness, something that you can't really plan for when you're spending an entire year planning this tour. Now, there was one venue that just blew me away again. This whole story blows me away, but this one in particular, you could only perform to at low tide. Seth, tell me about this venue then and how you planned making it there on time.
Seth:
Yeah, it was a beautiful little chapel called St Cwyfan's and it used to be connected to the mainland, but over time, you know, coastal erosion is a big problem on the coast of Wales, and slowly it got separated from the land, and now it's on its own tiny little island that you can only access at low tide. So of course, most of our gigs are in the evening, seven or eight o'clock, but this one we had a very specific window to do the gig in.
So we were waiting on the shore with the whole audience, and then we all walk across together, do a gig, and there was no time for an encore, because then we have to walk back with the audience before the tide comes back in. And it's an incredible place, so the setting is absolutely gorgeous as the sea kind of comes up across the causeway.
Sarah Christie:
Wow, how special would it be to be in the audience for that show and be a part of that as well? Do people often do gigs there?
Seth:
I think that was their first gig. They very rarely open it up, to be honest, because it's such a trek to get there. You know, you can't just pop over and unlock the church. I, Chris, I don't think they've had live music there.
Sarah Christie:
Right.
Chris Roberts:
No, I don't think so. No, it's quite popular for weddings and apparently they do the odd funeral, which is complicated. But yeah, it's just those special occasions really.
Sarah Christie:
Right. I think all of the above sounds complicated to plan if you're trying to time it without getting soaked. Now, something you were doing along this entire walk was stopping and meeting people, storytelling, making music. When you think back to some of the inspirational stories that you encountered along this walk, I mean, it was 870 miles. I'm sure there are a lot. What pops to your head, Chris?
Chris Roberts:
*laughter*
Chris Roberts:
I think, yeah, we had, we met so many people who were kind of living sustainably along the coast, which was massively inspiring for us. And so it's those sorts of stories that stick out the most, like just seeing how people were living and there's this one guy who is living on the Llyn Peninsula, which is the sort of sticky out there at the top of Wales. And
He met us at the gig the night before and said, Oh, I live right on the coast path. You'll have to come and stop by for coffee. And we kind of, yeah, we got nearby. We felt that we didn't really have time, but thought that we should because we said that we would. And yeah, we were so glad that we did because his he lives in a little it's a National Trust cottage who in the UK is a charity that looks after old properties across the country. And he lives in this old cottage.
and what was he doing? He fed us his uh his homemade kombucha um and gave us some coffee as well and then as we were sat there he was like oh you should meet my horse as well and he just calls for his horse who's called Thor um who comes like trotting over from this different field and it turns out he got this horse because by trade he's a sourdough baker um but the orders that he takes into the village it was getting sort of too busy and too much for him to carry by himself.
And he doesn't live on any road either. So he thought about getting a quad bike, but it kind of churns up the ground too much. So he was like, I'll just get this horse and I'll just ride it into the village with my bread. And that's how he makes his living is like that. So I think he was the most inspiring person that we met possibly.
Sarah Christie:
Yeah, wow. That's just such a wholesome story that how are you going to, you're not going to run into that, right? In driving around and the only way you're going to meet that person is by doing exactly what you did. Seth, what about you? What stands out?
Seth:
Oh yeah, it's tricky. It really was all the people that we met that made it quite so special to be honest and learning about the different ways they lived their life. Another special moment for us was we were performing in this farm called Henbant Permaculture Farm up in North Wales, which was incidentally just before the day we got soaked, so it was quite high up there.
and it's just this community farm where people are living together and working and living off the land and it's almost entirely self-sufficient which is just beautiful to see and then there's a few small villages around so lots of people get their food from here but they haven't necessarily crossed paths and been in the farm at the same place and they've never had live music there so we thought oh this would be a really special place to do a gig
So we put on the gig there and it was just the most beautiful timber frame barn that they'd built and constructed as a community. And everyone came out. It was an absolutely rammed barn. There was dancing all night. And I think it's the only gig we've ever done and probably will ever do when we had a few little dogs that would come and join us and sit next to us on stage and being on best behaviour, but really helping with the gig.
Sarah Christie:
I don't know if you guys are planning on writing a book, but if you do, I will be first to read it because I'm sure there are so many stories that you could be pulling from right now. Based on listening to artists tell their stories, it's all about the inspiration. It sounds like there was no shortage in any direction of this tour. Moving forward when you plan your next tour, plan your next gig,
What element of sustainability do you want to tackle next?
Chris Roberts:
I think moving forward, I think we're kind of planning other sustainable tours, so whether that's by bike or canal boat and that sort of thing. Because, yeah, walking was great for those two months, but in many ways isn't the most efficient way of doing it. But I think even now when we're planning gigs that we do need to drive to because of the amount of gear that we've got or with a bigger band,
Seth:
*laughter*
Chris Roberts:
I've definitely learned that you can choose a route and stick to it. So I think often you get sort of battered about and you move across the country just based on which venues are taking bookings. But actually places like the permaculture farm, which was one of the best gigs we did, we played a gig in a wetland center, again, who'd never done live music. These places, they were open to putting on gigs if the conventional venues in the area weren't. So.
You can be more sustainable even if you do have to drive just by picking a sustainable route and sticking to it.
Sarah Christie:
That kind of leads into my last question, Seth. Do you have any from your experience, From this touring experience, do you have any advice for other artists who are interested in sustainability and not sure how to even begin integrating that into their music career?
Seth:
Yeah, I mean, I think it's all about the small steps to be honest, which is what we're trying to now integrate into our everyday life as musicians We're not suggesting that every band now has to walk 900 miles on their tours because you know for us we're not going to be doing that every few months It's just not sustainable in itself as a practice, but what it did was made us Think about the way we tour and hopefully we'll make other people aware
of the way we talk is not sustainable in terms of the amount of vehicles. Even things like living on the road, you're just having to buy fast food and food that's covered in plastic all the time and just increasing your, your general consumption just by the fact that we're, we're consuming more of these things that we don't necessarily need. So, you know, as we were walking around Wales we always stock, keeping a stock of food with us.
bread and sort of more ethically sourced ingredients that we could try and eat as we go rather than just sort of churning through plastics as well. So to anyone looking to, yeah, to tour more sustainably, I would say the main thing is in your route planning, as Chris mentioned, just think of a journey you'd like to do in a circle, in a linear fashion.
And treat it as a narrative and a story that you can be a part of rather than just trying to squeeze in as many gigs as possible, regardless of where they are and having to fly across or get, you know, or drive. We're also looking at touring more by train as well, to be honest, because we've reduced the amount of equipment that we need to take with us. Our setup is very pure in terms of we perform a lot of gigs acoustically now, which is really fun because
you have this really intimate connection with the audience and actually when you strip it all away, sometimes PA and amplification isn't actually adding to the experience.
Sarah Christie:
Thank you both so much for being on Earth Care, for sharing your time with this series, and I look forward to watching from over here across the pond what you integrate into your next tour. Thank you, Seth and Chris. Thanks for joining us.
Chris Roberts:
Oh, thanks for having us, Sarah.
Seth:
Lovely to speak to you.
FINISHED.
