Borealis
Borealis is a five piece band creating and performing the songs of Robert Burns in a unique, contemporary fusion of jazz, classical, folk and blues.
All the band members live in the heart of ‘Burns country' in Ayrshire, South West Scotland. Borealis originally came together to perform as part of the 2005 ‘Burns an' a' that' festival which runs annually in Scotland.
Since then, they have continued to give live performances of their own interpretations of the songs of Robert Burns.
Ken Cocks is the proud owner of Seagull and Gibson guitars and has lots of experience in the music circuit in the north of England. Ken is the band's resident Sassenach. He's English but now lives in Scotland and is therefore improving as a person. He's forever worrying about breaking a nail (it's a guitar thing). The band have to translate for Ken, which is time consuming but worth it for his fantastic guitar-playing abilities.
Jean Nicholson is a graduate of The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and has been a teacher of music in Scotland, England and Spain. Jean has had a varied music career covering many music genres from classical to pop, now concentrating on arranging, recording and technical computery, musicy, gadgety things. Jean's main instrument is piano but usually plays bass in Borealis. Jean is the band's arranger.
Andy Wilson is fanatical about his Fender Strat but usually plays drums in Borealis because he's got a big enough car to transport them (not big enough for a pipe organ though - see Stewart). With a keen interest in computers and recording, Andy assists Jean in her music production. He also comes up with seemingly endless ideas as to the best way to pack music gear into cars - a valuable asset to any band.
Stewart Paton plays the pipe organ at the local church but plays keyboards in the band for reasons of transport. Always to be found eating Janice's baking and playing keyboards simultaneously at the expense of accuracy. The band insist on a ‘nil by mouth' vow from him during concerts . . . bless.
Janice Taylor is the lead singer in Borealis and sings all over the place. (oops, that doesn't mean that her singing is ‘all over the place', it means that she sings at a lot of different places), usually with guitar in hand. Janice is the folk music influence and award winner of many singing gold medals.
For further information -
www.borealismusic.com