Sigismund Owen Keoghan was a joiner working in the West Coast mines in the late 1800s. His calloused hands built the wooden troughs that transported coal after excavation, but they were also used for a more gentle purpose – playing his violin. 130 years later, Sigismund’s great, great grandson plays that same violin, albeit with a modern twist.
ANDREW Keoghan became a reluctant violin student at the age of five when his mother “encouraged” him to take lessons.
“Initially it was pretty hard for her to drag me off, but eventually I started to enjoy it,” he says.
The love affair lasted until he was 14, at school in Christchurch.
“Playing the violin in a string ensemble was not exactly the done thing, and I observed the way you might be able to get a girlfriend if you played the guitar. So I took that up.
“I didn’t get a girlfriend, but I got the guitar.”
Fast-forward a decade and Keoghan is working in Wellington as a TVNZ One News reporter - seemingly set on a similar life path to his brother Phil Keoghan, presenter of The Amazing Race - although still playing in jazz bands when he can.
In 2005, Keoghan finally moved to Auckland to devote himself to the music dream.
“The first couple of years were spent writing as many songs as I could, and playing just about every night. I had a pretty broad range of songs - some were ok but some were bad,” he says.
Eventually, Keoghan started to hear a ‘sound’ that was his own. A big part of that was the rediscovery of his old violin – and a new way to play it.
“I found the violin again at mum and dad’s place. In keeping with 10 years of playing guitar I felt I needed to adapt the way I played it,” he says.
So he turned it on its side and started plucking the strings.
“It just made sense to do it that way. I’ve started to use the bow again as you would conventionally, but I always come back to the plucking. I like the sound of it, it’s very percussive.”
Keoghan has just released his debut album Arctic Tales Divide. His music has been called ‘chamber-pop’; referencing the mix of classical influences like choral layering and violin arrangements with modern pop and folk aesthetics.
“I have an inclination towards the unconventional. I really like to hear music played in away that I haven’t heard before,” he says.
His great, great grandson is a little more rock n’ roll, but old Sigismund Keoghan needn’t worry about the treatment of his precious violin.
“It’s the one thing I will never leave in the car or check in on the plane. I don’t know that it was particularly valuable at the time, but it sounds really good and it only seems to get better over time.”
Andrew Keoghan, Arctic Tales Divide Album Release, Mighty Mighty, March 24.