Ray Fean Q: You've had a long career in Irish music. You're approach is not strictly traditional. How do you reconcile tradition and change? "I think that tradition and change can't really function without each other." "It's kind of ironic in a way, I suppose tradition is often interpreted as a point in time held static, and upheld by people nurturing its well-being which is great of course, but this can also be a little over protective sometimes."

"I think it's very important to make new introductions and to keep pushing the boundaries." "People's inquisitiveness fuels the possibilities of improvement which in turn lends itself to the excitement of something new. In some ways this is the basis for how tradition is formed." "Irish music has had a lot of new angles on it with the introduction of new instruments in the past 100 years or so. The modern drum kit is a relatively new introduction to Irish music and I think it has a future in the scheme of things."

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