Interview: Jo Quail
- Stuart Ball
- Sep 6
- 12 min read
Ahead of the release of her seventh album Notan (read my review here), Hotel Hobbies spent some time with cellist Jo Quail talking about the new album, composition, playing live and her love of 80s hair metal!
Hotel Hobbies: When you are approaching the release of a new album, how does it feel when the full album is finally released and people get to hear it after all your hard work?
Jo Quail: I feel excited, but also a little apprehensive, because you never know how an album will reach people. You never know whether it will resonate or not. I don’t make records so people will say, “Gosh, that’s a great record.” What I hope is that I can give some kind of framework within which people can find their own interpretations. That’s really all I want—that people enjoy what they hear or at least have an opinion one way or another. As long as they have a response, I feel I’ve done my job.
Hotel Hobbies: That is interesting because I suppose that is ultimately what you want to do with music: make people react in some way.
Jo Quail: Exactly. It doesn’t matter if the reaction is positive or negative. The worst thing is indifference - the reaction of, “Yeah, it’s alright.”
Hotel Hobbies: The album has this theme of light and dark, drawn from the Japanese word Notan. Was that something you had in mind from the start, or did it evolve as you wrote the pieces?
Jo Quail: The whole project has a story. It began as a series of improvised, busked pieces. I wasn’t planning to write anything formal at first. I got attached to the demos I recorded in June 2023, but I couldn’t make them work on cello and loops. They just came out too quickly. So I orchestrated them instead. That’s how Ianus came about—it will be recorded with orchestra later this year and released next year. After that, I returned to the solo cello versions, which became Notan. The two albums share material - four pieces in fact - all rooted in a track called First Rain, which was purely acoustic cello. Both records grew out of that.
Notan isn’t a lesser version, just a different shade compared to Ianus. Within Notan, I wanted to explore contrasts: light and dark, sparse single lines versus big walls of sound. When I prepared Kingfisher for live performance, I found I couldn’t just play the album version. The live version is the same piece with the same motifs, but its shape is entirely different - where one rises, the other falls. It’s fascinating how these pieces develop their own identity and colour, almost regardless of what I originally intended.
Hotel Hobbies: Do you think that partly comes from working entirely on your own, rather than within a band where ideas are constantly negotiated?
Jo Quail: Absolutely. I’ve worked solo for so long that I’m not sure how I’d function in a band. With orchestration, I still maintain overall control, but the orchestra, individual performers and singers bring their own interpretation. That adds another dimension. When I’m working alone, there’s a lot of experimentation, rabbit holes and procrastination. I’ll get fixated on something, work it to death, and then suddenly turn a corner. Three hours later, I realise I’ve landed somewhere completely different, already thinking about the next album (laughing).
Hotel Hobbies: On this album, you play cello, electric cello and piano. This might be too big a question for one answer but all the sounds on the album come from just those instruments. Can you talk a little about the process of turning a limited set of instruments into such expansive textures?
Jo Quail: Yeah, that is a big question. The easiest one to deal with is the piano—it remains a piano. I recorded it simply by placing a mic inside my upright piano, so the sound includes pedal noises and all those little organic details. Acoustic cello is straightforward in terms of its sound. Electric cello is more complex. I use a Boss GT-1000 multi-effects board and spend a lot of time sitting on the floor, auditioning sounds and designing them. My pieces usually begin with a motif from playing the cello, or sometimes from a sound I’m experimenting with. I build all my sounds from scratch; I don’t use presets. It’s a learning curve that never ends and I’m thankful for that. I learn more each time I play. Refinements become smaller and more time-consuming but they get closer to how I want to present the piece live. I record as I rehearse, then listen back to the stereo recordings to anticipate how it will translate through a PA.
Hotel Hobbies: Looping is obviously central to your work, particularly live. What’s different about how you use looping at home compared to performing live?
Jo Quail: That’s a good question. When playing live, you have to remember it’s a performance. You can’t indulge as much as you do at home - playing one riff for 20 minutes that doesn’t work live isn’t an option. I have to think carefully about the efficiency of the loop station. I don’t loop just because I can; I loop because it’s necessary at certain points. For example, in Kingfisher, I use the loops so it seems like everything is running at once, but it isn’t - pressing pedals brings parts in and out. The shape and balance of the piece must work live. Certain sections might need to be truncated or extended to tell the story effectively. Each live performance is slightly different - tuning or other factors mean nothing is ever exactly the same.
Hotel Hobbies: You mentioned orchestral work. How do you shift between being a soloist and thinking like a composer or orchestrator?
Jo Quail: To me, orchestration and sound design are the same thing. With electronics, I look at frequency ranges—sub-bass, mids, highs. With orchestra, it’s about instrument families - brass, woodwinds, strings. I enjoy unusual pairings. For example, the orchestral version of Rex, the opening theme is played by bassoon and tuba together. So we have this very warm doubling which works very well. There is a little bit of clarity from the bassoon together with the softness of the tuba. I will use trumpets at fortissimo if I really want higher things that I would normally be playing on the cello. I want those things to cut straight through. It's using colours to making things as playable as possible. I have to make sure the wind and brass players can take a breathe (laughing)! Obviously, I have a bow. That's my breath and it's fairly continuous, but I have to remember that other people actually need to take a breath.
Hotel Hobbies: To talk about some of the individual tracks on Notan, the introduction of Butterfly Dance reminds me of Iron Man by Black Sabbath, with those descending sounds that carry weight without tipping into excess.
Jo Quail: That’s wonderful!
Hotel Hobbies: Having done some research, I think Butterfly Dance was inspired by the story of La Mariposa. Can you talk about how that story influenced the music?
Jo Quail: Yes, that’s right. La Mariposa is the butterfly dance. Everyone who goes to this great ceremony is under the impression that it is about ballerinas and so on. It’s not. Only the tribe matriarch is allowed to perform. She has witnessed births, deaths, healing - everything. She has seen all manner of social things, difficulties and good times. I first read this in Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ book Women Who Run With the Wolves when I was 21. It stayed with me for years, but it didn’t become a piece until last year, after I had a hysterectomy. That experience propelled me into the next stage of life. It felt liberating, and I understood the authority of the matriarch. That’s how the piece came to be. Certain motifs, like the E-flat down to C, came first, and the solo lines emerged naturally, expressing pride and authority. I just played it with that overdriven sound, which in the old days I might have reined in a bit but now I just don’t care (laughing). It's really exciting.
Hotel Hobbies: It’s a very exciting opening. There is definite strength there but with control as well.
Jo Quail: Yes, yes, yes! I hoped that would be heard. Thank you!
Hotel Hobbies: Rex has evolved since your debut album. Can you talk about rediscovering and extending it?
Jo Quail: I don’t know why I went back to Rex. It was during the time that nobody was doing anything because if COVID in 2020. There was no stability or framework. Possibly that’s why I went back to a very early thing. Sometimes, when I am feeling all at sea with normal cello playing, I might go back to some early pieces or a familiar piece that I love to play. There was this feeling that everything had gone to shit, for all of us, obviously. Big open chords are deeply satisfying to play on the cello. One has a tonal kind of centre, GAFEF, and then you can leave that running and just put this big chord sequence under it, which takes down the GCD, which of course is a very, very big chord sequence. It's not a groundbreaking chord sequence at all, but there's something about those sounds combined. It felt real and almost a physical thing and that is how I have to play this piece now.
Hotel Hobbies: Comparing the two versions is interesting. The extension really shows what stepping away and returning can reveal.
Jo Quail: Yes, exactly. The first version was fragile, my first solo effort. Now it has confidence and clarity.
Hotel Hobbies: Tracks like A Leaf and Then a Key feel more intimate compared to the opening tracks.
Jo Quail: Yes, sonically it’s more intimate- just low acoustic cello. I recorded it quickly, probably wanting to get through without mistakes because its so exposed. It’s technical and now when I listen to it, I’m like bloody hell, I won’t play it that fast when I do it live. It has a very pure voice and it is hopefully painting some kind of landscape.
Hotel Hobbies: What is the meaning behind the title?
Jo Quail: For a while that was going to be the album title. I spend a lot of time in the Oak Forest. I love to be there, especially in the Autumn and Winter when the leaves begin to decompose. They look like skeletons to me as they are one tiny little oak skeleton, tiny elements that unlock the whole tree. That image felt appropriate, capturing the essence of the piece. Components from this track appear across both Ianus and Notan.
Hotel Hobbies: Embrace, another track you played at the Royal Albert Hall earlier in the year, is also fascinating - a meditative, immersive track. On a surface level, it seems that not a lot happens but as the track progresses, it becomes utterly mesmerising. One of the most captivating parts of the album.
Jo Quail: Oh wow, thank you. It’s simple technically, with a rocking refrain in an unusual tuning, running five different loop lengths. The loops fold over each other, creating space in the middle, so it feels expansive without a lot happening at the top. It’s about exploring what space can do in sound. It is in a different tuning: AD and then F# B instead of GC. When you're in a different tuning, it gives you a lot of possibilities, harmonic possibilities, you wouldn't have otherwise.
Hotel Hobbies: Next on the album is First Rain - a purely piano based track which is your first time doing that. What made you decide it was time to set the cello aside for this one?
Jo Quail: First Rain wrote itself very quickly. I often work at the piano when exploring harmonic ideas and wanted to try something out immediately without looping multiple layers. I recorded it on my phone to capture it, and because it emerged during the album creation period, it felt natural to include it. I try not to make the same album twice and always aim to explore further, so it felt right to put the piano on there.
Hotel Hobbies: It definitely adds another layer of variety. Even with just six tracks, the album has a huge range, which offers a lot to the listener.
Jo Quail: That’s good, I’m glad.
Hotel Hobbies: With the final track, Kingfisher, I might have been quite literal in my interpretation, thinking about the bird, its movement and its vibrant colours. It seems to be the track with the most energy, probably the most joyous moment on the album.
Jo Quail: Yes, it’s a joy to play live. The orchestral version is a bit edgy, and some subtle details don’t translate live. You have to present a lithograph version for performance - everything clearly outlined. There’s a high line at the end I want to perform with friends in a Scottish piping band for a euphoric, colourful finale. While inspired by birds, it’s about what they symbolise - their grace and beauty. I’m actually a bit obsessed with birds; I wrote about the cormorant on The Cartographer.
Hotel Hobbies: Maybe a setlist based on birds!
Jo Quail: Yes, yes, that’s where we’re going (laughing).
Hotel Hobbies: You have toured with Wardruna and God Is An Astronaut, bands with different audiences. How has your music been received by their fans?
Jo Quail: I’m humbled by the warm reception from both fan bases and on the heavier side by the fans of Amenra too. Audiences are broad-minded, not strictly defined by genre. Bands themselves are often broader than their labels, and the concept of genre is becoming less important.
Hotel Hobbies: I agree. I have interviewed metal bands recently who say they also love country music. Audiences can surprise you.
Jo Quail: Super, super, yes.
Hotel Hobbies: At the Albert Hall this year, even in the stalls, you could hear a pin drop.
Jo Quail: Yes, it was a privilege. It’s my hometown, and I remember playing there as a child in a huge strings gala. That was my first real lesson in how sound travels - you see the conductor but hear the sound later. Fascinating, unforgettable.
Hotel Hobbies: It must feel fulfilling to have your music embraced by people from different backgrounds, who might usually listen to a range of genres.
Jo Quail: It’s a privilege and extremely inspiring. Audiences tell me what they feel during pieces, often in ways I didn’t anticipate. It’s wonderful to have people actively engaging their imagination.
Hotel Hobbies: Speaking of different genres, I know you love 1980s hair metal. Do you think that energy and flamboyance comes through in your playing?
Jo Quail: Oh I hope so! My aim was W.A.S.P. meets Arvo Pärt - a new genre! I love the hedonism, euphoria and exuberance of that era. Some of that energy, blatant power chords and “let’s have it” moments translate to the cello very well, especially in the low end.
Hotel Hobbies: Exactly. Listening broadly is important. I might listen to Cinderella one day and Mozart the next.
Jo Quail: Yes, absolutely. It’s important to have a broad range. Everything can feed into my “bag of inspiration.” My daughter’s K-Pop phase taught me a lot about production values, for example. Even microtonal intervals from Penderecki inspire subtle shifts and space in my music. One small movement can create beauty, especially when layered with big chords.
Hotel Hobbies: Thinking about live performance, does it feel different playing in a huge venue like the Royal Albert Hall versus a smaller hall?
Jo Quail: Acoustics don’t affect me because I have excellent in-ear monitors. I hear all the loops, the direct feed and sometimes a click. At the end of a performance, I might remove the monitors to hear the hall, but otherwise every stage - large or small - is the same. It doesn’t matter if there are three people of six thousand people. My goal is to convey the music fully, regardless of audience size or venue.
Hotel Hobbies: Your looping seems seamless. Have you had any memorable mishaps or funny moments?
Jo Quail: Oh, yes! It’s a knife edge because it’s not possible for me to undo and redo a lot of the time. I do remember once – it was a big lesson actually – I was playing Gold from Five Incantations and I had left record running when I shouldn’t. All of a sudden, these very abstract things started happening. It was the sort of stuff that I would play in rather than looping in. It was all over the place. Basically, you just have to make a piece out of whatever is going on and think on the fly about how to salvage it! I think at that point, I resorted to 80's hair metal. I just slapped in a massive sub G and some solo on top of it. It wound up a lot faster and afterwards, people said me how intense that version of Gold was. So I learned again just how important preparation is. I think on stage, only twenty percent of what matters is the actual notes and the rest is how we are playing those notes. I don’t mean we have to be theatrical and lurch about all over the place. What I know for a fact is, the energy of the performance is what is conveyed.
Hotel Hobbies: Now, with your seventh album and a tour coming up, how do you choose your setlist?
Jo Quail: It’s about the flow of the show. With Butterfly, Kingfisher, Rex, Embrace and a couple of acoustic ones, that’s most of the time gone. Favourites matter less than overall flow. I would like to include pieces like Gold. I enjoy playing Stag and I enjoy playing Cantus. Like a Bach prelude, there’s flow within bars, phrases, pieces and the whole concert. It should feel curated.
Hotel Hobbies: You must be looking forward to your own tour.
Jo Quail: Yes, very much. Some venues are new, some familiar. It’s nerve-wracking because so few people buy tickets in advance, but once the first date hits, it’s usually fine.
Hotel Hobbies: I have come to the end of my questions, so thank you so much for your time and I hope the album release goes well.
Jo Quail: Thank you so much; it has been a pleasure chatting.
Notan is released on 12th September 2025
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