Gregorian chant to Barbie Girl: the Scala choir have got it covered

The Kolacny brothers bring their Scala choir to Ireland this week for two concerts of eclectic material, writes Ed Power

STEVEN KOLACNY’S voice is filled with awe. “For me, U2’s ‘With Or Without You’ is almost like holy music,” says the piano player and choir leader.

“It is not for us to decide if something becomes a classic. That is for the next generation. However, I’m sure that track will survive. You strip it down to its essence and it retains its power.”

Kolacny is the driving force behind Scala, a 40-piece Belgian women’s choir specialising in haunting interpretations of contemporary songs. He has led the ensemble, in association with brother Stijn, for going on 20 years, performing gospel-tinged reworkings not only of U2 but Depeche Mode, Radiohead, Marilyn Manson and others.

“People coming to Scala concerts are aged seven to 77,” he says. “You have strange incidents sometimes. On one occasion we were rehearsing for a performance in a chapel. A guy from the church kept asking ‘How can you sing the word ‘f*ck’? Is that allowed?’ He was puzzled, That night, just for him, we did a Gregorian chant and went straight into Nirvana’s ‘Teen Spirit’. We knew it would throw him — how can we do these two genres side by side? He was baffled.”

Scala are long established on the continent. In the English-speaking world, the group owes its prominence to their cover of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’, as featured in the trailer to 2010 Facebook biopic The Social Network.

“That was a huge moment for us,” says Kolacny. “We were suddenly receiving offers to play in Ireland, England, America, and further afield: Korea, Russia, India. It really went around the world and brought us to a new audience.”

Scala are picky about the material they cover. A song must speak to Kolacny at an almost metaphysical level. Allied to that, he likes to push the audience and the singers beyond their comfort zones.

“At rehearsals recently we did a version of ‘Barbie Girl’ by Aqua,” he says. “There was something incredibly strange about hearing all of these girls aged between 20 and 25 singing ‘Come On Barbie Let’s Go Party.’ You’re not expecting it, are you? I always have my Scala antennae turned on — if I’m out with friends and a song comes on, my mind will start working. ‘Can we do something interesting with this?’ You have to be constantly on the lookout for fresh material.”

Competition for entry to Scala is keen. Twice yearly Steven and Stijn audition 200 hopefuls. They are looking for impressive voices, along with a quality that is harder to define. “It’s about your outlook and your personality — what’s going on in your head as well as how well you can sing. They need to tell us about their lives, to demonstrate what sort of person they are. That is at least as important as how they sing.”

The brothers write and record their own material in addition to heading the choir. They are realists, and appreciate that their original compositions will never command the attention Scala’s interpretations receive. They’re fine with that.

“We don’t force our stuff on our record company,” Kolacny says.”We understand that, if we were just another band, they would have to sell our music with a million other musicians in competition with us. We perform original compositions with Scala sometimes and the audiences enjoy it. Our stuff has furthermore featured in commercials and what have you. We’ve struck a nice balance. The success of Scala gives us a lot of freedom. We’re looking forward to the future.”

Scala and Kolacny Brothers play Cprk Opera House on Friday; and the Olympia Theatre in Dublin on Sunday