Breabach discover a new way of bonding

"It's only later that you think, well, we were only on for two and a half minutes, but how many people were watching and how many of them were seeing and hearing us for the first time? It's a great calling card. With a bit of luck, there would be people checking us out on the internet afterwards – possibly wondering how to spell our name first – and maybe looking to see where we're playing or if we have CDs available."

The answer to the last part of that question is yes. In March, Breabach release their third album, Bann. It's the first one to feature their new line-up, after two of the original four members left early last year and, with new blood bringing fresh impetus, the question of where they will be playing is likely to be "everywhere possible".

"We took quite a lot of time off in 2011 so we could get the new line-up settled in and rehearsed," says Robertson. "But if, as a band, we made a new year resolution, it was to go for it. We're still young, although the new guys make Calum [MacCrimmon, piper] and myself feel a wee bit like old-timers now, and none of us has family commitments. So we're going to get out there and go to as many places as we can and play to as many people as we can."

The story of Breabach goes back to 2003 when four friends – Robertson on guitar and vocals, fiddle and viola player Patsy Reid, and pipers MacCrimmon and Donal Brown – got together for a tune at Brown's student flat in Kent Road, Glasgow and found they had a tangible chemistry. Their twin-bagpipes attack gave them a readily identifiable sound – Brown's step dancing gave them an extra visual quality – and as they took their music, with its leanings towards the Highland style, to venues and festivals on the folk and traditional music circuit, they gathered a following.

Two albums (2007's The Big Spree and The Desperate Battle Of The Birds, released in early 2010) confirmed their status as significant players on the folk scene and last year saw them nominated as Best Group at both the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and the Scots Trad Music Awards.

Living to the beat of a tour schedule isn't for everyone, however, and as Brown's young family began to demand more of his time, he was increasingly asking James Duncan Mackenzie to deputise for him.

Then, in January last year, Reid experienced an epiphany while playing with Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain at the opening concert of Celtic Connections in Glasgow and decided to explore new horizons. There was no animosity – they'd started as friends and parted as such – and while Brown's departure had a ready solution in Mackenzie, replacing Reid required some consideration from the other members, who by now also included double bassist James Lindsay.

"At first, when Patsy said she wanted to try something different, we thought, 'Wow, where do we go from here?'" says Robertson. "In Donal's case, we'd already been working with James Mackenzie whenever Donal had to ask for time off, and he quickly and easily settled into the band as a full-time member. But with Patsy leaving, that meant a clean break and at first there was no obvious replacement. You can look at these situations negatively and get a bit down, I suppose, but we decided it was an opportunity to bring in a new, exciting player and when we sat down to think about it we realised there was nobody other than Megan Henderson that we wanted to approach."

One of a large family from Fort William who are prominent across the traditional music scene – her brothers Allan and Ewen play with Blazin' Fiddles and Battlefield Band respectively, and sister Ingrid is clarsach instructor at the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music at Plockton High School – Henderson brings a background in Gaelic and west Highland music to Breabach. As well as fiddle, she plays piano, sings and step dances, and her experience as accompanist to the current Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year, Orkney fiddler Kristan Harvey, and as a step-dancing, fiddling, puirt-a-beul (mouth music) singing member of Salsa Celtica meant Breabach were getting an accomplished musician with a big personality.

"She's a great character to have around," says Robertson, "and as well as being steeped in the west Highland tradition, she has so much enthusiasm. James Mackenzie is the same and while we've always had a lot fun as a band, over the past year we've really become a great bunch of pals. I think that comes through in the music when we play live and on the new album as well."

Denoting this feeling of togetherness in its title, Bann (Gaelic for "band" or "bind") developed over the spring and summer and was recorded in Glenfinnan at the Old Laundry studio, which is owned by Henderson's sister Ingrid and brother-in-law Iain MacFarlane (another Blazin' Fiddles and Plockton connection), last September. "It was a really inspiring place to record," says Robertson. "Glenfinnan itself has a great atmosphere. You can feel the history of the place, and the studio being there is brilliant because you can walk outside and almost instantly clear your head any time you feel things aren't going the way you wanted them to.

"We'd written or arranged everything on the CD together because we wanted everyone to be involved from the word go, and between the location and the fact that the MacDonald brothers [Allan, Iain and Angus], who are big piping influences on both Calum and James, are from nearby Glenuig, you felt you were creating something within a tradition."

As well as introducing the two new members and being Lindsay's first appearance on a Breabach album, Bann also features MacCrimmon for the first time as a singer and songwriter, singing in Western Skies of his upbringing in Alberta, Canada, and subsequent experiences as a student in Glasgow while studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Away from Breabach, the piper has recorded an album of his own songs in a more contemporary style, Man's Ruin, and recently collaborated on an album of improvised music with New York-based saxophonist Joe Rigby.

Robertson's own solo career, boosted by winning the Young Scottish Traditional Musician of the Year competition in 2008, continues in parallel to Breabach. He believes such extracurricular activities actually strengthen the band.

"When we go away and do our own things, it doesn't mean Breabach's missing out – it's more a case of being stimulated and coming back with ideas," he says. "Calum and James, who works in jazz away from Breabach, are both particularly creative and are always coming up with things for us to try out as a band. We have a new album to play at the moment but I think we'll be adding more ideas, bit by bit, as we go along on the gigs we have coming up. It's good to do it that way because it's a more natural process rather than making a big sudden change."

Upcoming gigs include a support slot in their Quebecois friends Le Vent du Nord's 10th anniversary concert at Celtic Connections tonight and their own headlining gig at the festival next Saturday. February and March see them touring throughout England and Scotland, and beyond that there are return visits to the US and Australia, where last year they had a much coveted spot at the prestigious Port Fairy Folk Festival.

"It's a long way to go for one gig," says Robertson who, in between touring hijinks such as getting stranded in the Hebrides and serenading camels in the Jordanian desert, still serves as a part-time firefighter in his home town of Carrbridge.

"We were there for four days and spent about three days either side getting there. Plus we managed to amass a collection of speeding tickets in the short time we were there. But it was fun and definitely worth it. And it's great to be asked back. It'll be a bit less hectic this time because we're going for longer – a week."

Breabach play Glasgow Royal Concert Hall tonight at 7.30pm with Le Vent du Nord and on January 28 at 8pm with Corquieu. Bann is released on Breabach Records on March 5. Download a free track from www.breabach.com.