Artist Spotlight: Maelstr’m
Pirates are on the Lutefish virtual seas!
When starting a garage band, Craigslist guitarists may be a dime a dozen, but the group Maelstr’m needed mandolin and fiddle-wielding rogues well-versed in pirate odes. Eventually, group leader, Rav’n, did piece together such a crew: characters like Greenbeard, the bassist, and Sprinkles Rumblebottom, who packs keys and guitar. But finding such specialized scallywags meant making one huge sacrifice; the group is spread over an enormous geographical area spanning from Detroit to New Orleans.
Maelstr’m uses Lutefish to conquer the distance and keep their sets sharp as they tour the many pirate and Renaissance events that hit the US each year. We took a moment to sit down with Rav’n of Maelstr’m to learn more about this unique corner of the music world and also see how Lutefish has worked for them.
Lutefish (LF): Tell us a bit about Maelstrom. How did the project start?
Rav’n: I've been a Renaissance & Pirate Festival Performer as a Solo act since 2016. I perform under the name The Minstrel Rav'n. From the very beginning, I focused on original music. Trying to do things different than the norm. As a year started into two years and then three, I would have one or two different performers join me at shows.
LF: Was a pirate theme planned from the start? What’s the story there?
Rav’n: Absolutely! There's a fairly large international pirate music community here in the States... but Europe is Crazy! Leading the way in Pirate Metal is Visions of Atlantis (VoD) and Ye Banished Privateers. VoD tours the US every year... (Yes, I'd love to open for them.)
There are several Pirate Radio stations in Canada, in the US… I found my “people”, my “audience,” through Scoundrel’s Inn. It’s a podcast twice a week that plays pirate bands from all over the world.
LF: Where is everyone in the band located? How did the group form?
Rav’n: We're from all over!
Rav’n (Me) - Octave Mandolin, Vocals, Primary Song Writer
Northwest Indiana - I have a Lutefish
Pinup - vocalist/small percussion
Metro Detroit, IL
She travels the Renfaire Circuit full-time now with a Ladies ' a cappella group called Chaste Treasure.
Cogs McGee - Drums & Percussion.
For practice we run an Alesis E Kit into a mixer then the Lutefish.
Greenbeard – Bass, backup vocals, occasional lead vocals
New Orleans, LA - Has a Lutefish Stream.
Sprinkles Rumblebottom - our Swedish Army knife…Bass, Keyboards, and the occasional guitar.
Chicago, IL - Has a Lutefish Stream
Rose O’Murray – Violin, fiddle, cello
Detroit, MI - Has a Lutefish Stream.
We also have Stowaways… people who jump in when someone isn’t available or if we’re playing a gig they’re at… in Texas, we have Whitebeard Teague (Guitar), Maneater Marge (Vocals), Capt’n Silver Mischief (Vocals), and in Michigan, we had Ennio Guy (Drums & Bass) and The Druid Drummer (tribal Drums).
My ultimate Goal is to have Lutefish devices in TX as well…. Let’s push the boundaries!!
LF: How did you hear about Lutefish? Were you looking for an online rehearsal platform? Have you tried other remote jamming products?
Rav’n: Because we’re so far apart as a band, we never practiced together. Cogs and I would lay down the rough outline of the song on a recording and send it out… everyone would write their parts and practice.
Every once in a while, Greanbeard would fly up for a weekend, and Sprinkles would come down, and we would lock in music. More often than not… the morning of a show, we would practice “Starts and Stops” … we’d hit the key parts of songs just making sure we were tight where we needed to be.
I saw the [Lutefish] ad and thought… Wow… if this actually works…. (You advertised 400-500 miles… we push it beyond 1,000!!) I reached out to Lutefish with our story… we’re a pirate band (complete with pirate names, clothes, and songs…) and we live a THOUSAND miles apart….” Lutefish was curious and replied!!!
LF: How do you use Lutefish?
Rav’n: How do we NOT?? Sometimes, two of us will work on a song idea together… clean up questionable areas. They Band tries to get together every few weeks to lock in a solid hour or two of practice.
LF: Was it hard to integrate Lutefish in the band’s workflow?
Rav’n: Not at all! The hardest part really was just EQing everyone the first couple of times. Just making sure everyone could be heard.
LF: How has Lutefish influenced your practice schedule? Do you practice more or less?
Rav’n: We practice a WHOLE LOT MORE! We’ve joked that we’ve had more practice since April this year… than we’ve had in 8 years together!
LF: How’s your Lutefish experience been?
Rav’n: Incredible?? Amazing? Unbelievable??? Not enough Superlatives to describe how we feel! We finish a practice and immediately text each other… DANG!! That was amazing!!
LF: Have you considered virtual shows/concerts?
Rav’n: Funny enough, I think we did the FIRST Social media Stream of Covid… we had a gig the weekend the world shut down. That got canceled… so, I just threw it out that we would be doing the show… LIVE on Facebook
We do have plans to do a Facebook Live Stream in the fall, using Lutefish!!
LF: Do you do anything special for Talk Like a Pirate Day?
Rav’n: We’re headed to Harrisburg, PA to rock out with HOLD FAST and Common Run and a huge Halfway to St Paddy’s Day Party… that happens to fall on that weekend!
Needless to say, all practice at this point is geared for that show.
LF: Where can people check out Maelstrom?
Rav’n: Probably the easiest way is through our Linktree, which takes you to our social media link. We just started booking this year as Maelstr’m, but you can also find us as The Minstrel Rav’n on Spotify, Bandcamp, Youtube, and Amazon. We have a lot of music out there now.
As Maelstr’m we have 2 projects in the works…
A Maelstr’m EP with an eclectic mix of Weird West, Steampunk, and pirate songs… and The Coming Curse: a Goth Opera about Anubis as a Vampire in the 1880’s. Look for both in early 2026.