Can uilleann pipes rock? Hell, yeah! Any fan of Kila, the renaissance jam band out of Dublin, will tell you that when the pipes are in the hands of Eoin Dillon, they rock with a vengeance. To hear those high notes stirring the pot on top of a cooking bass line is a sound to behold indeed.

Dillon has just released The Third Twin, an excellent instrumental disc that puts his pipes front and center in the mix. Though there are fiddles and guitars dancing around his notes, you would be wise not to call it a "trad" album.

"I have a problem with you calling the music traditional," he says during an interview with the Irish Voice. "It's polite and puts the music in a strait jacket. This is Dublin in a 21st century setting, and you have to keep the music fresh. I never liked labeling the music. I am just playing music."

On The Third Twin, Dillon is able to coax a range of emotions from his pipes. He can drive the furious, happy "Liffey Reels," while aping the butterflies you have in the stomach after "An Australian Kiss," an intricate musical tapestry that is a highlight on this collection.

"I have been playing with Steven the fiddle player," explains Dillon when asked how The Third Twin came about. "He was hosting these trad seisiuns and I have been calling on his house with a few tunes. We had some lovely afternoon sessions in Dublin that were very quiet. I decided to do an album of tunes that fit into that kind sound."

The disc is garnering rave reviews in the Irish press, but Dillon seems nonchalant about the praise.

"I'm happy for it for what it is," he says flatly. "I think its rough and could have been better recorded in some spots, which I think works for the sound.

"Someone called me a virtuoso the other day which surprised me (laughs). At the same time, I want people to hear this because I am proud of it. I hired a publicist because I wanted people to know it was out there."

According to Kila's website, Dillon was a cabinet maker by trade before he began making uilleann pipes and ultimately living from playing them. In addition to the pipes, he also plays low and high whistles.

He was taught woodwork on Tory Island and during his apprenticeship with Cillian O Briain (pipemaker), made his present set of uileann pipes. Dillon has held his own seisiuns up and down the country and has worked with Hector Zazu, Manus Lunny, Jane Sibery and Sinead O'Connor.

Jamming with such diversity allows Dillon to keep his finger firmly on the pulse of Irish music.

"There are a lot of singer songwriters at the moment and they sing with American accents," he says with a laugh. "I hear that and I think they're trying to be a bit safe. That's what makes Damien Dempsey's (Irish phrasing) so unique in his music. He's a good head on his shoulders and he knows where he's from, which is key."

Dillon has been doing solo shows to promote The Third Twin, supporting head Hothouse Flower Liam O'Manolai.

"If you're making music, one of the challenges is to come up with new ideas," he says when asked why he felt the need to break away from his gig with Kila. "If I was just playing with Kila and I wasn't looking for other stuff, I might go stale. I still go to pubs and look for seisiuns. I am playing with a funk band tomorrow night.

"Kila is the main job and the bread and butter, but I think I add something to the band when I branch out like that. Kila is very supportive of that kind of thing."

While American audiences haven't seen Kila on our shores in a few years, the band is still very much alive and kicking. They are set to release Gambler's Ballet. The U.K. press is falling all over themselves in praise of the disc, which got nine out of 10 stars in the latest issue of Hot Press, Ireland's leading music magazine.

Kila is on the cover of that magazine with fellow Dublin band the Thrills for a feature article about the two groups, their diverse musical influences and journeys. Hot Press managed to get the two bands remixing one another's music and the results will be on a free CD with the magazine. Kla remixed the Thrills' track "Nothing Happens Round Here" and the Thrills went to work on Kla's "Cábhraig Léi."

"I hope people will find it's different from all the rest of them," says Dillon of Gambler's Ballet. "It's not as all over the place as our last CD, Luna Park.

"This one is perhaps not as hectic. There is a lot more of a drum kit as opposed to just the bodhran. It's a lot more bass in it and its much more groovy and it works more as a whole album. It's only 40 minutes, so it's very direct."

For more information on The Third Twin or anything about Kila, log onto Kila.ie.