Out today: the beautiful new album from Swedish sisters First Aid Kit. Every tune is a wonder… starting with first single The Lion’s Roar, a plaintive ode to the moon, cowardice, love and life.

Johanna takes lead vocals in this perfect example of First Aid Kit’s own particular blend of modern country folk. Then comes current single Emmylou, a song dominated by the gently pulsing pedal guitar in homage to their country heros. Klara takes on a whole verse, showcasing a newly confident voice that is full of sweet soul. Things take a more bittersweet turn with In The Hearts Of Men, whilst Blue opens with a chirpy glockenspiel that belies a tale of doubt, as do the glorious harmonies of To A Poet. The bigger sound showcased on this second album is perfected in I Found A Way, which features a backdrop of lush orchestration. The saddest of themes are given the slow pace of Dance To Another Tune, whilst the wonderful Wolf drives onward with a healthy beat and a jaunty singing style that marks it out as a possible next single. New Year’s Eve returns to more familiar acoustic territory – just Johanna’s soaring vocals and a strummed zither.

First Aid Kit by Becca Thorne.

The album finishes on the upbeat (it’s all relative in the Söderberg’s world!) King Of The World, which features a guest vocal from their hero Bright Eyes. It’s clear that these past two years on the road have heavily influenced The Lion’s Roar; inspiring and enriching these sisters’ extraordinary talents that put the over-produced auto-tuned pap that dominates our airwaves to shame. And the thing is, the Söderberg sisters are even better in the flesh, so if you have never seen them live make sure you do when they next swing by – you’re in for a real treat.

First Aid Kit – Emmylou by Hannah Lewis.

Make sure you read my recent interview with First Aid Kit, in which Klara describes the making of and inspiration behind the new album. The Lion’s Roar is released today on Wichita Recordings.

First Aid Kit – Emmylou by EdieOP.

Laura J Martin sets out her wares in the album title track and single The Hangman Tree, the sweetest of vocals twirling around languid drums, hand claps and a noodling kazoo. The beat builds to a flute embroidered finale which leads into the stunning Fire Horse, where upon Laura J Martin’s favourite wind instrument takes precedence with unusual and beautiful results. Other standouts on the 16 track album include the bouncy Jesse, the frantic spitfire interludes to the lilting Spy and campfire crackling meets rap of Kissabye Goodnight. You read our recent review of her live gig at the Lexington, and now it’s time to catch up with Liverpudlian musician Laura J Martin as she gears up to release her much anticipated debut album. The Hangman Tree is a gorgeous medley of folk, oriental and jazz influences that needs to be on your stereo soon.

Laura J Martin by Justyna Sowa.

You are a multi-talented musician with a range of musical instruments at your disposal. How many do you play?
My main instruments are flute and piano, but I dabble with the mandolin and other pipes too. 
 

You have said that the flute is your main instrument of choice – has it ever been hard to accommodate a wind instrument and voice in your songs: how do you prioritise what works best?
Aha! Well the loop station was brought on board because of this reason. I have recently incorporated piano regularly into my live shows and recordings as it does more naturally support the vocal, but I do love layering up the flute especially when I go Mellotron / Strawberry Fields style.

What has inspired the lyrics to the tunes on your debut album The Hangman Tree?
Tributes to good people I know and have known, pets, stories relating to my gypsy heritage and flawed relationships.
 
You grew up in Liverpool: how did this urban environment produce someone so bohemian? Did your parents encourage your music and if so in what way?
Well I grew up in one of the dullest suburbs of Liverpool so we were forced to make our own entertainment. My parents have always been pretty supportive. They followed the Catholic tradition of having more than 2.4 kids so they probably lost focus with me maybe! In all seriousness they have been very encouraging, my Dad is sometimes my personal caddie too. Music has always been important to the Martin family. My Grandad was a pianist so he planted the seed.
 

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Hangman Tree has been some time coming: we’ve been championing you for over 2 years on Amelia’s Magazine. Has it been hard to get the album out and what have the biggest frustrations and joys of the process been?
Yes, tell me about it!! The joys of the process are creating the songs and the satisfaction of completing them and being able to perform them live. It can be frustrating having to wait that length of time before releasing an album, but if you leave songs to settle you are able to pick out the strongest ones and ruthlessly erase the ones that don’t cut the mustard.
 
How did you hook up with record label Static Caravan?
Through Marc Riley, I have a lot to thank him for. Well saying that I met Marc through Euros Childs and Norman when touring with Jonny. Those fine chaps saved my life!
 

Where can our readers see you perform live in 2012?
Well some dates are coming together in the UK. Please see my website for details: laurajmartin.com I have also been working with Richard James so there should be some dates on the board for that soon too.
 

Any top tips for other musical acts to look out for this year?
I’ve been digging out some old stuff to be honest. Geoff from Static Caravan gave me a Johnny Harris LP for christmas and it’s a beast! New stuff? I think Y Niwl are terrific, Serafina Steer, Clinic have just released a new album which I am looking forward to listening to.

The Hangman Tree by Laura J Martin is out on Static Caravan on 23rd January 2012. See also our recent review of her performance at the Lexington here.

At a time of year when live music is usually thin on the ground, Fortuna Pop’s trio of Winter Sprinters at the Lexington gave the grateful gig-goer a chance to shelter from a damp and dismal early January evening. Nestled on a first night’s set list, between the rockabilly of the Werewandas and the acerbic laments of the Singing Adams, was the gifted Laura J Martin.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’d first caught Laura J Martin last year, supporting Hannah Peel at the Windmill and then Misty’s Big Adventure at 93 Feet East, and both times was amazed. She’d subsequently picked up ringing endorsements from DJs Marc Riley and Rob Da Bank (having already graced the pages of Amelia’s Magazine), and a chance to see her play live again (with the added bonus of an impending album release) was not to be missed.

Illustration by Gareth A Hopkins

Things got underway with the sprightly Doki Doki, as a swirling, stomping Martin built up looped layers of flute. She is an engaging performer, with a fragile voice rather reminiscent of a young Kate Bush, and she deftly switches between flute, mandolin and keyboards whilst backed by assorted samples and her trusty loop station. Martin may be from a folk background, but her music is infused with contemporary influences (as her collaborations with Canadian MC Buck 65 and former Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci frontman Euros Childs show). A new piano-based number gave way to Fire Horse, inspired by Martin’s time living in Japan and learning of the story of Yaoya Oshichi. A Lalo Schifrin-esque flute intro announced the arrival of the slinky Spy, whilst Martin entranced the crowd with the lilting Tom. She closed her set with Salamander, switching between mandolin and flute and building to a hypnotic finish.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As she heads off on a mini-tour and with her album, The Hangman Tree, hitting the stores in a couple of weeks, it looks like 2012 will be the year that Laura J Martin will astound an even greater audience!

Possibly my favourite Christmas album amongst a bumper crop is the collaborative effort from For Folk’s Sake, which has been on rotation for the past few weeks to get me in the festive mood: I couldn’t possibly pick out a favourite tune, but watch out for the jolly Christmas Mistakes by The Leisure Society which implores everyone to set aside those differences just for one day. ‘Will Christmas cheer succumb to civil war?‘ it asks. Caitlin Rose teams up with Keegan DeWitt for the bittersweet You Never Come Home For Christmas. Cocos Lovers do a fine job of covering a pair of carols with harmonised folk style.

Love In A Cold Climate by Jason Munro.

Darren Hayman contributes Lost in the Snow: you can view the video in my previous Christmas tunes blog. In the Bleak Midwinter (fast becoming the most commonly covered Christmas ditty) gets the Paper Aeroplanes treatment – whose singer Sarah Howell sounds eerily like Janet Devlin of this years X Factor, or should that be the other way around? Either way, it’s an utterly beautiful rendition of this classic carol.

A Little Donkey On A Surfboard by Dickon Langdon.

Kathryn WIlliams sings of Christmas in Hell with Neill MacColl, where ‘shops are all heaving with crap they can sell.’ Brilliant and timely. Howard Carter, Devon Sproule, Fiona Bevan, Hollows, Adam Killip & Mi Mye and Laura Boyle also contribute their festive fare: believe me, every tune on this compilation is an absolute corker. Sadly the hard copies have long since sold out but you can still get this gem as a download: very recommended, especially since sales benefit The Integrated Cancer Centre. And if you’ve come over all Scrooge like you can listen to it as a stream too. Make sure it’s on your stereo this 25th December.

Emmy the Great and Tim Wheeler (of Ash) get together for This is Christmas, which opens with the jaunty Marshmallow World and is followed by the similarly upbeat duet Snowflakes, before Emmy takes main vocals on the 50s inflected Christmas Moon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Winter Wonderland by Fay Newman.

Amongst the more bizarre choices for cover treatment are Black’s upbeat Wonderful Life and Yazoo’s Only You, both of which are brought back down to earth with a gritty bump. The album ends with The Christmas Song (with Agnes Obel) which in Smith & Burrows‘ hands becomes a disconsolate view of the usual Christmas fripperies. Here’s to Christmas in the UK!

Kirsty Almeida by Alejandra Espino.

Kirsty Almeida has teamed up with The Troubadours to put together a whole album of wintery tunes, which was sent to me in a beautifully wrapped package.

Tracks include Merry Christmas Let’s Have Fun, featuring the traditional festive chorus of children. All I Want For Christmas is a gorgeous cover of the Mariah Carey classic that showcases Kirsty’s soulful voice. White Christmas brings in some lush harmonies with the odd twinkle of sleigh bells and by Just Cancel Christmas the sleigh bells are in full effect. Buy Winter Songs online here.

Have a fantastic holidays everyone. See you in 2012.

8 singers of Christmas by Laura Millward.

The enigmatic Pumajaw are a male/female duo who hail from Scotland, and their new album Demonmeowmeow is a must hear slice of new wave electronica with heart. From the throaty openings of the epic song Mazy Laws, Demonmeowmeow sets out its wares with style: hypnotic vocals from singer Pinkie Maclure set off against the sparsest of musical arrangements by John Wills (formerly of Loop), resulting in a spooky, otherworldly glory: think sleazy synths mashed up with jazz inflected brass buzzing. I promise you that Demonmeowmeow is quite unlike anything else you will have heard in 2011. Buy it now.

Pumajaw by Sam Parr.

Who is Pumajaw?
Pinkie Maclure & John Wills, we’ve been working together for eleven years – John was working as an engineer and producer, I was a solo electronic artist. We worked together on a solo album of mine, From Memorial Crossing, which quickly evolved into a mutual project because we had so many ideas in common. After an arts council project called Lumen,  we settled on the name Pumajaw, which comes from our initials.
 

Your new album Demonmeowmeow came out last month, what has been the reception so far?
Gideon Coe on 6 Music has been playing Outlands a lot and we’ve had plays by Max Reinhardt on Radio 3’s Late Junction. There’s been some fantastic press, with a big feature in the Herald Scotland and a 4 star review in Uncut. There have been quite extreme reactions, some people love it immediately, but other people seem confused – I like to use 3 or 4 octaves and sing torch songs with great, irresistible melodies, but the arrangements are not just the usual instruments – John creates beautiful atmospheres from unusual sources, such as a page being turned, hinges rattling or the flapping of birdwings. It’s what we’ve always done, so it seems natural to us.
 

What does Demonmeowmeow mean?
Rebellious, dark and sensuous and a little bit cheeky.
 
Your sound is a mix of jazz, folk and alt blues, with a healthy dollop of electro on top. How did this come about?
It’s evolved over a long time – the first two Pumajaw albums were built around acoustic guitar loops and my rather minimal concertina playing, because we wanted to create a very simple music that could be performed live without much equipment. But as time went on, we felt restrained by it, we wanted to speed it up and make more noise, I wanted to stretch my vocal chords more. John used to be known as a drummer as well as a producer, so using new technology, he has started programming rhythms and that’s where the electro bit has come in, along with the purchase of some rather exciting synthesizers. I have to admit, we did rebel somewhat against what has started to feel like a tidal wave of bland, twee folk music – living in rural Scotland, you are surrounded by acoustic guitar balladeers and it gets really tiresome after a while. Demonmeowmeow is a bit of a reaction to all that.
 

Pumajaw by Vicky Fallon.

Despite so many influences your sound has been described as timeless, which I think can be both a blessing and a curse. How do you think it has come to sound this way?
We are both inspired by what you might call great classic songs. As a teenager I listened to a lot of jazz, French chanson, blues and folk singers. We’ve never tried to be fashionable, just creative, ambitious. I would hate to think our music could lost its appeal over time. Duke Ellington said ‘there are only two types of music – good and bad.’ We’re trying to do the good stuff.
 

You’ve been busy producing videos. Why is it so important to you to create good visuals and is it quick to produce these videos?
John makes the videos, although we often both direct them. Visual performance has always been an important part of music for me, the imagery in the songs is very strong in my mind. The lyrics are like paintings and the videos are an extension of that. The plan is to film the whole album eventually – next up is the Mazy Laws, our 8 minute, sexy slowburner that has picked up a lot of airplay, despite its length. There’s a famous star-shaped maze near here we’re looking forward to filming and getting lost in.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pumajaw by Janneke de Jong.
 
What can the audience expect when you play the album live?
We love playing live, it’s the reason I became a singer in the first place. Over the years we’ve learned to choose our shows carefully – there’s no point in us playing grungey indie venues, I won’t stand being talked through. I just stop and confront people if that happens. I see us almost as a kind of theatrical performance. The songs are so deep, they need to be listened to, onstage we’re quite intense and demanding, things happen we can’t always predict – although there’s been a fair bit of dancing going on at our recent gigs, so it’s a bit of a party as well. We played at the Cafe Royal in Edinburgh recently, it’s all fairylights and decadent decor – perfect!
 
You’re off on tour of Italy in early 2012 – why Italy?
We do well in Italy, we’ve toured there a few times now. They’re a bit more open to music as ‘art’. I think our music suits their culture and temperament, they’re not scared of self-expression.
 

Click here to view the embedded video.

When can people in the UK see you again? Which smaller festivals are on your hit list to play next year?
We’ll be doing more UK gigs in the spring, but we’re going to choose carefully. We’d like to do some small festivals,  we hate the big corporate rock ones. There’s one called Lounge on the Farm we’d like to do, also a Scottish one called Doune the Rabbithole, we played there last year, it has a lovely idealism and positive atmosphere about it, they’re not scared of trying something different.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Roxy Rawson isn’t your average singer-songwriter, no. For a start, there’s her quirky lyrics which cover topics as diverse as throwing apricot trees out of windows, philanthropy, pixies, cooks and thieves. Then there’s the entertaining use of her onstage instrument of choice, the violin, to create compelling sounds, which include her using a pen to ‘play’ it or treating it in the same way as one would a guitar. And when the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is not in the studio or on stage flexing her musical and vocal muscles, she is working as a political activist, developing programmes on how to improve the infrastructure of African countries with the London-based NGO Justice Africa. Intrigued by this impressive young woman? So you should be.

A classically trained musician who studied at the Paris Conservatoire, Rawson first discovered her voice through joining an African choir (more on this later) and has since been wowing pretty much everyone who has had the privilege of seeing her on the gig circuit. Describing her own sound as “plucky, percussive, emotional-ballsy”, Rawson has built a loyal fan base over the years with her unconventional lyrics and sound, which continues to grow.

Bursting with creative energy and genuine talent with a warm, sincere and gentle demeanour, the angelic-faced Rawson has the qualities of someone who deserves to be very successful indeed. Already counting Rob da Bank and BBC Radio 6 as her fans, 2012 spells big things for the London-born songstress who spoke to Amelia’s magazine about some of her musical influences, being compared to Regina Spektor and her aid work.

Roxy Rawson by Matilde Sazio.

You trained as a classical musician. How do you think this has influenced your musical style?
I think of chords in quite a classical way as in from the actual classical period when Mozart and Haydn were writing. The chords are quite uncluttered and not as nuanced as much as later music – but I’m starting to want more dissonance, colour and violence in the chords… similar to what you hear in modern jazz, Liszt and Brahms.

What did you listen to when you were growing up? 
There was a lot of popular music from the ‘60s and ‘70s in the background on my mum’s record player; also art house rock and folk: King Crimson, Joni Mitchell, The Police, The B52s, The Proclaimers, The Eurythmics, early Rod Stewart, The Kinks, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, loots of David Bowie (my mum was a BIG fan). Also jazz and funk like Prince, Stevie Wonder and reggae like UB40 and Bob Marley and older songs by Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Jacques Brel and few bits of classical, Debussy and Bach.

When did you first realise you could sing? How did you “find” your voice?
I was in the choir at school and completely loved it, but was never brave enough to put myself forward for solos. When I was studying in Paris, I joined an African choir and had to learn some songs to sing for one of my classes. I remember really enjoying working on those songs and that the choir had primed me for it as well. From then on, I’d walk around the Parisian streets humming and singing to myself. I had a friend that loved jazz standards and I remember walking and singing in Paris all day with her…

At which point did you decide you wanted to pursue a singing career?
I knew I wanted to sing during the year I had my finals exams for my degree and started to write songs afterwards. At the time, I didn’t realise it could be a “career” per se as I just wanted to sing and compose for myself (after years of rendering other people’s music, great as it was). But then in 2008, Ambiguous Records contacted me through listening to my music on Myspace, which is when I realised I could, perhaps, make a career out of it.

You have often been referred to as the British Regina Spektor. Why do you think people draw this comparison and does it annoy you?
When I first started experimenting with making music, I listened to her a lot. I found it really refreshing to hear someone sing songs in the same kind of way I wanted to produce music and it gave me the courage to keep experimenting. The comparison doesn’t annoy me at all because I love her. I think we are similar in that we like to make quite stripped down music and are willing to be a little eccentric, but we’re quite different in other ways – her songs tell stories and though they are well constructed and lovely to listen to on a musical level, the emphasis is on the words and the stories she tells. My words have started to have more emphasis and some of them have stories – but the stories aren’t clear in their language. They are quite dreamlike / hazy and about conveying emotion. I like to convey the emotion through texture, dynamics and timbre – the types of sounds that can be put together, rather than an emphasis on the words.

Who are your greatest inspirations?
Hard life lessons (which can be alchemised through music) and opposites in feeling and in the physical world – light / dark, hard / soft, colours and black – I like to see these things in music and when I listen, I often see those things.

Any guilty pleasures?
Beyonce! Pop music with bounce! I love it.

What has been your most memorable gig to date and why?
St Barnabas Church in Soho. Because everything went awry before, my drummer couldn’t make it, my cello player stormed out of rehearsal – I didn’t know who was coming…it was a disaster. But I took myself off back stage and ignored them all, to de-stress myself before going on stage and somehow it all came together, the drummer turned up just in time, I felt enveloped by the warm audience and we played better then we’ve ever done.

You have a lovely, genuine and engaging onstage presence – have you always approached being onstage in your stride?
I have atrocious stage fright most times I play! It happens every time but it depends on how I deal with it. Sometimes I just play and ignore it, sometimes it’s difficult! But I think I’ve been starting to surmount it this year.

What have you found to be the biggest challenges of being an artist on the current music scene today? What things frustrate you?
The relentless self-promotion that you have to be doing these days if you want to get anywhere. You could spend most of your week tending to your music web pages if you do it all yourself… I don’t like computers so I tend to not to do that enough!

Aside from being a musician, you also work for the NGO, Justice Africa. How did you get involved in this?
I started volunteering for them a few years ago and they offered me a job. Since returning from Paris, I felt more aware of global inequality as I met people from all diff countries and walks of life. I studied an evening course in development, I travelled further to Africa and China and knew if I was going to work a day job, I wanted to work in development. But I wanted to work for an innovative NGO that didn’t dictate development needs. I wanted to work for a responsive organisation.

I can imagine working in this field must bring you into contact with some very depressing things. How do you deal with it and how has it influenced the way you live your life?
It can be depressing – yes – really distressing actually. My ex-boss’ family were caught up in the conflict in South Kordofan in Sudan recently. But I think it depresses me more if I’m not doing something that might in some way contribute to difficulties I’m aware of. I believe in what the organisation I work for does and so that is in itself quite uplifting.

What do you like to do to unwind? What puts you in a peaceful state of mind?
Reading, meditating and taking long walks in nature.

What’s next for you? 
My new album is due for release in 2012. There’s lots of work to do for that and I’m planning a pledge campaign to try to fundraise for the remaining funds I need to raise to finish! I’m also gathering ideas and listening to lots to inspire me to write the next round of songs.

Roxy’s next gig is on 1^st December 2011, at The Hawley Arms. For more information, click here.

It’s no secret that I am partial to a bit of old time folk music: it’s the sound of many a campfire singalong, a narrative tradition of music that is participatory rather than merely made for an audience to consume. And I love to discover new folk that dwells on old time tunes but with new arrangements, new harmonies and new stories to tell. I fell for Rapunzel and Sedayne as soon as I heard them on Soundcloud, a gorgeous duo clammering away on a variety of exotic instruments to create subtly haunting tunes that sound as relevant and wonderful today as their influences.

Can you tell us a bit about your life up to now? It sounds most intriguing. For example how did you come to fall in love with folk music, and what other things have you done before this album?
Rapunzel: I’ve always loved singing since I was a child – influenced by my dad who is a great harmony singer himself, but not musically trained so he made sure my sister and I got music lessons early on. I started piano at six, but far from being a child prodigy I hated it and really only started understanding music in my late teens when I stopped trying to read it and started listening to what I was playing. There is an annual folk festival in my home town and I remember seeing the likes of Fred Jordan, Jim Eldon, Peter Bellamy and June Tabor who all had an influence on me as I was growing up. In my late teens and twenties I did the singer-songwriter thing with my guitar, but in recent years and by working with Sean I have got back in touch with the old folk songs.

Sedayne: Folk was part of the zeitgeist of my childhood. Everything from Dr Who and Catweazle to Strawbs, Gentle Giant and the Third Ear Band and a shelf load of books on folksong and folklore most of which are now entirely discredited but still mean a lot to me. It was integral to the landscapes in which I grew up – ballads and legends and bagpipes – all of which informed my own approach and most crucially in the areas I explore with Rachel. We’ve done a number of projects over the years from experimental music with Martin Archer to neo-folk tracks on various compilation albums such as Infernal Proteus and three volumes of John Barleycorn Reborn. We’ve just done a song on the subject of Werewolves for a project in Sweden – it is an exquisite facsimile of a 19th century study of Werewolves in Swedish folklore with a disk of specially composed songs. Think Porcupine meets Being Human…

Sedayne, I understand that you are a specialist in ancient and traditional instruments, and on this album you play kemence, violin, crwth, flute and kaossilator. I don’t know what three of those are, can you tell us more about them and the sounds they make?
Sedayne: At the high end is the kemence from Turkey – also known as the Black Sea Fiddle. It’s small, extremely versatile and ideal for the music we do. At the bottom end is the crwth – a medieval bowed-lyre that was made for me in 1983 by Tim Hobrough (long before the current crwth revival I might add) so it’s a big part of my musical life and thinking. In the middle is the violin – which is an extension of both in a way, though people say I play the violin like a crwth and the crwth like a violin. I was playing crwth and kemence long before I got into the violin, which Rachel insisted upon when she got into the banjo some years ago. The banjo and violin make good bedfellows. The Kaossilator is a looping phrase synthesizer from Korg that replaces the tyranny of the keyboard with a X-Y pad because it’s primarily designed for DJs! it’s also the size of a decent slice of toast. Along with an electric Shruti box, we use it for loops, drones and washes. 

Rapunzel and Sedayne by Sarah-Jayne Morris.

You’re a couple – did the music or the romance come first and how does it inform the way that you work? 
Rapunzel:  We were friends for several years before we became a couple. We met at the Durham City Folk Club which at that time was at The Colpitts. It was a golden age for that club in terms of harmony singing and it’s true that Sean and I were communicating through singing together long before we had a conversation. 
Sedayne: Rachel’s musicality had always impressed me & she always did amazing things. It’s odd but the only time we really row together is when we’re working on music. Maybe that’s why we do it? It’s a natural catharsis that always gives rise to something because Rachel is invariably right anyway. We always record live – in real time, no multitracking, which is part of that energy too.
 

You have quite an old fashioned folk sound. What are your influences and how do you think you differ from those influences or include elements of them?
Rapunzel: Melodically and vocally my influences probably come from the artists I’ve listened to most: Jane Siberry, Judee Sill, Laura Nyro, Tori Amos, David Bowie. But the old songs are lyrically so much more straightforward, telling a story, reporting an event, simple but effective imagery, no hidden meanings, and that is what I love about them. 

Sedayne: The songs are the main influence. I keep saying that we’re not trying to breathe new life into them so much as draw new life from them. It’s a cultural communion as much as it is about doing something in our way, or being deliberately idiosyncratic, though people say we are, but we’re not conscious of that. It’s an old thing as you say, but so is language, baking bread and sex. Most of time we’re listening to pop or classical or early music or jazz or tuning into Tim Westwood but when it comes to doing our own thing it tends towards something pretty archaic to most ears – even folk ears, because we’re less interested in revival conventions than we are more ancient and traditional forms. It’s folk art basically; rugged, earthy and hand-crafted.

Rapunzel & Sedanyne, Tales from The Barley Temple, by Celine Elliott.

How important is the folk scene in Lancashire to your process? And are there any folk clubs or meet ups or festivals that you recommend a visitor should go to?
Rapunzel: Strangely enough I didn’t start performing until I left Lancashire, having neither the confidence nor the encouragement. But settling back home, and particularly singing and playing with the Preston Club has helped to make this album what it is.
Sedayne: The Preston Club is the Holy of Holies for us as far as the local Folk Scene goes. It’s very small though. Not select, just awkward as far as audiences or visitors go. I think of it more of a master-class where we can bask in the genius of musicians like Hugh O’Donnell, Tom Walsh, Neil Brook and Dave Peters although what we do is very different to what they do. We do things at the Fylde Folk Festival either just as ourselves or working on projects with other artists, like Ross Campbell and local song-writer Ron Baxter who has an approach we quite like. We’ve only been in Lancashire for four years though – so I don’t think we identify that much with the local scene which I get the impression hasn’t changed in fifty years, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing just Rachel and I are both essentially nomads with itchy feet. We’ve lived in Worth Abbey, Brancepeth Castle, Durham City, the Deerness Valley, Lytham Saint Annes, Lancaster… I’m amazed and disturbed that you can live in a place for over four years and still be regarded – and resented – as a newcomer. After four years I’m thinking – where next?

How did you choose the old songs that you covered? have they been much loved for years or were they specially sourced for the album?
Rapunzel: The Max Hunter archive - an online resource from Missouri State University – is particularly important. I love the songs of Ollie Gilbert that feature on there. Silver Dagger and Diver Boy are from her singing.
Sedayne: We spend a lot of time browsing old field recordings and archives. I always think it’s best that you let the songs choose you, that way they’re easier to learn, they don’t resist you. A lot of those songs we’ve been singing since we met, like Poor Old Horse which I got off Jim Eldon twenty years ago or more. That’s the thing I really remember Rachel singing on before we talked to each other. Her harmony was the most amazingly different thing in an otherwise normal Folk club chorus, so over the years we’ve kept evolving that feel in terms of how our voices work together. I don’t think anyone can own a song, but you have your own way of doing it which is what a song is – it becomes a vehicle to help you find your own voice, which is what you hear from the old singers anyway – a gladsome diversity of an infinity of approaches. Contrary to a lot of Folk thinking, there’s no right or wrong here, and what happens happens. We also improvise a lot, so things change, and always for the better. I must stress that, because we’re doing songs now that I used to do years ago but they’ve never sounded better than they do now even though to some people the old ones will always be best, which is absurd. New fruit is always best I find…

Repunzel and Sedayne by Jennifer Crouch.

In Porcupine in October Sycamore there are all sorts of incidental sounds including ducks and a dog barking to the beat – what informed your choice to include these kind of sounds?
Rapunzel: What sounds like a dog is more likely a goose. The version with wildfowl is on the Soundcloud rather than the album version.
Sedayne: The field recordings are of diverse wild-fowl from Blackpool Zoo - where the Porcupines live who inspired us to make that song, which is an old-fashioned sounding song about the sorts of non-native elements we embrace as our cultural whole. I was born a multi-cultural UK – I’m a product of that, and I cherish it very dearly. In the local Folk Scene you routinely hear songs in which it is lamented that that the local fish & chip shop is now a Chinese takeaway. I despair at times, I really do. The best thing someone said about Porcupine was that they thought it was a Rudyard Kipling poem set to music by Peter Bellamy. Maybe they were confusing Porcupines with Armadillos?   

In real life you are known as Rachel McCarron and Sean Breadin. Where do your pseudonyms Rapunzel and Sedayne come from?
Sedayne: Rapunzel got her name from a song she sang when we first met. No one knew her name at the time and in the song she sings Call Me Rapunzel, so we did, and the name stuck, even with people who knew her anyway. Sedayne comes from Brian Sedane which is a very old anagram of my given name. I don’t know how or when it acquired the Y or at which point I lost the Brian. There’s no mystical thing here, it’s just random. The best anagram of Sean Breadin is Insane Beard.
Rapunzel: I think Rapunzel was the second song I wrote, when I was 19. Still sing it occasionally.
Sedayne: You can hear Rapunzel on Rachel’s myspace page, along with Sarah Sometimes, another song about naming. People always call Rachel ‘Sarah’; it’s one of these weird things that’s happened all her life, so she wrote a song about her imaginary alter-ego. You can also hear my folk:funk remix ‘Sarah Sometimes’ which reveals some of our other sensitivities. Someone even called her Sarah on the phone the other day! Maybe we’ll do Rapunzel on the next album as people have expressed bafflement over the name, or think it’s in some way contrived (in Folk? Heaven forefend!) but Rapunzel & Sedayne is what we call ourselves because that’s what people call us anyway, and no-one could pronounce Venereum Arvum, which is the name we use for our darker projects, without making it sound like a social disease. We did our last album Pentacle of Pips of Venereum Arvum (download it on bandcamp) and are releasing Fire and Hemlock as Venereum Arvum (on vinyl) in the new year. The name means Field of Pleasure – an erotic metaphor from Sir Richard Burton’s translations of The Sportive Epigrams of Priapus from ancient Rome.

Rapunzel and Sedayne by Rebecca Oliver.

Your music is described as ‘haunting’ and I’ve certainly had it on repeat since I first received it. How do you hope that it will be enjoyed and what do you hope its effect might be on people?
Sedayne: The songs are haunting in themselves and the music we make comes from the songs. Some people see that as being weird and esoteric but we’re really just a husband and wife Folk ‘n’ Fun duo even though we like the spookier Gothic side of things which is there in spades in the old ballads and songs of ceremony. We love MR James and Diana Wynne Jones and Phil Rickman and HP Lovecraft but it’s essential to keep things in perspective regarding what they actually are, or what their actual function might be. People hearing us doing The Gower Wassail (for example) might think it’s a very occult or pagan song, but when you go to the source (the great Phil Tanner – check him out!) you’ll find it’s nothing of the sort. These things run pretty deep though and people relate to them on all sorts of levels, which is fine by us.

Will you be touring this album at all and what next in general for Rapunzel and Sedayne?
Rapunzel: We’re always finding and developing new old songs, and some new new ones, so we’re already trying to reduce the longlist for the next album.
Sedayne: We’ve been featuring a lot of those songs in our repertoire for a while now – as Rachel says we’re always evolving new songs and revisiting old ones, so our shows are always a mix of whatever it is we’re up to at any given time. We’ve got some gigs coming up in November & December which will feature a mix of things from the Barley Temple album as well certain inevitable Seasonal Material you’ll find on the Soundcloud site nearer the time. We’re playing at the Kit & Cutter club in London on 3rd December, the Kirkby Fleetham Folk Club on the 19th of November, and The Chase Folk Club in Staffordshire on the 2nd of December.  We’re also doing a session for Radio Shropshire on 23rd of October for Genevieve Tudor’s folk programme… We have this thing of Singing the Calendar Round, but I like the fact that Songs from the Barley Temple has been called ‘The ideal October album‘ (by Stewart Lee in the Sunday Times no less) because one thing about the old songs is that they bring you home in a way – home to the hearth, the orchard, as the days get shorter and year darkens. These things are no longer literal – they’re part of a mythic idyll and that’s a very ancient which we still feel today, even if I do find notions of the viscera of pagan sacrificial victims living on in Christmas Tree decorations a little far-fetched, it still gives you a notion of continuity and of home, and belonging, which (getting back to the previous question) is maybe something we like to share with our audiences and listeners, but I bet (and hope) no one feels it in exactly the same way.

Songs From The Barley Temple is out now on Folk Police Recordings. You can hear more of Rapunzel and Sedayne on Soundcloud and Bandcamp.

100 Acres of Sycamore was written in Mallorca, where he stayed at the home of Anna Friel – invited after having met her by chance in Valencia. He was enchanted by the ancient setting and on his return recorded the entire album in seven days. It’s a deeply rich experience, made special by his use of language. Not for nothing is Fionn Regan an honorary member of the Trinity College Literary Society.

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Fionn Regan plays a couple of inshore dates this week, including one at Rough Trade West this Sunday 18th September, then at the Lomography Gallery Store on Commercial Street. He headlines Bush Hall on the 20th September. 100 Acres of Sycamore is out now on Heavenly Recordings.

The Proximity Effect is the second album from Glasgow based Laki Mera, a band who excel in the creation of their own unique trip hop influenced sound. Focused around the luscious vocals of singer songwriter Laura Donnelly, the album moves sleekly between ambient textures and big folk inspired melodies, plucking the best from the electronic and acoustic worlds to create something utterly new. I caught up with the talented foursome: Laura Donnelly, Andrea Gobbi, Keir Long and Tim Harbinson.

How do you work together to create music as a foursome?
We write in a few, different ways… Some tunes start more as acoustic tunes written by Laura which are then arranged by the band as a whole – introducing beats and electronic feel. Some tunes start off as electronic ideas, from jams or individually from Andrea or Keir. At any stage of the process though, the collaboration between all of us is what creates the Laki Mera sound.

Laki Mera by Michelle Pegrume.

Do you all bring different musical inspirations to the table – and if so what are they?
We have a really wide and varied bank of influences ranging from folk and acoustic music to minimal electronica. To list a few… Beck, Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin, Bjork, Radiohead, Datasette, Zombie Zombie, Bat for Lashes, Portishead, Massive Attack, Advisory Circle, Benny Greb… there is a lot of good music coming out of Scandinavia at the moment – Little Dragon, Efterklang, Lykke Li, Fever Ray…

Laki Mera by Evan Smith.

What brought Italian Andrea Gobbi to Scotland and what keeps you there? 
I travelled up from London in 2001 and instantly felt attracted by the Glasgow music scene… collaborations were born and I got deeper and deeper into both the indie and folk music scene, both as a musician and a producer engineer.

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Is there anything that you miss about Italy? 
I obviously miss my family and friends, but as far as music is concerned not very much at all, I’m afraid… I’m very happy in Scotland! 

What’s best about living in Scotland?
Definitely not the food!

Laki Mera by Dan Lester.

The Proximity Effect is named for a studio technique – what does it mean and how was it used in the making of the album?
Our album The Proximity Effect was named after the interesting combination of the audio technical term ‘proximity effect‘ and the philosophical meaning behind how people react when in the proximity of other people, how people interact in the proximity of each other and how important these connections are. The actual meaning of the technical term proximity effect… well, it is simply a way to describe how microphones react to the relative closeness of the sound source you are recording… say for instance how a softly spoken lyric would come through when spoken directly into a microphone (i.e. with your lips touching it). 

Laki Mera by Sarah Jayne Morris.

I haven’t heard the first album, how does the new one differ? 
The first album was a production which took several years, during which studio electronic music experiment and song-writing took their time to develop! The outcome was a very deep-layered production with a much calmer and reflective feel about it. The Proximity Effect still has moments of pause and reflection but it’s a much more direct record, based around tracks that were born playing live rather than in the studio… Most of the electronic music production on this album was inspired by the tracks and not vice versa. 

How do you ensure that you retain an organic feel to the music when applying so many electronic textures?
Retaining an organic feel to the music is very important to us as we are well aware that electronic music can become too sterile and repetitive if not handled properly. We have a good mix of acoustic and electronic elements to the band and when working on the electronic arrangement we use many analog synths such as Korg Sigma, Korg MS10, Roland Juno 106. We also create our own sounds from samples of real sounds. Also, when playing live we ‘play’ everything rather than relying on pre-recorded loops as so many electronic acts do. This is more fun (if a little tricky sometimes) for us and more interesting for an audience to watch.

Laki Mera by Joana Faria.

You recorded some of the new album’s songs in turf house in a small Highland village – what lay behind the decision to decamp? 
We recognised that there was a bit of a difference between the tunes on the album and we wanted to embrace this. We made the decision to spend a week in a remote part of the Highlands to concentrate on the more acoustic, song-like tunes on the album. We felt that the hustle and bustle of our city studio did not provide the right kind of environment to properly capture the more sensitive feel of tunes such as Reverberation, Double Back and Solstice. We needed somewhere with a more quiet feel and a slower pace. 

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Does living in Glasgow influence the sound of the music?
Glasgow has always been a very musical city and I think that’s partly why we have all been drawn there. With its long, dark winters and brooding, grey skies it definitely lends itself well to writing dark, introverted tunes!

What else does everyone do when you’re not involved in Laki Mera?
Andrea & Keir are both sound engineers, Keir is also a piano teacher. Laura works on graphic design and art projects and Tim has recently completed a masters in Social Ecology.

Have you got any collaborations in the pipeline? 
We’re working on it, so watch this space…

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The Proximity Effect is out now on Just Music.

The Raincoats are an all girl band who formed during the late 1970s and split up in the mid 1980s. I was very little at the time of their original releases so unfortunately I did not discover The Raincoats until much more recently, well into my adult years. The band had an exciting can do attitude that melded punk, classical and reggae influences into spiky arrhythmic folk punk tunes that even today sound way more exciting than many current bands. They reformed in the mid 90s after a resurgence in interest thanks to gushing plaudits from Kurt Cobain and are now widely hailed as one of the seminal post punk bands. I catch up with founders Ana da Silva and Gina Birch as they gear up to rerelease their second album on its 30th anniversary.

Why did you decide to reissue Odyshape now?
ANA:  This year is the 30th anniversary of this album. So, as we like anniversaries, we decided to release The Raincoats and Odyshape on their 30th… We remastered the albums for Japan and re-did the art work so it would sound and look the best possible. We now own the rights to them and, as they should be available, we thought we’d release them on our own label We ThRee. Both on CD and vinyl. They look and sound the best ever! Theyl also have a booklet and A4 sheet respectively with liner notes, lyrics, photos and a piece of writing from me on the 1st album and from Gina on Odyshape.

What does Odyshape mean?
GINA: The title was a pun on the odyssey of a body. The idea that a body could have an ideal shape and it if did, what happens when a body doesn’t live up to that ideal. It was at a time, when (as probably now) there seemed to be a body fascism. It was important for women to be this shape or that shape. Thanks to people like Beth Ditto, and hopefully The Raincoats, things have been broken down a little. Hair can be crazy, messy, outfits can be baggy or tight, inside out or upside down, we can be fat or thin, creative, playful, stylish and beautiful without having to subscribe to some fashion mag ideal.

You formed the original band whilst still at art college… how did your studies in art influence how you made music?
ANA: Besides the obvious side of art work, I think we’re trying to do what art should do: create works that inspire other people, that question the status quo, that express ideas which come from our own minds and hearts and also works that look at the human condition and provide some comfort to the listener.

The Raincoats by Karin Soderquist.

Odyshape seems to owe as much to contemporary classical music as it does punk – was this something that inspired you?    
ANA: We listen to all sorts of music so, intentionally or unintentionally, different  things appear. I do like some classical music very much, like the Bach’s cello suites, Erik Satie, some opera, etc.  but I don’t think my playing sounds very classical…maybe you mean the violin which was played by Vicky Aspinall who is classically trained.

The Raincoats in 1981.

You haven’t produced a new album since the mid 90s – what have you been up to since then?
ANA: I’ve been doing my own solo music and released an album called The Lighthouse on Chicks On Speed records. I’ve also been doing some drawings and paintings some of which I’ll be showing at the Pop Montreal festival, together with Gina’s videos and Shirley’s photographs. It’s really a great opportunity to show our art, visual and musical. It’s the first time we do this and are very happy and excited about it.
GINA: I have been collaborating with various musicians and artists and very involved in a project called The Gluts, (with two women artists) Also I have been playing solo, writing songs, making films, painting and, raising two children.

The Raincoats by Rukmunal Hakim.

Gina – you were an early fan of the craft revival – knitting on tour. Do you still craft and if so what?
GINA: I did knit on the first Raincoats tour, when I wore the jumper at the final gig… and then didn’t do any knittingfor quite a few years but have always liked to paint, draw, knit, mosaic, make films whatever. I have been knitting a lot in the last year or two and have made Raincoats inspired bags, and I have also been sewing banners with lyrics and messages on them.  

The Raincoats by Kassie Berry.

Has Gina Birch’s film, The Raincoats, Fairytales, been completed? 
GINA: The film is still a work in progress. It is an organic process it seems and hopefully will be concluded in the coming six months.

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You will be playing your debut album live again at ATP this December – anything special in store and what are you looking forward to most about the Holiday Camp experience?
ANA: Just playing is a special thing, but we’ve played twice at ATP and really enjoyed it: swimming, meeting people, being able to choose amongst so much different music and the relaxed atmosphere. We will be playing the first album at Jeff Mangum’s request but will play other songs too, not sure which yet.

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Which other current bands do you enjoy listening to or watching?
ANA: I think P.J. Harvey’s latest album is so good, so I enjoyed listening to it at seeing them live a couple of times. Also saw Portishead whose music I like but had never seen live and that was very good too. I was listening yesterday to Ponytail, Colleen, Electrelane, Neutral Milk Hotel, Louis and Bebe Barron, Jenny O in the car coming back from Portugal.

The Raincoats by Barb Royal.

What next for The Raincoats?
ANA: We’re doing a tour in the U.S.A. and Canada (New York, Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto and Montreal) in September and ATP in December. And because of the re-release of Odyshape and those dates some interviews too… thanks for your part. Otherwise nothing concrete, but I’m sure other things will happen.

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Odyshape is rereleased in heavyweight vinyl and as a special edition CD on We ThRee records on September 12th 2011. The band will tour the east coast of the USA from 16 – 26 September 2011 and play Jeff Mangum’s ATP, Minehead on 3 December 2011.