NMG Presents: Behind The Music - Melody Coles

Alex Elbro hosts the third episode in a new series of in-depth interviews with some of the East Anglian music scenes most popular figures. In episode 3 she meets Melody Coles to explore how her life has been intertwined with music since she was born and how she has overcome health battles to return to the stage.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

NMG presents Behind the Music with Alex Elbro.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hello, I'm Alex Elbro and welcome to Behind the Music. In this series we look beyond the music to discover the life, the passion and the stories behind the artists we love. I'll be sitting down with musicians to explore what shapes them, what inspires them, and how their personal story is woven into their music. And today I'm talking to Melody Coles. Now Melody was practically born into music as she travelled around all festivals during the summer with her parents' folk band Shave the Monkey. Last year, Melody released her EP daughter and has been building on this, releasing music and gigging all over the region. And I'm delighted to be talking to Melody today. Hello to you.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Hi, thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

You're very welcome. It's lovely to see you. Now, Melody, we spoke there about you, your parents being in folk music and you having to travel around all the time. So were you aware, like at a young age, that you were doing all this music?

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Uh it's a good question. I mean, it was like early 90s, so I was born in '93, that's when they were heavily gigging. So I actually don't remember a lot of it from the stories that I'm told. My brother's older than me, so he he tells me about the like hanging out beside the stage and like running around at the festivals. I remember when we got to like age four or five and we had a nanny that would come to the festivals with us and take us on all the fun like arcades and games, depending on where we were. Um, but I I think I remember it mostly through photographs, if I'm completely honest, and through shared memories rather than myself.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

I think that's often the way, isn't it? You people tell you what happens, and after a while you assume it, but then you look back and you think, hang on a minute, how would I remember any of this stuff? But it obviously was um something that you had kind of good memories from, if but from the fact that you were going to these festivals and doing all this fun stuff um while they were probably on stage doing their thing.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

And I do remember watching them on stage because like the heavy festival, that kind of time, I don't remember so much, but they've always gigged my whole life. So there's never not really been a time when we haven't been at gigs, even now. My dad gigs and I go and watch now. So yeah, I loved it. I do remember going through kind of teenage years being like, we're going to another gig, but it came full circle for me. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

And do you think from that you picked up uh kind of certain music types that you liked? I mean, obviously they were folk music, yeah. So you don't necessarily say you have to say that, but you were being introduced to a lot of that and different types of folk, you know.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Yeah, and it's a good question because I again I think I went through a point in time where I was like, I want to be a pop star. I want to be, I used to joke and say I want to be like the Spice Girl. Yes. It didn't happen for me.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

I mean, you you joke about it and like you think that, but actually they did quite well out of it, didn't they?

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Um of that time though, where like that was just so cool, and that was like the movies that I watched. Of course, yeah. But as I've got older, I think I've realised how much the folk influences have soaked in without me necessarily realising, and I love it again. I actually was trying just this week to learn some folk guitar strum styles, because I never necessarily learnt to write in that way, but I've realised I do really like it.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

So do you think over that time your you know your sound has changed from when you were younger and writing? Because you've been songwriting for like when did you start songwriting?

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Um when I was younger, I had a piano in the house, of course, and I used to try and like put little things together, but I never really knew that that was songwriting. I just liked writing words, so they weren't full songs with like choruses and verses start to finish, but I really loved like words, poetry, lyrics, and I've always done that. And I found some really embarrassing diaries when we first started moving house. It's like just my childhood brain trying to write stories, and then it developed into songwriting, and I was like, okay, this is quite fun, I enjoy this. And I went on to do songwriting at university because it was really the only thing that I knew that I did like to do. Um, but I wanted to originally write songs for other people, not myself. I never really believed in like my voice, and I didn't play guitar and I didn't have um any experience on piano, so I thought I'll write, but I'll write for other people, and then that's where it developed for me.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

But you said that you wrote songs and you you thought, oh well, I didn't have much experience in piano and guitar, but you've obviously picked up the guitar over time, and with your dad who you still play with, um encouraging you, I'm guessing you you sort of have learnt because you must have had to work out what chords or or what melody or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Yeah, I thought when I went to uni, um I quickly realised that you can't bring a piano on the train every day to London. Yeah, so I thought, right, you're gonna need to learn to play guitar, you're gonna need to get a couple of chords here, but it never came naturally to me. It was something where I was like, okay, we put this here and it sounds pretty. And I would say, I've written a song and this one goes here and it looks like this and it does this, and they're like, Oh, so that's a G. I was like, Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Yeah, so you didn't need to necessarily know what the words of it were, but you you knew how to play it.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

So I think I picked it up by ear and I started to play guitar, and then ever since then I've just because I use it to write songs, I've never really put put it down.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

So we're we're getting there, I think.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

And do you think as you were growing up, did your did you have any other musical influences like who were the bands or or musicians that you kind of liked or admired?

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah, good question. Because um I really liked so Kate Rusby, we used to go and see Kate Rusby sing, and I was like, oh, I loved the stage presence and just how she tells stories. Um but I think something I've always enjoyed is listening to, and I know everyone says this, they're like, Oh, I like everything right. Yeah, but I find it so amazing to listen to a a Fleetwood Mac track, then you know, now like a song by Wetleg and then a song by Kate Rusby because I think although I have like folk influences, I like the more modern storytelling and not necessarily telling old traditional folk songs. Yeah, so I try to keep my listening really broad as well, and I always did do that, even influences growing up, um, because I felt like it helped me learn what I want my music to sound like a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Yeah, yeah. So you went to university for songwriting, you you say there that you you couldn't do anything else, but I'm gonna say it still takes a certain amount of knowledge and uh qualifications or whatever to get into university, so you you know you can't do yourself down too much on that. So um did you choose a path of just doing music through school and college so that you no, okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

I'm gonna let you down here. I didn't do music at GCSE, I didn't do any of the school plays. It was something that I did quietly in my bedroom. So I think when I said obviously my parents are musicians, they were never gonna say no, you can't study music, it surprised them in a way in which they were like, Okay, but you were too shy to be in the school play. Like the very last one I was in, because I was like, right, we're gonna do this. Um, but like not really, and I remember the audition. I sat down at the piano and I was basically just singing a little story about me being overwhelmed, and I've always been an anxious person, right? It's it's who I am, yeah. But I remember the the person who auditioned me saying, like, oh that I really like the honesty, and I tried to just lean into that, but yeah, I know I've just made this up, but but no, I think it just it's sort of I liked it, but I thought, is this just because it's family and it's what I've grown up around? Do I really want to do this? And I was like, Well, sounds like fun, let's go.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

And I think you you know, you write honest lyrics and you write from the heart, but you do some you know, it's storytelling, so it's not always you've had to say to people, haven't you? I remember you saying a lot of people take it exactly that this is your story, not necessarily but I think that helps other people, doesn't it? In in they can see that some of that stuff res resonates with them clearly.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Yeah, so you get like a bit of creative writing licenses, right? Where I really didn't want them to necessarily always be true, but something what I am leaning into now that I've come back to songwriting, because as as you know, I had a long break off of music, which we can touch on, I don't mind if you do, but um I think when I came back to songwriting, I was singing stories that I wrote at university at 18 and they didn't really resonate with me anymore. So I was like, okay, well, what are you doing now? What's happened in your life? What's changed? And lean back into that, and that's really helped me come back to songwriting. So I think they're slowly becoming a little bit more like honest storytelling again to help me find music again, which has been yeah, like really fun actually.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

So talking about that, we're gonna play your first track that you've chosen. Which one are we gonna do?

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Um, more than once.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

And do you want to give a bit of a story of what's to do?

SPEAKER_02 9:19

So this is actually about it, was on my first ones, exactly as I just said. It's like growing up looking back, and it's about like getting your heart broken more than once, but not just like heartbroken by a boy. I think it was like the little heartbreaks in life um and the lessons that you learn, and you look back and you're like, oh, that was gonna happen more than once, but I'm gonna be alright. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

That's brilliant. Let's play that then.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

I've been waiting for the clouds to break. Because I got a few things I love to say. Sitting in your car, listening to your comms. I hate to tell you that the forecast has to come. I hate to tell you that your heart breaks more than you don't like the club. There's too much and you don't have to be home that you are broken by what I hate to tell you like thank you for so I hate to tell you that you are. I hate I hate the board. I hate to tell you that you think you fell song. I hate to tell you that your heart breaks more down.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

So that was more than once, and you're saying that was looking at life and how things happen more than once, as it were. Um you got to university and you're doing songwriting, and you after that, you know, you come out of university like a lot of people do, and then was there a kind of pivotal time that you were like, I still want to do music, or um, did you colour life take over, which sometimes does, and you do other things?

SPEAKER_02 12:53

No, I I think actually straight after union around university, that's when I kind of really threw myself into it. Um, some really cool stuff. Back then, I remember I did this thing called Thatcher's Sessions with Hugh Stevens, where we got to go and we got to go and sing with like some amazing bands, and I felt like really overwhelmed and like, should should I be doing this? But actually, that was almost like the perfect time in life to just jump in and and do it. Um, and I remember just thinking I felt weirdly safer on the stage than I did in the audience. Um, so yeah, I did. I gigged absolutely loads then um in London and and and a bit further afield than I do actually now, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

And were you gigging before you went to uni as well?

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Not really. Well not really.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

So that that brought you on to feeling that you could do it, and yeah, you'd said before that you always thought you were gonna do songs for other people, yeah. But actually, that did that give you the confidence to think, no, actually I'd rather be up there than giving it to someone else.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

Yeah, because I'd I'd got like one song, and I remember I'd actually sent it to a show that Tim was on, and I was like, I kind of just wrote this song about it was actually about my mum's um brother who they lost contact and she's she hadn't heard from him in like 30 years or something. And I was like, this feels like a story that I can tell, but it wasn't my story. But it didn't feel right, although I wanted to write for other people. I was like, I've got to sing this one. So I had this one song, but I think you're right that uni gave me the confidence to to do more and to sort of jump in, I suppose.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

And I guess if you're writing stories that are coming from you and your experiences, it's probably quite hard to give those away. Yeah. Whereas, you know, a lot of um pop songs and a lot of um pop stars are given songs, aren't they? Which I think a lot of people don't always realise that they're they have writers and people writing for them. And um, so you think from that they've got to write more generically anyway, because otherwise it would be kind of weird for them to be doing something else.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Like it's actually really hard to write um for other people because that's what I thought I wanted to do, but doing at university I'd be given a brief. So an example was we were like write a song for one direction as if that's your that's your brief, and they gave us loads of and I was like, this is really hard because I kept accidentally like inserting my own emotions into the song, and I realized like, yeah, like co-writing is so fun, but it definitely is like a whole skill in itself, yeah, which is good because you know, yeah, yeah, you know, different things for different things, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Obviously. Now you said you came out and you were doing lots of gigs, yeah, and so what you're around 21, 22, about that time.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Yeah, uh time is just I always struggle with time.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

I think so. And then then you met your now husband? Yeah, 21 um on the app, which I told my grandma was the name of a bar. I think even at my wedding, she was like, Yes, you met at that bar, didn't you? I'm like, yes, that's right. I didn't. Um but yeah, that that's how that happened.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Um And then you've went on to have a family together quite quickly after that.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah, at 24 I fell pregnant with my son. Um so at first, I mean my husband was coming around the kicks with me, and we were I was still really like pushing the music, and um well, yeah, yeah, 24.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

But then as the the children get a little bit older, you can't take them around all the time as well. So that becomes a an issue, doesn't it? And then you weren't very well, you yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

So for me that was like a big reason that I stopped um music was when I fell pregnant, I got ill at the same time, and they said that that can happen to the body, like pregnancy can affect people in sort of different ways, and they thought that that was going to be like a short-term thing, they were like, Don't worry, you'll give birth, and everything will be fine. Um, it progressed there from me to yeah, like one year I was in hospital like 56 times, um, and it went on up until quite recently. But I think I used to say, Oh, but you know, even at home when I was poorly, I could still do music. But the truth is, like, I didn't, I didn't do it.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

And well, there's probably a lot going on.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Yeah, I think I felt sad, more sad when I'd look at my guitar and I'd feel sad because I was like, Oh, we can't go out and play it. But the weird silver lining is like it was COVID to everyone was inside, so in a way, musically, people no one was gigging, were they?

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Did you do anything online then? Or not really because you you weren't really in the right place. Yeah, but did you do lots of writing then?

SPEAKER_02 17:23

No, and I I I used to say, like, yeah, yeah, no, I'd still wrote, and just try and like I guess tell people, no, don't worry, I didn't give up with writing. But the truth is I did, I couldn't face it. I I was trying to navigate, and I and I enjoy talking about this now because I think you don't know what's gonna happen to you, and it's important that you're honest and open and you you never know who's gonna help. But I was trying to navigate like motherhood, which is a whole journey in and of itself, um, which changes your life in ways that you expect it to, but getting poorly at the same time changed my life in ways that I didn't expect it to. So um navigating, well, how do we do this on the baby and we've got my husband? And so I didn't really write because I was learning this whole new world, and I also didn't know when that chap chapter was gonna have like a close because they couldn't say to me, You're gonna be okay again when we do this or when we do that.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Um, yeah, and I loved how you said then you know it was two things it was motherhood, which you know you're gonna is gonna change your life, and then illness, which you obviously didn't know. But I'm gonna say you enter into motherhood in a in a complete night, I certainly did. I mean, you mean one, not not you particularly, but you think it's gonna be this, this, and this. And I feel like it's it never is, exactly, and you never know, and each child is different for a start, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

So yeah, and I fell pregnant with my second when I was still really poorly, um, and so that was like even more difficult, but actually, I think all those things I have to believe they happen for a reason because I could just focus on like we have to get to tomorrow, we have to get to tomorrow. And I went through six, five or six different medications, and they found one right now which works really well for me. So fingers crossed, um, can come back to music and be there for my kids again to like come and see you and do nice things.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

You've you so having found something that's working now, and you you slowly feel like you were emerging, and so then that was around when your EP daughter now the fact it was called daughter is a is a clue that you know it was it was a different change in your to kind of almost your direction yourself then.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Yeah, definitely, and I struggle coming back to music because I think as I touched on earlier, I was singing these songs that like maybe didn't really resonate. And I wrote daughter and I was like, right, we're gonna record these, but we did them in my dad's studio, which is like his shed in his garden, and we probably spent a year just trying to get a sound that now we feel like we've moved away from and we don't really love those songs in the way that we should, but it was just a process to just do it, like just try.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Because you can spend ages thinking, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, but I won't do it yet because I'm I want to make it sound just right, and actually, that's not quite want in in a way. Get those out, get them out into the world, and then uh grow on those and move on from those and onto whatever comes next.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Yeah, I think so. They're a point, they're like a point in time, aren't they? They're almost like a little memory bank for me now.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

So yeah, and from that, so you did put those, and then I certainly I kind of started seeing you more about because you started gigging a lot more. Yeah, and certainly around Cambridgeshire and and around this area. And um did you feel that then your music you you did your sound do you think change sort of organically, or were you very conscious that you were kind of moving into a different direction? Not direction, but be honest, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

I think also Tim kindly asked me to come and help out with NMG and to listen to a whole bunch of bands and music, right? And I was like, oh, I remember that passion, I remember that excitement. Like it I can do that again. Like it's you can write songs, you can you can do that, and actually it was really inspiring, and I've always kind of what's so nice for me is like NMG and like the local music has always like welcomed me back in. Um but I found that really inspiring and I loved hearing things, and my sound like is still singer-songwriter, there's still folk influences. It maybe doesn't sound hugely different to like the listener, but I think for me it's like being brave enough to lean into the anxiety because I used to be so nervous and be like, how do I come across confident on stage? But now I'm bringing my talk into the gigs and myself into them, and being like, Yeah, we're just gonna sing about that thing, we're not gonna hide behind it.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

So I think it's probably without realizing it's probably helped because of being anxious and I want to portray something on stage with a stage presence. Yeah. But then if you've leaned into that, people are listening and thinking, Oh, oh I'll look, she's getting up there and she's doing this, even though and look at what's happening, you know. And again, I think it really inspires other people and you know, not that You going out there to be kind of some role model, but I think just to to show that it isn't a bad thing, you know. I think we don't need to have it necessarily to have this gloss on, you know, and okay, it might not be you 100%, but that's you know that's okay. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, because you don't want someone up there that's completely fake anyway, because people see through that straight away, don't they? So um so you were saying that you um moved on, and do you think also because you were that much older, not not that you're old, but you know that you were older than you were like 18 to 20, you know, and with all the life experience. Do you think that's also helped with the songwriting?

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Definitely, because I think I remember I saw a video online, it was like older songwriters are not cool, they're not this, and I was like, hang on, I'm 32, I actually adore some musicians that are older than me. Like, I look up to them, I love it. I would I don't want to be stopped by what the industry or people might expect. Because actually, I was like, I'm only gonna be wishing at 42 that I did it at 32, and also I I am just trying to lean in again to like well, what do I know now changes and what can I sing about? And and that's what's I guess relatable to my favourite thing is gigging live, it always has been because I really enjoy bringing their stories to stage, bringing them to people and meeting people at gigs. So for me, it's always about like who do I meet, what are their stories? Like, yeah, I just adore the people at gigs and the yeah, human element of it.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Well, that's really nice to hear from a musician on stage because I'm always if I see bands, I uh you know, if I really really like them, I then get really almost tongue-tied, like, oh, they won't want to talk to loads of people, and people, you know, a lot of musicians, uh especially you know, if you see them locally, they'll always say, Oh, come on, talk to me at the merch thing, and I always think, I don't think they really want to. So I was like, Oh, I won't crowd them and I won't talk to them. But I guess if you're up there, you do want to to have a response to what's going on, you know, and to check that you are kind of doing the right thing.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

It's almost like having like a one-to-one with your boss afterwards, like so. How is that meaning? But no, I think it's it's more just yeah, I just enjoy like learning about different people and if something connected with them or maybe even why they're at the gig, like the other band that they're there to see. I'm quite often still a support act, so I love watching the band that I'm there to support.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

And are you finding because you know, if you are a support, it can be hard if people, you know, they're coming and they are sick coming to see the other band, but they might have got there early. Yeah, not all not everyone does.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Not always.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

I do, because I'm a SWAT. But no, I like to learn about new musicians, and I think a lot of people do that are coming to these gigs. And how's the response been to that? Do people come and talk to you afterwards?

SPEAKER_02 24:50

We've been uh we've been really lucky, um, but maybe it's because I just accidentally overshare everything on stage anyway. So I think when I come off, they're like, Well, I kind of already know you, so we can talk about this, but um yeah, people are lovely, and again, that was maybe why it's my favourite thing because I spent so long not knowing if I'll do that again, if I'll be out singing or meeting people, so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

I mean, even with COVID, so you know, you you were in the middle of a really serious illness, so you had that going on, and other people weren't gigging either, which obviously you don't see, but I feel like now you don't take any gig for granted because you shouldn't do, because look what when it was all suddenly taken away.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

Yeah, um yeah, my dad's in my band, and he always said to me, Um, even a bad gig is like character building. We come away and at the end of it, we're like, okay, so and sometimes it's the bad gig because maybe you forgot something or you tuned a string wrong or just the vibes were off, and yeah, yeah, you know, you don't always land in the right place. Maybe if it's a restaurant that wasn't expecting music, but you can learn so much, and especially if you can win that audience over a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Yeah, it's probably more of a learning experience than if you just go in and everyone goes, Yay, you know. Now um you now play as a three-piece generally, don't you?

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Yeah, so how did that come up? Yeah, so well, always been dad, dad's always been there um on the mandolin, and I guess I just love gigging. Like my dad's going, oh dunnow, he he wouldn't mind me saying that, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

But your dad's Brian Corston, who people may know already as well as interpretive musicians.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

I know he's just your dad, but um, but I really enjoy that he's become like my best friend through music, so we like being on a stage on your own can be quite overwhelming, and I do do the odd solo gig, but we bounce off each other. So if I slip a note, he fills it with a solo, we have that sort of natural I know that I can trust him to pick up things in the same the other way. Um but Simon's really similar in a sense that you need to do it. So Simon's our cello player, so when we do trios, um he joins us on the cello, but he also can really flow with the music, and he knows that if I change the timing or if I go a bit natural with the singing, like he's really like just fits in and gels in, and I think because he enjoys the sort of um that nature of music, we fit together really well.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

So we did you choose Simon, not Simon as a person, but the fact that did you know that you wanted a cello? Because it's a beautiful instrument, and not many people use it in the Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

So he was doing some cello on the EP that was released, and um we just we'd enjoyed it, and I said, Oh, would you be up for playing for my EP launch gig? Because I love the way that you played on that track. So we had a rehearsal for that gig, um, and I just started to sort of gently say, Would you like to do this gig with us? Um, and yeah, luckily for us he he wanted to, so he's in the band.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Yeah, no choice. He's in the band. Now I think it's probably time to play another piece. We're gonna do um a video now.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Um, do you want to explain what where this how this came about?

SPEAKER_02 28:03

Um so this song is called Shiver, and I think it is another one again, it leans into sort of the anxiety, and I always used to feel like was I too much, was I not enough, was I too shy? Was I acting weird in the public? Like, did did I stick out for some reason? I don't know why, it's how I've always felt. Um, and this song was like, yeah, just about that, and then but also having your person that you can trust to bring you back and ground you and reassure you that you're just a human, you can exist like everybody else, and you're gonna be okay. So uh this is about that.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Taken in the ray. She's staring like the window. Staring out the window cats in the window. I long to be free. I'm the one in me. I'm the one who keeps crushing down. Come down with me. Quiet when you only see the only one that knows me knows me knows me and quiet. I shiver when you show me. You are the only one that knows me. Knows me. We stay wait a lot. How we free follow you. Hello to be free. I'm now free. I'm the one who came crashing down. Won't you come out with me quiet? Shiver when you show me You are the only one that knows me.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

So how do you start the recreative process? Do you s um you were saying that you now use the guitar? So is does that come to do you have a melody first? Excuse the pan. Or um do you write the lyrics? How do you how does it how do you do it?

SPEAKER_02 32:59

I wish I had like a a straightforward answer to this because I get asked this quite frequently. Um usually words come to me, so my notes of my phone is a real mess. It's just hundreds of little things that I thought, and I'm sometimes trying to find the shopping list, and it's like really heartbreaking, cut-wrenching lyrics. I'm like, where's the shopping list? But usually I sit down at the guitar and I'll write the song and it will come out in like 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

From the words that you've like had some ideas of something.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Yeah, or just a feeling maybe I just there's something that I want to write about, but often I'm trying to practice for a gig and I accidentally write a song, that's what happens. Um, but I tend to write the first version of the song quite quickly, and then a good song that I'm like, I think I like this one. I should try to go back and then work on it a couple of times and move this lyric here and shuffle it about. Um, and then I'll play it to Dad, and he'll add some dynamics of the instruments, and then similarly now Simon actually as well, and they are starting to change a little bit based on bringing in the instruments.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Um is he like your sounding board effectively?

SPEAKER_02 34:05

Yeah, but it used to just be like this is a song, let's play it, but now I'm I'm really enjoying having people say, Well, have you thought about if we shifted that or if we made it longer? Because I have a habit of writing really short songs.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

Yeah, which works for certain media, certainly, but yeah. Um so do you find that that's good then that you don't get cross with them and say, No, this is how I want it. You're you're open to them them working on that with you.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Yeah, definitely. And I've got a lot of songs that I just never really go anywhere and they're not finished, and I know that a song is one I'm gonna keep in some way if it makes it into the gig set list. Yeah. And sometimes I'll gig a song two or three times and then I'm like it just doesn't feel right. Yeah, yeah. Um it I quite like if I can gig it quite quickly after writing it because it helps me shape it.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

But you you're happy to go into a gig knowing that this one is you're gonna need to shape it potentially, yeah. And that may not be the finished product.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Yeah, I prefer that. I will usually write because I'm trying to practice for the gig, accidentally write a song. So I'm gonna say there gig.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

When you say that, are you just trying to get away from doing any practice? Yes. And then you're like, I know what I'll do. Like like the kind of going out and doing something completely different because it's your homework.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

I can't stick to what I'm trying to do. And then I've made 10 TikToks telling the story like something completely irrelevant. Um, and then I'll gig the song, and then audience reaction might even be the reason that you're like, okay, we're gonna keep this one. Yeah, um, yeah, ideally I can gig it pretty quickly when it's messy and I'm gonna get it wrong. If it's a safe gig to do so, maybe not if it's like a festival or something, um, but definitely a sort of local gig, I'll get the new song in there and learn from it.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

So, because you know you're you're doing the songwriting and your dad and and Simon are doing adding to it or changing it slightly, how do you go about that?

SPEAKER_02 36:00

So you just go and take it to them and say Yeah, well, rehearsals we don't really have because it's it's just really hard to get everyone together at the same time. Um, so we'll do like two rehearsals before a gig if we're lucky, maybe one, and I'll play the song. And they're they're both brilliant musicians, they pick it up really quickly, and it's usually instrumentally that they'll change it, so they'll say, Can we run that bit twice? Can we add the chorus again at the end? Um, and that's what I find I can then bring that later down the line into the studio and it fits more naturally.

SPEAKER_00 36:31

Yeah, so that's what's gonna be my next question. Is that um when you finally take decide to take into the studio? Um you've been working with Jake. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Jake Day, of course. Um, how did you go about talking to him about it and then uh and how do you sort of work with the producer?

SPEAKER_02 36:51

Um, I would like to hear his side of this story because I just I feel like I often bring the wrong songs to the studio because I get excited about it. Going to the studio, I'm like, let's do this song that I just wrote, and then I look back, I'm like, I should probably have recorded the ones that are like well-grounded now, and that I gig and that I've got a bit, you know, people know and that they're going, but I never do that. Um, and I really like that Jake will help me explore how the song can sound. So it's structurally there, I play the guitar, but I can sing it, but he really helps me bring the emotion or the feeling to the song through addition.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

Maybe that's why it's quite good to bring new ones because you they're not grounded in your head to say no, no, this has to be played this way because that's the way I always play it. And that if someone hears that afterwards, why are you bringing out a version that we didn't haven't ever heard? So maybe it is good to bring the new ones. I'm I'm giving a good angle here.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

But to hear it in different ways, or to hear someone else's view on it, yeah. It's like a critical eye, but in a kindly way that you you can then hear like two or three different sounds and decide which one is the one, perhaps.

SPEAKER_02 37:57

I think so. I think something I worry about is um that the recordings can I don't want them to be too far from the live set because also it's so nice to have like a radio version of your song or a version that I I don't have a drummer that I play with at the minute, so getting that on there it does feel nice to hear them picked up and have that bit of different things.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

So are you working on anything at the moment?

SPEAKER_02 38:19

Yes, I'm in the studio with Jake on the 28th, so very soon. Um but I I've brought a song, I've got a song that I think we're gonna record, and I think it's a bit folkier than my others. Um, but I'm really interested in how we're gonna make it sound because I don't mind where this one goes.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

That's really good, isn't it? And are you you've been working with some like collaborations with with other musicians? Um is this one gonna have collaborations on it or you're not sure? I mean, if you don't if you don't want to say, it's fine as well. Like if it's secret.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

Jobs from Lost Robins are cool. Amazing. I was really lucky to support them. We'll be doing some vocals on it, but hopefully, you never know what can happen. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

Oh, that big looking forward to that. Now, talking about songwriting, recently you'd had a um you won a competition to go and do some recording somewhere else. Do you want to tell us about that?

SPEAKER_02 39:16

Yeah, so well, it was a a TikTok thing. There's a bunch of competitions, social media, I don't really understand it. I think I just accidentally share too much about my life, and then see no one listens, see who hears. Maybe they do. There was a um competition to record in George Ezra's studio, and it's called Hotel Quebec Studio in Hartford, and you had to play a song and tag them, and I thought we'll give it a go. And then, yeah, I was really lucky to go and record in the studio, it was absolutely beautiful. He is the kindest human you will ever meet, so lovely. And Liam, the producer there again, is like is wonderful. Um, so I brought Jake with me. I said, Do you want to come? Do you want to play some guitar? Because I think what I love about the local music community is that you make actual real friends. Like, these are not just people that is your producer or who you work with, like they become friends and like a massive part of your life. So I really enjoyed that we all got to hang out and um record in this beautiful studio.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

So and picking up on that becoming friends, I'm sure that helps then with the recording process that you're working with people that kind of get to know you. You're not just going in paying in the money and walking out again, you know, and then they're just recording literally what you tell them. Yeah, they are bringing the best out in you, and that's I'm sure that's what a good producer will do.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

Yeah, definitely. And I think obviously at first with anyone, I'm a bit more shy and awkward, but um now give it a few minutes. Yeah, give it a few minutes. We we'll be in the garden doing some like a plank competition. Um I want to say I won, but Jake might say he won. But um, yeah, like if you bring fun to your music and if you enjoy it, I've learnt now that that's way more important than how many streams it gets, or like who's shared it, or who gave it a good review. Like, yes, don't get me wrong, that I'm sure is really helpful, it helps you get festivals and opportunities, but for me, what it brings to my life is like a lot more than that.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

So, yeah, and I think that's really important to keep that in your head when you're looking at how many streams or whatever, but why the reason why you went into it in the first place, yeah. And I think that's probably brings out the best in music as well. If you you can't do it to a formula or a yeah thing and and not have the heart and everything. Now, talking about that, you're gonna play a song that you've literally just written what a couple of days ago. Yeah. Do you want to get set up for that now? Yeah. And then tell us about it as well.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Yeah, sure. So I can um well shall I tell you about first? Um so I noticed, well, this is it, maybe this is about me feeling like I'm getting old. But I noticed getting older that um your friendships change and it's not negative, it's just inevitable. So you are trying to catch up over coffee. But I have kids, some of my friends do, some of them you know don't want children, our lives are in different places, but it's so beautiful that we can share different experiences and different stories, but also sometimes you're like, Oh, this is so sad that we're not falling up the stairs in the club together anymore. Like, I don't drink, so maybe not necessarily the best example, but yeah, like life is just different, and I look back on my friendships, but I hold them even closer because I'm like, Oh, we had so much fun, and we're still gonna have fun, but it's gonna look really different um at different points. So, this is for my best friend Rosie.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

But I don't hear your voice now over coffee in the morning. We try to go for lunch, talk to our kids and work at pocket in your car. You said you hated, and it's funny. All the things we said about them both when we were dating. And I'm happy for you, love. I mean that's so sincerely, but it's so weird. Cause at the same time, it still brings up feelings. It's not anything you've done or ever could do, it's just the way that I just realized. We're no longer twenty two now. We're no longer twenty-two now, crying in the back of taxis, throwing up, waiting to make a luck in the bathroom after Mackies. In as cute cause we found I'm happy ever after We make his order Then I miss the laughter And I am so happy for you all I mean I'm so sincere But it's so weird cause at the same time it still brings up feelings It's not anything that you've done But I ever could do is just the way that I just realized no longer twenty two Then I'm so happy for you Well I mean I'm so sincere at the same time L so wins I've been anything you've done All I ever could do is just the way that I just realized no longer Swedish Oh that was brilliant thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

Got something tapping, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 46:07

That's all right. That's it's it's just a tap, you know, we'll had that, that can be like a drum thing. That's absolutely brilliant. And you said you just wrote that two days ago.

SPEAKER_02 46:17

Yeah, so I was um I just actually saw my friend for lunch that day, and it it still needs figuring out in like a lot of ways, but I thought perfect for our conversation, like this maybe won't sound like that.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

So yeah, so this is a world exclusive, and when you get it to gig it, it might sound slightly different or have bit a different verse added or something.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

So that's I want to build like a a bit of a bridge sing back section that will maybe be in the live part of it, but I mean singbacks are always good, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00 46:48

Yeah, and as an audience member, I always love when musicians say, right, we're gonna sing along to this bit, I'm like, yes. So you can get involved then, can't you? Um and that's what it's about. It's a two-way conversation, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 47:02

And and she hasn't heard it yet, so well we'll see her reaction. I have told her about it though, um because we often have conversations about like, oh, it's sad, but it's not I'm not sad at you and we're not sad at each other, we're just like happy for each other, but we're sad that we can't see each other as much because that's just what happens.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

And then life will move on a bit more and you'll probably see each other again, and you know, you have a bit more time. Um so you'd said before that live digging was probably one of your favourite bits, but do you have a set time that you write, or does it just come to you whenever you feel like it? Um I mean you've got a family as well, so I'm gonna say they might be not quite as convenient.

SPEAKER_02 47:39

Yeah, so we have um well my kids go to bed about you know half or seven-ish on a good day, and then my husband goes to the gym quite late, and I tend to use that time to sit up and play a guitar and write songs, so I think my neighbours I think we're pretty soundproof. I have got soundproofing in my little cupboard under the stairs. Um, hopefully they you know they don't hear me, but I do tend to be a bit of a late night writer.

SPEAKER_00 48:04

But do you try and do that as like regularly that I'll go in there and just sit and play guitar and see what comes?

SPEAKER_02 48:09

I do now because I used to be really afraid of the evenings because that was when I was poorly, it was like, what do we do? We're stuck with not feeling very well. So I was like, I'm gonna try and redesign this point in my day to become something that's like positive again. Um so now, yeah, I tried to play guitar and to not watch too much TV or um I guess keep my headspace in a good place because when you've had a a busy day, work, kids, family, like it's all nice and it's all you know, but it is busy, it's life, so yeah, it brings me down a little bit, like down to earth in a good way.

SPEAKER_00 48:43

And do you have a a least I almost don't want to say it, but is there a bit of it that of of the whole process that you like the least?

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Yeah, um, I think the guitar playing in general is something I've struggled with because I I was writing in this another tuning and I loved it, and I wrote like almost all of my songs in it, but I'm trying to come back to standard tuning now because I know there's more to explore and I know there's more picks and strum patterns, and I'm really forcing myself to almost learn guitar again. It's really hard. Um so yeah, that bit, and I think maybe because I'm trying to go back to right, this maybe looks easy because we're going back to standard tuning, but I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

Yeah, well, that way you'll have more options, won't you? Because I think did you said you used to work in like open tuning?

SPEAKER_02 49:35

Yeah, yeah, and I love open tunings, and like they are really folky, aren't they? But I um and they ended up maybe sounding a bit similar, some of them, and I wanted to move into like a different dynamic of a live set as well to to change the the letters.

SPEAKER_00 49:48

And that's the difference, isn't it? For you can write loads of songs and you think, oh, this is great, and have all these really hard bits in it, oh this bit's quite hard to sing, but I don't mind because I'm here doing it, and then when you go out and gigging it, you'd think, oh hang on a minute, that's not gonna work because I've got to move from that song to that song, unless you have 15 guitars and a guitar tech, which you know might come in the future, you know. But that you I guess you have to be a bit more practical sometimes and and so and maybe you know look at how how you can make it simpler for yourself and and less stressful for yourself as well. I'm gonna say. And is there any festivals you've got coming up, or is there any that you like if you played X, Y, and Z or you did X Y and Z, is there anything you're like reaching for that you know that that'll be a real good to sort of tick in your in your bucket list?

SPEAKER_02 50:37

I mean, um we're really happy that we've got Cambridge Folk Festival this year, like that's gonna be amazing.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

That's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 50:43

Um we've got a couple of others first light festival folk in the field. Um, so really excited to be back doing festivals. But me and Dad have this ongoing, so every rehearsal we finish the rehearsal, we say thank you, Glastonbury. Because we're like, we have to manifest that one day. Yeah, so even if we're playing like in someone's tent, we're gonna say we've played Glastonbury because getting tickets in and of itself is a win, right? Yes, exactly. We can get there, taking guitar. It's my dream enough. Yeah, even bin. So that that's a dream.

SPEAKER_00 51:17

Um, you know, we'll look back on that and check out that at some point.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

I know, but Dad's, I'm gonna be 70 this year, Melody. Like, when are we gonna get Glastonbury on that? Before he's 80, I've promised.

SPEAKER_00 51:27

It's only it's every two years, isn't it? So yeah, you have to just get the tickets is the first thing though. It's not that easy, but that's the dream. Well, if you don't have dreams, what can you do? Um, and also what would you I think this is probably quite a good question for you, I hope. That if you look back now to to yourself as a 13, 14 year old, even younger, what would advice you give to your younger self or 15, 16 going into like this being at school, you know?

SPEAKER_02 51:57

I didn't navigating it. I think I just didn't know why I didn't fit in very much. I was like trying to, but I never felt quite comfortable, and then that like follows you through life. So I think my advice would be like it honestly, I know your parents always say it to you, hopefully they do like it's okay to be who you are, but I think I really learned that in the worst way because getting poorly, you lose I lost it, it was very visual for me, so I you could I didn't look the same in any way. So um, for me it's like that actually doesn't matter, like who you are is it really, really is what matters, and trusting that you know you believe in the right things, you want good people around you. So I wish I could have maybe just told myself that like it's just okay to be you, which is it sounds so yeah, everyone says that, but I don't think you understand it when you're younger. You're like, no, I must look or be this way or think this way, but it's you know, you grow up and you're like, ah yeah, this is what it is interesting to say.

SPEAKER_00 52:55

What would you give your advice? Because I think it's you you still wouldn't believe it even if you told yourself. If you went back in time, you wouldn't believe it till you you've lived it, yeah, probably. But it is a good thing to remember, and it's a good thing to remember to tell other people. Yeah, that you know uh no matter how many times you tell it, it's gonna be, you know, it's still important to say it, not to just think it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 53:16

I mean, I want my kids to really like be confident in themselves and not have all the anxiety and insecurities that I have, but I'm also learning that I can't protect them necessarily from that, but I can just give them the safety to tell me when things are hard and we'll go for it together. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:33

Do they get to hear any of your music and what do they think of it?

SPEAKER_02 53:36

Yeah, they actually came to a gig that I had at Eddington um a couple of weeks ago now, and my son is learning the drums, he's seven. Brilliant, and my little girl is learning to run away when I say so like she's just not a huge fan. But I think they'll just be whoever they want to be, and they they like the folkier, they like grandad pops, they call my dad grandad pops, they like his like instrumentals, but my songs are a bit like you know.

SPEAKER_00 54:07

Oh not another one, exactly. And um are there any other artists around at the moment sort of on the local scene that you um but you admire or you you're you're like in their work, or anyone you think that we should be looking out for? I know you you mentioned it a while ago about um working with the NMG and and with Tim, but you played down that you you you're you've been a judge, so you've seen here a lot of um you've heard a lot of different music.

SPEAKER_02 54:36

Um I am the biggest Sakara fan and just the voice, amazing, beautiful, like amazing, and I also I do have to say Los Robbins because seeing them live I was just blown away. Also, um really it's not the same genre as me, but I actually love listening to Grace Calver's music. Like we are singing milk in my kitchen at home, being the kids, because that's what I love. Like, you don't have to just reference local folk artists, it's like yeah, maybe that's who I'd be on a a bill more likely with, but I like listening to a bit of everything, um, and then of course there's like Luke James Williams, um, but so many artists I think I and you're gonna be supporting him at the junction coming up in next month in June, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00 55:22

Yes, so really exciting for that.

SPEAKER_02 55:24

Yeah, but I think what I need to do is make a playlist of like favourite, favourite folk, favourite local artists.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

But people are coming through all the time, different people, which is wonderful. Yeah, yeah. I think it's this the scene in this area is so live and vibrant at the moment, it's absolutely brilliant. So you know, you could blink and there'll be new people, so you've really got to keep not as a challenge, but you know, like it's great to see that there are people still wanting to do it and still you know, yeah, you can talk about I don't even want to went to the word, but I'm gonna say, you know, AI and and oh everyone can just do this now, and you can just press a button and you'll have all this stuff, but I don't believe we're not gonna connect.

SPEAKER_02 56:04

Uh so like some of my best friends are like Elizabeth and James and right. Yeah, I love I love their music. I love them as people, I just think they're gorgeous. And again, you're not gonna make that friendship, are you? You're not gonna have the same experience. You're not gonna go out and sit in a local venue with local food and like friends that you've made. You know, I didn't know Lost Robins recently until that gig, and now you know, great friends. So I think similarly with Jake, even I'd seen Jake at NMG loads of times. We never said hi, but now you know I've got really busy time. Yeah, I've got really good friends within the local scene, and I I appreciate that so much. So I hope there's you know loads more artists that keep coming through, and I hope that I am lucky enough to go and watch them and support them and cheer them on.

SPEAKER_00 56:47

So yeah, and they can support you when you're playing at Glastonbury, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 56:52

One day, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:54

Manifest it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 56:55

We have to we have to believe. Now, what we're gonna play as a last one. Um, so is it just me? And this is about the overwhelm of the world and the news um being like, uh, how are we looking the other way to some of this? But also again, surround yourself with good people and it will be okay. It isn't just you. You should be called that.

SPEAKER_00 57:17

Yeah, is it just me? Well, thank you, Melody. It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

Thank you for having me. I've really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00 57:24

It's been a pleasure, and we're gonna play that now.

SPEAKER_02 57:26

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 57:32

It's been freezing in my mind for months. Surely by now we know we've got ghosts. We turn our back to the mirror and the pain feels less hand deliver. Hand deliver Hair deliver. I swear there's someone controlling the rain right now. Is it just me? Always nothing the same right now, and I don't know where to shift my blame right now. Sparring can't stand. Tell me that things change somehow. We gotta change somehow And I don't know how you sleep with such bitter days. And those people here's voices YouTube can take your place. But I don't know the right words to say When we all stand together and look the other way, look the other way Look the other way I swear there's someone for controlling the rain right now Is it just we are? Nothing else I drive now and I don't know it's just my mind right now or I can't stay Tell me the things you don't have Tell me Tell me to do I swear there's someone controlling the rain right now Is it just means nothing else I right now and I don't know if to shift my blame right now it's boring can't stand it. Tell me the things change somehow. Change somehow.