In 2015, Wildwood Kin self released their first EP, titled SALT OF THE EARTH. It had four tracks, two of which made it onto their full-length debut album, TURNING TiIDES, that appeared in 2017. Three singles were released from that album before the writing process and recording of the second album began.
Just released, this self-titled project sees the band build on their initial sound and start to hone their unique harmonies into something that is capturing plenty of media attention at present. We sat down with the three band members, sisters Emillie and Rebecca and cousin Bethany, for a chat and found them very open and engaging over the 30-minutes that they gave us before taking the stage for their debut Dublin gig at Lost Lane.
You started playing in Devon at Church fairs, fetes and local mic nights and developed from there to West Country Festivals.
We always had good local support from the community. We were all born in Exeter but Emillie and Beth moved to Torquay which is a half hour away and has a great mix of small city and countryside.
Your respective Mums (as sisters) are credited with giving you the encouragement to sing together. Was this from a very early age?
It was our Mums’ side of the family that had the musical and song-writing instincts; our Nana also wrote songs and we would harmonise from an early age on car journeys. There was a piano in the house and we did some grades but we also tried violin, learned guitar and clarinet and just always played together without necessarily knowing what note we were playing – just what sounded good together. We still don’t always know what key we are playing in when jamming with other musicians.
You don’t see yourselves as Folk artists despite the media trying to fit you into this box?
We were seen as not Folky enough by the Folkies and were too Folky for the Rock crowd. The comparisons with Fleetwood Mac are also made, which I can understand to a point, as their sound is genre-less and we have that problem.
The first record in 2017, Turning Tides, had no single producer. Do you think that this informed the sound of the tracks with different people wanting different things?
We started recording the first half of the album in 2016 in a London studio and didn’t finish it until the next year in a rural studio in Devon. One minute you are feeling intimidated by who has played in the London studio (Coldplay etc) and we felt a certain pressure as opposed to being far more relaxed in the Devon studio where we recorded probably our favourite songs from that record. We had been signed by Sony Music Entertainment Ltd after a show they attended at Union Chapel in London, about half way through the recording of the album. Sony gave us a licencing deal on the record which helped a lot with their advance going towards the cost of touring and they have been great to us, not getting in the way of what we want to do and not suggesting a direction that they think we should take. They are there if we need them and have been more involved with this second album as they were there from the start of it and have recommended producers that we may like to work with and also with the Marketing of the album. We have been really fortunate.
Everybody does want to pigeonhole you and we are just starting to learn that we do have more of a voice than we originally thought. We recently parted company with our manager due to certain pressures that were being brought to bear.
You released an EP in 2018 which had cover versions of four songs. Was this a conscious move?
We were still writing for our second album and were not ready to go into the studio so our management thought that we should make these covers our own and let our fans see just how we had developed our sound. It was our management that suggested it like an in-between thing.
Co-writes on this current record – how was the experience?
We always struggled with this concept as we tend towards our own co-writes between the three of us in the way we bring songs to each other. The thought of a stranger now sitting in with us felt like a blind date and a little bit awkward. The pressure to finish a song in a single session and then share it with our team. Essentially, they let us do our own thing but facilitated a space for us to look through an outside perspective which is something that we don’t do as a family band where it tends to be 2 against 1 if a vote is taken on something. To have a perspective from someone who wasn’t so close to the music was a good thing.Ed Harcourt for example just listened to what we had and we spent lots of time just talking. He let us play as a band and he wasn’t like,” I’ve got this great concept for you to try”.
The song messages are all very positive and the album works as a cohesive whole.
The reason we titled it Wildwood Kin was because we thought that it is more a representation of who we are and what we want to create. The first album was made over a longer time and there were delays and we were experimenting.
Who is the producer Ian Grimble?
It was one of our management who recommended him as he is a close friend. We were already fans of his work with Bears Den, Daughter and Seth Lakeman. We met with him and decided to go ahead but you never really know how the album will turn out, no matter how well or little you know the producer. If there is a pressure from other voices wanting things to sound more commercial for example, the mixing process can be difficult.
The sound on the record is very full and the studio players who contributed, Tommy Heap (bass and keyboard bass) and Carlos Garcia V (additional guitars) help build the impression of a layered recording?
Because of the high female vocals, we wanted the bass to balance out the sound. Playing live we can get away without the bass but on the recording, it just sounded like there was something drastically missing. We didn’t want the record to sound all trebly and empty. We didn’t want to bring extra musicians on this tour because of financial reasons but we are happy to be touring it as a trio. It’s all part of the learning process and we are open to using acoustic versions of our songs.
The message of female empowerment, self-acceptance, not letting life crush you. The manner in which you write about these issues on the album is very open and honest. The tragic events of Meg losing her brother to suicide is beautifully addressed in the song, Not Alone. Suicide is a big problem among the young and do you find your audience is mainly young people at the shows?
The audience is a real mix and we wanted to write about issues that impact us all. This album came after our family tragedy and it naturally felt right to deal with the issue in the correct way. The issue of mental health touches everyone and it’s amazing the way that people come up to you after a show and bring it up in conversation. It’s like they suddenly realize that they can talk about these things.
Interview by Paul McGee Photo by Donna McGee