Tamsin Elliott Interview
Coming up to Tamsin Elliott's gig at Cecil Sharp House, she offers some insight into what to expect from her new album, 'FREY,' going solo, her diverse inspirations, and what the future holds for her music.
Your album ‘FREY’ is about to come out later this month – what can we expect?
FREY is a collection that I’ve been working on for the last few years, influenced by my background in traditional music but also heavily shaped and guided by my experience of chronic illness and prolonged hospitalisations between 2015-2019. Expect a largely instrumental journey through limbo, grief, pain, joy and acceptance - one which I hope reflects the feeling of wholeness that I found within my brokenness. There moments of energy, with more lively tunes dotted amongst the more contemplative and abstract pieces. I’ve been presenting the album with my trio - myself on harp, accordion, flutes and voice; Sid Goldsmith on cittern and voice; and my brother Rowan Elliott on fiddle, effects and voice.
I know this is your debut album - but you've been involved in so many previous projects – did it feel like a fundamentally different process?
Releasing my first record under my own name, fully written and largely produced by myself, has indeed felt like a fundamentally different process to my previous collaborative projects and bands. At times I found it hard to trust my own judgement and taste - and here I’m very grateful for the support of Sound and Music, who funded the recording through their ‘New Voices’ artist development programme - their mentoring and coaching helped me through some sticking points.
Your music often pulls together several different genres and traditions of playing – who were some of your references or inspirations for this album?
In my playing and tunewriting within the English/Irish/European trad soundworld I’ve been inspired by the contemporary scene of amazing players and bands - Leveret and The Rheingans Sisters for example. My more Eastern-feeling material is influenced by the time I spent living and playing in Cairo with some really brilliant musicians. You can find a few videos on my website of some of the collaborations I did there.
Music videos often seem to play an important role in how you present your music - and I know you yourself are a filmmaker - how do the two mediums sit together for you?
I love presenting work in an audio-visual format; I think it can bring a deeper experience for the listener. I was lucky to work with the brilliant Kate Griffin (Mishra) on the music video for “Lullaby // I Dreamed I was an Eagle”, and her sensitive camera work and careful editing combined with our slightly wildcard idea to film underwater really brings out a narrative journey through the two pieces from contemplative to flying..
Following on - as a mainly instrumental musician - do you find imagery plays an important part in getting the feeling for a piece? Do you visualise worlds/images first? Or does that come later?
I often write from pure emotion - and a lot of the pieces on the album came from this place - but recently I’ve been playing around with composing to an image, a word or a phrase. “Emerging”, one of the later tracks on the record, is strongly associated with snowdrops, but I’m not sure now whether that came before or after I wrote it!
How does community and collaboration figure into creativity for you?
Although this is a ‘solo’ album, my creative community is very present in it, and I wouldn’t have been able to make this work alone. I feel very lucky to be surrounded by amazing players and critical (but kind) listeners who have all chipped in their thoughts and helped keep me moving along on the journey of making it. A big source of energy and inspiration for me is the Bristol folk scene - I come home from sessions energised and reminded why we all do what we do.
Lastly, what can we expect in the future, more solo material?
I’d love to record a collection of trad tunes - but this doesn’t feel like a ‘solo’ thing, as for me traditional music is so communal and for me it comes to life in the interactions between players. There are also a few exciting collaborations in the pipeline which I can’t talk about yet! But yes, I’d love to make another solo album at some point too.
Tamsin Elliott plays at Cecil Sharp House on Wednesday 29 June.
