In part two (read part 1 here) of our exclusive interview Adrian, Becky and Rachel talk about the sourcing writing and arranging and recording of Mount The Air.
“It’s like a boyhood dream come true having my own studio and now I can say I’ve got it.” Adrian is naturally enthused and the new set up has played an important part in the creation of Mount The Air. “It’s all down to the extreme generosity of some neighbours who were fans of ours long before we moved here. They had a building that they used to run a business from, but don’t use it anymore, so they’ve let us use it. I guess that makes them patrons.”
The studio has been kitted out with the equipment that used to litter Adrian and Rachel’s family home, where much of their previous recording was done, with the cupboard under the stairs serving as a vocal-booth. As Rachel says, “Our house used to be Unthanks HQ, but with two young children, it’s certainly not practical to record here anymore.” Adrian admits that they haven’t done much with the building other than move their gear in, but describes it as, “A light airy space with beautiful views over the Northumberland landscape.” Becky confirms, “It’s great you can step outside and you’re in this amazing countryside. It’s naturally relaxing”
The studio is close enough to walk to from home, which for Adrian has been something of a godsend, allowing him to attend to family duties and then head down the road later. “It’s meant a few late nights, without the benefit of a lie-in the following day, but it’s made the recording process what it’s been and I’ve been able to chip way at it, it’s been slow, but steady progress.”
There’s been another knock on effect as Rachel explains, “I could load the youngest into the buggy and wheel him down there. By the time we’d arrived he’d generally be asleep so that gave me some time to get stuff done.” She also admits, “It’s completely changed my relationship with recording. I used to get quite hung up and my voice would change without me realising. Adrian would ask, ‘Why are you singing like that?’ I didn’t even realise I was doing anything different.” It’s never been a problem on stage however as Rachel explains, “Performance is all about being in the moment and on stage I’m fine with that. I think that in some ways having a young child who might wake up at any minute has sort of forced me to thank that way and get into the few minutes that I have.”
It became a particular problem for Here’s The Tender Coming, not that you’d notice it in the final results. That album was recorded in a proper studio and with it came the attendant pressures, as Adrian explains, “I’ve guided the girls from day one of their recording career and I thought it only right that they had the experience of being in a professional studio. In the end, they said, ‘Well that was great, can we go home now?’ Like me they don’t appreciate the stress of the red light going on and also budgets being eaten away with each passing minute.”
As Becky has already said, she and Rachel record separately and she’s much less anxious about recording revealing, “It’s a much different set up for me, I love recording. Singing is like therapy for me and I just have to close my eyes and I get lost in the song. I love performing live as well, but in the studio I can learn about my voice and because I’ve never had any sort of formal training, I find that really useful.”
None of the trio have any real formal training, which makes the stunning arrangements and orchestration, the production and recordings all the more remarkable. They’ve formulated a way of working that suits them all and as Becky explains, “The songs all start with Rachel and me. Once we’ve got something we work on trying to get to the heart of the story in the song. That can literally be a narrative like a ballad, or more of an emotional journey. We have to sing it through a number of times, so that it becomes ours and the phrasing and harmonies we find express the meaning. Then we take that and try to explain our feelings to the rest of the band and Adrian in particular.” Rachel confirms, “It’s really important to us that Adrian understands why the song is important to us, but we have a really strong partnership and right back to the Winterset days, we’ve always had that.”
Rachel continues, “Quite often we’ll present a song and he’ll take it off in a really surprising direction and do stuff that simply amazes us.” She also slyly confesses, “When I first me him he told me he had this symphony going on in his head and I thought, ‘Yeah, right!’ But then of course I found out that he really did.” Rachel also admits, “When he does come up with stuff, we do all chip in. We’re a pretty opinionated bunch.”
Adrian has always been central to The Unthanks’ sound as he says, “I’ve been there from day one, writing, arranging, producing and managing. Had I wanted to be the piano player too, I’d have made myself that at the start.” Initially he took the role of explaining it to the other musicians and both the sisters confirm his reluctance and Rachel admits, “We had to drag him kicking and screaming into the band.” Adrian simply says, “I didn’t do my practice, so I just didn’t think I was good enough.” Becky eventually countered with, “If we’re good enough then you are. You get it.”
The lack of practice also means a huge hole in Adrian’s natural abilities and he confesses, “I still can’t read or write music. It’s not something that I’m proud of at all and I keep thinking I’ll do something about it, but there’s never any time. I do sometimes wonder though if the lack of theory isn’t actually liberating, because I never get bogged down in the mechanics of it all.” Although this doesn’t necessarily create a problem for the five-piece core of the band, Adrian regularly scores for the additional strings that join them, both on record and live, and even the entire Brighouse and Rastrick brass band. It’s thanks to the patience of Niopha Keegan the band’s permanent violinist, who sits at Adrian’s side at the piano and transcribes what he plays onto the staves.
Adrian admits with a laugh, “I like these big arrangements, because they can hide my crap piano playing,” although he also admits, “After the last album and the brass band project in particular the intention this time round was to peg it back to something much more intimate.” He concedes, “Of course any such preconceptions at the start are very much shaped by what Rachel and Becky bring to me and the feelings that are generated as a result. Each song has to be treated on its own merits.”
There are certainly aspects of this record that fit Adrian’s initial thoughts, but the title track isn’t one of them. It opens the album with a majestic 11 minute suite that simply soars heavenwards, very much in keeping with the title Mount The Air. Adrian tells me, “It’s a little one verse song from Dorset that came from a book that Becky found in Cecil Sharp House. She could have easily overlooked it, picked up the next book and never found it. She left it with me and when she came back I said, ‘What about this?’ Her immediate reaction was, ‘Well that’s not the tune.’ But it just grew from there.” Grow it did, not just musically, but with Becky and Adrian adding extra words.
He admits, “I don’t why my love for Miles Davis’ Sketches Of Spain has come out now or attached itself to this song, but I do think that when you do really engage with music, you are there to serve it. It controls you and not the other way round. I like to think of my arrangements as love letters to the tune. It’s like I want to get to the point where it’s expressed to its fullest potential.” Talking about the song Rachel adds, “Becky found this little song and Adrian became quite obsessed by it. I love it and can’t wait to tour it even though Rachel and I don’t do anything for quite a lot of it, it’s a great to be part of the performance, I love the build and the swell of the orchestration.”
In terms of finding songs, Rachel continues, “Our ears are always open, so we’re always receptive to new material, but we do have more of a concerted push when we decide to start work on a record.” Becky adds, “I think of it as my job, when we’re not touring or recording, if I ever think, ‘What should I be doing?’ the answer is obvious, looking for new songs to sing. That’s why I went for a rummage around in Cecil Sharp House, but my favourite way is to learn them from other people.”
An example of that came when Becky was living in Manchester as she explains, “I was missing out on some family stuff especially around Christmas, although I never missed Boxing Day, but I thought the best way to get over it, meet other singers, hear new stuff and have a good chat with like minded people was to set up my own singing session there. I invited a few friends and it was there that John Routledge introduced me to Hawthorn, a song based on a poem by Charles Causley.”
This time, however, both sisters have contributed to the writing. As Rachel explains, “It wasn’t really planned at all, I mean Adrian normally has a go, but for me growing up surrounded with the folksong tradition, there are so many songs and stories that I haven’t got to yet and want to explore. I’m also quite a private person, so the idea of sharing my feelings in that way was quite odd. It came about really because Adrian was approached by the Foundling Museum, who wanted him to work on a commission. It didn’t come off, but has found its way into this record. I find myself reading all of the material he’d brought back and having two very young children, I could really identify with the heartbreak of giving them up.”
It was the tokens that the mothers left, so that they could be identified if there was ever a chance of reunion that particularly hit home, but as the idea developed, Rachel realised, “Becky and I already sang Golden Slumbers in harmony together and the two things just seemed to fit into a story and Last Lullaby resulted.”
Becky reveals, “I’m always writing and drawing, it’s great to have a creative outlet, but I’ve never had the courage to share stuff with the others. I’d had the song Flutter for some years, the bones of it go back to when I was 19. Adrian was nagging at me asking me I was going to show them any of my writing and in the end, I just thought if I can’t share this with the people I’m closest to it’s just daft. Before I knew it Adrian had started playing along on the piano and suddenly it was a song.”
There are contribution too from the others, with guitarist Chris Price adding a gentle finger picked instrumental, that creates a soothing final piece for the record, but violinist Niopha has written a tune, which as the title suggest, For Dad, also includes a sample of a recording made by her father. A very young Niopha is given her own microphone and encouraged to say something and the tapes only came to light after his passing. Rachel recalls, “It was played on Cerys Matthews show on 6Music. She was in the middle of serving breakfast on one of our weekends and suddenly the voice of her father came out of the radio. You could have heard a pin drop.”
That neatly links us back to the first part of this interview and with the prospect of the tour to come, a chance to get closer still to the remarkable music of Mount The Air. Naturally the focus is there for much of this year, with Summers Festivals to be announced. Becky laughed when she told me, “The whole reason that Rachel and I tried to get a booking in the first place was so we could get into folk festivals for free.” Rachel also explained, “Chris won’t be on the first tour and his wife is due, but he’ll be back for the summer. “We’ve got some new people joining us, a couple of local lads Dan and Martin. The latter drums in a band called the Bhagdaddies, they’re my favourite band and in fact they played at our wedding. But I just can’t wait to be on stage surrounded by this powerful music, it’s the best feeling in the world.”
Interview by: Simon Holland
Mount The Air is out now via their own label, RabbleRouser Music.
Click here to pre-order from The Unthanks direct
Mount The Air Tour
21 Feb Southampton Turner Sims
22 Feb Exeter Corn Exchange
24 Feb Yeovil Octagon Theatre
25 Feb Bristol Colston Hall
26 Feb Cardiff St George’s Hall
27 Feb Nottingham Albert Hall
28 Feb Sheffield City Hall
01 Mar Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
03 Mar Bury St Edmunds The Apex
04 Mar Brighton Dome
05 Mar Ashford Revelation St Mary’s
06 Mar Norwich Open
07 Mar London The Roundhouse
08 Mar Warwick Arts Centre
10 Mar Leeds Irish Centre
11 Mar Manchester The Ritz
12 Mar Dublin National Concert Hall
13 Mar Belfast Empire
14 Mar Newcastle City Hall
19 Mar Middlesbrough Town Hall
20 Mar Edinburgh Queens Hall