Having performed as a session multi-instrumentalist for the likes of Lucy Rose, Laufey, Izzy Bizu, and Barry Can’t Swim, as well as being a member of the critically acclaimed The Lost Words: Spell Songs, Jim Molyneux has gone solo with his debut single Every Road, released today.
Featuring the multifaceted talents and collaborative genius of Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Seckou Keita, Kris Drever, Rachel Newton and Beth Porter, Jim Molyneux was among Spell Songs cast that created the musical evolution of the captivating art and poetry found within the pages of The Lost Words & The Lost Spells books by acclaimed author Robert Macfarlane and award-winning illustrator Jackie Morris, where ‘lost’ nature words are conjured back into being.
Spell Songs was a larger-than-life project, so it’s not surprising that this project had a profound influence on Jim, essentially sowing the creative seed to go solo. He told Folk Radio:
“Doing the Spell Songs albums has made me a more honest songwriter. Just to be in the room with these amazing writers and seeing how they build songs from seeds of ideas has been so inspirational, and so I decided that it’s time to release something of my own, under my own name, at last.
“It’s a bit of a cliche used by lots of songwriters; sometimes a song just presents itself to you, and you write the entire thing in twenty minutes flat. This was the case with Every Road, I wrote it one evening back in February and then laid down all the piano, vocals and percussion parts that same evening, all through one mic. I’ve been writing a lot over the past 6 months, and there’s more to come.”
The song, available on streaming services from today (and in our Mellow Folk playlist), features Molyneux’s aching, intimate vocal atop a tapestry of fuzzy felt piano, lilting percussion and swooping violins. Lyrically, Molyneux paints the scene of a broken relationship and the stages of grief, denial, and ultimately acceptance which one experiences within that.
The track was self-produced by Molyneux, recorded in his bedroom with just one microphone, with the addition of Simmy Singh’s lush strings and additional atmospheric guitar by Michael Blackwell. The single’s artwork is by London-based Australian tattoo artist Mel Goodeve.
Website: https://www.jimmolyneux.co.uk/