Wise Children is electronic/acoustic
artist Robin Warren-Adamson. He’s just released his second EP, The Woods. Lyrically this is a great
collection of songs, which sound, to these ears at least, quite heartfelt.
I asked him what his inspirations
were when writing:
Half the time it's biographical, the other half it's
fictional, but I think you always use your own biography to access the feelings you're trying to write about, even if they're made up. I'm really
interested in creating characters or narrators that are different to myself.
Not necessarily likeable characters. Sort of trying to push the way in
which the audience reacts to the character, whether they empathise with them or
not.
There are a lot of themes in this: love and loss, the seasons
(winter), birth and renewal. Folk, when it gets it right, can be such a good
vehicle to express these ideas. Add some electronics and I’m there.
I’ve been listening to The Woods through earphones, and
therefore isolated. Does that make it more folksy compared to say listening at
a massive field in Welbeck Abbey?
I've always found that those kinds
of arguments to do with authenticity are a bit distracting and
pointless. I think people tend to fetishize certain elements that you associate
with a genre, in the case of folk, acoustic instruments, voice, intimacy, small
environments etc. but I find them to be a bit exclusionary. I don't know,
depends on each artist I suppose, as to how they come across best. I don't
consider myself to be 'folk' and I don't really care about being considered
within that framework. If folk is just 'music of the people' then numbers
shouldn't really come into it.
You can listen to The Woods here, or download it from his website. Enjoy.
