INTERVIEW: Crooked Weather — Music Musings & Such

INTERVIEW:

Crooked Weather

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I have been talking with Crooked Weather...

about their latest track, Easy. Holly and Will discuss the track and the music that moves them; what we can expect from their album, Are We Lost, and whether it is true they have a 1979 campervan – they select some rising artists worth watching.

I ask if there are tour dates coming and whether they each have an album that is special to them; who they would support on tour if they had the chance and what they would say to artists coming through right now – they select some great tracks to end the interview with.

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Hi, guys. How are you? How has your week been?

Hello! Life has treated us well, most of this week.

For those new to your music; can you introduce yourselves, please?

We (Will and Holly) make up the core of the band with a mutual taste in strange old Folk music. The stripped back duo expands with Beth Nicholson (Yorkshire Orchestra stalwart) on cello; Tom Skelly (gardener and songwriter, currently residing in Scotland) on bass and Dave Tomlinson (vegan-machine and equipment-collector).

Easy is your new single. How did the song come to pass?

Easy was one of those songs that just wrote itself and it’s hard to say where this kind of a song comes from. It had been fermenting away in the background for a while and ideas would come now and again when outside cutting the grass and things like that. Then one afternoon, it pretty much came out fully-formed.

It’s probably best not spending too long thinking about where it came from.

The album, Are We Lost, is out on 12th April. Are there particular themes and inspirations that go into the songs?

They are mainly songs that have been born out of the ups and downs of spending a lot of life on the road. Sometimes, everything just makes sense and you can’t understand how things could be anything but beautiful; yet, at other times, the bottom falls out, desperation takes hold and all seems lost.

Is there a track from the album you would select as personal favourites?

Will: Too hard to call!

Holly: Easy has a special place in my heart. It’s been a trouble-causer for some time, so it feels good to have finally it there, have it finished!

What sort of music are you compelled by? Did you both grow up around the same sort of music?

We both have varying tastes but they evolve around the transatlantic sounds of the '60s and '70s. Some favourites of Will’s include Bob Dylan, Roy Harper and Nick Cave; whereas Holly could bore you to death talking about Bert Jansch, Pentangle and obscure Psych-Folk.

Is it true a 1979 campervan holds a very special place in your lives?!

Yes! We have lived in and toured in our beautiful 1979 Sherpa campervan. She often needs a good bit of T.L.C. to keep her on the road but that's the way with old machines. We’ve just had a new radiator made but now the fuel gauge has stopped working!

Have you got a favourite memory from your time in music so far – the one that sticks in the mind?

That’s a tough one. SoL festival springs to mind; a strange festival ran by Deadheads in Kent. We got to play with some of our musical heroes as well as hearing stories of Woodstock, Monterey and what it’s like hanging out with Joni Mitchell and Mama Cass. We like being on the road, though - especially in the sunshine, meeting people from all different walks of life.

Which one album means the most to each of you would you say (and why)?

Holly: There can’t possibly be one album. There are too many I’m thankful for! Harvest by Neil Young is probably the first music I listened to as a kid and thought it was magic.

Will: Agree with Holly – “There can’t possibly be one album”. But, to carry on the same idea, Folkjokeopus by Roy Harper was an album I had on-repeat for weeks when I was a youngster.

If you could support any musician alive today, and choose your own rider, what would that entail?

Neil Young & Crazy Horse. The rider would have to include being able to play on stage to maybe Down by the River, Cowgirl in the Sand or one of those good jams!