Inspired by psychedelia, vaudeville, glam and prog, Rosalie Cunningham is one of the most exciting UK rock artists of the moment. Ahead of an appearance at Chepstow festival Summer’s End, Colin Palmer discovers more about her evolving music tastes and some stories behind the songs on her upcoming album.
“I’m still enjoying it, which is very weird for me…” says Rosalie Cunningham about her new album To Shoot Another Day, due for release in November. “Normally I can’t really enjoy any work of mine until about five years afterwards, because it’s verging on traumatic getting it out, and by that point I just don’t want to hear it anymore. These songs were written immediately after the release of [2022 album] Two Piece Puzzle, but it feels as if they were written a lifetime ago. I’m writing songs for the next album now.”
Revisiting south Wales for two autumn dates, Cunningham and band first play an early-October Saturday night show in Chepstow, part of annual prog rock weekender Summer’s End. Following that, they’re in Cardiff’s Acapela in November, having recorded a live album there in autumn 2023. “Upstairs [in Acapela] is a great recording studio,” Cunningham says, on the phone at her Southend-On-Sea home. “We were recommended there as a place to do a live record because you don’t have the pressure of having things go wrong in front of a big audience. Everyone was seated, it was cosy – we played the set twice and everybody appreciated it.”
Released in July 2019 to acclaim, Cunningham’s eponymous debut album followed the breakup of her band Purson and a period of reflection. Recorded to analogue tape at Lightship 95 Studio, a converted boat moored on the Thames, the tapes were then mixed at Gizzard – an all-analogue studio in Bow which Cunningham calls “tried and tested,” having used it for all her releases until the home-recorded To Shoot Another Day.
“What I love about that place is it’s pretty much 1971 in there – very basic compared to other top London studios, but the right tools for the job for the sound I was after. I have far more tools at my disposal now in my home studio than I had at Gizzard. I’m trying to be as truthful to analogue processes as possible at home: a lot of the tracks are tracked to a Revox B77 reel-to-reel run at 15 inches per second. I’m a bit of a nerd about that stuff! The exciting part is tinkering around with the endless possibilities. I just love recording.”
Cunningham’s studio band features guitarist Rosco Wilson (who’s also her partner), drummer Raphael Mura and keyboardist David Woodcock. Ian East, also of Gong, guests on clarinet and saxophone. The analogue character of Cunningham’s recordings affirms her natural artistic tendencies to inject the original flavours of psychedelia, prog and glam rock into the modern age.
“With this new album it’s difficult for me to talk about influences because I don’t want to mislead anybody, and the album is so diverse,” she says. “I really love glam very much, including T.Rex, but I’m more of a Slade fan. Genesis were the first prog band I really got into. I was more into the psychedelic end of the 60s with the Beatles and I wanted to know more about that sound, but Genesis were the one I fell in love with first.”
Progressive rock, by definition, emphasises ambitious compositions, experimentation and concept-driven lyrics. There doesn’t appear to be an obvious concept prevailing through To Shoot Another Day, despite the nod to 007 in its title.
“I’ve done that Sgt. Pepper thing of bookending it with two songs that have a slight concept and then just putting whatever I want in the middle,” says Cunningham of the album. “I wouldn’t say it’s a concept album, but it’s got a James Bond soundtrack vibe. There’s also a kind of breaking the fourth wall that I didn’t really intend to do but realised afterwards that I had – singing about the creative process.”
The opening title track is epic Bond. “Well, I had the opening chords – a sort of chromatic pattern – and heard the lead guitar parts as horn parts originally, and immediately thought ‘that’s a Bond theme!’. It was the one song I was most insecure about, to be honest – only because I don’t think I achieved the sort of grandness I was imagining.
“With my first album, I felt as if I had a lot to prove production and songwriting-wise and so I threw all my tricks at it. I’d done two albums with Purson before, but a lot of people just thought I was the singer in the band – not many people knew that was my recording project. The second album was during COVID; I wasn’t able to perform live, and it feels more insular to me. I don’t know how it’s perceived by other people but it wasn’t the best time of my life.
“On [To Shoot Another Day] I really enjoyed playing, and went into territory I maybe wouldn’t have before because I thought they were clichéd or cheesy – Denim Eyes is more in a pop direction. I don’t feel I have anything to prove to anyone anymore because I’ve said it and done it.”
Denim Eyes is also resplendent with a particularly intuitive barking dog. “Dave Woodcock, who played piano on that, goes absolutely everywhere with his dog. He won’t play a show if the dog isn’t invited. So the dog was sitting there as we were recording, bobbing his head along – he’s quite a musical dog – waited for the silence on the perfect take that Dave had just done and barked right in the middle. It was in time so I kept it in!”
Cunningham’s music contains a playfulness that she believes is inherent in her personality. “It isn’t intentional but I think it’s just my character coming across. Of course my work is incredibly important to me and I take that seriously but I can’t take myself too seriously even if I try. I’ve always got to stick a pun in there.”
Cunningham’s songwriting rate verges on prolific, although she counters that “it doesn’t feel that way to me! But I think it’s a healthy level of productivity. My next album is going to be a new band called Rabbit Foot, with Rosco. It’s mostly his songs he’s had kicking around for a while – he writes a hell of a lot and doesn’t release any of it which is frustrating because I want people to hear this stuff! The live album at Acapela has the song Rabbit Foot on it which the band is named after; we’ve had that in the set for about a year so people know about it.”
So will this run in conjunction with future solo releases? “My solo stuff will take precedence for me but I just really want Rosco to get this vehicle going for his songs. He’s a fantastic guitarist, singer and songwriter and he hasn’t done anything under his own name for about 10 years, so I’m forcing him to do it.”
Rosalie Cunningham plays Summer’s End Festival, Chepstow on Sat 5 Oct (tickets: £150 weekend/£60 Sat 5 only. Info: here); Acapela, Cardiff on Wed 13 Nov (tickets: £19. Info: here).
To Shoot Another Day is released on Fri 1 Nov via Cherry Red. Info: here
words COLIN PALMER
