The sea and the sand have long been part of the British creative psyche, so it’s no surprise that folk maestros The Unthanks have tapped into it. Rhonda Lee Reali chats to Rachel Unthank.
This month Cardiff, with its long dockside history, welcomes back vocalists and superb storytellers The Unthanks. The group has a close association with another port city, Newcastle. Rachel and Becky Unthank are the faces of the group that bears their surname. The singers are a core that includes multi-instrumentalists Adrian McNally (Rachel’s husband and musical arranger/producer), Niopha Keegan and Chris Price.
Older sister Rachel explains the lure of the sea to Buzz. “We grew up in Tyneside, so that big river has always been a part of our lives. We’re very close to Newcastle and the beautiful Northumberland coastline, full of wild and empty beaches. It’s something that constantly draws us back. The sea isn’t ever that far away, so artistically, it comes up in lots of different ways.” Both sisters have such a unique vocal style, and music is in their bones: their parents sung professionally, so they grew up surrounded by folk music.
Water is a subject that appears on The Unthanks’ newly released album trilogy, Lines, with music composed by McNally. Part One – Lillian Bilocca is adapted from a theatre piece by written by actress Maxine Peake, concerning the Hull Triple Trawler Disaster of 1968 in which 58 men perished. Part Two – World War One was first presented in 2014 to mark the start of the Great War centenary and includes letters and poems. Part Three – Emily Brontë, commissioned by the Brontë Society, commemorates the author’s 200th birthday, with The Unthanks building songs around her verse.
“I didn’t know about her poetry at all, none of us did, so this was a new journey to us. It was great to be able to get involved and get stuck into Emily’s poems,” said Rachel. “There’s lots of themes that keep coming up – wild landscapes and lots about death and despair, and it felt familiar – the topics that often come up in folk songs were there. Her passion comes through strongly – really brave and bold and uncompromising.”
The Society gave permission for McNally to use Emily’s piano at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, West Yorkshire, where he wrote and recorded the music to which the 10 poems are set. Rachel and Becky joined him for recordings, with all this having to take place at night. That must have been such a treat?
“It was! I remember going there with school and dropping my pencil over the barrier and getting into trouble because an alarm went off and not being allowed beyond the rope… and [now] we were allowed beyond the rope! It was amazing to be stood in their house, to see the table where the three of them sat together and wrote and made these amazing worlds. It was a unique and special experience and it was really interesting to go to the parsonage and learn more about them and their lives. Quite inspiring and humbling.
“We were very conscious not to change her words. I’m sure some people will think it’s sacrilegious in a way, that we wrote up our own tunes and versions of her words, but I think, for us, it was great to be able to write tunes for these really powerful words of a young woman and to be able to give them a different kind of life.”
The Lines trilogy is fourth in a series of projects that The Unthanks have put out combining others’ material aside from their own studio output. It follows Diversions Vol 4: The Songs And Poems Of Molly Drake – featuring songs written by Molly, mother of Nick Drake, The Unthanks presented this quietly masterful album live in Cardiff in 2017, an equally exquisite – and sold-out – show resulting. If that was anything to go by, this will be a treat for folk fans.
The Unthanks, Tramshed, Cardiff, Tue 30 Apr. Tickets: £23.50. Info: 029 2023 5555 / tramshedcardiff.com