Frank Burkitt is one of our favourite songwriters in the whole country, we count him as a Kiwi now, he's been here from Scotland long enough. A tour or trip around NZ is not the same without a booze filled, late night jam session in Wellington with The Frank Burkitt Band. Frank has put together a new (hopefully annual) showcase in Wellington​, called the Wellington Independent Music Showcase, and it's going to take place at BATS Theatre from September 27th - 30th. Frank wrote a little piece discussing how it came to be. 

The quest for new music fans goes on!

How do more people hear my music? Not just family, not just friends, not just fans of my particular genre even, but all people. This quandary motivates me almost daily. Perhaps I am more vain than most or perhaps it really does just come with the territory when you embark on the long, hard road of becoming a self-made musician. I accept that there will always be people who will never like my music but think of the millions of people out there that have yet to hear it. How…do…they…hear it? This is not a particularly original sentiment and I suspect one that will strike a chord (excuse the pun) with many independent musicians, which let’s face it, is probably around 75% of all musicians out there.

This was the catalyst for the Wellington Independent Music Showcase or WIMS if you will. When looking for a new and exciting venue in Wellington for my band to put on our annual ‘home’ gig, I was told about the good people at BATS Theatre. Being a theatre, a run of performances, rather than a one off gig, was the preferred option and so it got me thinking. Why not do four gigs, with four different bands and call it something catchy? Voila! You have an event. Granted, the name could have been catchier.

I was over the moon to get such a strong line-up of acts to agree to perform; busker turned seasoned folky Graeme James, folk-country duo LOST BiRD, folk-rockers Miles Calder & The Rumours and of course my own American Roots outfit The Frank Burkitt Band.

Something a bit different here from new writer Marty Jones - a chat with American artist Andrew Paley. 

Chicago based Andrew Paley has been creating music with his band The Static Age for around 15 years now. The band has released a series of albums that have been critically acclaimed and seen them develop a devoted fan base of their ambient post punk sound.
 
On the side, Paley has spent time writing and recording solo material, music that is much more stripped back, and as he puts it, evocative of "open spaces, sharp edges and bright colors."
 
His most recent release is ‘Sirens’, a 12-track record that brings together work of his from over the past couple years. ‘Sirens’ follows up Paley’s debut solo album ‘White Rooms’, which was recorded with producer Matt Squire back in 2007.
 
Currently working on his next solo release as well as material for The Static Age, Paley is splitting his time between his studio in Chicago and a cabin in the Vermont woods.
 
Having known Andrew from around the time of his first solo album I decided to catch up with him to get a little background on the release of ‘Sirens’.
 
So, you’ve just got back from touring Europe, what was that like?
Yeah, that was a blast. I was over there for a couple of weeks doing shows with Bob Nanna from Braid and Hey Mercedes as well as his wife, Lauren, who releases music under the name Cellarette. We toured around Germany and Italy together. It's been a busy year. Before Europe, there were a short run of shows around the Midwest US, and a few weeks before that I was in Japan for a tour with Garrett Klahn from Texas is the Reason and Tom George from The Lion and the Wolf.
 
So how long has it been now since The Static Age first started?
Oh man, we started playing shows at the beginning of 2002. We were all in bands together back as teenagers. So it’s been a while.
 
And what were you doing music wise prior to The Static Age?
My first tour was when I was maybe 15 or 16, playing a telecaster in a thrashy grindcore band. I was also in a slew of punk and hardcore bands around then. We did some tours and put out some records as In Reach and then The Hemlock Verdict. And it was all the gateway to The Static Age. When The Static Age formed it was members from those previous bands -- Adam, Bobby and I -- trying something new together.
 
The Static Age had quite a different sound to the punk and hardcore bands of the time. Why do you think that was?
Yeah it was a little bit different, I suppose. We played a lot of shows and did tours that could be seen as a bit different for a band like The Static Age to play. We ended up playing stuff like hardcore shows at CBGBs and touring with bands like AFI and The Explosion. But it was always really inviting and everyone was great. We had the same roots and we were still very much a part of all that so it all fitted together. And then, on the other hand, there was this other set of bands like Interpol and Hot Hot Heat, and we'd end up on shows with them, too. It was an eclectic mix.

At what point did you start working on your solo material?
I was always doing some version of it all the way back to bedroom recordings in high school. Pretty soon after The Static Age did the ‘Neon Nights’ album, I went back to Phase studios outside of DC with Matt Squire, who was the producer on ‘Neon Nights’, to do a solo record called ‘White Rooms’. So I was kind of dabbling with it on the side all along as a way to do something with all the other songs I was writing that didn’t really fit the band. After that record, I spent a lot of time focusing on The Static Age, and put the solo stuff on the backburner for a while. I was still recording constantly in my own studio, but I wasn't releasing anything or touring on it. And then, during some downtime in 2014, I revived it.

Is ‘Sirens’ an entirely new work or is it a collection of songs from over a period?
It’s a collection of songs that I pieced together from a pretty big backlog. When I was recording a lot of the songs, I wasn’t even really sure what I was going to do with them. I was just writing and capturing ideas as I went. At some point I realized I had enough of them in varying states of completion for probably a few albums, so I went back through all of them and figured out which ones I thought would fit together, and then added a few new ones to make what ended up becoming ‘Sirens’.
 
In terms of influences, who are you drawing upon for your solo work? And how is it different to the band?
Well, as evidenced by ‘Sirens’, my influences are pretty all over the place. On one hand, there’s a host of people I admire when it comes to stripped down songwriting and what you can do with minimal instrumentation. Some that come to mind are people like Billy Bragg, Nick Drake, John Darnell, John K Sampson, Aimee Mann, Stephin Merritt, and Elliott Smith, whose song "Waltz #2" I just did a cover of for a compilation.
  
And then on the other, there are a whole bunch of artists that inform how I think about different types of songwriting and arrangement and layering and what you can do with the scope of a song -- and who are great songwriters themselves -- anywhere from Peter Gabriel to Kate Bush to the Psychedelic Furs to Tycho to Com Truise. That sort of stuff is more akin to what I've done over the years with The Static Age, but it definitely impacts the solo side as well. And as I evolve the solo work going forward, like on the record I'm working on right now, I think that will come out even more. I'm really enjoying approaching this project with no constraints on which direction to take it in any given moment.

Why do you think it is that there are a lot of people from the punk community that are now making folk music?
I think it makes sense. At their heart, a lot of good punk songs are really just good loud folk songs. The rendering is perhaps less full, but it can be just as raw, direct, and honest. At the root of any good punk song is just the song itself, after all, and hearing good songs stripped to their most base elements can always be compelling. And sure, there are a lot of people doing it, but if someone wants to pick up an acoustic guitar and see what noise they can make with it, why not? That said, as for myself, I don't think of what I'm doing now as folk. I don't know exactly how to describe it, especially given what I just said about influences, but I think elements of folk are more just one place to pull from than a definition of what ‘Sirens’ is.
 
And you’ve got a connection to New Zealand? Any chance of a show down here at some point?
Yeah a couple, in fact. The primary one is family. My dad’s sister moved there years and years ago and started a family, so I have an aunt, uncle and a whole branch of cousins over in New Zealand. Beyond that, an old friend also moved there a few years back. I hope to be over to visit everyone soon!
 
www.andrewpaley.com

(MARTY JONES) ​

Hot damn! Eb & Sparrow dropped a new single on Friday, and to celebrate they're going on tour! 
'To The West' is the first single off their third album, due out early next year. The new album, and single, was recorded in historic homestead Ahiaruhe, in the heart of the Wairarapa. The band converted the home into a recording studio, with vintage recording gear and sound engineer and producer Brett Stanton. 

We can't wait to hear how it comes out, and if 'To The West' is anything to go by, it's going to be amazing!

Eb & Sparrow will be touring somewhere near you, and are performing at the Southern Fork Americana Fest at the Tuning Fork on Saturday 7th October in Auckland.
We'll see you there! Listen below! 

Our favourite dream folk band from Wellington, French for Rabbits, are returning to Auckland on a small Winter Tour before they head to Europe again! 
The Weight of Melted Snow is one of our favourite albums of the year so far and we're always excited to get along to see them! Our local Fables are opening for them at the Wine Cellar this coming Saturday 26th. 
You can see what we had to say about their album here!

When you get two strong voices that compliment one another well you are already getting off to a strong start. Then when they are accompanied by gloriously simple arrangements that are true to the genre it's easy to see why Reverie is getting attention in their field. Victoria and Tony have created a satisfying journey through a list of traditional folk songs of which most you will not know. 

Simple arrangements, with vocal harmonies supported by one and sometimes two instruments are the backbone of the record. It could be a lovely articulate guitar or the thundering bounce of the bodhran, (a large circular drum that is thin and played with a double headed stick). Occasionally the Appalachian dulcimer, another traditional folk instrument that looks like a long diamond and is played with a slide, provides another outlet for the lovely melodies, offering a perfect break and gap between vocals. 

The vocal performances drive this record. Period. Tony has a fantastic voice for storytelling which is broad and deep in it's tone. The variety that he has in his vocal repertoire is absolutely fantastic and each song has a different but appropriate timbre that aids the story and is deeply captivating. Victoria sings a little less overall but whenever she joins in it adds a fantastic splash of colour to all the tracks. Harmonies sound absolutely effortless but don't let that fool you as her vocals stand strong when she sings her own parts in the duets. Her voice has traditional qualities that suit these songs but there is far more here then that. Whether it's her performance or just her natural sound there is a depth of soul to her voice and one could even call it proud.

Lastly it would be a crime not to mention the fantastic selection of songs that the duo have sourced to build their record. The tradition of folk music is strongly alive here as each song tells a different type of story. You will hear various stories of oppression, love and travels all from different perspectives and from different times. Reverie place them perfectly to create a pleasant listening experience that takes you on a journey through a variety of emotions.

Overall it's a great album that provides an excellent selection of songs, most of which you won't have heard before, and fantastic performances to create a unique and beautiful listening experience. If you like melancholic and, occasionally, upbeat acoustic music then this is a must for your music collection. 

(CHRIS DENT) 

Beloved Waiheke country/rock act Aaron Carpenter & The Revelators delve into their new- found swamp sound with their grinding and gritty single, 'Pretty Lies'. Recorded in a barn on Waiheke Island with producer Nick Abbot (The Subways, Robert Plant, The Datsuns), the track conjurers up a raw rock incarnation of their deep-seated country and blues sound. You can listen to that below! ​

The debut album of the same name is due for release this coming Friday 4th August and it's a hard hitting mix of classic rock influences and swampy alt-country. 

Aaron Carpenter has been making a name for himself over the last couple of years, having opened for Americana names Robert Ellis, Hayes Carll and Blind Boy Paxton at the South Pacific Tuning Fork, often alongside his band The Revelators. Having spent his younger days sneaking into the Gluepot, you can hear the influences of old rock and roll in the debut album. 

I spoke to Aaron just before the release of their debut EP in November 2015 and his appearance at the Southern Fork Americana Fest. You can find that here. 

'Gun Smoke Girl' will get you moving, with a chorus that was instantly in my head. The very restrained and tasteful harmonica in the slower boil of 'The Highway' is beautiful. A light touch of organ in the background is perfectly done - a good blues album is never without it. 'Never Hungry Long' is a massive anthem, which will sit perfectly in your playlists of over five minute rock and country tunes - ripping guitar solos, and that ever present huge rhythm section. 

I kept hearing bits of Led Zeppelin and bits of Pink Floyd in the music. Which is a great thing, and this is not to even speak of the cover of Led Zeppelin's 'When the Levee Breaks'. Aaron's voice really gives the band it's own sound that allows them to show these influences while carefully navigating the path of sounding original. I was surprised to see a Zeppelin cover amongst the songs, always a bold move but one that paid off immensely. The harmonica from Aaron, and some huge guitar sounds really drags you in. 

Moon Over Mountain has an element of Nick Drake to it, the acoustic driven track before they close out the album with the rocking ‘Bullet in a Barrel’, ‘When the Levee Breaks’ and their epic, ‘Werewolf.’ 

These guys are a must see live, I can just imagine how big their sound gets and the energy that would take over the room. With Aaron Carpenter & The Revelators and The Miltones both releasing debut albums, alt-country, blues and rock are in an excellent place right now! 

You can see Aaron Carpenter & The Revelators live celebrating the release of debut 'Pretty Lies' this Friday 4th August at the Tuning Fork with Sandy Mill & Band

(FINN MCLENNAN-ELLIOTT)

Reb Fountain is who we should all aspire to be. For me, she epitomizes all that is good in the music community. Reb’s having a big year in 2017, she’s finally released an EP, Hopeful and Hopeless, that has been sitting to the side for over three years, and is going to put out what is sure to be a stunning album, Little Arrows, in September that was started six and a half years ago, alongside her comrades Dylan Storey and, the late, Sam Prebble. I thought I’d take some time to talk about Reb and why she is a musician who, for me, is one of Aotearoa’s best.

In October 2014, I was just starting the journey that would result in Second Hand News being created, my series of Folk at the Old Folks shows and all that has come. I decided to put together a fundraising live to air radio show at Hum Salon to help them get the funds they needed to keep their house together. On the Tuesday, I started messaging some artists asking them to come play on Wednesday night, to help Hum and myself. We had some bagels, some beers and some enthusiastic amateurs. That was all we could offer in return for playing. I messaged Reb Fountain for the first time and asked if she’d like to come play, apologizing for the short notice and understanding it was a long shot.

“Hi Finn – sounds great – I’m keen to come play a couple of songs or whatever you need.” Reb came to play, straight from work if I remember rightly and she absolutely blew us away. She played songs from Hopeful and Hopeless and they have been the soundtrack to so many of my nights between then and now. I have sung the chorus to ‘Hopeful and Hopeless’ dozens of times, over dozens of gigs, and each time I’m always happy to be one of the crowd singing along!

During these three years Reb has come and played in my home at rough and ready house concerts, she’s played at shows I organized and I have made my way down to the Wine Cellar and sung my heart out to her beautiful songs. It was with great pleasure that I picked up her record to play her songs in my own home. 

It’s hard being a musician, or anyone in the music community, we all know that. There are the shows to three people, or the shows you’ve put on that only ten people buy tickets for. There are people who make it worthwhile though, there are those who turn up for no other reason than to support you, help you out and because ultimately, they are playing music because they love it. Reb is one of those souls.

I write this having come home from the Wine Cellar and her EP release show, performing alongside Dave Khan, Dylan Storey, Tom Cunliffe and Nick Atkinson. These are just some of the musicians she’s introduced to me, alongside her other musical family from the South,The Eastern, and now, Ravens. For me, folk music is about family, community and a feeling of inclusion, and Reb has always made people feel like they’re part of hers.

Hopeful and Hopeless is perfect. Reb surrounded herself with amazing musicians at The Wine Cellar when they recorded this, Dave Khan, Dylan Storey, Brendan Turner, Cole Goodley and Sam Prebble. Reb has said this was one of the last time’s she played with Sam before he passed away, in October 2014 shortly after I met Reb myself. Releasing the EP has been a long process for Reb, to revisit these songs and put them out the world.

We open with ‘The Truth About Us’, a song she wrote for Glen Innes, the state houses and her neighbourhood:

“Just on my block there’s ten single mums, kids run the street while they’re sucking their thumbs. Gang house on the corner, school on the other, we grow. You want to shift us to build high rise homes.”

Reb’s not shy to tell it how it is. She has always been upfront, always used her music to tell the things she feels are important. ‘The Truth About Us’ joins an esteemed collection of Kiwi songs, it is one of the greatest we have.

‘Gold’ drives the middle of the EP as it brings the tempo up and has some bite to it. There’s a nice little circle closed with the EP – Reb’s line sung in ‘Crazy Horse & Violence’ – “All my heroes killed cowboys.” Adam McGrath of the Eastern sings this, attributed to Reb Fountain in his track ‘Talking Americana Cowboy Yeeha Blues’ and I’ve been waiting, hoping, we’d get the original line since I heard Adam’s. 

‘Dance With Death Alive’ is a song that requires a few listens – to hear the words of wisdom. The instrumentation is delicate, supporting Reb and her words, Dave on accordion and Sam on banjo. These lines really sit with me and sum up what Reb is about, and why her songs resonate with me:

“I used to think a song was made to help you feel. Strange how a song made for money is just a cog in the wheel, feels kind of dirty, like it’s got no meaning left to sing.”
​
Chris Dent (Albi) told me, “Reb has a unique ability to write songs about her own experiences that are relatable to anyone. Not many songwriters can evoke emotion quite as consistently as her.” 

Hopeful and Hopeless was recorded in the Wine Cellar, mixed and engineered by Rohan Evans, maestro of the bar. It was mastered by Simon Gooding.

The Wine Cellar last night sung its heart out, and as Reb taught us the words to ‘Hopeful and Hopeless’, she realized that everyone already knew them! She left the stage to roaring applause and closed the night with the first song she learnt on guitar, ‘St James Infirmary Blues’, giving it the Reb spin.

We all went into the night, singing:  “Hopeful and hopeless, hopeful and hopeless. All you guys better open your eyes, get us out of this goddam mess, and fight for the hopeful and hopeless.”
 
Before I sign off, Reb has launched a boosted campaign as she looks to release Little Arrows in September. Please go and take a look at this, donate and help Reb release an album that has been a long time in the works, one that will allow us to hear Sam Prebble again. One that she is so proud to share!
 
​(FINN) 

I was lucky enough to chat with Joe Pug for the second time last week ahead of his return to The Tuning Fork for his second ever NZ tour. 

He's had a busy year, on both the work and family front. He's writing a new record, or still writing the new record if you read my interview last year. 

"This new record is going to be a pretty simple thing to record because of the style I want to do it in. The hard part is just the writing of it, and I’ve been doing a lot of writing but none of it has been very good!" He laughs. 

"I’m in this spot where I’m just keeping my shoulders on the boulder and moving it up the hill, and when or where the top of that hill is, I have no idea,"

He comments that he thinks it's not up to him anymore and something inspired will happen, when it happens. He's not in a rush to put this record out and believes it needs to be fantastic, not just fine. 

"The songs are fine that I'm writing, but in this day and age there’s no point in putting out a fine record. It’s hard enough to be heard if you have a great record. I can do this circuit of these places in the States and Europe and people wanna see the show and the songs and stories I have as is, and so I can and will just take my time!" 

I asked him about writing songs he didn't like and how he gets that feeling, and who he talks to about that.

"I feel like I can say songs are not good, I know the feeling of writing a good song, I know what it sounds like. For me. These just haven’t felt like that. I have a close circle of musician and writer friends who I will bounce this stuff off and they’ve pretty much confirmed my thoughts."

He's loving the chance to tour and play the songs from his back catalogue and when the new songs get mixed in, he needs them to be worthy.

"Asking someone to lay out 25 bucks for a vinyl, get a babysitter come down to the show on a Tuesday night, spend 35 bucks to come in and park, and spend their free time and energy, it’s a big ask, and so I would like to perform and inspire them, so they get back more than they put in! 

The new record will be close to his live show, the solo sound he's been performing for the last year, sans the trio that he had previously worked with. He wants his songs to fit into the storytelling tradition and his current show. 

Joe runs the podcast, The Working Songwriter, and I was over the moon to discover this and have since been listening to them all. 

​"I’m a big podcast listener because I travel so much and there’s only so much music you can listen to in a day. I really wanted to hear a podcast that had interviews with songwriters that was very relaxed and interspersed with some music history and some storytelling around the edges. I thought surely this show must exist, but it didn’t. And I said, well hey what’s the first rule of business, when you have an idea for something and it doesn’t exist, make it. It’s been pretty cool, I produce it pretty much all myself, I figured out how to record it and publish, and it’s been a great process. It’s been very invigorating for me." 

As Joe says, "It also has the artists best friend of a deadline, last Friday of the month, which can be helpful!" 

He thinks it has been a great resource to allow him to keep touring so much off an album cycle as the podcast grows and new listeners find it and him. 

Joe Pug plays San Fran, Wellington on Wednesday 19th July and The Tuning Fork, Auckland on Thursday 20th www.tuningfork.co.nz/July supported by the phenomenal Courtney Marie Andrews. 
(FINN) 

Set Free is an absolutely beautiful new folk album from Grawlixes. Its twisting melodies, combined with some sardonic lyricism and instrumentation results in songs that are both catchy and thoughtfully arranged.
 
Grawlixes, a folk pop duo consisting of Penelope Esplin (accordion, vocals) and Robin Cederman (guitar, vocals), originally formed in Dunedin, but are now based in Wellington. Another musical duo that started romantically and continues artistically, the group have the sort of beautiful harmonies and song arrangements that a closely linked pair have.
 
The album often switches pace from melancholy, downbeat tunes like ‘Set Free’ to more upbeat songs such as ‘Good Shadow.’ ‘Good Shadow’ is very catchy, with rhythmic guitar, accordion and bass, and deliciously close harmonies and strings that link the song together, without any percussion. This is territory the album often delves into, with many songs with minimal or no percussion, but with a whole lot of groove and some great mixing that make it a very cohesive listen.  
 
It’s very lush, warm and there’s also something intimate about the music, especially lyrically, in songs such as ‘Lover Boy’ or ‘Death in the Family’. I have really enjoyed this beautiful, intelligent and slightly quirky album. A must listen. 

Grawlixes are on their album release tour and stop in Auckland on Wednesday 19th at Portland Public House and on Thursday 20th at The Refreshment Room in Titirangi. All details and ticket links can be found here. 
(FRASER BROWNE)

​Loops, introspective lyrics and proving herself wrong are all part of what make up American folk artist Julien Baker.
 
Baker will perform her debut New Zealand show at the Tuning Fork in Auckland on July 23, with support from Adam Torres.
 
Speaking from her home in Memphis, Tennessee, while on a break from touring, Baker said she was looking forward to performing with “just me, my guitar and my loops” to a Kiwi crowd.
  
The electric-guitar-playing 21-year-old was enthusiastic about describing her stage set-up, though it had to be scaled back for international shows.

“I’m a complete geek about guitar stuff.’’ With two loops, and a range of Walrus synth and delay pedals, she described the Walrus equipment as her “desert island pedals”.
 
Baker was even working programming her Nord stage vintage keyboard to produce a variety of sounds, as well as working with synths and loops. “I’m trying to play guitar and keyboard at the same time.’’ However, at 5ft long, the keyboard was “as tall as me” - making it difficult to transport internationally, so she was only currently touring with it through the States.
 
She said it had been a “really crazy’’ time transitioning from going on tour with DIY bands for short amounts of time, where there was a “suspension of your reality’’ of daily life, to touring for more than 30-days when music “becomes your profession”.
 
With a new record expected out in October, Baker was pleased to be able to write and record on the road, with “hundreds of voice memos’’ and a journal full of “notes and poems’’ to work from, before putting it “all together’’ at soundcheck.
 
While the knowledge that she was now writing music that a growing audience would hear had made her question some of the lyrics she was writing, it was also a good challenge for her authenticity.
 
“Those lyrics which I feel most doubtful about singing and are the most honest . . . I feel most committed about leaving them in there.’’
 
She said talking about and performing the songs from her debut EP Sprained Ankle for more than year had caused Baker review why she had written what she had. She had been able to find a bit more hope in the often grim lyrics, enjoying the ability to “prove myself wrong’’.
 
The lyric “I ruin everything I do” was one example, where she was now able to say, “Well actually I don’t” and look at what previously might have been a bad experience as an “opportunity for grace” for herself.
 
However, her new album would still have a similar sad-song electric guitar sound, with dark lyrics and a bit more piano.
 
“They’re still pretty bummer jams,” she said with a laugh. “When we’re really probing the depth of our reality is [usually] when we are looking at grief or pain.’’
 
That exploration of life and its big questions through her music also tied in with being an “out” queer musician, who also discussed her Christian faith.
 
She said people came up after shows to tell her that her songs had helped them come out to their parents, or discussing her faith in her songs had enabled them to be okay with having doubts or “reconciling” faith and sexuality. While people had suggested she was better off to play music without discussing her beliefs or political views, she said it was an “unreasonable expectation’’ that artists could or should not use the platforms they had to speak up to improve the world, Baker said.
 
“I don’t think art can not be informed by society and the politics of its creation.’’
 
However, she said her music was not that specifically political.
 
“I’m not writing Green Day’s American Idiot.’’
 
She did not see herself as any more important than her audience but had had a “Sennheiser 68 [microphone] put in front of my mouth”, so she needed to use that opportunity to improve the world.
 
“I cannot say things that are vapid and meaningless.’’
 
She said people telling her not to speak her mind on stage was like they wanted her to be honest in her lyrics, but not speak about those things that informed her life - especially with the state of the world’s politics.
 
“There’s not time for apathy.”
 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
 At the request of Second Hand News, Julien Baker recommended three artists, including Camp Cope.
 
“They’re just really wonderful human beings that make great political, socially-aware [music].’’
 
Her other suggestions included folk artist Phoebe Bridgers, who performed with a “similar sparse set-up”, and Half Waif - who write avant-garde but “very clever and beautiful’’ electronic tunes.

(GRETA YEOMAN)