Rachael Dadd’s debut EP, Moth in the Motor, gets an official release this very day. It’s a beautiful slice of modern-tainted folk, the vocals and songs bring to mind early Unthanks in their simplistic delivery that hides deeper and darker stories behind the scenes.
After finishing up with the interview, feel free to download the track ‘Table’ here, to wet your appetite.
We caught up with the lady herself to find out a bit more about her…
For people out there that have never heard of you. Give us three reasons why they should…
I’m a real life girl
I play lots of instruments including the wooden frog
I’ve got bells on
Can you recall the moment when you first decided you wanted to become a musician?
I’ve played instruments since I was 4 or 5, starting in true English tradition on the recorder. I was particularly inspired by a recorder tune about a train. Maybe that was the moment I decided. Music and art were my favourite subjects through school
Where do your songs come from? What’s your inspiration?
I write mostly when I’m alone/lonely, but my songs are rarely actually about loneliness. They’re about a massive range of stuff. Whatever is getting to me at the time. I’m writing a song at the moment about a david attenborough film that I saw at a shit trance party. The elephants and monkeys swimming were extremely moving
Name your Top 5 records.
Noshintoh – Pah (Japanese New Wave band www.myspace.com/nohshintoh)
Rozi Plain – Inside Over Here
Diane Cluck – O Vanille
Roots of Rumba Rock
Joni Mitchell – Blue
What was the first gig you ever played and was it a success?
It was when I played my piano songs in the intevals at Alton College jazz band gigs. My A Level teacher was brilliant and was the first person that got me playing to audiences. I used to play electric piano and wear a headset microphone! I’ve learnt a lot since then. But it was a success in that I had to start somewhere and there it was.
What one piece of criticism has stuck in your mind and was it justified?
That my songs were like babies that you couldn’t put down! Meaning they were too long. I remeber being upset but at the time it was a very justified remark. Reflecting now I’m grateful to that person
What one thing has caused you to waste your free time in the past 6 months?
Checking e-mails too often when I should be outside getting fresh air and playing on the rope swing near my house – best rope swing I ever saw.
If you weren’t making music, what do you think you’d be doing?
Making more art and getting more exhibitions, and if not that then feeling pretty darn miserable I should imagine
What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
Receptionist for an employment agency. I got addicted to Coca Cola because I was so bored. And i had to watch many hopeful and desperate souls filling out forms with no real hope of being given a job. It was really quite depressing.
We’d like you to make us a mix-tape. Pick five tracks with a theme of your choice.
The Theme: my Japanese discoveries
Popo – Blackbean – www.myspace.com/popokibito
Noshintoh – Jump – www.myspace.com/noshintoh
Aki Tsuyou – Track 1 from Hokane – www.myspace.com/akitsuyuko
Naoto Kawate – Song for Joe – www.myspace.com/komariirimame
Maher shalal Hash Baz – futility
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People talk about Rachael Dadd and Rozi Plain as if they are merely innovative Future-Folk singer-songwriters. The material on the web backs this up. In actual fact, they are the most astounding singer-songwriters in the history of modern music, regardless of genre! I am an 80′s post-punk man, but both Rachael and Rozi would blow modern any act off the face of the planet. How such incredible talent can remain so obscure is a mystery to me and anyone else who actually buys their records or goes to their shows. Fortunately I am making a massive high definition, Dolby 5.1 sound movie archive of all their shows, along with other great talents such as Francois and the Atlas Mountains, Uncle Jellyfish, The Powdered Cows, Adelaide’s Cape, Whalebone Polly (Rachael Dadd and Kate Stables) and SJ Esau, because one day this footage will be more culturally valuable than films of The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Jefferson Airplain, Early Echo and The Bunnymen, Radiohead, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Siouxie & The Banshees or The Verve. My recent film of Rozi Plain’s full band set in Blackburn even exceeds the power, poignancy and depth of The Chameleons UK’s fantastic Ascension double DVD! I must apologise to all you folkies for using post-punk psychedelic or Dream Pop acts as a comparison, because with the possible exception of Magnet’s “Willows Song”, as seen in the cult film “The Wicker Man”, traditional folk is just not good enough to compare with anything these incredible women have created. Quite simply they are a branch point in the history of modern music. And at each show they get even better at an EXPONENTIAL RATE! And the great thing is they can be seen in small intimate venues because the vast majority of FOOLS don’t know what they are missing, though the people who have listened to my rants about them (instead of dismissing me as some kind of lunatic) and see their shows come back shaking with awe-they can’t seem to take it all in, the experience is so great for them it’s almost traumatic in it’s intensity.