Interview with British Folk Artist Raven Shelley
By Mick Michaels
Cosmick View: Hello again, Raven! Welcome to The Cosmick View. Thanks for taking some time out of your day to speak with us. It's greatly appreciated.
Raven Shelley: Hi, thanks for having me!
CV:
Often, when people hear “folk music,”
thoughts of the late 60s, hippies and free love fill their imaginations. But
there is more to it than just that snapshot in time. How would you describe
folk music today compared to folk music from the late 60s? Is there a
difference?
RS: Well folk music has been
around in various forms for generations. That 60s scene you describe was in
turn influenced by the likes of Woody Guthrie, Odetta and Pete Seeger. And of
course, there’s a huge history of folk music which would have been passed down
orally through the years.I think one of the main differences is that folk has
been incorporated into so many other genres, there’s perhaps fewer traditional
folk purists out there.
I’m sure you could argue whether that means it has become more commercialized or not, but that would feed into a whole other question about the commercialization of music – and the world – in general.
I don’t think the spirit of folk music has changed that much though –it’s a hardy type of music, and I think the urge to fight back and protest runs through it.
CV:
Aside from being a musical artist, you are also an aspiring writer. How do you
see the two actually embracing one another or are they more like opposites in
your opinion?
RS: Words have always been
natural to me. I’m creative in other fields as well, but I think this is the
form of creation that comes most easily to me. I read a lot, have studied
English Literature and Classics throughout my education, and my parents are
writers, so it’s not really surprising that I have a love of the written word!
I think many of the same themes occur in my songs and in my other writing. I tend to turn most of my poems into songs, eventually. And I think that when I decide to write something like a short story, I tend to sit down with the conscious decision to do that, whereas songs tend to pop into my head at random – and sometimes very inconvenient…at times!
My other projects are all on the back burner at the moment, because I’m focusing so much on music. But I like that there’s no pressure with them, and I find that I return to them at various points and just jot down more ideas//passages. Works in progress!
I think one of the things I love most about songwriting – and this is something which is pretty unique to music – is its freedom. Freedom both in terms of being able to pull words around when you sing so that they fit the line, but also freedom to continually recreate them. Every time you perform you have the option of altering a song, of trying something new. Every performance will be different, because a song is alive and breathing.
CV: For you, does classic literature
play a major role in your songwriting approach?
RS: Absolutely. Both
classics in terms of English Literature but also Classical texts – I studied
both intensively at school and university. Stories that you find in Ovid, Virgil,
Homer, they all continue to influence me. I love Metamorphoses and the imagination inherent within that. But take
something like The
Iliad, and
there are so many rich characters and possible songs!
English literary classics are also a huge influence, and again, there’s the possibility of so many songs lurking in many of those works. I have notebooks filled with ideas about how to create songs from various texts.
It’s part of the whole intertextuality thing; I find that phrases & ideas all make their way into my songs from works of literature, whether that’s consciously or not. I have a song about Sylvia Plath for instance which deliberately echoes or quotes some of her poetry.
CV:
In today's society, it appears that both books and music, to some degree, have
taken a back seat to the easy trappings of the internet, social media and
streaming services. Does such a need for instant gratification concern you as a
young music artist and writer as you are building your career?
RS: It concerns me in
general, because if people don’t realize how carefully curated much of social
media is then it can be very dangerous. And I think that platforms such as
TikTok may play a part in shortening peoples’ attention spans, because it’s
very short videos, and there’s a continuous new supply of them. Perhaps people
don’t find it as easy to pay attention for longer periods of time.
I was walking down a narrow pavement the other day in town, and I saw a woman coming towards me pushing a pram. Naturally, I stepped into the road so that she wouldn’t have to, and as she passed I noticed that she was on her phone, tapping away at something, whilst pushing this pram and not noticing where she was going, and her kid, who was no more than 2 years old, probably less than that, was on an iPad. I just thought that summed up the state of things right now….
The whole social media & instant gratification thing also means than as a young artist, you basically have to use social media, and use it effectively. There isn’t much choice, since this is how so much new music is discovered now.
CV:
Tell us a little about your new single, "Do You Miss Me Yet?"
RS: It’s a scathingly humorous
breakup song, based on looking back on an utter car-crash of a relationship.
Someone said to me recently: “Remind me to never piss you off. I don’t want to
end up being on the receiving end of a song like that haha.” I think that gives
you an idea of it!
It took me about 10 minutes to write – it was one of those songs which just comes to you almost fully formed, unlike those ones you have to wrestle with for months until you eventually subdue them.
I had nothing to go on but the title of this song, initially. And I was toying with ideas and lyrics, messing about on my guitar, when suddenly it all came together, and this song just poured out of me. My pen could barely keep up with my mind. I played it through, left it to settle until the next day, made a few tweaks and it was done! It was pure and joyous word-vomit.
CV:
Is songwriting for you a matter of tapping into unresolved emotions or is it
more of an “in the moment” sort of process?
RS: It varies a lot. I know
that I still write songs now about things that happened years ago, and perhaps
that’s a way of trying to resolve something, or remember it. And certainly when
I play songs, I often tap back into the emotions that went into it, and I’m
transported back to the place, time or events which created it.
Writing is incredibly cathartic for me, and sometimes I know I want to write a song about something. Often though, the words just come, and I write them down, and sometimes don’t even understand them at the time. That’s more of an ‘in the moment’ thing.
CV:
Are artists today freer to experiment with sounds and styles, even hop around
genres a bit, all in an effort to make their musical mark and find an audience
in your opinion?
RS: Possibly, yeah…. There’s
definitely a lot of freedom in the sense that you can literally record and
release an entire album from your bedroom, if you have the right equipment and
expertise.
CV:
What more can fans expect to see coming from you as the New Year quickly draws
closer?
RS: Many more live shows – I’ve
been living in a village in the Peak District for the past year or so, and
there’s not a huge amount of opportunities to play live here. But I’m going
back to Manchester at the end of October, and I have already got some shows
booked for November, so I’m looking forward to getting back into the gigging
circuit. There will also be another release at the start of December (and no,
it’s not a Christmas song) so stay tuned!
CV:
Thanks again Raven for taking the
time to share with our readers. We wish you all the best and continued success.
RS: Thanks for having me,
it’s been a pleasure.
Check
out Raven at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ravenshelleymusic/
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ravenshelleymusic
Amazon Music:https://music.amazon.co.uk/artists/B09Z6K2KZC/raven-shelley
Soundcloud:https://soundcloud.com/ravenshelleymusic
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