They were a breakthrough act of 2013 and things are looking good for Cumbria-born London-dwelling indie quartet Woman’s Hour. With a debut album Conversations out on Secretly Canadian and a world tour this autumn, their stirring melancholy music is gaining wider audiences on a global scale. We snatched a quick chat with Fiona Burgess, the female quarter of the band, at Green Man.
– Woman’s Hour comes from Cumbria and Cumbria has given us pretty incredible bands like Wild Beasts and British Sea Power. What’s the secret? What’s the scene like now?
– I don’t know cos I don’t live there now. I go back but I’m not…I feel like you need to live in a place to know what the scene’s like now. We went back recently to Kendal Calling. And I went back…We shot our latest music video which I directed back in my old school. That was cool. That was…(Laughs) I mean it’s funny cos it’s kind of one of those places where nothing really changes. There’s not many people so I feel like it generates a feeling of collectiveness. You know, there’s one place to go out, there’s one place to go to a gig, there’s one place to…do everything. In that sense I guess that kind of generates a scene without meaning to because people tend to go to similar places if they’re interested in music. So, yeah…but I couldn’t really tell you what the scene’s like now cos I don’t live there.
– Yeah, I know you’re all in London now. So what are your musical tips at the moment? Any new bands that you love?
– What have I been listening to? There was a girl who supported us at our show in London called Cousin Marnie. I really liked her music.
Who else have I come across? I feel like I’ve got people on the tip of my tongue…There was someone else. Oh, a girl called Laurel. She played with us at The Great Escape festival.
https://soundcloud.com/classiclaurel/to-the-hills-wav
There was also an artist called called Emilie Nicholas, a Scandinavian artist. She played a gig with us. She’s got such a beautiful voice. I do like Scandinavian music. There’s something about it that captivates me. I’ve been listening to her as well. She’s amazing!
– It’s also proving to be a busy year for you. You’ve got a new album out, you’ve played some festivals already and you’ve got lots of touring ahead of you. So how does it feel? What’s been the highlight so far?
– Oh so many! We’d never played a festival before this year, so it’s all very new to us. What’s been the highlight? Probably going to festivals abroad. It’s been really cool. Living in England I’ve been to festivals at home so I do sort of know what to expect. Although coming back and seeing new things, it was cool going away…We’ve played a couple of shows, one of them was Best Kept Secret in Rotterdam and it was just amazing. Just incredible! Being in a different country for a festival was so nice. You do feel foreign but it was such great atmosphere! I’m just enjoying seeing different parts of the world, meeting new audiences – audiences are so different from place to place, which is cool. Yeah, just continuing…
– What are you most looking forward to most?
I’m really looking forward to the show at the Village Underground. That’s going to be our biggest headline show yet. Hopefully we’re gonna try and make it special. We gonna have some control over making it a bit more of a show, a bit more performative, hopefully adding a few more elements that we haven’t done before…Yeah, I’m really looking forward to it cos that kind of kicks off our headline tour.
– I’ve been to one of your recent performances and noticed it was a very visual show. Is visual element something that’s important to you as a band?
Yeah, very. For us it’s an opportunity to be involved in every aspect of what we put out there from stage sets to videos, to artwork, to props, to lighting… Every aspect. We don’t want to take that opportunity for granted, we wanna make the most of that. As audiences, ourselves, we appreciate seeing bands putting in that effort. Often we really enjoy that. And I think that’s where it comes from. We wanna be that band who’s made the effort and it makes you, as an audience, feel very special.
To find out more about Woman’s Hour, including tour dates and ticket information, please go to www.womanshourband.co.uk
