Tag: Keats

BGS 5+5: Rose Betts

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Rose Betts
Hometown: London, United Kingdom
Latest Album: There Is No Ship (released March 7)

What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?

When I lived in London, my parents would often come to my shows. Right before I’d go on, my mother would say, “Tell me a story.” It seems so simple to put it that way, but really it was such a wonderful gem of advice, a steady light, a root to hold onto. It’s easy to get caught up in other things, when I’m playing live I have to fight against the problems of not hearing myself, the lights, raucous crowds. When I’m singing a song to my phone to share on TikTok I’m thinking about the lighting, or whether its engaging enough. Even when I’m in a room with executives and they’re trying to figure out if I’m worth investing in – keeping that line of “tell me a story” in my head and my heart ties me to the old and beautiful tradition of what songwriting is and, when you take all the egos and the money out of it, what everybody wants to be a part of. We are born storytellers, all of us, and that is the thing that ties us together and helps us grow.

What other art forms – literature, film, dance, painting, etc. – inform your music?

I actually turn to other art forms for inspiration much more than I turn to music. Literature has always been important to me and totally informs more songwriting. Melody is a gift from the air, it isn’t something I overthink, but words, and everything that can be poured into a melody through them, are so magical to me. Authors like Tolstoy, Turgenev, Austen, and Emily Brontë, poets like Keats, Philip Larkin, Seamus Heaney – they all inspire me in different ways to become a better songwriter. I love the challenge of finding new ways to say old things. It offers me and also the listener a chance to look afresh at the world and at themselves.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Nature is my church, it is where I go to free my mind. Living in LA, I’ve become acquainted with a different kind of nature and I’m not sure it suits me. England is lush, the greens are abundant, the air is rich and full of moisture, it weighs the sky down, bringing it nearly within touching distance. None of this is in LA. So my favourite thing to do here is to drive to San Bernardino, up into the mountains, to Crestline. Being around those trees fills me up, I can feel it nourishing something in me.

Nature roots me to the simplicity of what it is to be alive. It is passive and without pity – a witness. I feel like songs need what human beings need: air and light and water. But everyone has feet that touch the earth, so all songs need to have a part of themselves in contact with the ground, the roots, the stone.

If you didn’t work in music, what would you do instead?

I’d like to think I’d have some quiet job somewhere which gave me lots of time to read, maybe as a librarian or a translator of foreign literature. Or perhaps something in costume or fashion – I love making clothes and I love film costume, so being someone who brought the world of film to life through costume would be pretty wonderful.

Does pineapple really belong on pizza?

Surely trying to police pizza is like trying to say that a violin only belongs in an orchestra and you can’t have pancakes for dinner. Think about all the wonderful things we’ve made because we broke the rules. I love when cultures mix together and make something new and unexpected, it happens all the time, and should be celebrated. That said I don’t have pineapple on my pizza.

Photo Credit: Catie Laffoon

BGS 5+5: Native Harrow

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Native Harrow (Devin Tuel and Stephen Harms)
Hometown: Just outside of Philadelphia
Latest album: Closeness
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): A good band name we didn’t use is “Tuel & Harms.” As for personal nicknames, well, those are secret and too embarrassing to share.

Answers provided by Devin Tuel

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Though I could list about 50 artists, I feel the most honest answer is Neil Young. I used to listen to Live at Massey Hall while I rode the M1 bus up and down First Avenue from my college to the Lower East Side. Listening not just to the brilliant songs and guitar playing, but also to the way he held attention, to the way he tuned, to his grumbling, and his storytelling. I was transfixed by that record.

I grew up listening to Neil. My Dad is a huge fan. He took me to see him perform when I was young and I remember being on the edge of my seat the entire show, mouth agape. I felt so electric after seeing that. And thru the many years of my own career I have looked to him for inspiration, for guts when I can’t find mine, and for a “What would Neil do?” approach to difficult situations. He seems to have a reverence for nature that I share and I have always felt he could appreciate an open field just as I do.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

This past year and much of 2019 we have been in the UK more than the States supporting our release of Happier Now with Loose. We have played in so many beautiful spaces and met many wonderful people. These are some of our favorite memories of touring to date. And in January we played a sold-out show at Paper Dress Vintage in London during the Americana UK Fest, and as I was singing the opening notes of our first song, “Can’t Go On Like This,” I realized there were people in the audience singing along with me. If any musician ever says they don’t care about that, they’re lying. It’s the most special, heartwarming, exciting thing ever. Someone loves your song enough that they want to sing with you. That’s the best.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I grew up dancing — I was a ballerina with a Pennsylvania-based ballet company for about 13 years. So since a very young age I have been exposed to theatre life and the world of the performing arts. I still find seeing ballet so moving I often end up in tears. The classical music I grew up dancing to feels deeply rooted in my muscles and bones. It is so evocative of human emotion and passion and can take your spirit on such a journey. I think that is something we are always trying to achieve with our albums. We want to take you on a journey where the listener is transported away for a while and when the last notes ring out, you are slightly changed by what you’ve just experienced.

Certainly poetry has long been an art form that I have drawn inspiration from. I am deeply connected to nature and thus very moved by the poetry of the natural world — Whitman, Wordsworth, Frost, Keats, etc.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Stephen and I take two walks daily that wind up and down the rolling hills near our home, past fields of sweet grass and hay, dense forest, and old farm houses. Whether the sun is shining or grey clouds and rain accompany us, it’s so necessary to turn off and just be in nature. I am always making a reference to the weather, the season, or birds on several songs on each album we’ve made. The song “Turn Turn” on Closeness begins with “Turn, turn, watch the weeks go by, moving slowly ‘cross the field ‘til the grass is greener….”

I have written poetry for over a decade and almost all of it is nature-based! There is endless inspiration and it is ever-changing, full of life and full of mystery.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Hardly ever! I am honest when it is about me. Which for better or for worse has kept our songs raw and truthful. The best material I have to draw from is that which is stirring in my own heart and before my own eyes. So I try to tell it honestly and rarely rely on fiction to save my face.

Photo credit: Parri Thomas