What inspired the creation of the Wild Moon Folk Collective?

Hevelwood: For one thing, there are so many incredible folk musicians on the Leeds scene, we wanted to see what could happen if we banded together. Trying to progress as an artist is hard going on your own, so the idea was to pool our knowledge and resources and make some amazing art at the same time.

How does the creative process for you differ going from solo to collaborative work?

HerOrangeCoat: I work on originals only in my solo work, so doing a re-working of a trad tune was a real joy, and a completely different starting point for the whole creative process for me. I’m also still new to collaborative work, so there’s an element of novelty to it all on my end. I think having to explain your thought processes to someone else so you can work together to get a creative output is probably the most different aspect. Having to verbalise and communicate from the very outset, when you’re still working out what you’re thinking – that’s a real skill. Luckily, Hevelwood is incredibly forgiving, and our thoughts on how this track applies in today’s world were very much aligned. 

Hevelwood: I find it very hard to commit to an idea. Normally I’ll noodle something around for a year or so before it finds a settled form. Collaborating meant making decisions early on and I’ve appreciated having a structure that we agreed on together. HerOrangeCoat’s got such an ear for arranging and the number of instruments at her disposal is phenomenal so it was a real treat trading ideas, especially where they differed from my own well worn tendencies.

Why was the song The Seasons chosen to rework?

HerOrangeCoat: Hevelwood suggested this initially, and I remember being struck by how temporally messy the song is. It admires the beauty of autumn, but then wishes for Spring, admires the summer, but then wishes for the autumn. In a period where the seasons are becoming more and more confused, it felt the perfect song to reimagine, and that’s where the Climate Breakdown version really comes into its own. It all becomes a jumble.

Hevelwood: Yeah, and it’s only two verses so there’s an inevitable cycling of material to put through the ringer. In narrative folk songs, if you mess with the structure, you mess with the story. Here we were able to tell a story through the structure.

How did you find honouring the traditional elements of the song while creating a reimagining?

HerOrangeCoat: The words have been passed down from generation to generation, and the tune is fairly loyal to the versions of both Fiona Ross and Lizzie Higgins, but the reimagining came largely when we put the focus on what it means to be singing this song now, in this moment.

Hevelwood: I see singing folk songs as having a conversation with the past. Often it’s a case of learning the words, picking up the tune and seeing what feelings and tensions come up along the way. I think neither of us have what you’d call a trad-folk style, but the tradition is durable enough to handle it.

Why do you think there is such a strong relationship between folk music and nature?

HerOrangeCoat: In many ways, folk music is interwoven with nature because that’s how we have understood our world and ourselves for centuries. Nature is how we live, how we grow, how we thrive. If we didn’t understand and know it, it was ultimately how we died. There’s something at once mournful and defiant in singing this song, so laden with nature’s beauty, at a time when society has become so severed from it.

Hevelwood: For me, it’s actually quite a complex question. In recent history, the pastoral view of folk is often romanticised to the point where its more urban contexts are overlooked. That said, what Georgia says is true – folk songs like this appeal to a world that had to work more closely with nature, unlike today’s where it feels like we’re trying to work against it.

What emotions do you hope to evoke in the listener? Is there a message you hope they take away?

HerOrangeCoat: This is a tough one, because the emotions the song brings up for me are complex. I myself am constantly in awe of nature’s beauty, but again there’s something so mournful about it in this current ecological moment. Reading the lyrics and thinking about what they mean for me, I’m astounded and appreciative, fearful and hopeless, hopeful and yet so full of doom. Listeners will have their own barrage of emotions, I’m sure, but I guess the message here is about the connection, severance, and reconnection with nature.

Hevelwood: Living in a city, you get these really odd, artificial nature spots. Odd in the sense that you can be lost in deep woodland but still get the rumble of traffic occasionally seeping in. I’m really aware of the tension of this sort of synthesised nature which we use to make city life bearable. You’ll have your own feelings about that, I guess. I don’t know if you can overtly discern this tension in the music, but it’s something we talked about from the start that informed a lot of our creative choices. 

What can we expect next from the collective?

We’re super excited as a collective to be working with the Attic to put on a series of gigs, centred around creating arresting folk experiences. Every penultimate Sunday of the month we will feature a range of incredible artists, and the first gig on 21 September kicks off with an extended afternoon of our own collective members performing. Both of us will be playing, and we’re planning a special live version of Seasons for the night.

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-attic-presents-folk-night-with-the-wild-moon-collective-sept-21st-tickets-1624493075519

There’s lots more going on behind the scenes, too, so follow our socials to stay up to date with it all. Our instagram is @wildmoonfolkleeds

If you’d like to add anything else then please do, I’ll get to work on it straight away when I’ve got the answers back and will check in with you for the rollout 🙂

We actually have a live video of the song (shout out to our Wild Moon pal Lilian who was doing an excellent job on camera duty). Recorded out in one of those suspect beauty spots we were talking about, it might just make an appearance soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that…