Wednesday saw the release of To The Boats, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Sophie Kilburn, the second track to be taken from Asthmatic Harp's Things We Learned To Live With, due later this year. We caught up with Hannah for a chat about the new single, how she fell in love with the harp, the history of her project and the differences between working solo and collaborating.
Asthmatic Harp is an intriguing name for your project. Could you tell
us how it came to have that name?
Well for a start there is a lot of asthma in my family and as a child I
suffered from asthmatic bronchitis myself but that does not explain the ‘Harp’
part. A few years ago, I was doing a two-week teaching residency at an art
school in Denmark. It was at that time that I first came across the instrument
that I now love so much, the autoharp.
It was not love at first sight because as far as I remember it was out of tune
and had several rusty strings. However, there was something about the sound
that just spoke to me. It sounded both angelic and raw at the same time,
perhaps like a harp with asthma and that is how the name Asthmatic Harp came
into being.
Could you give us a potted history of the project and bring us into where
Asthmatic Harp is in 2020?
I moved from Denmark to the UK in 2015 and began performing on the London
music scene with my debut EP Lost Astronaut.
In 2018 Asthmatic Harp was handpicked to the Roundhouse Resident Artist
Program where I got to do some pretty amazing things like playing the 1,700
seated capacity Roundhouse main stage as the opening act for Sam
Palladio.
I have recently been made a 'Do It Differently' Awardee by Help Musicians UK
and will be releasing my new EP 'Things We Learned To Live With' later this
year.
Last summer I moved to Glasgow which has been really exciting for my music
because there is such a creative vibe and a strong scene for folk music. One
of my last live gigs before lockdown was a Sofar concert in the fairy-tale
like city of St Andrews. It was such a beautiful night and my first ever
concert with the sea as the backdrop.
The harp is obviously very central to your music. Have you found that using
an instrument that is seen as unusual compared to say a guitar in
songwriting has opened doors for you or created barriers to people listening
to your music?
I think that it can be a bit of both. The autoharp is very much an instrument
that people either hate or love. Personally, I like to mix it up a with
several instruments which is why I also play both the guitar and the
piano.
The new single To The Boats has a series of collaborations - with Sophie
Kilburn on the track and Linda Schultheis on the lyric video. How did
these collaborations come about?
Sophie is a really interesting up-and-coming singer-songwriter. She is based
in London where we met through the Roundhouse. Linda Schultheis is a super
talented graphic designer based in Munich. We actually started collaborating
together while she was a student Central Saint Martins and I was doing a
degree at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. The first projects we did
together was very experimental and based around audio visual art
installations.
And how is different working with other artists to working on your own?
Collaboration can spark such interesting work that could not possibly have
been created by a single mind alone. I love working on my own and do it a lot
of the time, but collaboration is a crucial part of my creative life too. It
can inspire me and challenge me and admittedly sometimes frustrate me too, but
it always sparks my curiosity and fuels my imagination.
Lyrically, the song feels very personal and the music heightens the
emotional intensity of it. Do you see music as a means of expressing
yourself through a medium where words alone might not be enough?
Very much so. That is what is so special about music and that is an aspect of
being a songwriter that I will never get bored of exploring.
Do you have a set process for your songwriting - or does it come naturally
without having to book and set aside specific times and places for
songwriting?
Sometimes my process is super structured and planned with time set aside for
it. I even give myself small composition tasks to practice my writing and
develop my technique. Just like practicing an instrument!
At other times inspiration can suddenly hit. This can be on my way home on the
bus or on my bike, or while I am in the shower. In those moments it is all
about and capturing and scribbling down as much as possible before it slips
away again. I have had entire songs coming out of the blue like that! Other
songs you really have to fight for and wrestle with for a long time before
they turn into finished songs.
You have an EP Things We Learned To Live With coming out later this
year. Are the two singles that you've released this year
representative of the sound of the EP or are there surprises in store?
It has been really exciting to release new music again after a couple of years
where I have been focusing on my live sound.
Things We Learned To Live With feels like a true reflection of where I have
taken my new sound as an artist. My last single Bird of Paradise features an
instrument that I have really enjoyed implementing in my arrangements for the
EP – the clarinet! So much that I have actually taken up the instrument myself
as a complete beginner.
The gentle autoharp strum and the melancholic calm qualities of my newest song
To The Boats is certainly also representative of what is to come. However,
there are definitely some surprises in store. I can’t reveal much more than
that although perhaps you could just prepare yourself by considering just how
amazing an instrument the bass clarinet is…
Recently you were granted a "Do It Differently" award by Help Musicians UK
after being part of the Roundhouse Resident Artist program in London - how
has this support for emerging artists helped you in your own musical
journey?
The Roundhouse Resident Artist Program provided me with a creative safe haven
in the middle of London where I could go and create, record and experiment. I
made good friends with several of the other artists in the cohort of talented
up-and-coming musicians, some of whom will be featuring on my upcoming
EP.
Being awarded the ‘Do It Differently Award’ was a wonderful thing that came at
just the right time. I had been working long and hard preparing for my next
release and it was a huge encouragement to be given the chance to follow
through with my plans. This kind of support for emerging artists is so
valuable as an independent artist trying to find your own way of doing
everything.
You're now based in Glasgow and have founded The Blue Tongue
Collective. Could you tell us a little about what that is, what its
aims are and how people can get involved with it?
Writing and releasing music can be a really lonely process, particularly if
you are an independent solo artist trying to build up your career. Solitude
can be necessary in the creative process but in my opinion, there is no reason
that the experience of life as a singer-songwriter should be. There is so much
competition going on in the music industry and so many sharp elbows.
For years I had wanted to be part of something that could be an antidote to
that, like some sort of creative community of artists. When I moved to
Glasgow, I decided that it was time to stop waiting and just get on with it
myself. That is when I founded Blue Tongue Collective.
Blue Tongue Collective aims to support and sustain a thriving scene of
musicians and songwriters in and around Glasgow who are passionately going
about things their own way. We are still in the early stages with it, but we
are planning a range of exciting events and projects in the future like
showcases, workshops and residencies. Some of which will be open to the public
and a chance for others outside the collective to get involved.
If you had to describe Asthmatic Harp to someone who'd never heard your
music before, where would you start?
I would say imagine a cross between Julia Holter, Laura Marling and Regina
Spector. Then add in an autoharp and some strong Nordic folk vibes with the
odd murder ballad thrown in.
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