Talking To...Nancy Elizabeth
I've always liked Nancy Elizabeth's approach to music, the way she includes it as part of a wider artistic spectrum. There's a quality about her work, the images she uses and even the titles of the albums that makes you feel you're dealing with an artist that has a very informed sense of their self and the world around them.
I know that sounds a little pretentious, but if artistic quality has to sound a bit pretentious when being described, so be it.
Nancy Elizabeth , both live and in conversation comes across as some one really enjoying what they are doing, so it was with some relish I took the opportunity to add her to our talking to… series.
#NE=Nancy Elizabeth #NK=Neil King
All images Mark Winpenny
#NK Looking back, what was behind losing the Cunliffe part of the name?
#NE It was too long, it sort of felt a bit double-barrelled. When people asked you want you did and you'ld say you were a musician and then they'd ask you your name and it just sounded so long. I was never really that fond of me last name. I think dad would be upset by that, but he'll understand.
I had to think about what I was going to do, so I just decided to do away with it and carry on as Nancy Elizabeth. I think if I'd have planned it from the start, I'd never have ended up using it, but I guess it's my name.
#NK Did a three part name risk you getting confused with a country singer? [laughs]
#NE Not over here. It was that well thought out it was length more than anything.
#NK You're just about to start touring the album, which is new to most people, but as you mentioned you've been with it over a long time. Where does that work in with your thought processes?
#NE That's tricky. I was very much with this album when I was recording it, constantly thinking about it., even when I'd finished it, I was thinking about how to do it live. Live I'm fully with this album, but there's a place where you have to leave the recording. I'm very much thinking of the Manchester show. I thought about the artwork, done it and let it go.
I've got a lot of ideas for the next album. They've been buzzing around for a while, but they weren't right for "Wrought Iron". I beginning the process of making sense of those other ideas now. I don't know how long that process will take, I'm sort of somewhere between the two. There's still a lot of space for "Wrought Iron" in my mind as it's only part way along the journey.
#NK I always get intrigued as to how very creative people address their work.
#NE I was definitely not looking at anything else when I was working on "Wrought Iron" is something came up and it wasn't right, I'd put it to one side. I am now I've finished it but I'm with it all the way, it's needs have changed.
I was hoarding ideas, but not working on them and it's time to have a look. I've got a lot of ideas. I don't know where they've come from, it's like they were waiting their time. Some ideas don't feel right at one time and feel perfect the next. They've had time to simmer.
#NK Where do you seek your inspiration from?
#NE I find listening to music really inspirational. I find it quite intense listening to other people's music because I don't do it that often. I think people think that if you're a musician, you have music playing all the time. I really don't. I like quiet.
I listen to radio four quite a lot. I think you can get inspiration from anywhere. Sometimes you don't see it coming, you go out shopping and you see something that inspires you. Especially with travelling.
I do quite a lot of touring and you're always coming up against situations where you don't quite know what's going on and it's quite interesting. Just being along in a room with an instrument, a piano, can be inspiring. There's always something going around in my head. The where, the why, the when, the how. It's exciting.
#NK Thanks. If I could do a couple of vox pop type questions now. Favourite film?
#NE That's really tricky one that. I really love "Harold And Maude". I'm trying to educate myself in film at the moment. I watched a French film, "The Four Hundred Blows" the other day, which was beautiful. Currently "Four Hundred Blows".
#NK Book?
#NE That's tricky as well. At the moment, I'm trying to Navigate my way through "The Eternal City" by Hal Caine. It's one of those books that I came across and thought was a bit too high brow. I think my favourite thing tends to be what I'm doing right now.
#NK Just to be cruel, as you're a multi-instrumentalist, instrument ?
#NE That is cruel. Probably the cello. I don't play the cello, but I think that's why it's my favourite because I find it quite beguiling.
#NK And finally town or country?
#NE I couldn't appreciate one without the other. I love both. If I had to pick one for the rest of my life…I suppose I'd have to go with country, but I love people and I think I'd miss them. If I could have people with me, definitely country.
#NK Thanks very much.