Talking To...Jackie Oates
Welcome to the 8th editopn of “Talking To” where FATEA editor, Neil King gets to chat to some of the artists that have impressed
him through their work and releases. This occasional series continues with an interview with fiddle singer Jackie Oates
#NK as an album, it's a subtle blend of traditional tracks and tracks penned specifically for the album, as well as contemporary folk songs. How did you decide what was going to make the album?
#JO The album is a very personal this time around. It's a product of where I was last year. All of the songs were chosen because I really relate to them in some way. Quite often in a very abstract way.
It partly reflects what I was going through. Often songs would come to me that mirrored events that had happened in my life. I didn't go out to chose specifically English ballads or anything like that. It just sort of happened that way.
I think that's the main difference between "The Violet Hour" and the first album. The first album was a back catalogue of songs that I'd been singing for years that I felt I had to record to get onto the next stage.
#NK It doesn't seem like quite such a dark album as it's predecessor. There's slightly more variety in terms of emotion and texture.
#JO Yes…I think that started because in the early days of my singing, I used to choose really dark songs. I'd been studying lots of Thomas Hardy and was absolutely fascinated with the morbid side of the tradition.
It was also a statement. I've got quite a high girly voice and I liked to explore the haunting side and…This time around, it hit me…I can't remember where I was, but I was at a gig and heard this really dark song and it made me feel sort of strange and I realised what a power songs can have over people. You can't really deal with them lightly.
It made me move away from choosing dark songs for the sake of it. Now if I sing something it's because it means something to me. I've become more aware of the effect songs can have on people. I think it's part of the maturing process.
#NK You're based in Exeter now and there seems to be a very West Country feel to the album, the songs, the musicians. I know there's the exceptions, Belinda O'Hooley amongst others, but generally West. Was that because they were close or because that was part of the plan?
#JO Most of my musical development has been in Devon. The people on the album are musicians that have inspired me. It's just a very natural thing, the music that's going on in the pubs and the clubs right across Devon. It's very much the sound of the West Country, which I loved and wanted to demonstrate.
I chose West Country musicians because they are the people I'm playing with all the time. The ones I feel most comfortable playing alongside really. Again…I think there's so many great friends and musicians outside of Devon that I'd love to work with.
#NK I know one of the people from further away is Belinda O'Hooley. I understand that you're going to be doing one of the songs on her album.
#JO Yes. She's given me a copy of one of her songs to listen to. Hopefully that will start soon. She's such a brilliant songwriter.
#NK Also, the tracks that she guests on for "The Violet Hour" is helps give you that different dynamic
#JO Definitely. She also interprets so well that track and "Lark In The Morning" were originally going to be on "Bairns". We rehearsed them and actually recorded the two tracks on that fateful week before I left the band and flew home.
It was really special that she came down to record those two songs(Lark In the Morning and Goodbye To The Bees And Magic) with me. We recorded the two tracks six months later in Devon and the whole thing took on new dimensions. The tune set in particular felt so good and I wouldn't have wanted to play it with anyone else. Belinda adds an element that other people don't feel in that song.
#NK Going back to the Hardy reference you made. Was that the connection that lead you to "Crockery Ware"?
#JO "Crockery Ware" came about. I've got a friend called Sean O'Shea, whose a brilliant singer from Exeter. He's always offering to teach me songs, because he's got a load of songs he doesn't sing because they're a bit effeminate.
One day last spring I went around to his house with my Dictaphone and recorded a lot of songs with him. That was one of the ones he sang.
It caught my imagination because it's a bit light hearted, a bit naughty. It's a bit mischievous and it appealed to me at the time.