Kelsey Michael Talks New Album, Single And More

Penzance, Cornwall-based singer-songwriter Kelsey Michael will release her debut album ‘Lethowsow’ this year and has already released the single Gry Maritha. Kelsey kindly took time out of her busy schedule to talk to us about the new album and more:

What is your earliest musical memory?

My mother singing ‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head’ around the house. 

Your debut album ‘Lethowsow’ is released on 12th July 2024 digitally and then on CD and Vinyl LP on 13th September 2024. How did you want to approach the making of the record?

I wanted to capture the energy and feel of my band’s live versions of the songs, and then explore how I could expand those with vocal harmony and harp. We have a great chemistry going on and a lot of subtlety in the way we play together so that was always going to be the musical foundation. The aim was to experiment with different ways of capturing Lethowsow the band and come up with a blueprint.

What is the story/meaning behind the album title?

Lethowsow (pronounced Laith-oh-so), means ‘the milky ones’ in old Cornish (Kernewek) language. It was used as a name for the treacherous Seven Stones reef on the way to Lands End, a large stretch of vertical rocks like sharks teeth which are always covered with white water. I loved the sound of this word, as well as the fact that it magically describes these rocks as beings which are out there night and day, doing their thing. For me Lethowsow represents the awesome and humbling power of nature. Living in Cornwall it’s so clear that nature is the dominant force.

Where did you record it and who produced it?

The album was captured mostly at Lemonade Factory Studio, Falmouth, UK, studio home of Robin Tyndale-Biscoe who recorded the band. Though one song ‘Washing Line’ came from a session at Amata at Falmouth Uni. Robin and I also took the gear out to St Marys Church, Penzance – which has a lovely piano – to record a piano/voice piece entitled ‘Swimming’. Robin mentored me to produce the record myself. I had a great time working with him, particularly with exploring how the voices could sound. It was a privilege to work with someone with so much experience, who would always try his best to help me achieve what I was hearing in my head.

Do you have any interesting, funny or memorable stories from the recording sessions?

At Amata I played a Yamaha Disklavier piano. It’s a digital grand, which can memorise a performance note for note, with all the intonation and subtlety of the player intact. Kind of like a 21st century pianola.

Some years before Elton John had played an identical instrument and the performance was replicated by this very piano in Falmouth. as-well as others across the globe, all in the same moment. Very weird to see the piano keys moving without anyone on the stool. Also kind of mind-blowing to think that the piano could play my song without me.

https://vimeo.com/58714016 

In addition, you have your single ‘Gry Maritha’ which is out now. What was the inspiration/story behind the song?

Every day the Gry Maritha sails out of Penzance, taking freight to the Scilly Isles. It’s a very hardy boat which can go in all weathers (within reason).

The passenger ferry The Scillonian is her sister ship and also makes the crossing on a daily basis between March-October.
These two ships are a really familiar sight on the horizon, and their homecoming at the end of the day involves taking a wide sweep of a turn to orientate coming in along the quayside. It’s a really graceful movement, and as we are up high on the hill, I can see from my window. Sometimes both vessels approach together and there is a kind of choreographed dance as they move around each other or wait awhile so that each can turn and glide (or rock and roll) into port. One day, I sat witnessing this and wrote down a description of the unravelling nautical tango. The line ‘Gry Maritha I love to watch you turn’ came, and I knew it was a chorus. It took some time for the rest of the song to follow but I didn’t rush it. I knew it would be a special one for me, and it is.

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones?

I play a Nord Electro 4D, which is an amazing instrument in a very small package. It has draw-bar organ with levers and I enjoy the physicality of that on a digital instrument. Of course, when I can get my hands on a real piano on stage, that is a real treat.

My shruti-box has a beautiful sound, amazingly rich for a pretty small harmonium. It’s great to simplify to just a drone at some point in the set and improvise, finding different textures with my voice.

Do you have any live plans for 2024 in the UK and Europe?

I’ll be performing album launch gigs in Penzance at Penlee Park Theatre 23rd July, Hastings The Pig’ 26th July supporting Steve Finnerty of Alabama 3 and Jude Montague, Peckham’s Coppleston Centre 28th July (London), and London Green Note 29th July.

Another of the songs on the album is ‘Music of The Waves’. What is the story/inspiration behind this song?

I imagined the song as a Morricone-esque piece with a melody which would modulate up and down. Somehow my love for the piano writing and rhythms of Antonio Carlos Jobim also got on on the act and then the song kind of went it’s own way. I knew I wanted the words to tumble in a stream of consciousness, pointing the listener to all the abundance of the Cornish landscape in early spring when life starts to explode everywhere. I sat down pencil in hand and melody in my mind and luckily for me, (it doesn’t always happen), that day the words fell over each other, coming at a pace, moving from one image to another, all directly informed by moments I had experienced. I wanted to paint a vivid picture of flora, fauna, wildlife, ocean… a tantalising feast. Being in nature is a reset for the mind and body I think, it heals and restores but also stimulates and lifts us up. When we go out we never know what we are going to witness and how we’ll feel, it’s always going to be different. I tried to capture some of this in the video for the song, which rather than being a formal shoot, is made from camcorder footage I’ve taken spontaneously when I’ve been out and about. I felt this lo-fi approach would give a sense of that moment by moment joy of never knowing what spectacle might be round the next corner.

How do you look after your voice?

I’m a big fan of the Alexander technique which I’ve been practicing for a long time. I think that the body basically knows what to do and it’s about intellectually getting out of the way so that those deeper reflexes can work. My approach to singing is very physical. I’m a mover and that’s the first thing I’ll do before getting into my voice.

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

To have had an experience we can be in together, the audience and I. To have created some kind of shared understanding together.

Which of the tracks on your new album hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

Mounts Bay Morning is a very happy song, so that one for happiest. Angriest would go to Tide Comes In I guess, though it’s not really an angry song – more observational. It acknowledges that we live in an unjust tiered society in the UK. Those who need extra help or just to be given a break are not being considered. Many people feel de-valued. In Cornwall where the average wage is way lower than the rest of the country, so many people are caught in the poverty trap. It doesn’t sit well alongside the wealth of those who come down and buy their second homes. Of course this story is being played out across the whole country, in coastal and rural communities particularly. Reflective would go to ‘Washing Line’. Hanging out the washing is a great moment in the day for getting some perspective

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

Penzance

Resilient

Wild

Creative

 Harbour

Tide

Was it a difficult album to write?

Actually, these songs flowed fairly easily. I think I had stored up a lot of rich material, so when I sat down to write I could conjure it up and things fell into place. There is always the puzzle of the chord progression – trying this and that, sometimes hearing something and looking for it, sometimes being open to a complete surprise. I enjoy that part a lot.

Who created/designed the album artwork?

My daughter May took the photo of me at my piano which has become the cover. I knew that the piano would be lit up by the late afternoon winter sun, and she had the idea that it should be informal, mostly about the light and the moment. I really trust her eye. It’s the first time I’ve put my picture on a cover, not so easy for me to do, but it felt fitting to bring the writer and the piano I write on – which is the source of the music – into the story.

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

Off the top of my head Doris Lessing’s ‘Memoirs Of A Survivor’ . It’s a dystopian novel she published back in 1975 which chronicles the breakdown of a society thrown by a ‘crisis’ into chaos. The narrator finds herself taking in a teenage girl with her strange little dog and watches as this young person navigates her role in the new order of things. This is dystopia with heart and soul and humanity and I found it intensely moving and thought provoking. There’s a return in the story to the survival basics of growing food, and repairing stuff to make it work again. People jostle for power and the commodities which are the most valuable.

It all feels so relevant to what we have lived through in recent history with the pandemic, and to the future when we will need leaders who are prepared for anything and have wisdom, rather than the business men/women who currently dominate politics. Creating a score for a film adaption of this novel would be an incredible challenge but amazing!

In doing some research, I read that you previously were a movie soundtrack singer; you were singing on Jocelyn Pook’s score for Stanley Kubrick’s final film, ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. How did that opportunity arise and is there a different approach/process to singing on soundtracks as opposed to other types of music?

I worked with Jocelyn when I was performing and singing in theatre companies very influenced by European performance and dance – particularly Pina Bausch. Jocelyn has a brilliant sense for atmosphere and the dynamics of story-telling. I was really lucky to get to sing a number of songs she wrote specially for my voice. When ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ came along it was improvisation and vocal texture she was looking for on Migrations – one of the songs I feature on which has amazing rhythm by Shrilanken percussionist Manickam Yogeswaran. Soundtrack singing can be more about creating a character, you’re serving a role for the story and trying to capture the dynamic the song needs to provide. Singer-songwriting for me has no rules, I can continually re-invent what it can be.

What makes Kelsey Michael happy and what makes you unhappy?

Happy – swimming in the sea | Unhappy – sewage in the sea.