AIL meets Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo

Having sold out their biggest London headline show at the tail end of 2012 at Union Chapel, Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo this March play a trio of London shows as they begin to build up to release of their forthcoming fourth album. We caught up with Emily herself to talk backpacking, musical influences and Wallander…


Can you describe your sound for us in five words?

Atmospheric, nostalgic, foot-tapping, poetic, rich


You're actually an Australian transplant and you've been living in the UK for a while. How did your journey with music bring you here?

I left Australia with a backpack and a wish to see the world. I had a UK working visa and based myself in Cambridge where I worked at Andy’s Record shop and a couple of cafes to earn pounds so I could travel around Europe and South America.

I never intended to stay but towards the end of my visa, I met The Broken Family Band and their guest guitarist Rob Jackson whom I started playing music with. We performed at Cambridge Folk Festival together and got a great reception. I then left but on my way back to Australia, via Canada, I got an email from Rob saying that John Peel had played our demo on his show! So almost as soon as I hit homeland shores, I set off again, back to the UK, formed a band called the-low-country and the rest is history.


You sound tracked the Wallander series. Scandinavian crime dramas have been everywhere over the past few years - all bleak beauty. How did your music end up there? Does folk just fit?

Purely by chance! The Red Clay Halo and I were playing a private garden party and at this party, was Martin Phipps (award-winning film/TV composer). A couple of days later, I got a call from Martin saying that he really loved the song ‘Nostalgia’ and that he’d like me to come down to the studio to do a different recording of it to be used as the theme tune to a BBC1 series called Wallander staring Kenneth Brannagh. Needless to say…I went down the studio.


When did you decide that music was ‘it’? And where did you go from there?

I decided after a few years of travelling around and a couple of attempts at doing my BA of Arts at University of Western Australia. I realised that most of my uni involved me scribbling lyrics down the margins of my notebooks so it became obvious where my passions lay and I decided to head back to the UK and make a go of it.

When I made this decision, I put absolutely everything into it. I worked so, so, so hard. I booked all of our shows, organised our tours, organised all the logistics that go with having a band, made connections, did the accounts etc, all at the same time as holding down about 3 jobs in restaurants and cafes until eventually all my hard work started to pay off and I was able to do music full time.

It certainly is a hard career choice but I think I have the best job in the world, and now, thankfully, I have an incredible business team around me to share the workload, not to mention an incredible musical team: The Red Clay Halo.


Are there any artists that you look at and think, 'Wow, I wish I'd written that.’? Anyone that you're in awe of?

Plenty! I’m certainly in awe of PJ Harvey. The poetry in her latest record ‘Let England Shake’ blows my mind. And the melodies and production of the songs too. A masterpiece.

I’m also in awe of Anais Mitchell, again her latest album; ‘Young Man in America’ lyrically astounds me. Such heart and soul in this record and beautiful arrangements.
Neil Young is always an inspiration. I love how he evolves and isn’t afraid of change.
At the moment I can’t stop listening to Beck’s ‘Sea Change’ album. The chord changes and vocal melodies in those songs are so unique and so beautiful. Love it.
I could go on…and on…


You weren't always with the Red Clay Halo. How did the band come about?

It came about through me doing my first solo record. The-low-country had disbanded and I’d met a young Swedish producer, Ruben Engzell, who’d just moved to London and was looking for a singer-songwriter to make a record with. We spent two years working on it (in the hours after the paying bands had left the studio). When setting out to do a solo record we knew what instruments we’d like to have on it so then it was just a matter of finding the musicians who played them!

I’d met Gill Sandell through The Broken Family Band back in the early 2000’s and I loved her playing and stage presence, so she was the first person I called up. Ruben and I then met Jo Silverston at a show I was doing at The Troubadour in London. She was playing cello with Sam Beer and we fell in love with her playing. Jo was studying at Trinity Uni at the time so when we asked her if she knew any violinists, she recommended one of her fellow students: Anna Jenkins. We’ve been working together now for 8 years and continue to be great musical partners as well as good friends.

Your newest album Almanac was a slight change in direction from your last work. Was it a conscious decision to take a different tack or in playing together/writing again, did it come naturally?

Well it doesn’t feel very new now and we’re soon to release our next one ‘Dear River’, which is very much a change of direction again. Almanac was definitely a more “folky rock” album I suppose. It was also a studio album rather than a live one like Despite the Snow was, so it’s got a more lush, layered, built up vibe to it. I’m very proud of it but I can’t wait to move onto the next thing now.


We're a London-centric site, have you played many shows here in the capital?

Countless, countless shows in London from dusty corners of old pubs to our biggest headline show last November at The Union Chapel, which we sold out. That was a huge milestone for us.


Do you have any favourite venues? Whether playing shows, drinking... dancing?

The Wenlock Arms, a wonderful real-ale pub where I once worked and The Union Chapel (see answer above: dusty corners and big chapels mainly!)


If you could add any other musician to Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo, alive or dead, who would it be?

Nat Butler, a fantastic drummer who has played on our last two albums and will be joining us on the road this year!


If you could only listen to one song again for the rest of your life what would it be?

Right now my answer would be “Guess I’m doing fine” by Beck.



Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo London Dates:

March 6th - St Pancras Old Church [SOLD OUT]
March 7th - The Bedford, Balham
March 8th - Hoxton Hall