Magpie by Nick Siepmann
One of the things I value most about music (and folk music especially) is its ability to act as a record of a moment, and as I approach releasing this EP, the more it feels to me like one such snapshot. I know, not the most novel of insights, but… humour me for a rambling paragraph or two. Tomorrow is my first proper set at Bowes Park Folk Club in North London, with whose love and support (and patience for me forgetting lyrics) I have gone from a person who listens to folk music to one who creates it. The club - the people and the place that make it up - has become ingrained in my understanding of this music, and I am continually grateful.
The EP itself is pretty much the result of me furnishing my nest with the various shiny borrowed things that have caught my fancy. It begins and ends with traditional songs - a laconic account of working life in a Newcastle coal pit, then a summery narrative of love and wordplay - and in the middle are two of my best songs so far: mythological mysticism on one hand, and on the other a message personal enough that I genuinely didn’t know how to say it any other way. There’s big stompy fun bits and weird ambient quiet bits, choruses and refrains and a few times round a hornpipe (composed for my partner, who, to this day, has patiently refrained from hurling my piercingly loud tambourine into a fire). I’ve put as much of the stuff I love about folk music into this EP as I know how.
But - as is the way with snapshots - once this EP is out there, the world it reflects will keep changing. I wrote my nephew Alexander his song the day after he was born; in a little over a week, he’ll be two years old. When he’s four, and this EP is two, and my guitar is seven and I’m 31, I wonder what it’ll all sound like. For now though, I hope you enjoy these four songs. I’m very fond of them.
Nick
9 January 2019
Tracklist
| 1. | Byker Hill | 2:39 |
| 2. | Sirens | 3:19 |
| 3. | Good Morning, Alexander | 2:04 |
| 4. | Phoeb's Tune / Oh No, John | 2:57 |
Credits
Thanks to James Diamond for his help with the cover art!
