Don’t be fooled by the title of The Unthanks latest album, Last, as Becky reassures that although a lot of people have confused it as being a farewell album, it most certainly is not. According to Becky, it is much the opposite, where herself and sister Rachel are constantly looking for new songs to record and perform. On top of writing new music, The Unthanks are constantly progressing with work from their previous albums and have found a way to make it all fit in with their busy work regimes. “We were mostly developing our music on stage but I think now, because we are so busy, with any time we get, we work on new and old songs… so the one month we are in Australia we will complete our project for a film on ship building in England”. With a band as motivated and non-restrictive as this one, it is difficult to categorize their music into one genre as they are constantly exploring new styles and developing on those styles. Becky reiterates this fact, “When asked what music we play I always say folk music because that’s what we’ve grown up doing and at the end of the day when we look for songs, they are folk songs most of the time, but it’s just so hard to categorize because folk music revokes certain stereotypes and I feel like I haven’t justified the music in describing it in such a way”. The fact that the band has such a wide array of musical influences ranging anywhere from Sufjan Stevens to Robert Wyatt, is a good indication of why there seems to be such a fluidity and lack of limitation within the style of their music.
Music with such edge is constantly progressing and Becky believes that although this album has a lot of fundamentals from its predecessors, there are also a lot of new and exciting elements. “In some ways it’s similar to the last album because it’s got brass, a whole string section and a bit of drums, bass and double bass, but I played my boyfriend a track from the new album and his reaction was really funny, he was like, ‘Ooh, you’ve gone back to the dark side… it’s like you’ve gone back to the band!’ So I think in some ways our music has improved since our last album. It’s hard to say we are going to do a particular song in a certain style, they just kind of happen the way that they happen, but I am pleased because although I loved the last album I missed elements of the album before”.
A humble Becky admits that although she is excited about revisiting the major cities of Australia including Sydney and Melbourne, her most sacred memory of her last visit was during the time she spent in rural Australia, Yachandandah to be more specific. “It was a really little tucked away festival, so there was so much to explore, I can’t wait to get back over there”.
Tour dates and music available on their official website:
http://www.rachelunthank.com/
Or check out their latest music on Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/rachelunthank
STEPHANIE PICKETT
(As seen in Rave Magazine - Brisbane Street Press)
- Cowgirl In The Sand
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