By all accounts, Frankie Archer had a cracking Cambridge Folk Festival, impressing audiences in The Den and being announced as the winner of the Christian Raphael Prize – which, run in association with the festival, provides vital industry mentoring and financial support.
Then last week she got in touch with Folk Witness to share her new single: an electro-folk take on traditional song Oxford City – which comes with its own slyly subversive artwork.
The Northumberland singer-songwriter-fiddler’s version has a “future-facing sound”, she says. “The song is over a hundred years old, but when I first read the lyrics I was reminded of things happening right now: incel culture and drink spiking.”
It’s a fascinating take: the song’s continued relevance is indeed an indictment of how little we’ve moved on. Back in 2012, we loved Chris Wood and Dizraeli’s version, which updated it to powerfully tell the tale of an ‘honour killing’. Archer’s evokes a similar rage, sticking to traditional words, but with a spoken interjection: “will you watch my drink?” We’re reminded how bleak it is that this is a normal request in 2023.
“The poison wine in this song is a man spiking a woman’s drink to do her harm,” says Archer. “Murdering her is an expression of rejection and jealousy which manifests as the same hate against women that incel culture feeds on: ‘if you won’t be my true lover, you’ll never be no other man’s bride’.”
Grim stuff, but the arrangement is anything but: propelled by an electronic pulse – “although it doesn’t feel like it in the song, the time signature is changing all the time” – it skitters nervously over a pub-background bed, anchored by Archer’s calm vocal delivery and expressive fiddle part.
Folk Witness – now a fully signed-up fan, having caught up with more of Archer’s music online (get a load of her Lucy Wan) – caught up with her over the weekend.
Folk Witness: How was your Cambridge experience?
Frankie Archer: It was really cool to be at Cambridge Folk Festival! This year was the first time I’ve been in a long time, and it’s such a homely, positive festival. Between lugging gear and preparing for performing I did manage to hear some incredible musicians including Angeline Morrison, who anyone hasn’t seen, they should!
My performance in The Den was a really special one, it was a soulful experience and I met a lot of really lovely people in the audience afterwards. I also was awarded the 2023 Christian Raphael Prize at the festival which was quite mind-blowing and really an honour! I’m so grateful to Christian and his family and the people involved in the award.
Can you tell us a little bit about the artwork for the single?
This artwork really is an expression of my own very particular music. I’m proud that I did pretty much everything to make it happen – the costume, the photoshoot, the cartoon drawing and graphic design. It’s a piece of cover art that at first glance is very stereotypically folky. Then you see the cartoons and think hang on…
It’s a co-existence of the old and the modern, it’s also got some kind of surreal or bizarre feeling behind it which is an expression of the contradictions that occur in our perspectives on what traditional music is.
What’s next for you? Can we expect an album at some point soon, or perhaps a tour?
I have loads of plans and am working hard to get to new places and share new music! There is stuff coming but I can’t tell you exactly what yet.
Fair enough! What’s your favourite sandwich?
Cheddar ploughman’s. YUM.
We’ll be sure to bring you further news of this exciting talent, as soon as we hear it. Follow us on Twitter (yes, we’re still calling it that) and Facebook for that sort of thing. Meanwhile, Oxford City is out on September 8. You can pre-save it on Spotify here, or find out more via Frankie Archer’s website
Be First to Comment