FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
as The Staves are releasing their new album, Good Woman, on 5th February. You can pre-order it. I would encourage people to do so, as it is going to be a beautiful and extraordinary album! It is their first since 2017’s The Way Is Read (an album they released with the Indie/Classical Chamber sextet, yMusic) – I will bring in a review for that album very soon. If you do not know The Staves, then you can follow them on Twitter. They are one of the finest groups we have in Britain and, in my view, they are legends of the future. The Staves are an Indie-Folk trio consisting sisters Emily, Jessica and Camilla Staveley-Taylor. Hailing from Watford, I have been following them since they put out Dead & Born & Grown in 2012. Even though Good Woman is the trio’s first album in five years, they have been busy since then with touring and personal responsibilities. In January 2020, The Staves announced that Emily Staveley-Taylor would not take part in touring following the birth of her daughter. I think that is one reason why there has been a slight delay/hiatus. Good Woman is produced by John Congleton. As you can see, the American producer-in-demand has worked with a host of artists and, judging by what we have heard from Good Woman, I think he has helped strengthen and heighten The Staves’ sound. I am going to bring in a couple of interviews before I finish up – and I’ll end with a career-spanning playlist at the very end -, but I want to quickly nod back to The Way Is Read, as it is an album I really love and feel everyone should dig out.
In their review, AllMusic had this to say:
“The Way Is Read pairs indie folk singing sisters the Staves with indie/classical chamber sextet yMusic, a group that had already recorded with musicians like John Legend, Ben Folds, and Dirty Projectors prior to the project. A true collaborative effort, it brings together original songs by the Staves and reworked versions of yMusic compositions, and was co-produced by the Staves' Jessica Staveley-Taylor and yMusic violinist Rob Moose. The result is neither a folk album nor a classical one -- not that these acts ever fit squarely into either of those camps to begin with -- falling more into the realm of experimental chamber pop. It opens with an elegant a cappella harmony track ("Hopeless"), followed by a much more turbulent, mostly instrumental one ("Take Me Home"). The third track, "Trouble on My Mind," balances the two in an arrangement that draws focus to the vocal melody and harmonies while offering rich, energized accompaniment. It also holds some beautiful musical climaxes where sustained three-part vocal harmonies are lifted by arpeggiated strings. The rest of the record continues to rotate orchestrated songs with more abstract compositions that incorporate voice. The former impress in the same way that yMusic's 2015 album with Ben Folds, So There, did. There, they also seamlessly filled the spaces where a rock combo or folk group would traditionally be expected, making it their own and challenging genre boundaries without detracting from the songs. That trick speaks more to their musicality than restraint -- the parts and arrangements on both albums are far from simple. Here, that fact is more apparent on a song like "All My Life," with its butterfly-like whimsicality passing a lot of notes around the ensemble. It's easier to overlook on an atmospheric entry like "Courting Is a Pleasure," which employs shifting drones and ornamental solos under the Staves' vocals. The Way Is Read's sequencing, which mixes songs and connective tissue, sometimes within and across tracks, has the effect of an album-length work, if one with distinct tunes. Perhaps its biggest achievement is that it so often seems the work of a single group of nine”.
Before I bring things up to date, I want to source from an interview that was conducted to promote Dead & Born & Grow. It is interesting discovering about the musical upbringing of The Staves and how their music is perceived:
“Now much is spoken of your voices, obviously, and how well they intertwine with each other, but I’ve had the album a while now and what I’ve been trying to do is pick apart your voices because I think it’s interesting that where you can, each of your voices has its own character. That’s something that you must recognise in yourselves, and how do you use that? Yeah, that’s a really strange one because when we sing together, they’re so similar, like when we’re recording I find it difficult to tell who’s singing what – like the other day, we were recording for this demo or something and I was like, ‘oh no, I’m singing the wrong note there’, so went back and re-recorded it and it still sounded wrong, then I was like, ‘oh, that’s not me!’ I was listening to it so convinced that it was, then I was like, ‘ah, Milly, you were wrong!’ So that’s really weird; when we do sing on our own, like you say, I do think we have really different voices. We tend to sit in the same place, like Milly and Jess tend to do the higher harmonies and I do the lowest - that’s where our ranges are at - but then when we swap that around, like on ‘Gone Tomorrow’ I sing the highest harmony, I dunno… it seems to bring a different quality to it, somehow.
We did try it with Milly singing the highest one and it just sounded different, I mean, neither one is better, but I think it’s really interesting to play around with that and play with where we wouldn’t naturally go to, to create something interesting. The vocal arrangements are something that we’re always working on, and we try not to go for the easiest, trying to push ourselves to do something interesting and I think the important thing is trying to ration the harmonies; you don’t want them to be overkill. You want those moments where they come together to be special, to highlight something particular, like a lyrical moment in the song, or… We try and just use them as instruments. I think when we started out, just doing covers, we’d break them down to either just a capella, or with very minimal guitar, so we’d have to sing the guitar section, or string section and we’ve always seen our voices as instruments. It’s just another kind of arrangement to go in with everything else.
I’m sure you girls have got a real back catalogue of covers that you’ve done over the years that your family say, ‘oh, do that one for us – - Yeah!
Are there old favourites that you like to revisit with the family? Oh yeah; our parents used to sing with some of their friends, and they used to sing ‘Helplessly Hoping’ by Crosby, Stills and Nash and we all sing that and the guitar comes out if we’re at home together. And Joni Mitchell, what did we sing of hers? ‘Carey’ and ‘Case of You’, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ and all of that stuff; Dylan’s ‘Lay Lady Lay’ and oh, Neil Young’s ‘After the Gold Rush’, but the trio version that Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt used to do, on the piano. Oh God, loads!
I bet it’s quite indulgent, singing those songs after you’ve been singing your own for some time – - It’s great, great fun, yeah.
Now I do mean this in the nicest possible way: I’ve had trouble sleeping recently, and your album has become the album I put on to get myself into a sleep-like state, very quickly – - You phrased that very well, thank you!
I do mean it as a compliment though, I really do!! It’s a silencer, it silences the brain and draws you in to the narrative. Did you ever imagine the album being listened to in different environments, and was there a particular place that it would resonate best? Well, good question; I don’t know if I did think about that really but I suppose that everyone’s a music fan, and listens to music in different ways. Most music I listen to is through my headphones, quite a personal experience of music, but not always, obviously. I don’t know; I think it’s quite a driving album somehow, particularly songs like ‘Eagle Song’ and ‘In the Long Run’ remind me of being on the road and things like that. But quite a few people say they listen to it to kind of – I don’t know – relax them, and at first it’s like ‘Oh, our album sends you to sleep – fine!’ but then I think it’s really nice, there’s something very primal about being read to as a child, or lullabies, being sung to, is a deeply comforting experience and I think you can get that from an album. There are certain albums that I love, like getting ready for bed, that – I dunno, transport you somewhere, to a safe place and put you to rest from the cares of the day, so I am glad…!”.
I think that Good Woman is shaping up to be The Staves’ finest and most moving album. I will be interested to hear the rest of the tracks and see whether, whilst working with John Congleton, they have brought in any new sounds and production additions/layers. I want to bring in a great and deep interview from the BBC. They talked about the lead-up to The Staves recording Good Woman, in addition to how the album came together:
“Late last year, The Staves carefully placed a microphone at one end of a barn, walked to the very far corner, and started recording.
The distance was necessary because the sisters - Emily, Camilla and Jessica - were planning to scream one line over and over, until their throats were raw: "I'm a good woman."
It's a lyric that gives the band's third album its title: A statement of confidence and defiance, after a turbulent couple of years that left the trio questioning themselves and their career.
Their lives were turned upside down in summer 2018, when they suddenly and unexpectedly lost their mother, Jean, a former teacher who had encouraged them to follow their dream of making music.
Her death came just two weeks after their grandmother died. Within a month, Camilla had broken up with her long-term boyfriend in Minneapolis, and found herself moving back to the UK.
"It was kind of like a double kick in the stomach," says the singer.
Devastated and grief-stricken, they took a "big break, and stepped away from everything", says middle sister Jessica - only for some people to say they were making a mistake.
"We were made to feel like we weren't good enough as a band," says Jessica. "Almost like we'd had our moment, and lost our sheen."
To break the creative impasse, The Staves abandoned their plans to self-produce the record and called in Grammy-winning studio veteran John Congleton.
While previous producers had focused on the sisters' spell-binding harmonies, Congleton - who has worked with Phoebe Bridgers, St Vincent and Angel Olsen - was more concerned with their state of mind.
"He said, 'You guys are in a really interesting place in your lives, and I think you've got something important to say - so I really want to help you figure out how to say it,'" recalls Emily.
"That really stopped me in my tracks because no-one's said that to us before. It gave us confidence and faith in the songs."
Across the album, song titles like Paralysed and Failure tell a story of doubt and depression and self-criticism. But the first single, Trying, carries the core message - of not giving up, even when it's a "struggle to be a good person".
"All we are trying to do is try - and we're all messing up along the way," says Jessica, "but hopefully we're learning, too."
The band were so enamoured with the song that they wanted it to be the title track. Their label had other ideas.
"They said 'trying' doesn't sell records," Emily recalls. "We were like, 'Nothing sells records, mate, just let us do what we want.'"
Eventually, they were dissuaded by the marketing team.
"They thought it might invite negative reviews," says Camilla, doing a perfect impression of a self-important rock critic: "The Staves were 'trying' to be good, but it didn't work”.
I want to finish up soon (I promise!), but I came across an interview transcript from when the group spoke with Jill Riley of The Current's Morning Show (from late last year). Not only do we learn about how The Staves are spending their time in lockdown…we get an insight into how their changing lives fed into Good Woman:
“JILL: And so you were able to get some ideas together for a new record and stay in touch, but you know, a few years can go by and it's pretty incredible how fast things can change, or the amount of big life events can happen within that time period. You know, you talked about your sister Emily being a mother now. And what are some of the things that really, you know, changed for you ladies, but also maybe informed the new record?
JESSICA: Well, I think, I mean, if we're talking about the last three years, which it's kind of been since we started writing new songs for this album, and the fact that we had been in America and then in London. I mean, politically, there was a lot going on at the time.
CAMILLA: Both sides.
JESSICA: In the two places.
JILL: In both, yeah, right!
CAMILLA: Yeah. Yeah.
JESSICA: We don't even need to say what, but there's been lots happening, and so, I mean, like, that's been going on.
And I think, you know, obviously, in personal lives, there's been relationships. I mean, all the kind of stuff that happens in life, and I think that a big thing that has to be mentioned is that two years ago, we lost our mum very suddenly, and it's been the biggest thing for us to — I think we still haven't really wrapped our heads around it, when something like that happens. So that's kind of, it's kind of the main thing that has happened, but in a way, the record isn't really about that, because a lot of it was written before that happened, but of course, that's such a huge part of our life, and then, not long after we lost Mum, Emily found out she was pregnant. So it was like this kind of—
CAMILLA: All these things being thrown up.
JESSICA: Amazing new life, to bring into the family, and she's had a baby girl, and so I think there's these themes of womanhood that came up, and obviously, intrinsically, the fact that we are women. But themes of motherhood and sisterhood and womanhood just felt so present, and the song, "Good Woman," Camilla had started and had sent all the demos for, just kind of kept rising to the top of album titles, and it just felt like this has to be, this has to be the one. It feels like what it is to be a good woman and all those things. It just felt like it made the most sense for us.
CAMILLA: Yeah.
JILL: And for the time when we'll see you back on the road. I mean, not just you guys, but like, when we're able to see bands hit the road again, because, like you said, you know, the touring industry is on pause, and you know, to be able to also accept and kind of grieve that, that's there's just nothing you can do about it but wait. And I just wonder, while you haven't been able to tour, is there something that you've done to sort of fill the time? Or a new hobby? Or have you done something that you didn't think that you would ever do?
JESSICA: (to Camilla) Well, you've been quite creative, haven't you?
CAMILLA: OK, so I don't know how other musicians have done it, but when kind of proper lockdown happened over here, I was just very — maybe because we'd kind of been in album mode and had just finished an album, I just couldn't be inspired to make any music, so instead, I did literally anything but. So I knitted. I made a patchwork quilt. I made chutney. (laughs) I infused alcohol with various things. Yeah! I did origami.
JESSICA: You made loads of nice totebags. I started doing tie-dying.
CAMILLA: Yeah, tie-dying.
JESSICA: Lots of cooking. I watched lots of TV. A lot!
(laughter)
JESSICA: I think I watched the whole of "Dawson's Creek."
JILL: Oh, yes! (laughter)
JESSICA: I think I watched the whole of "One Tree Hill." I don't know why.
CAMILLA: You're a disgrace.
JESSICA: I think there was something about going back to like, nostalgic things that made you feel safe and cozy. I don't know if you have a similar thing. I don't know if it's kind of possible for everyone to have the freedom to do those things and to sit on their bottom all day and watch "Dawson's Creek." But, like, even the food I was eating, I felt I kind of regressed and wanted to eat things that we used to eat when we were kids, like cheese on toast, what we call it over here, but it was just, put some cheese on some toast, a "grilled cheese”.
I will wrap things here. I was keen to spotlight The Staves, not only because they are one of the best groups we have in the country, but because Good Woman is out very soon. They are an amazing force of nature and, when you hear interviews they have conducted, you cannot help but laugh and feel warmed by their wit and natural bond! I have no doubt in predicting that Watford’s The Staves will be…
ICONS of the future.