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Last year, Northumbrian electro-folk musician and producer Frankie Archer made quite a splash with her EP ‘Never So Red’ (reviewed here by Dave McNally). Winning the Christian Raphael Prize 2023 and appearing on Later… with Jools Holland have clearly helped expose her music to a widening fanbase, although it’s her unique interpretations that makes her music so memorable. In his review of the EP, Dave reminded us of what Adrian McNally of The Unthanks said: “Not many manage to sound so modern and traditional at once”; McNally adds, “…it’s quite unlike any other folk music release out there today.”
Alongside news of her forthcoming EP ‘Pressure and Persuasion‘, to be released 4th October, Archer has also announced dates this autumn supporting British indie rock band The Last Dinner Party (following a personal invitation from the band) – and a full UK headline tour of her own running through October and November.
Co-produced again by Jim Moray, she has shared her new single and EP opener “Barbara Allen” which continues her trend of transcending expectations (it’s also our Song of the Day). “It’s about a mean, cruel-hearted woman (irony there),” Frankie explains, continuing: “It’s 350+ years old but is dripping with the same expectation that’s laid onto women today.”
Discussing the song and her re-imagination, Frankie said:
“Barbara Allen is summoned to the deathbed of John, a man she doesn’t really know, so he can tell her he loves her, and expect her to love him back. In some versions of the song he tries to guilt-trip her into it “For I am sick, I’m very bad // One kiss from you will cure me.” Barbara rejects this random man and is branded ‘cruel-hearted’. In most versions she actually dies of sorrow the day after he does (often this is told as a warning to girls not to be so cruel).”
“In my telling of the song I explain that Barbara isn’t cruel, and John is actually a bit unreasonable for expecting her to – out of nowhere – immediately love him and kiss his dying mouth (grim) and heal him. “It’s not for me to fix you, John”, she says. The song definitely turned into a band song rather than a folk tune, but the lilting 6/8 hi-hat in the verses keeps the trad feel. I also (sacrilege) added a kind of pop chorus. A lot of trad songs don’t have choruses but this one needed it to reinforce over and over again the message: ‘I don’t owe you anything / I didn’t ask for your attention / Lechery is not a compliment’ – comments that our society was not ready to hear a woman say 350 years ago and still apparently struggles with today.”
STREAM “Barbara Allen” & pre-order ‘Pressure and Persuasion’ EP:
https://linktr.ee/frankiearcher
The video was Shot & Edited by Rob Irish and Directed by Frankie Archer.
Speaking ahead of the release of new EP ‘Pressure and Persuasion‘, Frankie shared:
“These stories tell of girlhood and womanhood. Pressures to behave, to speak, to look a certain way. To be attractive but not try too hard. To be chatty but not too opinionated. To be sexy but not a slut. To say ‘thank you’ to a creepy advance because it’s just a compliment. To smile when a man tells her to – because women shouldn’t look miserable, god forbid angry. To marry the right person. To support a man. To be a mother. To give their body in exchange for flattery and gifts. To be persuaded after saying ‘no’ because women should be nice and agreeable. Listen to the parallels between these stories from hundreds of years ago and womens’ experiences right now and think – what’s going on here and why can’t we move on?”
“Sonically Pressure and Persuasion is really broad, ranging from feminist trad-pop to doom-folk to treacle-bop. Each song is built around the bare bones of the traditional words and/or melody, with the core of each story influencing how the track ended up sounding. I worked on my sampler-sequencer and digital audio workstation to arrange and produce each song, and while each one is totally different the common strand is the vocals and the story. Around that I chose various synths, drum tracks built from a mix of drum machine samples, and as always, a lot of heavily chopped and glitched vocal and fiddle snips. Manipulating sound using LFOs, manual editing, pitch-shifting, distortion, granulation and delay is something I get really into when I’m producing and there’s a lot of it on Pressure and Persuasion. I worked with Jim Moray as co-producer and his wisdom and skills as a producer and mixer brought the whole thing together and brought the tracks to life. The EP was mastered by the excellent Piper Payne assisted by Colby Gustafson at Neato Mastering and voila, it lives.”
Frankie Archer Live Dates
23rd September – Newcastle, O2 City Hall (supporting The Last Dinner Party)
4th October – Newcastle, Cobalt Studios
5th-6th October – Hartlepool Folk Festival
6th October – Otley, Otley Courthouse
11th October – Birmingham, Kitchen Garden Cafe
12th October – Cheltenham, Everyman Theatre
13th October – Brighton, Komedia
16th October – London, Eventim Apollo (supporting The Last Dinner Party)
18th October – Peebles, Eastgate Theatre & Arts Centre
19th October – Edinburgh, Summerhall
20th October – Glasgow, The Glad Cafe
24th October – London, Kings Place
27th October – Sheffield, The Greystones
30th October – Liverpool, Philharmonic
1st November – Bristol, Gaia at Bristol Cathedral
2nd November – Cardiff, Norwegian Church Arts Centre
3rd November – Oxford, The Taproom
9th November – Lindisfarne, Pilgrimage to the Islands
15th November – Londonderry, New Gate Arts & Cultural Centre
16th November – Dublin, Tradition Now Festival
“Pressure and Persuasion” – EP Track List
1. Barbara Allen
2. Lovely Joan
3. Fair Mabel Of Wallington Hall
4. Elsie Marley
Pre-Order/Stream: https://linktr.ee/frankiearcher
