Beautiful and emotive. Duo Abbe Martin and Hannah Wood of Sound of the Sirens solidify their status as one of the UK’s finest folk acts with their brand new album, Damage Control, out on 8th April 2022.
To celebrate the forthcoming release of the album and as an excuse to have a chat with them both (it’s been far too long!), I thought it would be good to host a Q&A session with the ladies from SOTS, we did just that and covered some interesting topics such as the creation of the new record, how they managed to rope in Saul Davies from the famous band JAMES (Sit Down, Come Home etc…), which places and venues they’re excited about playing on their forthcoming tour and most importantly, how they’re preparing themselves (well, their livers) for the Mad Dog Gypsy Caravan Weekender….
So, you have a new album coming out on April 8th, it’s called ‘Damage Control’, tell me what people can expect from it….
A bigger, fuller sound as we have worked with Saul Davies from James who has produced the album and also features on it. We’ve used some electric guitar and drums and we will be touring the album with a Drummer this spring.
The title track ‘Damage Control’ lists all the emotions we can experience in one day. The good and the bad and the fact that we need them all to appreciate life and become stronger. Each track could represent a different emotion-there is happiness, fear, worry etc
I watched the video to ‘These are the Days’, what a joyous celebration of music it is, does this theme resonate throughout the album?
This is our most positive song yet. A love song written after Hannah had had a particularly nice time a Festival and stopped to appreciate one of those ‘aren’t we lucky’ moments.
The album cover features a lovely painting of you both, who created it?
Hannah was commissioned to a paint a portrait of us for a friend and the outcome was this. We loved it and wanted to use it for the album. She’s a clever bunny is our Han! Check our her work on Instagram Hannahs people and pet portraits.
When did you write the songs for the album and where was it recorded?
We started writing songs for this album in 2019 and we played a few in the autumn tour of that year. Some didn’t make the cut. We then secluded ourselves in a Beautiful old laundry building in North Tawton early in 2020 and felt completely inspired. We had the bare bones for a lot of the tracks but the Pandemic hit. We were able to work on new songs like ‘The hope that we sail on’ which was inspired by the weird time we lived in-seeing the world singing to each other across their balconies as we all stopped standing near one another. By the end of 2020 we had recorded our demos at White noise studios in Weston.
I read that Saul Davies (from JAMES) produced the album, how did you manage to get him involved in the project?
It was around Christmas 2020 that we met Saul Davies as part of a Charity event called ‘Music Feeds’. We instantly warmed to him and sent our tracks to him seeking some advice. We weren’t expecting him to offer to work with us but he did and we were so excited. We went to his studio in the Highlands of Scotland to record this in between restrictions in 2021. It was a beautiful location and the perfect place to escape to and sing.
Saul will be joining you in London on April 8th (release day), will he be playing guitar or will you have him doing random instruments like the spoons or maybe a tiny wee triangle like we had at school?
Don’t encourage him! He is bringing an amazing drummer who played on the album and also a bassist. He will be playing electric guitar and I’m sure that there will be more harmonies from our very lovely and talented borrowed musicians. We will bringing out our electric guitars for this tour too. We have days of rehearsals coming up soon and all of this will be planned. We can’t wait!
You’re touring the album in April and May, which places and venues are you excited about playing?
It’s always fun to be back on the road and we are heading to some new venues and new towns/cities too. I’ve heard nice things about the Worcester Venue and I’m excited for that one. We will be playing in Exeter our home city as part of Mad Dog McRae’s ‘Gypsy Caravan Weekender’. Anything that involves those guys is bound to be great. Manchester ‘Band in the wall’ will be fun. We always love playing in Manchester. We are of course excited about the Album Launch in London and we will have some great supports with us on tour - Gina Larner, Izzie Walsh and Samantics (for the album launch) as well as Lucy Piper joining us on drums for the majority of it.
I hope that you’ll be bringing your usual array of self-deprecating humour with you on tour? I’ve missed it!
We’ve missed you!!! And yes, it’s all about the banter. We’ve been the best of friends for so many years now that we spend all our time cracking up about one thing or another and tend to overshare most of this on stage. What makes us laugh and (usually) tends to make others laugh too. Its all about the mickey taking… its why we do it…..oh, and the music of course!
The tour stops off in Exeter on 29th April where you’ll be headlining the Friday night of Mad Dog McRea’s Gypsy Caravan Weekender, that has the word ‘messy’ stamped all over it, will you be resting your liver leading up to this show? (and afterwards?)
We will have to prepare our little bodies for this night. Those guys are hardened party animals and we have lots of catching up to do. Its been a long time coming!!
The tour takes you to mid-June, have you any Summer festivals lined up that you can tell us about?
Offers for festivals are starting to come in but nothing has been officially announced yet so keep your eyes peeled on our social media and we will be announcing things soon. The more the merrier for us!
Abbe – (Congrats on your bundle of joy BTW, she’s a cutie!) I hope that you have managed to incorporate your music into getting her off to sleep at night? What’s her favourite song?
Yes Little Winter Wood arrived in Nov and she is amazing. Auntie Han is totally in love with her too. She has already been to a few gigs with us this year so she is being prepared early. She had to listen to me and Hannah wailing throughout my pregnancy so she is used to lots of noise. We played a lot of ‘Winter Winds’ by Mumford and Sons to her in the first few days of her life.
Any signs of her becoming a budding musician yet or is it still early days?
She has a cracking smile so she is set to be a comedian so far!
Lastly, I just wanted to wish you all the very best for the new record and I’ll hopefully catch up with you in Exeter at the Mad Dog Gypsy Caravan Weekender event for a cheeky drink and a laugh….
Yes please!!! We would love that …very very much. Mines a Gin! xx
Catch Sound of Sirens performing their new album, ‘Damage Control’, on the following dates:
08 APRIL - LONDON - THE GRACE - ALBUM LAUNCH
16 APRIL - NUNEATON - QUEEN’S HALL
22 APRIL - CRANBROOK - VESTRY HALL
23 APRIL - WINCHESTER - WINCHESTER DISCOVERY CENTRE
24 APRIL - BRISTOL - BRISTOL FOLK HOUSE
29 APRIL - EXETER - GYPSY CARAVAN WEEKENDER
30 APRIL - NORTH NEWBALD - NEWBALD VILLAGE HALL
01 MAY - BEVERLEY - FIELY FOLK FESTIVAL
06 MAY - TEDDINGTON - LANDMARK ARTS CENTRE
08 MAY - MANCHESTER - BAND ON THE WALL
14 MAY - CALSTOCK - CALSTOCK HALL
15 MAY - GUILDFORD - THE BOILEROOM
21 MAY - BARTON UPON HUMBER - THE ROPEWALK ROPERY HALL
22 MAY - WORCESTER - DRUMMONDS
27 MAY - LLANDRINDOD WELLS - GRAND PAVILLION
29 MAY - SHOREHAM BY THE SEA - ROPETACKLE ARTS CENTRE
17 JUNE - FARNHAM - FARNHAM MALTING
We’d like to thank Abbe and Hannah for being such great sports and chatting to us about the album and tour. Keep up to date with their musical whereabouts at all of their social media outlets, listed below for your ease and comfort.
