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Beck writes…

It’s funny how things change… all the time… all is change… Just weeks ago I was determined to release a mini-album of symphonic gothic metal, filled with themes of vampires and haunted ruins. I am a BIG fan of “vampire romances”, as you know. I intended to write the lyrics and do the singing, but to invite some fabulously talented friends to write the music for me to sing to. The motivation behind this project was simply that I needed to “scratch an itch”. While I tend to sing moody, ghostly ballads and dark folk songs, I also enjoy listening to heavier music. I have always wanted to try singing with screaming guitars and angry drums. I wanted to be the wailing banshee over the top of the dark soundscapes.

Now two different things have happened which have caused a sudden change in direction. I am very excited by it all and I hope that you will be too, and that I won’t be disappointing any of you. Firstly, I ‘placed an ad’ on Facebook and my website, announcing that I wanted to sing with heavy, symphonic music and inviting people to get in touch with me. My recording engineer and co-producer of ‘Ye Olde Silent Inn’, Steve Palmer, happened to mention me to Brian Dade of AiiRadio, who happened to know that UK pagan prog/symphonic rock band LEGEND were seeking a singer… and the rest is history… I am now singing for LEGEND. I have just about finished recording the main vocals for the new LEGEND CD ‘Spirit’, to be released later this year. Singing with this epic, awesome music has been such a wonderful experience. I am loving it. I get to sing with all of my “different voices” – my “head voice”, my “tummy voice” and all sorts of challenging transitions between the two. I am always an emotional singer with my main focus on trying to create or interpret moods and atmospheres with my voice, and that is something that LEGEND’s music has really given me an huge amount of scope to experiment with. Singing with Paul’s guitar, Steve’s keys and John’s drumming is SO MUCH FUN!!!!

Steve Paine is LEGEND’s main music writer, as well as being the keyboard player, sound engineer, producer and pretty much bits and pieces of everything else! Steve and I are developing a great recording relationship, as well as friendship, and I feel comfortable exploring my vocal capabilities and trying to stretch myself in new directions. I am looking forward to seeing where LEGEND goes next! (www.stevepaine.org).

So, back to the story… I still intended to go ahead with my little heavy, dark project as well, and I got talking with a friend named Dan Sullivan, who is a pretty awesome guitarist. He agreed to write some music for me to sing to and I started to outline the whole vampire/haunted house theme. We then got together a couple of times to have a play around with some ideas. Then a wonderful thing started to happen… the songs began to take on a life of their own and basically demanded to be able to speak with their own voices. The lyrics, no matter how much I tried to enforce vampires and full moons into them, kept crying out to be emotional words of the heart… of failed relationships, of betrayals, of hurts, of rejections…

So… instead of fighting against change and instead of trying to force the songs to be a certain way, I feel strongly that I must go with the flow and record this little collection of emotionally-based songs co-written by Dan Sullivan and myself. The music that Dan has written is still quite heavy, but the vibe is more “metal ballad” and even “grunge-like”. I have also written a little piece of guitar which Dan and I are developing into a moody little instrumental piece… and you never know… maybe a vampire will still come misting into the words somewhere… but only if the words let him 🙂

So, I feel that I have “scratched my itch” with LEGEND’s ‘Spirit’ CD and my collaboration with Dan Sullivan. I can’t wait to share both collections of music with you! I look forward to telling you more about both of them in the near future.

I am still releasing my fourth solo CD later this year – a wintery, frosty album. As you can imagine, the current weather is perfect for inspiration and the songs are developing in a tinkling, icy, white-fluffy way 🙂

Thanks for listening,

Stay warm and safe,

Beck xx

Beck is Kate’s cousin’s and a talented songwriter and singer.  Her current album, released in October 2012 is The Old Silent Inn. Beck says this CD is “a night-time, up on the moors, wraiths, haunted staircases, and highwaymen, and very much influenced by the ghost stories and scenery surrounding The Old Silent Inn at Stanbury, near Haworth”

The tracks are as follows: Wycoller Hall, The Black Silk Handkerchief, The Moon on the 13th, Ye Olde Silent Inn, Down in Yon Forest, The Dark Stairs, The Moors, Lady of the Wind, Molly Malone, The Old Clock on the Stairs, Her Soul to a Highwayman, Top Withens, Tales of a Wayside Inn, and The Mirror in the Deserted Hall.

Listen to it in the Winter twilight by the flickering light of a candle, and not alone.

Here are Beck’s own notes on some of the tracks:

The Black Silk Handkerchief: I once fell in love with a traditional Irish song called ‘The Holland Handkerchief’ on a CD by American Celtic singer Connie Dover. Ever since that moment I knew I had to sing my own interpretation of it. It’s such a wonderful story-song.

Ye Olde Silent Inn: I have been very fortunate to have been invited repeatedly over the past few years to sing and perform in Haworth and Stanbury. For the past two years, when I have performed at the folk night organised by the Folk at the Wuthering Heights (at the Wuthering Heights Inn, Stanbury), I have stayed at the Old Silent Inn. I am an avid reader of books featuring true accounts of ghostly phenomena, and I had read all about the ghosts of the Old Silent long before I stayed there. I love the place. I love the name! I love its location. I love the stories. It’s been such an inspiration. I wrote this little song about it, and then it developed into a whole CD loosely based upon stories and places that surround the Old Silent.

Top Withens: What can I say?… If you’ve never walked out across the moors to Top Withens near Haworth, then you really must (if only because my CD will make more sense once you’ve experienced it (at the very least, look at images on the ‘net and imagine the wind wuthering and howling). I wrote this song as a tribute to the wind, and the spirits of the wind, and the memories lurking in the ruined farmhouse at Top Withens. In this song, with my voice, I try to BE that mischievious, heartless wind.

The Mirror in the Deserted Hall: With some of the most haunting, atmospheric music by Chris Gill that I have ever had the privilege to hear, I created a performance based upon the idea of sitting in an upstairs room in Wycoller Hall, but in my imaginings there are still floorboards there, and a cracked, dusty old mirror on the wall (or maybe I’m in East Riddlesdon Hall – another very haunted and moody building in the area). I’m in a dusty attic and I’m alone, but very aware of the sound of children laughing, toys being moved around by unseen hands and an old rocking horse moving back and forth by itself. A ghostly nanny flits about, looking for the children, unaware that many years have passed since the fire that took them all away…

You can purchase Ye Old Silent Inn CD at this link or you can download individual tracks or full albums here.

Beck’s has busy plans for 2013: “I intend to release two CDs in 2013!! Both will be slightly shorter than my previous CDs, and both will have strong themes, concepts and imagery. One will be a seasonal, frosty collection of Winter songs. The other will be a darker collection, allowing me to explore and experiment with my love of metal ballads and gothic themes and sounds. I am very, very excited about both projects, and I’m very much looking forward to working with the wonderful Steve Palmer again (engineer and co-producer of ‘Ye Olde Silent Inn’) and also my good friend Chris Gill. I also look forward to singing for Steve Palmer and Chris Gill on their own projects.”

Beck’s previous album was 2009’s Luminous Wings and Unseen Things, sixteen songs inspired by haunted gardens: Lavender’s Blue, In the Greenery, The Garden Seat, I Just Am, Siúil a Rúin, Down by the Salley Gardens, In a Secret Garden, Bushes & Briars, Old Mr. Crow, Tall, Waving Delphiniums in Storm-light, Thornfield, The Topiary Garden, She Moved Through the Faire, Weep Ye No More, Sad Fountains and bonus tracks Moss (Live), and Thornfield (Acoustic).

2006’s Unfurling, contained sixteen songs set within the light and shade of a Haunted Forest, featuring Celtic harp by Beck, didgeridoo by Stax: The Didgeman, keys by Paul Strahan, fiddle by Pieter Hart, bullroarer by Beck’s dad, David: Dungarvan, Unfurling, Moss, Tangled In Green, Shadow of a Dream, Greensleeves, Messages In Dreams, Under Thunderous Skies, The Blacksmith, Sherbrooke Forest, The Night Will Never Stay, The Foggy Dew, Mountain Ash, and Bonus Tracks Strahany’s ‘Black’ Mix, Ethereal, and Dream Beneath Trees.

These albums are available from iTunes or Beck’s website.

You can follow Beck on Facebook.