Silent June (No Masters)

MOJO Magazine Top 10 Folk Album of 2010
Innovation Award Winner Fatea Magazine 2011
Best Debut Spiral Earth 2011

“Striking and refreshingly ambitious.  A bold, unsettling debut”  THE OBSERVER

“Great stuff” MIKE HARDING, BBC RADIO 2

"Impressive...intriguing...poignant"  THE GUARDIAN

"Hard to resist" UNCUT

"Gorgeous" **** THE FINANCIAL TIMES

"Music that demands close attention. Classy and deeply satisfying" **** R2 (ROCK N REEL)

"Intensely beautiful and poetic" THE ARTS DESK

"The former-Unthank's gift for a charged lyric and a compelling tune is undiminished" BBC MUSIC WEBSITE

“Superbly executed chamber folk” NETRHYTHMS

“simplistic elegance. ‘Silent June’ is an exceptional album” FATEA MAGAZINE

“a fine debut to showcase excellent original songwriting” SPIRALEARTH

“it’s this ability to start with folk and then mix in other styles, be that music hall or chamber pop, that separates them from their contemporaries” MORNING STAR

“powerful melodies and harmonies..striking lyrics. Belinda and Heidi strike gold on this album” BRIGHT YOUNG FOLK

“(Silent June) a fine example of what makes this duo different from anything else on the scene today” NORTHERN SKY

“an extraordinary, multi-layered creation that defies easy description…recalling at times the enigmatic sensibility of Lal Waterson” FOLK AND ROOTS WEBSITE

 

 

 

 

Press Biography

O’Hooley & Tidow

Since her departure from The Unthanks, the stark, haunting piano arrangements Belinda O'Hooley brought to the Mercury nominated album The Bairns have evolved and migrated, combining rippling, neo-classical arrangements with traditional folk influences. Together with Yorkshire singer-songwriter Heidi Tidow, these dapper-suited gentlewomen have created Silent June; their unpindownable, multi-layered debut album released on the No Masters label. Often accompanied by virtuosic violinist Anna Esslemont (Uiscedwr), they bring their intensely beautiful, poetic and wryly observant take on the human condition to the contemporary folk scene. Garnering increased attention and widespread acclaim, they have been winning over audiences countrywide with their irresistible blend of poignant, thought provoking songs, lush harmonies and cheeky northern banter.

Full Biography

O’Hooley & Tidow

Hello I’m Belinda O’Hooley and I am in a folk duo called “O’Hooley & Tidow”. Well it used to be just O’Hooley until a certain Heidi started singing at my local music venue...I’ll tell you more about that later.

I’ve been around for a while doing all sorts of music including singing in nursing and residential homes (which I still do) and playing piano and songwriting for Rachel Unthank & the Winterset (now The Unthanks). I played on two of their albums; “Cruel Sister” and the Mercury nominated “The Bairns”. Leaving that band was a really difficult decision, partly as I knew we were going to do really well and we had all worked so hard on the last album. However, I didn’t like the way the band was being managed and I also felt as we became more successful, decisions were becoming less and less democratic. I do not regret leaving but do wish that it hadn’t ended on such a sour note. But life goes on.

Heidi was performing in her own right as a singer-songwriter on the Yorkshire music scene when I happened to come to one of her gigs. I was instantly captivated by her songs and her distinct and expressive voice. We hit it off and Heidi began providing backing vocals on my songs. It soon became clear that we had a connection, both in performance and songwriting which lent itself to us becoming equal partners. Our debut together was as support for Jim Moray in Whitby at the Compass Club in May 2008. Jim McLaughlin; the promoter, heard one song in our soundcheck and immediately offered us a slot at MusicPort Festival in Bridlington. It was this performance which guaranteed us more festivals for the following year including Larmer Tree, Shepley & Beverley, representation by a folk agency, plus an opportunity to tour with Chumbawamba in March 2009.

We live in the Colne Valley in Huddersfield, but my musical background originates in County Sligo, Ireland. My uncle is multi-instrumentalist Tony Howley, and my cousin Colm O'Donnell leads the Border Collie Band. Another cousin Tommy Fleming has mapped out a successful solo singing career since leaving Irish super-group De Danaan. Being half-German and half-Irish, Heidi is the unsettling combination of two very different cultures; the traditional German music of her grandmother who she recalls playing the accordion in the kitchen when she was little, and the songs and stories she has inherited from her father’s side in Athenry, County Galway.
You may have deduced that Heidi and I are strong advocates of autonomy and as such, recorded our debut album “Silent June” on the No Masters label - a co-operative based in the North which is run by its members not bosses. We were introduced to them by folk singer Jo Freya and also the fabulous Chumbawamba with whom we were touring at that time. They knew we wanted to record an album together, and that we were reluctant to sign to a big label, so it just seemed an obvious choice to become part of No Masters. That was about eighteen months ago and recording started in earnest on our album in about September 2009. Looking back, I can’t quite believe that we managed to record everything but the string quartet at home in our little living room. We wanted to record the album ourselves and so took it upon ourselves to save and save and finally buy some fancy microphones, Protools, an Apple Mac and get on with it! Learning how to use the equipment was a steep learning curve, but with help from Richard Evans from Realworld studios and Neil Ferguson from Chumba, we managed to get some good quality recordings, though we did have to turn off the central heating, fridge and anything else that hummed...Neil mixed and mastered the album at his studio in Leeds with help from us two gobby women and the lovely Jude Abbott and her fabulous veggie grub.

If you buy the album and flick through the booklet, you’ll notice from the photos that we both have a strong image. We like to wear dapper suits, slick our hair back and perhaps challenge gender stereotypes a little. The very wonderful Casey Orr took our photographs in front of a burning piano in a car park in Leeds, with ladies of the night watching in curiosity from the side of the road. It was a real piano that we set on fire especially for our photo shoot, but for those of you that fear a piano was hurt in the making of our album, I assure you the piano was full of woodworm and needed to be cremated. Heidi got a burnt neck for her trouble but she reckons it was worth it to be part of such a ritual.

Being on a small label has many advantages, including having regular co-op meetings with plenty of tea and biccies. The other members have been doing this music lark much longer than us and we’ve had great advice from the likes of Coope, Boyes & Simpson, Ray Hearne, Jo Freya, and Chumbawamba to help guide us through the many pitfalls and decisions you have to make. Hopefully one day, we’ll be able to help newer recruits with what we’ve learned along the way.

Our album Silent June is not an album of personal anecdotes, rather a collection of tales which include amongst other things people, birds, ageism and taking risks. One song; Que Sera tells the tale of Edith Cavell, a British nurse who famously helped soldiers and refugees escape from the German army during WW1. Despite widespread public protests, she was court-martialed by the Germans, found guilty of treason and shot by a firing squad. There are so many songs about the war that are usually from a man’s perspective and as such, we wanted to bring to light the fact that women had a role in war. After her death, Edith Cavell was used in propaganda for British military recruitment. Her case represented an act of barbarism on the part of the Nazis.

In Too Old to Dream, we wanted to tackle society’s habit of shutting away the elderly. The opening vocals are from Irene Rourke; a resident at Burking Banks Care Home in Dewsbury and in the song, we tell the tale of a women whose exciting past and dynamic character is overlooked in light of her zimmer frame and care home residence. We also used a little segment of a 1930’s song called “When I Grow Too Old to Dream” in the chorus, as this is a sentimental song that many of the elderly residents still sing today. This song’s very close to my heart as my day job is providing musical reminiscence – I go to care homes and play the music that elderly people remember from their past. I see on a daily basis how music changes people, how it helps bring back memories for them. The song highlights the fact that elderly people used to be just like us but these days, we put our older generations away and try to forget about them.
The opening song Flight of the Petrel was written in response to Simon Emmerson (Imagined Village) sending us an mp3 of the bird song of a Storm Petrel. He asked us if we would be able to write a song about this bird, so Heidi googled “petrel” and this was the result. It has been described as a kind of avian lament in that it deals with society’s progress as imperceptible and grinding as glacial flow. In the song “bees drop like coins”, motorways are “backed up” and communities are like the aftermath of a road traffic accident and we do what it takes to get us through.
Our music has been described as “chamber folk”, which may in part be due to the string arrangements on the album and also our love of contemporary classical music which has definitely melded its way into our songs. Our songwriting does err on the side of the melancholic and has been described as unconventional, wryly observant, with a sometimes uncomfortable take on life. We’d agree with that, we’re not afraid to be in touch with our dark sides, but we’ve also been described as edgy romanticists who touch on matters of the heart and the frailty of the human condition. Bring it on! We don’t try to sound like anyone else, but there are people we look up to and feel inspired by, the main two being June Tabor and Lal Waterson. Devastating and humbling in equal parts.
We’re really proud of our album and were thrilled to bits when we found out it had made the Top Ten Folk Albums of the Year 2010 in MOJO Magazine. We both feel very fortunate to be able to make a living from writing, arranging traditional material and performing our own music, it is the best job in the world! Sometimes though, it can be financially unpredictable with sleepless nights worrying where the next mortgage payment or food bill is going to come from. Luckily, we are both reasonably frugal and not that materialistic which is a good job really!
We’ve been on the road touring Silent June a lot over the past 18 months making new friends for our music along the way. The virtuoso violinist Anna Esslemont has been accompanying us and if you haven’t seen her performing in Uiscedwr, then you need to come and see her playing on our music, she’s quite something. She makes her violin sound like a string quartet!
Work has already started on album no 2, and we are very excited at the new direction it is taking us. Album release February 2012.