The Wilderness Yet will be joining us for an evening of tunes and gorgeous harmony singing on 10th January. We caught up with them to find out more about what’s in store, their new album and their plans for 2022.
We’re thrilled to have you with us for our first gig of 2022! What do you have in store for us?
We’ve got a really varied set ready, with a few winter songs from our new album, hits from our eponymous debut album, and even a few new arrangements that will be on our next album! There’ll be traditional and original songs with backing on guitar, fiddle, flute & whistles; acapella three-part harmonies; and even a few jigs and reels thrown in!
For those who haven’t come across The Wilderness Yet before, how would you describe your sound?
Again, quite varied! A lot of our songs are fronted by Rosie’s clear natural vocals and backed on acoustic fiddle and guitar, which makes for quite a traditional sound, but we tend to play around with the harmony more than a lot of traditional musicians. Our other main “sound” is our harmony singing which was kindly compared to the Voice Squad by Irish Music Magazine – I suppose because we each have distinct voices and don’t try to blend out any character!
How long have you been performing together, and how did the band come about?
We’ve only been playing together as a trio since 2019. However, Rosie & Rowan had already been touring as a duo for a couple of years, while Philippe had performed alongside Rosie in their London-Irish band Crossharbour. The trio first came together to record a track called “We Must Away” for Rowan’s Songhive project to raise awareness of the plight of the bees (www.songhive.com).
You’ve just released a new album, Turn the Year Round. Tell us a bit about that!
Turn The Year Round is very much a seasonal album, featuring carols, wassails and winter songs that we recorded over the past couple of years. We tried to keep the festive carols secular and like our debut album, we had a general focus on the natural world.
Do you have any resolutions for the New Year?
Rosie’s promised to play the banjo onstage at some point this year, so you can look forward to that!
What’s in store for The Wilderness Yet for the rest of 2022?
Well, with the state of live gigs still up in the air, we thought we’d get on with writing and arranging new music. As you’ll hear if you come to the gig, we already have a few songs ready for a new album so maybe we’ll even get some recording done!
The Wilderness Yet will be joining us on Monday 10th January at 8pm GMT. Book your ticket here, and we’ll see you soon!
