By Ruby Collins
After listening to Imogen and the Knife supporting The Last Dinner Party at Utilita Arena on 3 December, Gair Rhydd managed to secure a few moments talking with Imogen after the show.
Imogen’s debut, extended EP, ‘Some Kind of Love’ shows fluid versatility. From intimate and bare ‘Paris Night’, to the choral and eerie ‘Some Kind of Love’ to her electric single ‘Mother of God’, Imogen’s album offers depictions of nostalgia, womanhood and idolatry.
For those who don’t: Imogen and the Knife are a must-get-to-know. Her sweeping, gentle vocals and piano melodies cut open a gritty hollowness which her lyrics surely fill.
If Imogen’s music consumes you from the disc, her performance changes the experience altogether.
Only a versatile performer feels comfortable enough on stage to pause the set to call for security to attend to a fainting fan, playing it off as ‘my fault for calling a song ‘blood bag’’.
Notably, hers and Lizzie Maynard’s live harmonies on Maynard’s track ‘Mother Mother’ were entrancing— falling somewhere disputable between angelic and sirenic.
Watching the arena fall silent in admiration of these women was something to be remembered.
While talking to Imogen, something we snagged on in conversation was the need for artists, particularly with social platforms, to be advocating for current injustices in the world.
Touring with The Last Dinner Party, a band who show unapologetic advocacy for Palestine and poverty across the UK, I wasn’t surprised that Imogen and the Knife reflected these concerns.
You mentioned that this was your first time playing in Cardif , how did it feel to perform here?
As Imogen is a Geordie, now based in South East England, touring with The Last Dinner Party, she had lots to say about the similarities in the relationship between music and culture in both Wales and Newcastle: it ‘just feels like we have a similar culture of song, especially, which is really cool. I felt like tonight was so appreciative and everyone was, like, really in it’.
‘It’s been so lovely to have a crowd where people are into the music, straight away. Most people have never heard of me or heard of my music, so it’s very lovely’.
Do you feel like you’re still getting nerves then, or does it feel like, to an extent it’s pure excitement and just, fun?
‘It’s excitement and it’s also just kind of satisfied because, like, we don’t get to play venues like this big- at all- and we might not for a long time left. So it’s just like, we’re soaking up every minute.’
The title of our newspaper translates roughly to free speech in English which feels, particularly with everything going on right now across the world. I was wondering, listening to yours and The Last Dinner Party’s set, if you had thoughts on music as a vehicle for raising important issues?
“100%. Like, I think music more than ever, especially songwriting- so, I’m also a songwriting lecturer at Leeds College of Music and I’ve been saying to students moving in that it’s such a brave choice to be studying songwriting right now.
I think we need artists more than ever. Even if you are directly writing art, it is always a reflection of the times. It’s currently more important than ever to be giving a voice to artists and especially, like, young artists who are, figuring out how they feel about things, and they put their own political stances in.
Music is such a tool to be able to do that with. Also, while music is important and lyrics and art and everything, we need to be championing direct action at the minute.
Money also matters. ‘Absolutely. It’s been an interesting thing because I’ve never had audiences this big, I’ve never been in front of this. It’s definitely been on our minds, of how best to utilize that.’
