Feature by Northings
Astrid Williamson – Return of the Lone Wolf
JAMES PARRISH traces the story of Shetland-born singer and songwriter ASTRID WILLIAMSON
A NATIVE of the wind-swept Shetlands, Astrid Williamson describes her early musical development as “a good excuse to stay indoors.” The daughter of a peripatetic piano teacher and banjo playing fish-merchant, her early career choices seemed inevitable – the fish or the fiddle.
Astrid Williamson
The fiddle won out, quickly followed by the piano, guitar and any other musical instrument lying around. This culminated in a music degree from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, where she studied classical piano and composition studying with John Lill and Judith Weir amongst others.
“I almost didn’t graduate,” Astrid admitted. “Even though I’d always composed music I only started writing proper songs in my final year and I found it ecstatic. It took away every other appetite I had.”
Moving from Glasgow to London and forming the critically acclaimed trio Goya Dress, Williamson found herself entirely out of step with the then fashionable Britpop movement.
“I remember reading a review which basically said ‘Britpop Girl’ is angry and thin and wears a skinny T-shirt and she is not here tonight.”
Goya Dress made just one album for Nude records, the critically acclaimed ‘Rooms’. In spite of a blanket of praise, and the production reins falling into the hands of legendary art rock pioneer John Cale, ‘Rooms’ built Astrid a cult audience. But this wasn’t enough for the execs; faltering under increased record company pressure, Williamson resolved to go solo.
Surfacing in New Orleans under the auspices of Malcolm Burn (Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris), Williamson continued to make striking and ambiguous music. 1998’s ‘Boy For You’ kicks off with the memorable refrain “Cocaine and chocolate won’t keep you alive, but they might fill you up when you feel deprived.”
Even though ‘If I Loved You’ from this album would ultimately be covered and appear in several different films, ‘Boy For You’ was met with unanimous critical acclaim but didn’t get “out there” as much as she hoped.
“Every time I make a record that doesn’t really see the light of day I go into morbid depression. The first time it happened with ‘Rooms’ I didn’t really know what was going on and ended up in therapy. The second time I extracted myself from my record deal and moved to the seaside.”
The true merits of any artist destined for greater things are invariably revealed in times of adversity. Finding herself direction-less and in a legal battle over the professional use of her own name, Astrid, Williamson found solace in writing what would become her first release on her self-financed label, Incarnation Records.
Astrid Williamson
Williamson’s eponomously titled second solo album was well received, gathering many plaudits in its wake, including a four star Mojo review that hinted at both its “timeless” and “stunning” content. 2004 also saw Williamson return to more regular touring culminating in appearances at several summer festivals including Glastonbury.
By the end of 2004 she had bought her back catalogue, including the Goya Dress masters, intending to release this on Incarnation. Buoyed by the resuscitation of her career, Williamson began demos for what would become ‘Day of the Lone Wolf’.
“Essentially I stayed in my room for two weeks and demo-ed a track a day. I was determined to know what kind of record I was making rather than looking outside myself for reassurance and guidance as I’d previously done working with producers.”
Once complete, ‘Day of the Lone Wolf’ came to the attention of Phil Brown of Talk Talk fame, and two tracks, ‘Superman 2′ and ‘Tonight’, were remixed. The album’s title was taken from a book exploring the esoteric nature of birthdays, ‘The Secret Language of Birthdays’, in which her own birthday is referred to as ‘The Day Of The Lone Wolf’.
The emotional resonance of ‘Day of the Lone Wolf’ lies in a feeling of intimacy and isolation wrestling with each another in a bid for some kind of resolution. On ‘Tonight’, Williamson sings: “Everybody knows pure joy is found in ordinary rooms on afternoons in the arms that want you/if only you could see it my way/if only /I could see it your way”.
Similarly on ‘Forgive Me’ the line “It’s not that there’s no love, it’s just we can’t get close enough” is resonant of a goal just out of reach. At other times ‘Day Of The Lone Wolf’ is just plain sexy: ‘True Romance’ contains the couplet “Look at me and think of this/All my tangled hair across your hips”, and on ‘Shhh…’ the lines “Shhh….baby put it away/you don’t want to hear and I don’t want to say” smack of the common threads of desire and denial which run through the album as a whole.
For Astrid Williamson it has not been easy (on top of all of this she has had to nurse her mother through her increasingly serious bi-polar condition – something that takes up a lot of emotional energy), and perhaps that’s good, for what we have in ‘Day of The Lone Wolf is an album full of poise, grace, passion and conviction ready to infuse the darker reaches of your heart.
© James Parrish, 2007
