The last dance An elegant new album by The Unthanks marks a homecoming, a pregnancy, an engagement and a new epic style. Rachel Unthank and husband Adrian McNally talk to Tamzin Lewis about Last. hey may be rooted in was a new venture, it feels like a traditional Northumbrian natural progression.” balladry, but folk singers The natural progression has been Rachel and Becky Unthank steered by Adrian, who is the band’s T manager and producer. He says: “The have impressive powers of musical reinvention. Their first two albums were variety of different types of music is a with The Winterset, a four-piece female joyous thing. There are so many col- band also featuring piano and fiddle. ours of music to explore, it seems lazy These were sparse, shoestring DIY to stand still. recordings in cupboards but after gain- “Rachel Unthank & The Winterset ing a Mercury Prize nomination, a com- were nominated for a Mercury Prize mitted following and a deal with EMI, with second album The Bairns as a the third album, Here’s The Tender four-piece female act with no drums, Coming, heralded a metamorphosis. bass and few instruments. Since then The Winterset was thrown over and we have thrown the formula away and The Unthanks became a close-knit moved on.” affair with Adrian McNally on piano, his The sound of The Unthanks has childhood friend Chris Price on guitar become increasingly cinematic, in- and “adopted family member” Niopha fluenced by contemporaries like the Keegan playing fiddle. visionary American singer-songwriter Above, The where”. It was written in response to and explore the songs. We have to chest infection; and the big freeze in The focus remains on an equal pair- Sufjan Stevens. Unthanks, far disillusionment over Britain's invasion work out how we are going to arrange November had them all snowed in. ing of intimate sibling harmonies but to But the soul of The Unthanks re- right, the of Iraq and could be a theme tune to them and tell the story through the Rachel, 32, says: “I was sick every album Last help furnish the ambitious musical ar- mains the same. When I first inter- our times. music.” day during the first trimester; not just rangements of their fourth album, an- viewed Rachel and Becky five years And then there is the album's title After recording third album Here’s in the morning, whenever it took its other eight musicians provide luscious ago at their mum’s house in Ryton they track, Last, an original composition, The Tender Coming in a “fancy stu- fancy. People kept coming to stay strings, gentle drumming and muted told me how their favourite songs were which asks why mankind manages to dio”, the band decided to “go home” and our sound engineer thought I had brass. usually miserable and tragic. make the same mistakes over and over again for Last, recording vocals in the a stomach upset for two months. I meet Rachel and Adrian at New- And there is no shortage of mel- again. under-stairs cupboard of Rachel and “Becky was out of action for most castle’s Settle Down Café after they ancholy on Last. It includes trademark Rachel says: “We had 34 songs to Adrian’s cottage in the Tyne Valley. of the recording period. She couldn’t have spent a chilly afternoon filming on traditional songs such as Canny Hob- choose from for Last. Me and Becky Rachel says: “I find recording quite sing so we had to hang on.” the River Tyne for the BBC. Rachel, bie Elliot and My Laddie Sits Ower I find trawled our resources and looked for challenging and pressurised. For me None of this boded well, but “in who is six months pregnant, warms up Late Up but also tunes by American re c o rd i n g songs that we have meant to get the natural way to sing is for two reality we were getting on crafting with a latté and staves off hunger singer-songwriter Tom Waits and 70s around and do. As always we went people to communicate. I find it a bit other songs”, Adrian says. pangs with lemon cake. prog-rock band King Crimson. challenging and back to the Northumbrian Minstrelsy false singing for recording and being at The string quartet was recording in “When we started out we were very There is a poignant version of Alex p re s s u r i s e d . where we got Canny Hobbie Elliott home makes it a bit more comfort- the local village hall, which due to nervous about recording and perform- Glasgow’s Close the Coalhouse Door, f ro m . able.” remarkable acoustics made it sound ing,” she says. “As you change, grow about the terrible human cost of min- For me the “The songs emerge from our re- But despite the homeliness, it “like a symphony orchestra”. and mature as a person it is natural that ing for coal. natural way to search, we work on harmonies and proved a challenging record to make. And the crucial atmospheric qual- APRIL 11 the way you deal with music The spine-chilling Give Away Your sing is for two then they get life. You have to see if you Rachel discovered she was pregnant ity of Last was influenced by Snape APRIL 11 changes. Heart is a cover by English folk singer- can get the best out of a song.” with her first baby; Becky, who now Maltings concert hall in Su ffolk where “I felt confident about our sound for songwriter Jon Redfern, featuring the people to She adds: “We use the recording lives in Yorkshire’s Hebden Bridge with the composer Benjamin Britten es- culture culture this album. Rather than feeling like it reprise “disappointment is every- c o m m u n i c a te time as a creative process to sit down her fiancée, couldn’t sing due to a tablished the Aldeburgh Festival culture 14 15.