AWARD winning singer / songwriter Emma Langford, like all of us, has seen plans changed and live appearances curtailed. A tour of Germany, meant to be happening this month has been cancelled and rescheduling has been abandoned.
“It doesn’t look like it is going to happen until next year, we were meant to be touring in September next year so we just moved everything until then.”
But despite all that Emma is finding ways to continue with her music. She played an online live event this Wednesday with the likes of Paddy Dennehy, Sara Ryan and Jordan Run.
The songwriters performed from their homes with each act playing a 20 minute set and then directing the viewer to the next act through a link on their page.
She has just released a video for her wonderful single ‘Sowing Acorns’ featuring the words and voice of Vanessa Ifediora and has ranked up over 1000 views already.
The video was made by Barry Fahy of Celtic Badger Media featuring Emma and dancer Rachel Ní Bhraonáin from Waterford who brings flow and movement to the piece.
“I worked with her last year on a big aerial dance collaborative show.’ says Emma of the dancer who plays a lead role in the narrative.
“I got to know her through that, she is just really positive, a really good person to have on the team. She contacted me asking did I want some movement in the video, the concept kinda grew from there.”
The song ‘Sowing Acorns’ is the title track of Emma’s second album which is due for release later in 2020.
Emma worked with Grammy-nominated The Production Suite (Chris O’Brien and Graham Murphy) on her debut album ‘Quiet Giant’ and returned to their studios for the new LP.
The title track was written while Emma was finishing her MA in Community Music at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in Limerick.
“Sowing Acorns was written in the midst of a horrible flu when I had severe anxiety and really bad fever. I was sitting up one night after working on my thesis for my masters just really needed to sleep and I started writing and that song happened.
“It started really mellow and trips and trance-y and it worked and it got me to sleep.”
The Limerick singer-songwriter credits O’Brien and Murphy for transforming a simple lullaby into an epic “hands-in-the-air style anthem” that builds to a powerful chorus, supported by layered vocals and drums.
“The track started out small – I wanted it to be a bit more epic. That epic multi track vocal and all that kind of stuff. The guys worked their magic.”
‘Sowing Acorns’ features the speaking voice of Vanessa Ifediora reading her poem Off-White Sheets over Emma’s gentle finger picking before building to a powerful chorus, supported by layered vocals and drums.
Vanessa’s poem, sampled in the track, draws on her experiences of a condition called Maladaptive Daydreaming, and was published in March 2019 in her first book “Off-White Sheets”, a collection of images and poems detailing her anxieties surrounding recovery from depression.
A party remix of Sowing Acorns by Belfast-based electronic/ambient artist Arvo Party is out now.
Stream and Order Sowing Acorns at https://emmalangfordmusic.bandcamp.com/
You can also become a supporter of Emma on patreon. She is making a series of readings of bedtime stories available.
“When I was a kid I used to go around to the other classes in school and do puppet shows and read stories, that kind of thing.”
“In the past few months I’d love if someone was reading me bedtime stories at night time when anxiety hits hard.”
“I tried to find a few podcasts but nothing really suited what I was looking for so I decided that I would start putting things out there myself. It’s a bit of fun.”
You can hear and download Emma readings on her page. The singer has also read excerpts from a book from Limerick author Dan Mooney.
See https://www.patrreon.com/emmalangford for more details.
