In Conversation With #115 - Third Girl From The Left
Mixing blends of Polly Scattergood with Portishead - Devon based artist Third Girl From The Left creates her own brand of dark, intimate pop on new EP ‘Oxygen’. She took a moment to talk us about the release.
Hey there, so your EP is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
It's great to finally get it out there. As your readers probably know, self releasing music as an independent artist is very much a labour of love, you have to wear many hats to achieve your goals; writer, musician, producer, engineer, publicist, I could go on but my point is I relished taking on those different roles and learning so much along the way. It feels amazing to create something that has never existed before. For me, this EP has been my silver lining to the end of a very tough year.
It is titled ‘Oxygen’, is there a certain meaning behind the title?
Well, when I started putting the EP together last year, like many people, I spent a lot of my spare time either in the garden or walking. I’m lucky to live in rural Devon and getting out in the countryside, to the moors or to the coast is something I really, really appreciate. I took time out to really stop, look, listen, and absorb nature, particularly trees and started to think about their role in our lives as the lungs of the world.
I hadn’t particularly planned it but the songs I’d written over those few months, as if by osmosis, had nature’s thread running through them.
Where was the EP recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process?
Most of the EP was recorded at my home studio in Devon with additional remote recordings from Gravity Drive drummer Ryan Halsey and ex-pat bassist Katie Marie, now living in Austin, Texas.
Initially I was anxious about recording remotely. Normally you’re in the same room as other musicians, you get to rehearse the tracks together, to knock ideas into shape. How would I be able to communicate what I’m hearing in my head through an email or a zoom meeting? Well for me the process meant building the main elements of the track on my computer using drum loops, keys, guitars and vocals and mixing them so there was very much a realised ‘feel’ to the track. I also find it helpful to give a written description of the emotion I’m trying to portray, to give a visual image for a particular part of the song. For example I’m currently working with Ryan on a new track and asked him to imagine waves crashing in a violent storm as the track builds to the climax and he got it. I’m thankful to work with such talented people who are so onboard with what I’m trying to create.
I’m also really interested in bringing everyday sounds into my tracks and at the end of the title track ‘Oxygen’ I knew I had to finish the track with some uplifting birdsong, a sound we have become much more aware of during the last twelve months. So I set my alarm stupidly early one serene summer morning, just before day break and tiptoed down the stairs, grabbed a strong coffee and fired up the computer. I grabbed my trusty AKG C414 mic and the longest mic cable I could find, set up in the garden and pressed record. I sat, I listened. A most memorable, magical moment.
Alongside the title track, comes a video featuring dancer and choreographer Nicky Burke, how did that partnership come about? Does it add more depth to the track?
Having seen some of Nicky's work online I contacted her and arranged a meeting. After sharing my ideas with Nicky it was clear we were on the same page and she shared my excitement and enthusiasm for the project. It was going to be a challenge as we couldn’t meet due to COVID restrictions and Nicky couldn’t even use her studio for filming so she set up in her flat, mostly on her kitchen worktop! She then sent me the files and I edited the video.
Does it add more depth to the track?
Well the track really works as a stand alone audio and it’s subjective of course but (I may be a little biased here) I think the video allows the viewer to see more deeply into the heart of the lyrics.
If you watch the video you’re presented with one single character throughout the song but she is playing different personas from a strong fearless woman to Mother Earth - the giver and sustainer of all life, to a dark spirit and a saviour.
I’ve always admired the strength and discipline required to become a dancer and working with Nicky, even remotely was a joy. I hope one day we can meet face to face and even bring an element of dance to my live shows in a post COVID world.
What are the key influences and themes on the EP?
My thoughts at the time were wrapped up with safeguarding the planet, the power of togetherness, the work of Greta Thunberg, her inspiration reaching generations with wisdom and clarity far beyond her years, the shocking death of George Floyd and the struggle to combat a worldwide pandemic.
And yet after the year we have had it seems unthinkable that we still fail to protect the one thing that gives us life.
‘Oxygen’ is an appeal for the protection of all that unites us and a timely reminder that we have more in common than that which divides us.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album? If so, which one and why?
Can I be cheeky and have two?
Firstly from ‘Oxygen’ it has to be:
“Remiss leaves seasons changed
Oh for Chlorophylled veins”
I like word play and inventing new words, do you think I could get this into the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary?
Secondly from ‘The Rising’:
“Golden glance
Evanescent
Fearless
Setting free”
On one level I was trying to capture that perfect moment when you watch a sunrise. It is so fleeting, constantly changing with an immense power to restore and revitalise. On another level I wanted to convey that nature and life go hand in hand, it’s not just something to be admired from afar but needs reintroducing to our daily lives. As human beings we should not work against nature but with it, embrace it, learn from it, reconnect with it.
It’s not there for us but with us.