In Conversation With #212 - Pem
One to watch for 2026 is Pem - who has just released her new EP 'other ways of landing' via Fascination Street Records.
Multidisciplinary artist, songwriter and gardener Pem’s practice blends the organic and the stylised. Earthy yet elusive songwriting is paired with analogue crackles, string based sound design and field recordings. It is in her long days spent attending the natural world, grown things, the changing seasons, that the foundations of Pem’s songs are crafted. Her ‘pocket sketches’; mumbled snippets and unconscious melodies are captured by a handheld recorder while gardening, while her mind is wandering before they are later formed into fully fledged compositions.
With EP other ways of landing, Pem has pushed the textural and world building aspect to her work and elevated her rare vocal agility. She continues to balance poignant storytelling and unfiltered vulnerability with her raw and hypnotic voice.
She took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
Hey there Pem, how are you? So your EP is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?
I'm well thank you, things are starting to get a bit warmer and i saw some new bulb tips poking through the soil today which is always nice to see. I'm chuffed to have the EP out, especially at this time of year, it feels springy and symbolic.
It is called ‘other ways of landing' – what is the meaning behind that?
I started writing the first song last winter. I had moved house seven times that year but kept returning to the same gardens. A couple days after writing the first song I was working in a small patio garden and noticed an oak seedling growing out of a crack in the paving. I thought there was something really lovely about something as huge as an oak tree trying to grow in such an impossibly small space. It sparked the idea for the EP and the feeling of repeatedly arriving somewhere you don't want to be but trying to stretch out a few branches anyway.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
In Bristol with Ali Chant - I love that studio and I love working with Ali and Nik. I always have so many cups of tea and many so oat biscuits and me and Ali always get in to very interesting philosophical discussions. It was summer and incredibly hot, I remember needing to nap on the sofa quite a lot!
What are the key influences behind the EP?
Astronomy and gardening. It was really informed by the moon and my relationship with it, and the idea of large planetary forces beyond our control — I'm really into space. Gardening was definitely the biggest influence though: watching plant cycles and their seasons of change. I was field-recording and writing a lot of the lyrics whilst gardening, so it’s really embedded in the songs.
If the EP could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
Some kind of surreal alien related love story. Maybe something like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind : it kinda portrays love as strange, cyclical, and slightly uninhabitable. Or maybe even that film 'Her ' because it's about loving something non-human and intangible?
Do you have a favourite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why?
"its not the whole night it's just the naked star it's not the whole life its just the aching part' -- i quite like this one from 'milk,blue' but my favourite song on there is the first track 'other ways of landing'
Now the EP is out there – what next for you?
I'm doing a UK headline tour to celebrate the release, it's my first headline tour so i'm excited about that. Then some more shows across the year <3
