Music can change people's minds, says Karine Polwart
WITH a Masters degree in philosophy and plenty of life experience under her belt, you'd expect Karine Polwart's lyrics to be of the 'deep and meaningful' kind.
The Cambridge Folk Festival regular, who came to the attention of many music fans through her critically acclaimed second album Scribbled in Chalk,released last year, plays at the Junction on Sunday.
"I'm a person who likes to ponder on things so philosophy was a perfect subject for me," says the Scottish borders folk singer. "It's all about asking why things are the way they are and that's essentially what I do through my songs.
"There's a cryptic-ness about some of my songs I think which comes from the philosophy. When I did my Masters my dissertation was all about how to change people's minds. The conclusion I came to was that art and music is a more effective way of changing people's minds than argument.
"Arguments don't change people's minds very often because they don't change anything about the way you see things. But I think personal experience and art and music and literature do."
Although she has been known to write the occasional love song, she admits that there are others who do it far better than she does. Many of the most affecting songs she has written were motivated by the experiences she had in her previous job working with child victims of domestic abuse and violence at a women's aid charity.
"That has been a source of inspiration, and not necessarily always in a negative way. It can be a very depressing kind of work but it can also be very inspiring.
"I'm interested in why things go wrong between people and there is that dark undercurrent in half my songs.
"I have a song called Daisywhich has the line 'There are people in this world who don't think like you do' which has definitely been inspired by working with children and trying to explain to them why things aren't as simple as they should be sometimes.
Although her parents were music lovers when they were growing up in Stirlingshire, a career playing and performing was not one anyone would have predicted for Karine and her siblings. But, as well as Karine, her brother Stephen and her sister Kerry are now also in the business. Stephen tours with Karine and plays guitar for her while Kerry is a member of up and coming indie band The Poems.
Although folk is enjoying a current renaissance across the UK thanks to acts like Kate Rusby and Seth Lakeman, in Scotland there has been a youthful movement bubbling under the surface for several years.
" I didn't get into it until I was in my 20s and moved to Edinburgh. Contrary to what a lot of people think it's a very youthful scene, there's a lot of people playing traditional music up here and it's a lot cooler and more mainstream than elsewhere in Britain."
Her arrival in Cambridge will see her performing a host of new material she has recently recorded.
Plans for her to release two albums earlier this year, one featuring traditional music and another of new tunes, were put on the back burner when she became pregnant and gave birth to her son.
But they are now scheduled for release three months apart in December and March, and she is playing the songs for the first time live on the current tour.
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About Karine Polwart
Karine Polwart (born 1971) is a Scottish singer-songwriter. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel, her songs dealing with a variety of issues from alcoholism to genocide. She has been most recognised for her solo career, winning three awards at the BBC Folk Awards in 2005, and was previously been a member of Malinky and Battlefield Band.
Biography
Polwart grew up in the small Stirlingshire town of Banknock and had an interest in music from an early age. She has described her whole family as being interested in music and one of her brothers, Steven, is also a professional musician who plays guitar in the Karine Polwart band, whilst her sister is developing her own musical career with the group The Poems.
Despite an active musical career from a young age, including forming her own band KP and the Minichips at age 10, Karine was discouraged from studying music at school and ended up studying politics and philosophy at the University of Dundee. After graduating with a First Class Degree in Philosophy Karine moved to Glasgow to study for a Masters in Philosophical Inquiry.
Her first job after her studies was as a philosophy tutor in a primary school, a job she describes as giving her a 'massive buzz'.[1] After this she spent six years working for the Scottish Women's Aid movement on issues such as domestic and child abuse and young people's rights and these experiences have influenced her songwriting.
Polwart left her job in January 2000 to concentrate on her musical career. After successful stints with Malinky and Battlefield Band she decided to embark on a solo career. In 2003 she released her first solo album, Faultlines. Written and recorded with assistance from the Scottish Arts Council, Faultlines won the Best Album award at the 2005 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. This award, along with 2 others at the same ceremony, increased Karine's profile not just in the folk community but also in the wider musical arena.
The songs on Faultlines cover a variety of topics, and although she has claimed at live performances that they are all quite depressing, many have an uplifting aspect. This is particularly notable in "The Sun's Comin' Over The Hill" (which won Best Original Song at the BBC Folk Awards 2005) which tells the story of woman who reacts to the death of her partner through a period of depression, drink and drugs, but has a more optimistic chorus, with the narrator foreseeing an end to this period. There are exceptions to this: "Waterlily" — the tale of a man whose lover is killed during the war in Yugoslavia — offers no such comfort. "Only One Way", on the other hand, is an upbeat song with a strong political theme and some biting humour.
In April 2006 Karine released her second solo album Scribbled in Chalk. This album was heralded with much critical acclaim receiving impressive reviews from amongst others, The Scotsman, The Sunday Times, The Independent on Sunday, Time Out and BBC Music online. A UK wide tour followed as well as appearances on BBC 2's Culture Show, Simon Mayo's Album show on Radio 2, Mike Harding's folk show on Radio 2, BBC Radio Scotland on the Janice Forsyth show and the Janice Long Late show on Radio 2. Karine's music also reached a wider audience when her songs were used during the opening sequence of a Hollyoaks episode in July 2006 and for the final programme of The Hairy Bikers' Cookbook.
Like Faultlines, Scribbled in Chalk often looks at the darker side of life with tales of sex trafficking ("Maybe there's a Road"), the holocaust ("Baleerie Baloo") and the uncertainties of life ("Hole in the Heart"). But these stories of despair are balanced by others that describe the joy of a slower life ("Let it All Hang Out"), of hope triumphing over cynicism ("Where the Smoke Blows") and the wonder of the universe ("Terminal Star").
According to her official website, she believes that songs should stand up by themselves. However, for the sake of those interested in the backstory behind the songs, the website provides information about each of them on the basis that even if a song does work by itself, sometimes the story behind it can make it more meaningful. She has also made guitar tablature available for several of her songs through her website, including notes on tuning and style.
As well as her solo work, Karine spent much of 2006 collaborating with other artists on a variety of projects; Roddy Woomble, the lead singer of Idlewild, asked Karine to help co-write and provide backing vocals for his solo album, My Secret is My Silence, whilst Karine provided many songs for the BBC Radio 2 music/social documentary series The Radio Ballads. Karine also supported The Beautiful South on their tour and she guested with David Knopfler at The Globe Theatre for a charity benefit for Reprieve.