Emily Jones joins Arch Garrison at our gig on Sat 14th December at the Dorothy Pax as part of their joint winter tour. I previously saw her play a wonderful set at the biennial Alphabet Business Convention in Salisbury in the summer, alongside other Cardiacs family luminaries such as Gong, Crayola Lectern and Lost Crowns.
Hi Emily! Tell us a bit about your musical background – have you always been a solo artist or have you had other projects previously? How / when did you become part of the Cardiacs extended family?
I released an album called The Book of the Lost in 2013 with The Rowan Amber Mill – it was based around an imaginary late night series of Folk Horror films and was right before all that sort of thing started to become a bit trendy. You can find it here: https://owltextures.bandcamp.com/album/the-book-of-the-lost
I met (virtually at first) Bic Hayes [Cardiacs / Levitation / Dark Star / Mikrokosmos / ZOFFF / MUMMY] and Jo Spratley [Spratleys Japs / MUMMY] on MySpace in 2005 and we clicked…I ended up doing the mikrokosmos website and things spiralled from there.
Which artist has been most pivotal to your development as a musician? Which track would you recommend to people as their first listen?
It’s a cliche, but Syd Barrett. I’d recommend Dominoes or Long Gone…but that may be because I’m feeling a bit melancholy today.
Tell us more about Owltextures – is that your own label? What’s the significance of the (rather lovely) name?
Yup, Owltextures (all one word) is my label. When I was a mere puppy, myself and my friends would, for a laugh, have themed gatherings, using the same sort of naming style as the “love-in” and “be-in” of the ‘60s. So one of these was an Owltexture-in…stuff with owls on, with various textures…we brought tea towels, spoon rests, mugs etc, and a fine time was had by all. It was purely accidental it became the name for my label – it was only meant to be a stopgap, but it stuck.
Bees, dust, dust and bees – why do you think these themes recur?
Mostly a lack of imagination on my part. Those are the only things that are in my head – it’s like a big empty loft, with a few bees and a bit of dust in.
You’re out on the road with Arch Garrison this December – how would you describe Craig’s music to the uninitiated? What is your favourite track of his and why?
Craig’s music taps into that indescribable magic of landscape and feeling…the stuff that runs through the soul and can’t be pinned down by words alone.
It’s going to have to be The Oldest Road…I live up on the chalk downs a few miles from him, and yep, that nails it. What a melody…
Tell us about your tour plans – where are you visiting and is there anywhere you are particularly looking forward to going or visiting for the first time or playing alongside?
Our mini-tour (or Tourette as I like to call it, because it will involve a lot of swearing) is going to Weston-Super-Mare, Hereford, Hexham, Sheffield, Oxford, London and Salisbury, and runs from the 11th to the 17th of December.
I’m looking forward to visiting ALL of the places, and meeting ALL of the new people, and eating ALL of the chips!
And finally, have you got a recent musical discovery that you think might appeal to Buds & Spawn audiences?
I’m a great fan of an up and coming lad called Professor Jack Morgan…
[hehehe, loving baby Serafinowicz in this vid!]
Emily Jones plays at The Dorothy Pax on Saturday 14th December 2019 along with Arch Garrison and little robots. More details here.