Watch the powerful video for Ms Amy Birks' art-rock single Brothers
By Natasha Scharf
John Hackett and Frank Van Essen guest on Ms Amy Birks' second solo album, In Our Souls - available now on digital platforms
(Image credit: Press)
Former Beatrix Player, Ms Amy Birks showcases a new sound on her latest single, Brothers – watch the video below. The track, which includes guest musicians John Hacket and Frank Van Essen, is taken from her second solo album, In Our Souls, available now on digital platforms and officially released on June 17.
Says Birks of the song, "I have two estranged brothers and those tumultuous relationships have been the subject, or at least the undercurrent of many a song. For whatever reason, we have never seen eye to eye, hence the opening words of: 'I don't understand why. Do you? Do you know why?' and the build-up of aggression through the instrumentation. This, I suppose, is my therapy."
Brothers is the second single from her upcoming 12-track album, which includes three poems by the Bronte sisters set to music. Singer-songwriter Birks has previously told Prog, "I did English literature at college and I've always had a fascination with the Brontes, I thought, 'Well, Kate Bush has done Wuthering Heights so I'm not going to touch the novels, but what about the poetry?' So I went through them and landed on three that I loved, one from each sister."
As with her debut, Birks is also the album's producer and mixing engineer. She describes the process as being "a time of solitude, of many a late night, exploring ideas and losing myself in the books and poetry of the Bronte's and my own personal journey over the past few years, developing my ears, skills and confidence as a composer.
"My first record, All That I Am & All That I Was, was very much about deeply personal experiences but with this album I wanted to extract more strength and feeling from the musical palette and have more fun with it, which has enabled me to step back a little from the lyrics and put more faith in my ability to write not only songs but pieces of music."
Birks will perform songs from the album at a series of live shows in the UK from April 24. Scroll down for the full list so far.
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2022 UK Tour Dates
Apr 24: Bilston Robin 2
May 08: Southampton The 1865
Jun 11: London Music Museum – opening for Tim Bowness
Jun 18: Stoke Town Hall Jubilee Hall – album launch
Jul 02: Ely Stretham House Concerts
Jul 19: London Green Note
Oct 21: Darlington Forum – opening for the John Hackett Band
Natasha Scharf
Deputy Editor, Prog
Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine's News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she's since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen's memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She's currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine's cover.
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