Two years after debut album, Ms Amy Birks is back with In Our Souls, which finds her returning to her literary roots with inspiration from the Brontë sisters. In 2022 she told Prog about its creation and why she’s decided to begin work on a long-awaited new Beatrix Players record.
There’s a certain no-nonsense, honest grittiness about Ms Amy Birks. Whether she’s referring to the disbanding of her former group Beatrix Players, discussing comparisons to other artists or her deeply personal lyrics, the conversation is always engaging and devoid of some of the PR-driven, banal fluffiness that affects too many musicians.
For Birks, there’s also a sense that she needs to recover a momentum that’s been lost over recent years. Her central role as part of Beatrix Players – an ornate, classical-driven trio – led to countless plaudits, before she called time on that endearing project. A subsequent debut solo album, All That I Am & All That I Was in 2020, was similarly well received, before an enforced lockdown culled any hopes of supporting live gigs. Now, she’s returned with In Our Souls, another luscious collection of songs, which she hopes will provide a welcome reminder of her abilities.
For this new album, Birks has teamed up with original Beatrix Players members Helena Dove and guitarist Tom Manning, who have assisted in creating the backdrop for her thoughtful, cerebral lyrics. On her debut, Birks demonstrated her adoration of literature by referencing the works of Daphne du Maurier. This time around, her appreciation for the poetry of the Brontë sisters has driven three of the songs, In Our Souls, A Death Scene and The Dream.
“We’re not too far from [the Yorkshire village] Haworth and the Brontë sisters have always been a part of my life,” explains Birks. “I didn’t find them through Kate Bush or anything like that. I was an English literature student and was always drawn to such strong women. I was even doing research into the music that each of the sisters liked and I just tried to bring their character out in each of them. It tests you as a writer and gets you thinking in a different way rather than it being just all about me. I was trying to consider what were they might have been thinking when they wrote the poem. I could relate to everything, it was quite natural and I really enjoyed it. I’ve used the poem The Dream in its entirety, whereas A Death Scene was a lot longer, so I just took the sections I thought would worked. I suppose I could have just done a huge prog song. Maybe for the next record!”
In the same way that the topic of a divorce formed the lyrical basis of a couple of tracks on her debut, the song Brothers concentrates on another potentially awkward topic: the breaking down of her relationship with her two brothers. Such an openness could be considered to be a brave move, but Birks reveals that she has never been concerned with expressing such personal sentiments within her music.
“I’ve never had a fear of expressing things,” she states vehemently. “One of the things that came from my parents was that I never grew up with any fears of anything. I think you’re in a lucky position if you feel like that. It’s the same with lyrics, really, and I’ve never been worried. I just have to get it out. Some people deal with it by locking it up or becoming angry. I think if you keep the anger inside it turns into bad things. I do think that people look at me and think that I am always calm, like I couldn’t give a shit, but that’s because I just let it out. It’s dealt with then.
“I think that’s what was happening with Brothers, really. I’ve had difficulties for the last 10 or 20 years with both my brothers. They deal with it in different ways but hopefully, if they read the lyrics, there’s not too much anger in there. It’s a sadness, really. Of course, I’m aware of my lyrics and how that can affect people. If you read between the lines though, it’s very much more of a longing and I always keep it at the back of my mind that these are real people.”
There’s also a sense from Birks that such lyrical confessions and her overriding love of creating music act as a form therapy, especially when working into the early hours on new material. Indeed, there’s a certain sense of romance about a solitary musician exorcising inner demons and forging musical backdrops into the small hours of the night.
“In my day job, I’m a designer and really I love creating things,” she says. “But when I’m writing, I can sit there for six or seven hours and suddenly think that I haven’t moved in that time. It’s so immersive and I like that. I really don’t mind my own company, so I can sit down on an evening and get engrossed in it. It’s a great way to spend your time and is almost like therapy. It’s my favourite thing to do. I’ve never really struggled with writing lyrics and sometimes the music comes at the same time. As I’m writing the lyrics, I can hear what a violin or cello is going to do and where the vocal melody is going. I had a little bit of time off over the last few months, just doing different things. But then I get this urge that I need to sit down and write again.”
Throughout her career, there have been those who have suggested her work has been overtly influenced by Tori Amos and Kate Bush. Such comparisons won’t be aided by encompassing the works of the Brontë sisters into her music, given Bush’s 1978 exploration on Wuthering Heights. Does Birks find the highlighting of these parallels irksome?
“I didn’t grow up listening to Kate Bush but it doesn’t bother me at all,” she muses. “I think it’s wonderful really to have their names put anywhere near mine. It’s incredible, and the same with Tori Amos. When I was in my late teens at university, I was very much into her, but I was probably more into Natalie Merchant.”
With Birks’ solo career on the brink of developing into something special, it comes as a surprise that she’s decided to reform Beatrix Players. That project was curtailed in relative animosity, so why has she chosen this moment to relaunch that band?
“I can’t be bothered to write another solo album for a bit,” she jokes. “No, I kind of folded that originally because it became a difficult relationship and I said, ‘Enough is enough. This is going to be healthier for us all if we go our own ways.’ So Jess [Kennedy] and Amanda [Alvarez] won’t be a part of this. It’s always been my band and I’ve put so much love into it, coming up with the name and everything and I thought it was time to bring this back.”
Joining Birks will be the aforementioned Helena Dove and Tom Manning, who were pivotal in creating the blueprint for the band.
“I just like writing and working with people,” she enthuses. “Even though I’ve done some co-writing on these two records, it gives the music a different flavour when you are working with a band and a different sound. The demos are sounding great but I’m just working out if we need another couple of members at the moment, and making sure that we have got enough to go out there next year with a massive bang. I really want it to be beautifully executed. At the moment, I’m writing solely for Beatrix Players’ next record and I would love that to be a real long-standing project. It won’t be just one record as I think we all have a lot of music to get out. It’s just so nice to be working together again.”
