Northumbria But Nice

The Unthanks are so good they’ve made clog-dancing cool. “Someone saw us clog dancing at a gig on telly and asked us to make a documentary on it,” says Becky Unthank of her recent appearance alongside older sister Rachel on BBC 4’s Still Folk Dancing. “So we got to go around Britain looking at all the different traditions of dance. It was brilliant.”

The resurgence of folk traditions has come as a pleasant surprise to Becky, now on her fourth album with her sister and an assortment of musical collaborators. Unlike many of the hip, mandolin-plucking folk pretenders of indiedom, Becky and Rachel have been steeped in the musical heritage of north-east England almost from birth.
“The whole family’s always loved singing, and it’s always been part of our lives. Everyone does a turn at family parties. It’s never been a matter of you can sing and you can’t sing. Everyone has a go. We were taken to folk festivals during the summer and we’d meet other kids who were into folk music. We’d camp and had a great time. We used to sing on the way to festivals in the car. It was like free entertainment.”
Initially, the band was called Rachel Unthank And The Winterset, but after two albums sisterly democracy kicked in and they became The Unthanks.
“When we made that very first album it was going to be called Rachel and Becky Unthank. I was 17 and, though I loved singing, Rachel is seven-and-a-half-years older than me and had really decided it was what she wanted to do. I was about to go to university to study art and wanted to keep my options open. So the reason we called it Rachel Unthank And The Winterset was because, if I did decide to do something else, it wouldn’t be as tricky for the band. As it turns out, it is what I want to do. We should have just called it The Unthanks from the start really. I needed the freedom and time to decide that myself.”
What does she love about folk?
“We were always drawn to the stories. There’s such a rich tradition of songs in the north-east – songs about the sea and Northumberland and the Scottish border. They’re about real life, things that really happened to people. They’re stories you have a strong emotional response to. All the themes are still important to people. And I don’t think you have to have experienced something to empathise with it – like the song about Patience Kershaw on the last album. She was a 16-year-old girl working down the mines. It’s important to hear about things like that. They’re great stories which capture me like watching a great film or a great book.”
She sings these stories with her sister and brother-in-law (Rachel’s husband Adrian McNally is now a member of the band). What’s it like touring with family all the time?
“Oh sometimes we get ratty with one another. If you can forgive anyone, it’s your family,” says Becky. “We get on really well. It’s sickening really. When I was a kid I never dreamt of singing on my own. I didn’t see the point of it. I would always drag Rachel up to sing with me. I always think that being on stage as a solo artist must be terrifying. I’m lucky. I get to go on stage with my sister.”

The Unthanks’ Last album gets a live airing on April 9 in Vicar St., Dublin You can listen to 'The Testimony Of Patience Kershaw' now on hotpress.com.