BEHIND THE MUSIC: IMOGEN & THE KNIFE

Image by Ruby Pluhar

Imogen & The Knife releases her debut EP, Some Kind Of Love, on Friday 19^th July preceded by lead single, If It Won’t Talk Of Rain, which has already been compared to the likes of PJ Harvey and Nadine Shah. Here, North East native Imogen explains the influences and inspiration behind the five tracks on the EP, how she embraces her Northern heritage as a woman and how she uses ‘The Knife’ as a powerful symbol of reclamation.

Words: Imogen & The Knife

Mother of God

Quite by accident, this EP opens and closes with a dream. The opening track is a direct recount of a recurring nightmare I had during a very transitional time. It was earthed from a bass riff that Will Lister showed me and immediately it felt as though the dream had somehow found a sonic form. The images were already there: the boat-shaped house, the knife with my initials on it, the mosaic of faces. “Mother of God! This can’t be the only one” is the jolted awake moment when you realise that unless addressed, the dream, and the pain, won’t leave. After I wrote this track, the dream at least, did.

Paris Night

I somehow managed to whisk my younger sister away to Paris last minute on a grim weekend (Tory landslide, 2019). I didn’t really know what was going on with my life and she was just about to leave school. It was a strange, quiet, apprehensive bubble of time. I remember looking at her and thinking, “I’m not sure what we’re going back to, I’d rather just stay here forever”. My nearest know I’m not quiet about her being the most precious thing on the planet to me. It’s not the first or the last song about her, but it’s maybe the best.

Red (is my colour)

Red is one of those songs that fell out fully formed, which usually happens when I’m searching for something. Broadly, it’s a question of legacy, womanhood and our learned behaviour that shapes the continued degradation of women. It asks what it would truly mean to start again without any influence of heritage or structures; what parts of us are unknowingly intrinsic to the cycle of hurt. The song addresses you, myself, anybody. It’s less of a call to arms and more of an invitation to look inward.

If It Won’t Talk of Rain

This started life as a meandering musing on my proud Northern identity and what this meant as a young woman and musician choosing to leave home. As Northerners, we’re born into a culture of song and place, and it’s often as romantic and strident as it is mournful. This track is an exploration of that whole spectrum. A love letter of sorts.

Some Kind of Love

The closing dream. I used to be very close with someone as a kid and, despite not knowing them much anymore, they found their way into a dream of mine and we had a really moving conversation. Of course, it was my brain that made up what they were saying, how we interacted – the layers of that are really interesting to me. I figured it’s some kind of love that keeps them floating about my subconscious. I titled the EP after this song because each track explores love, of some kind, in its own way. Love shapes my experience of this world. It’s beauty and it’s pain. I hold a lot of it. Sometimes I’m not sure where to put it, and then, sometimes, a collection of songs appear.