Feathers, Wood 'N' String music

New single – MARIONETTE – Out July 30th!

Hey everyone! It’s been a while and we’ve had a genre-searching, exploratory time and come up with a new single in a new style that we hope you’ll love! We’re really proud of this new track and we hope it will make you dance along.

“We all have secrets that we feel others will judge us on. Marionette is a song about breaking free from societal norms. Norms are so often not created by what is…

https://open.spotify.com/album/4fziFB8FWlJLenozZK9l92?si=KA3L_U3NQd-MzYT1XRh6RA

“From Nowhere” is a discussion of our move halfway across the world to Southampton, UK, and in a broader sense, of the experience of not quite belonging. In our first 2019 single “Composite,” we directly approached the issue of belonging (or not belonging) in more than one home. In “Synthetic” we considered a different aspect of being unsure of belonging – Impostor Syndrome, and in our final single release, “Barbed Wire,” we questioned the effects of borders. The two new tracks on the EP are “Grey” and “Scarecrow.” In “Grey” Sarah presents a lyrical discussion of an issue close to her heart; that people are not tick boxes, and many of us exist in grey areas (you can read her post about it here). In “Scarecrow” Lloyd addresses the idea that many of our fears and anxieties are scarecrows – hollow threats.

The release of “From Nowhere” was celebrated with close friends and family at a release party in South Australia on December 30th, before we returned to the UK to begin our New Year. Thank you to all those who came along, listened, shared and took part in filling our maps and message tree with your notes. If you’re reading this and you weren’t a part of the celebration, but would like to add your notes virtually to the maps or the tree, leave us a comment!

We’ve also built a playlist of indie and alternative rock songs released in 2019 by unsigned artists, to celebrate the release of From Nowhere and of some other great songs that indie bands have produced this year. You can listen below or at this link.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2gSGu3y0ZDqe8K9ks49oMD?si=IDcc8PF4Q7KVJOyte_klTg

The new decade holds new directions for Feathers, Wood ‘N’ String, as we take a break of sorts in 2020 to clarify and adjust our genre and produce some acoustic renditions of songs we’ve written since our beginnings in 2016. Over the past couple of years our musical tastes have diverged quite significantly, with Lloyd leaning towards heavier metal and Sarah discovering “pixie” (if someone knows the proper definition of this genre, which Spotify declared to be Sarah’s top category, do enlighten us). For Sarah there are limitations to how heavy Feathers, Wood ‘N’ String should sound, both from a vocal ability perspective and from the point of view of accessibility to a wider audience. So before we leap off the deep end into serious alternative metal, we’re going to take some time to reset. You may see Lloyd producing some heavier stuff of his own in 2020 to satisfy that need for metal riffs – we’ll be sure to keep you updated on that. We may produce a single at some stage, or we may focus entirely on the acoustic recordings; we haven’t completely decided at this stage, but you can expect a quieter year from us recording-wise, and a bit less presence on social media as Sarah devotes some extra time to her second short story collection and novel. The end of 2020 should see us producing an acoustic EP or album on which we re-imagine many of our previous tracks: Let us know if you have a favourite that you would like to hear the acoustic version of!

In the meantime, please help us continue to celebrate From Nowhere in the coming months by sharing the music with others and telling us which tracks you’ve enjoyed and why! We’d love to hear how the concepts behind From Nowhere interact with your lives and bring these tracks to as many new listeners as possible.

Wishing you all a very special 2020!

Cheers –

Sarah and Lloyd.

From Nowhere EP: Coming December 30th

We’re excited to announce that From Nowhere has been sent off to Distrokid this afternoon and will be coming to your ears with two new tracks, Grey and Scarecrow, as well as this year’s three singles, on December 30th! We’re really looking forward to sharing the last two tracks with you after keeping them to ourselves for the last month or so.

We’ll be in Adelaide over Christmas as usual, but…

New song BARBED WIRE coming September 30th!

Friends, we are delighted to share with you Lloyd’s first track singing lead in a year or two, Barbed Wire. Barbed Wire is about borders, and in fact was originally called Borders, but we decided Barbed Wire was a more interesting title and a good image. Barbed Wire questions the idea that borders keep us safe from some mysterious external threat, and suggests that they might instead keep us…

New single SYNTHETIC released July 30th

Hi friends! We’ve been busy making new music, and today we’re releasing our heaviest song yet and probably ever! This was hard to make and we’re really proud that it’s finished and out in the world. Here’s a few words about it from us:

“Synthetic is about the experience of Impostor Syndrome – something I think we’ve all been through in one part of our lives or another.” – Sarah Fletcher, lead…

Composite is out and there’s a video

We hope you’ve heard the song by now, but we thought you’d like to see the video we made to go with it. There are masquerade masks and we stand on furniture. Curious yet? Watch below.

A big thank you to all you lovely folks who have been connecting with us and talking about home and belonging. We’ve had some absolutely lovely…

Hey there friends and supporters! We have new music for you today!

https://open.spotify.com/track/3RVB1emA1TMm9z4T4ddFy4?si=7bC4GGTiQa2MJT2C1UCCIQ

You can find it easily using this link: https://song.link/i/1458273061

Or visit our Bandcamp for lyrics at https://bit.ly/2ZLDjDF

Keep an eye out for the video in two weeks’ time, and of course, start sending in your photos for the photo challenge and…

We’re going to run another little challenge. This one is for the week of Composite’s release. Here’s how to join in:

1) Take a photo of a) yourself in a disguise or mask or b) a place or thing that makes you feel “at home.”

2) On or in the week after the 30th, post this picture online (can be anywhere as long as you tag us). On Facebook, use the “so-and-so is listening to/watching etc…” post drop down to say you are listening to our song. Elsewhere, write “I’m listening to Composite by FWnS” as the first line of your post. Then tell us about your picture. Be sure to include the Songlink so that your friends can listen too – you can get that here, in the Facebook event or from any of our pages. You can join the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/670464133383702/permalink/676544912775624/

3) We will probably comment and try to talk to you about your photo – It’s extra nice if you can reply but don’t feel pressured.

4) Actually listen to the song, sit back, relax, and Sarah will get her art thinking cap on and work out some cool rewards! We’re thinking special Composite art on cards with some stickers and other goodies hidden inside. Got a great idea for a reward? Let us know – we might just be happy to do it!

In the meantime, if you use Spotify, you can pre-save Composite at http://bit.ly/2FMGL7Q to make sure it’s in your library on release day! The song will be available from 6am your local time in all time zones on April 30th. That means our Australian friends will have access to it before we do! So get ready to listen and start letting us know what you think.

Talk to you all soon!

Sarah and Lloyd.

New song coming April 30th!

So we decided that there’s no time like the anniversary of our first date, and our lovely sister Charmaine’s birthday, to release our first single for 2019! If you use Spotify, click here to pre-save the song: http://bit.ly/2FMGL7Q

Composite is a song about having two homes – the expat experience, and how it changes you, and how there is both a struggle for belonging and a sense of freedom…

Feature Track 24th February: Lifeline

Well, it’s Sunday again and it’s time for our 5th and final feature track from Reasons to Exist. We hope you’ve enjoyed these insights into the stories behind each song on the EP. This week’s feature track is Lifeline.   We had to cut our ties Before I ever saw you jump Your truth choked-back, crossed-out For all we’d made and all we’d tried I was still numb.[facebook…

Feature Track 17th February: The Glass

This week’s feature track is The Glass. “’Life is short, experience.’ Never ‘Life is short so leave your mark’ The inching steps too bleak to see With gilded weariness we paid for dreams.”

The Glass was written and recorded late in 2018 after a discussion about our concerns about what the world cares about.

S…

Feature Track 3rd February: Constructs

  This week’s feature track is Constructs.

“But aren’t they just legends and lies, To comfort our minds, Yeah they’re just legends and lies, Constructs of our kind.”

In Constructs we deliberately aimed to do something different and heavy. It took a while for Sarah to find a space for the melody in this…

Feature Track 27th January: Rift

This week’s feature track is Rift!

“You’ve been my compass,

Proof of everything,

What the struggle means. 

Other people set us free,

In spite of all.”

Rift is a matchmaker’s point of view of when a relationship you’re really invested in isn’t going so well, and what that feels like. Sarah says, “I wrote…

So this week’s feature track is A Rose for Nothing.

“Depths unknown to be feared,

We sail out on black waters not our own,

But I can always lose my grip – you’ll catch my fingers,

You are the ship that carries me home.”

This was the first love song Sarah ever wrote for Lloyd, and it’s about how another person can really help remind you who you want to be, and what you care about in life, when those things start to get a bit lost. The lyrics speak from a position of having been helped in this way without yet having had the chance to reciprocate.

Sarah says, “It’s my favourite song to play live. I love looking at Lloyd and thinking ‘This is about you’ and just having fun together.”

The lyrics to A Rose for Nothing are deliberately ambiguous, and we chose the name for its double meaning – is it a surprise rose, a gift for no particular reason, a gesture of love? Or is it a rose that is given, and never reciprocated, a complaint?

You can read the full lyrics to A Rose for Nothing on Bandcamp: https://featherswoodnstring.bandcamp.com/…/a-rose-for-nothi…

Lloyd says, “I think it was the first time I really nailed mixing Sarah’s vocals. I was watching a tutorial of Bob Marlette mixing the Lola Black song ‘Nothing’s Gonna be Alright’ and it just completely blew my mind and changed the way I approached the vocal mixing.”

You can get this track on your preferred music service by clicking here: https://song.link/i/1445917120

Or listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5kOBgYYzkFWHLSNMXZyimL… Get it on Bandcamp and read the lyrics: https://featherswoodnstring.bandcamp.com/…/a-rose-for-nothi…

We hope you’ve found out more about the story behind this track, and that listening to it you notice new things. 🙂

If you’ve missed out on a hard copy, don’t worry – the EP is on Bandcamp and all your usual music streaming services, so you can easily grab an electronic copy.

Before we left Adelaide we were lucky enough to chat with Kym-Maree on The Local – SA and share our music at a few more intimate family events and the wonderful and always welcoming Hindmarsh Tiers open mic. You can listen to the podcast of our interview on The Local here: https://www.mixcloud.com/TheLocalSA/interview-with-sarah-and-lloyd-from-feathers-wood-n-string-on-the-local-sa-27-dec-2018/?fbclid=IwAR1XDWXDp13aSoHiaRenUnmcHbckyPcv9WiE2R2QYIrDyAuifsil2jpba2A

Plus, we managed to squeeze in an absolutely awesome photoshoot with our dear friend and amazing artist Emily McAllan, so you might have noticed our profile pictures and banners getting a much-needed update!

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So what next? Well, we’ve already started thinking about an EP for 2019, with ideas stacking up in Lloyd’s loop pedal and pages scrawled with topic ideas. Plus, having worked out acoustic versions of some of our tracks for Adelaide open mics and family events, and heard once or twice that a few other venues might have us if we had an acoustic set for them, we’re thinking of simultaneously recording an acoustic EP this year. This will be a whole new mixing world for Lloyd, so yet again he’s set to start on a steep learning curve.

We’re also on the lookout for charity events we could contribute to, support gigs and other opportunities to start to play live in our second home in Southampton, and local acts in both our hometowns that we can mutually encourage and support. If you know of something happening that we don’t know about yet, do give us a shout, and if you have a great local rock band we should check out, send us some links!

‘Til next time – keep enjoying indie music!

🙂 Sarah and Lloyd.