‘It’s not my pain. There’s a responsibility in that’: Thea Gilmore on writing songs from anonymous confessional voicemails
After tiring of writing about herself, the British singer-songwriter asked the public to share stories to inspire her music – and they responded in their thousands‘This project has changed my...
By Shaun Curran · The Guardian Culture
After tiring of writing about herself, the British singer-songwriter asked the public to share stories to inspire her music – and they responded in their thousands ‘This project has changed my whole thinking,” Thea Gilmore says of her new endeavour, The Echo Line . “What am I getting from it? All of humanity.” Disillusioned with the numbers-chasing music industry and wanting a break from her personal songwriting after releasing 22 folk-orientated albums since 1998, the 46-year-old is “putting people back at the centre of it. I’ve said enough about me.” Community building has been key to the Oxford singer-songwriter’s work since debut Burning Dorothy, released when she was just 18, through to her 00s breakthrough albums Avalanche and Harpo’s Ghost all the way to her most recent studio album, 2023’s Thea Gilmore: a body of work that has won Gilmore admiration from Bruce Springsteen, Richard Thompson and collaborator Joan Baez. Continue reading...