While our focus here at GDW remains primarily towards Canadian folk-roots music, we are always willing to stretch those geographical boundaries in our pursuit of amazing music. North America may be the place that this British fella has called home now for rapidly approaching two decades, but I’ve never lost touch with the music scene across the pond. Nor beyond!
Long-time readers may recall that it was only a few months into the early GDW days when I shared our first non-Canadian music editorial, which kick-started these occasional “Commonwealth Connections” features in the process. The original concept was for an outlet to share fresh tunes from the UK and Ireland every now and then, before delving a little further afield with an expansion into the unexplored folk-roots music scenes from Australia and New Zealand too. So much amazing music just itching to be discovered, we could easily warrant a sister-blog devoted to the non-North American music scene – if only GDW alone did not consume our time and resources. Alas, we cannot do it all…
As we continued to grow and cultivate GDW, opportunities arose to interact with many of the Canadian artists that we sought to write about. Interviews with artists would follow, and we remain grateful to all those who took time to sit down with us and discuss their music and careers. Yet – cue the light bulb moment – we had never considered the possibility of chatting with some of the “Commonwealth Connections” artists we had featured – so why not give it a shot?
Discovering the music of London-based musician Rachel Croft – and spinning her official first vinyl release just a few weeks ago, another light bulb moment presented itself. Continuing to earn a strong following in both the UK and Europe, Rachel has yet to establish a ground-game here on North American soil. We know our audience, and guarantee that many would welcome Rachel’s brand of original and authentic rock and roll music on these shores. Seeds were planted, and Team GDW are incredibly grateful to Rachel for taking time to chat about her new EP and music career to date.
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As an emerging British artist, many of our readers here in North America are naturally curious to learn a little about you and your music. Please introduce yourself, and share a little about your background, your early influences, and your music career to date.
Hey, I’m Rachel, I’m an independent alternative musician and multimedia artist based in London, UK. I loved to sing for the longest time, did musical theatre at school, then kind of fell into music after university in York through busking (street performance). What started as a fun challenge snowballed into a full time career of over 10 years, in which time I’m fortunate to have had my music played on Netflix shows and the BBC, throughout major stores like Tesco, Caffe Nero, Waterstones and others, done a bunch of tours of Europe, performances at Camden Assembly, The O2 arena’s blue room, and Bush Hall here in London. I may not be ‘big,’ but I have a pretty fun time making music as my full-time job.
It was a couple of years ago when a friend of mine in the UK strongly urged me to seek out your single, “Hurricane.” I love this fusion of alt-rock and Americana – was this a sound that you deliberately sought to create, or one that simply came naturally to you? Any influences that directed you towards this genre?
Thank you! Before the pandemic I had a bit of an epiphany – before then I had loved heavier sounds but for several reasons I felt like I wasn’t “allowed” to make music like that, I should stick to nicer, sweeter sounds more appropriate for a young female singer-songwriter. Then, sat in limbo, I came to the conclusion that I might as well TRY to do something different – there were so many facets of me which my music hadn’t yet shown. I was really into a band called KALEO – they’re an Icelandic rock band but they are heavily influenced by the American sound – I think that’s where it rubbed off on me for that series of songs. Them and First Aid Kit whom I love too. It’s fun to try things, I’m always flitting across genres based on my mood and what the songs I write ask of me.
Once I heard “Hurricane,” I had to learn more about your work – and aside from your own social media sites, found very little online coverage beyond UK outlets. Our audience will appreciate your brand of music – have you played on these shores, and/or have any plans to break out in the North American music markets as your career progresses?
Yes, as an indie artist I have to be very careful with how I direct my limited resources, so though getting written about by larger outlets would be wonderful, that usually involves PR and therefore has been something I’ve prioritised less in comparison to investing in new music and my live show set ups, and sharing my music direct to listeners on platforms like TikTok for now! Thank you I hope they love it, and I appreciate you spreading the word so much, it’s very cool and I feel seen! I would LOVE to come to the USA, but I haven’t yet found the right people to help me make that happen. If you have any recommendations, I’ll be right over!
I played at the Bluebird Cafe and some other Writer’s Rounds in Nashville which was awesome and a little bit of a culture shock! We Brits aren’t that forward/chatty and everyone is so friendly so that was quite refreshing! I got some awesome responses and came away feeling great. I did perform at The Bitter End in New York, but it would be very cool in the future to play a few shows on the West Coast – I have never been and that would be ace to be able to visit as part of work! Getting to see more of the country would be brilliant, playing for people who might enjoy my sound (I really do come across best live).
While most of your music to date has been released digitally, your latest EP is available on some super-cool heavyweight ‘marble’ vinyl. Can you share a little about the process – from your initial thoughts to create a ‘physical’ record, and any joys or woes encountered along the way to the moment those final 300 limited copies were in your hands?
The vinyl was a huge one on my bucket list. I’ve never made them before for two reasons – vinyl, especially fancy ones like mine, are a huge personal investment and I felt like my collections of songs could have been worked on a little more. With “A Mind Made of Sky,” the entire project was galvanised into my mind the moment I wrote the title track, down to the artwork I would draw on the cover, all of it. The production felt good, I felt like it was time.
I was so lucky to have the momentum built with my amazing following that I thought it was worth a shot to take a risk and ask them to help me fund them via pre-sales. Teething problems did occur, but in the end, we got them out to people to the standard I wanted, just a hair later than we planned. The problem now is I can’t go back – vinyl is next level!! Long live people power. My following is THE BEST.
Your creativity does not stop at the music alone – you have talents with art and graphic design. The EP artwork is phenomenal – your own handcrafted illustrations. How did you originally envision the design, and how much time was invested in this creative process?
I tend not to count the hours of projects like this, but needless to say, it was a long one. Each design was weeks on and off. Planning the concept, drafting, weaving the symbols in, layout, and finally execution. Originally, I wanted to watercolour the whole thing like an art nouveau graphic, in the colours of an evening sky, but then I chickened out and went for my favourite pen and ink monochrome. This comes out well in scanners and less room for colour warping and things just looking terrible. It ended up being Viking influenced too because we found out recently my mother has a lot of Scandi blood, so I’ve decided I’m a Viking (naturally). For this one I wanted it to be dark, so I found the best way to make a crisp contrast is to draw the negative space. Therefore, no white ink was used at all to make the design, which was pretty fiddly, but came out really well, I think.
One of the earliest tunes on this EP is “Failure” – released as a single last year and accompanied by an amazing music video that demonstrates your illustrative talents. 2466 individual frames, all “painstakingly edited by hand” and taking you “over 3 months to complete.” Describe where the idea for this video came from, and the types of encouragement and resistance your encountered over those 3 grueling months.
I saw mixed media animation on TikTok actually, and I thought it looked exceptionally cool, I just knew I needed to do it. No one thought I could, it’s a fiddly process, but I was delusionally determined (my best character asset!!) and had a go anyway. Luckily, I have my amazing friend and photographer Michelle Fredericks with me whenever a hair-brained scheme comes up, and we spontaneously shot the video in an evening on the fly. I then edited the footage together before turning into the animation. Again, there were teething problems with wobble, frame rates, scanning, and syncing, and it took WAY longer than I thought but I am so incredibly proud of that video, It’s so human. Full of errors and mess of the mind. The power of it is in the time it took. It’s the best thing I’ve made yet. When I have another 3 months, I’ll be making another for sure.
Limited to six tracks, was there a challenge to decide on the tunes that you ‘insisted’ be on the EP versus those that were ‘strongly encouraged’ to be on the EP? Was this followed by any personal objective when curating the structure and track placement?
That’s the half luxury / half struggle of being an indie – I have very few soundboards and so all decisions are ultimately mine to make. I knew the concept was mental health – and traversing this weird world we live in, and finding comfort in grounding. So, as long as they fell into that category, as well as fitting the vibe of epic, I knew it would feel good. For the song list I just chose the strongest songs that I loved most and that my followers responded to best. There wasn’t a lot of conflict in the choices. Actually, originally I just had the 4 songs and then “Rose Tinted” and “Skin and Bone” came to me later while I was recording the first 4, and felt close enough to the theme of the EP that they merged together!
With the EP out in the world, and the summer season winding down, what plans do you have heading down the stretch here in 2025?
It feels pretty much back to the drawing board creatively – I recently wrote to my Patreon members that this period feels a lot like hanging off a precipice of potential waiting nervously for lightning to strike again. I have loads of songs already and am working on more recordings too – I find that helps me keep momentum rather than sitting back and waiting to create a full-blown concept before going into the studio. Stagnation makes me anxious. But I know there will be a moment where the next project will snap into my head and that will be it, and I’ll be off like a rocket. Until then I’m working on filling out next year’s calendar with live events and writing as much as possible, and pushing myself out of my comfort zone.
You have played plenty of shows across the UK and beyond. What should those of us new to your music expect from your live shows? More importantly, and in closing, what do folks take away from the Rachel Croft live experience?
I always say I want my shows to be like an arena performance (in a small venue setting) – that’s the best way I could describe my shows. I care a lot about making them memorable and special, it’s where I shine best, and my extraverted-ness really becomes a super-power. I love to chat to the crowd, make them laugh, and sometimes be a bit scary too (in an unserious way). Then everything around the night too, I make cool posters, varied physical merch, sometimes I give out awards for best dressed or someone who knows every word. I encourage people to dress up, to join in. I even made VIP lanyards for my Patreon members. Basically, I’m extra and I love it.
Photo Credit: Michelle Fredericks / Artist Social Media
The British guy that crossed the ocean and crash landed in central Pennsylvania (to quote Greg Keelor, “And I wonder what am I doing here?”). As the youngest of four siblings, exposure to music from a very early age nurtured my passion and appreciation for many musical genres. Continuing to discover some amazingly diverse and talented musicians based in Canada, I gravitate to live music experiences and remain devoted to spreading the word about such a vibrant music scene.
