The Bite Magazine Issue 17

Dayle Best speaks to girl band Wildwood Kin about their music and how they got together. I n 2015, Wildwood Kin, a trio girl band from Exeter in Devon, consist- ing of sisters Beth and Emillie Key and their cousin Meghann Loney released their Salt of the Earth EP, which saw the track ‘Hold On’ achieve substantial success on Radio 2. They were also shortlisted for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in the same year, and recently played at The Phoenix in Exeter as part of Radio 1’s Big Weekend. The group is a harmonic hourglass of vocals that resonates well within the confinements of modern day folk, and is equally making its mark on today’s musical mainstream trends. I spoke with the girls while they were away record- ing in Belgium over the weekend, and have also been touring extensively in completing a headline date in the pic- turesque settings of the Alps. The Bite Magazine: How did you all get together as a group? Wildwood Kin: We started singing together very early on prior to instru- ments or anything like that. It was very much acappella to begin with, but the instruments were a gradual thing in making simple sounds with the tambourine, or drums. Then I [Beth] picked up the bouzouki (Greek musical instrument). The Bite Magazine: When did you decide to become more serious? Emillie: It must have been around our A Levels, none of us really knew what we wanted to pursue career-wise, and it just kind of dawned on us: ‘Hey, perhaps we could put together a band, or at least try it.’ So we did, during our gap year we did some open mic sessions but never gave the overall outcome any real thought. Meghann: I think we were also very encouraged by our family and friends; we had various individuals that were so behind us. We would sing at Christmas do’s and family gatherings, and they would say ‘you girls should put some- thing together’ so that was probably the benchmark for Wildwood Kin. Emillie: Our mothers are also musi- cians as well, having been brought up in church, singing together and being part of the choir, so we always had a foot in the door very early on singing together. The Bite Magazine: Where would you position yourselves in the world of Folk? I know it’s a world that is based on hearing your sound, but are you comfortable with that? Beth: We honestly don’t know. We love so many genres of music, so we don’t really pursue any given sounds prema- turely. Obviously there’s influence of sorts so we’ve been put in the Folk pigeonhole I guess (laughs) because of our harmonies. But we’re clearly not traditional Folk; we tend to think of it as a touch of that, with Indie and Amer- icana; it’s always evolving. Meghann: I do think the basis of what we are doing, which is incorporating the harmonies, the songwriting and family, is very much a folk staple mark, and one we’re happy with. I personally feel we’re still very much on that creative journey in finding our sound, and finding our- selves within the process, and something which we will explore as a band. The trio have also captured the hearts of iconic modern folk star Seth Lakeman and production extraordinaire Ethan Johns (Kings Of Leon, Joe Cocker, Laura Marling) who have enlisted Wildwood bite music Wildwood Kin