Review: ‘Descendant’ pays powerful witness to the legacy of the slave ship the Clotilda
An outstanding piece of the new wave of ‘pirate radio’ by the London-based broadcaster, the ‘Descendant’, and the debut album for her new supergroup, The Diodes, is a collection of songs by a young female singer with a very interesting take on the classic songwriting approach to the subject.
“I started writing and singing songs when I was really young,” explains the singer, who’s from North London and is now based in Bristol. “I used to write a song every day. There was no time for that, I used my imagination and my ideas for songs. Now when I compose songs they just come together and that’s when the magic happens.
“It’s always been the same for me. I can’t remember the day I decided to change my style. After a while the voice just became more clear and I stopped thinking about making it bigger or turning it more up tempo. I just felt that I had reached a point and I wanted to create that special vibe.
“Since then, I’ve had to take care of me and that’s when all this happened. I’ve written about everything from love sickness to the struggles and joys of being a teenage female, which are very universal.”
The Diodes (from her twitter account) were formed in December and have taken their first performance to Bristol in December. All three members sing, with only one member contributing lyrics, and they’ve been touring steadily since then.
“It’s not the first time that this has happened. I’m sure there’s a reason why I’ve been given the opportunity, but it’s very surreal to be accepted as a singer at these events.
“The first show we went on was the South West Folk Festival at Bath. It was really great and we had all these wonderful people who were very supportive.
“The second show was