Unthanks by name, thankful by nature

With a singular folk take on other people’s songs, The Unthanks were unlikely tips for success – but with an acclaimed album and growing audiences, the surprises keep coming

JUST WHEN YOU think you can pigeonhole a music act, along comes a curveball so deftly executed and directed that it makes you wonder. And that curveball is? Well, how does taking robust elements from British traditional music and intertwining them with subtle aspects of the avant garde grab you?

From Northumbria, The Unthanks (sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank, and Adrian McNally, Rachel's husband) have been knocking around for several years now, denting the boundaries of traditional British folk music while simultaneously embracing an altogether more experimental side. It is the latter sweeps of creativity that have kept them at arm's length from commercial acceptance – recognition, even – but then, as Rachel says all too astutely, if their focus were on commercial success they wouldn't sing about depression, the futility of war, and mangled, splintered bones. They wouldn't cover songs as diverse as those by King Crimson or Tom Waits either – as they do on their new album, Last. They have been criticised in the past for not writing their own material, but they argue that if José Gonzáléz can make a Kylie song ( Hand On Your Heart) profound, then what's the problem? If actors can bring us to tears with words they haven't written, then where does that leave the cover version debate?

“The Scottish singer Dick Gaughan once said that every song needs a thousand singers,” says soft-spoken Rachel Unthank. “We always start by gathering together loads of ideas and material, be they traditional songs in the folk vernacular or cover versions. We’re just looking for beautiful songs, and very much looking for a story in the song to touch us. Either that or a beautiful melody.

"Adrian came to us with the King Crimson song Starless– his father is a massive music fan – and we thought it had such a beautiful melody that we wanted to sing it. And a friend of ours loaned us the Tom Waits album, Alice, from which we picked No One Knows I'm Gone. Waits is such an ultimate storyteller that it almost feels like we shouldn't be singing one of his songs. So it's all about the song, and wanting to tell the story. The fact that we don't write them is neither here nor there to us –­ myself and Becky are performers, and it's fun interpreting other people's work."

If it’s a good song and if it has a solid narrative thread, adds Rachel, then you can bring something artistic to the song, simply by hearing another voice singing it. “It gives a different slant to the story, and while it might not be the intention of the writer, for me and Becky it just feels natural. It’s an extension to the song, and you can bring a different colour to it by singing it in your own voice. The great stories and the great songs should be heard, and we feel there’s a hundred different ways of presenting them.”

Breaking down subconscious barriers is what The Unthanks do very well, and they do that without worrying about what the genres are and where they might blur.

“We all have different responses. Adrian has a producer’s ear. I find it hard to determine whether any of it is any good! I need a distance to listen to it without some kind of prejudice. We always look at our work with a critical eye, and sometimes certain songs just don’t make it ­– maybe we haven’t done them justice, we haven’t crafted them in the best way we can, or we haven’t put the story across in the way that we feel is honest.

"With Starless, I think we did a really good job, and although it doesn't come from my musical background, it's possible that I listened to it with fresh ears, and not with as much concern about the genre it comes from. Becky and myself are just happy to sing beautiful melodies, no matter where they are from. I suppose we don't have a particular preciousness about singing songs like Starlessjust because they're new to us."

New or not, with Last(as well as their 2005 debut, Cruel Sister, and 2007's Mercury-nominated album, The Bairns) The Unthanks have upended certain preconceived notions of what makes good, alluring and often unconventional contemporary music. According to Rachel, they try not to think too much about such matters, "otherwise you get bogged down in possibly making music for a specific audience. If you try to second-guess what an audience wants then it's not the way to make music, is it? You've got to make music the way you want to, and the way you feel is honest to yourself, using your own creative impulses."

Such impulses have been there from the start, from when the sisters soaked up the influences of their music-loving parents and their sizeable record collection of British folk songs. Yet not even Rachel would have bet on The Unthanks’ growth from cult folk act to one that has worked and collaborated with the likes of Robert Wyatt and Damon Albarn, and reached an audience stretching far beyond Northumbria.

“We’ve been constantly surprised by how the audiences have increased. Me and Becky started off singing as an unaccompanied duo so that we could get free tickets to folk festivals, so where we are now is amazing. I always wonder why people would pay money to see us! But, really, it’s a privilege and a pleasure to do this as a job. I love that our music has broken through genres and that we attract music lovers pure and simple. You want people to hear your music and judge you on what that is, and not whether it fits into any given genre.”

The Unthanks tour Ireland in April. See the-unthanks.com for details