My Festival: Siobhan Wilson

Siobhan Wilson whose show FLOWERCORE is at the Fringe | Contributed

There are thousands of shows in Edinburgh this month. Please tell us why we should come and see yours?

FLOWERCORE is unlike a traditional Fringe gig or theatre show. It’s an intimate live music performance with visual projections and photography. Come and see it if you’d like to reconnect with the natural world through music in a way that is both moving and ethereal.

What will we learn from your show that we didn’t know before?

You’ll learn about my personal wildflower diary, and my journey with the flowers and music.

Who or what was the biggest inspiration for your show?

Wildflowers are my main inspiration for the show. I’ve written songs inspired by white clovers, wild daffies, snowdrops, Herb Robert, white violets, buttercups, ivy leaved toadflax, and more. Spending time with flowers gave me a new lens to think about life and music.

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What’s the best review you’ve ever had, and the worst?

I was told by a record label A&R when I was 21 to never read the reviews. It’s quite impossible to do that in reality because if you care about publishing your work and people listening (rather than keeping it just for yourself and nobody ever hearing it) then you have to be aware of how your work is being received in some way or another. I’m lucky to have had really good press and reviews over the years and just grateful whenever anyone reviews any of my work. After years of performing I’m still always surprised when people come to my concerts, and I’m glad that coming to my gig is worth leaving the house for, so the most important part for me is really the show itself and connection with the audience.

Who or what are you most excited about seeing this year?

I'm looking forward to seeing James Partridge Primary School Bangers at Gilded Balloon. He sings all the nostalgic songs we used to sing as kids in primary school. His videos get suggested to me on Instagram and it doesn’t sound like folk music, but it’s kind of folkloric to revive old classics; we know all the words off by heart without hearing them for 20 years. It’s a really beautiful idea and looks like a mix of silly and therapeutic. The best thing about the Fringe is you can spend the entire day venue hopping, there’s so many good events to catch. I’ve been touring the country playing cello and guitar on an American broadway musical called Waitress and it’s a very small world in the arts because James is one of the lead actor’s brothers (Dan Partridge).

Who do you most like spending time with in Edinburgh?

When I’m in cities I love to spot wildflowers growing. At the venue I'm playing in I spotted ivy leaved toadflax growing outside. They can grow up walls, their petals and leaves creating beautiful scatterings of lilac and green dots and delicate deep red stems. Spotting wildflowers in cities is a sensory dream. Growing sometimes sporadically or randomly, like out from a drain, in the crevice of a broken tap, or between the cracks of city pavements, they’re this constant reminder that wildness is beautiful and nature is more than us. There’s is a lyric in a Joni Mitchell song “they paved paradise, put up a parking lot” and I just love to see wildflowers in Edinburgh growing wherever they want sometimes because paradise grows in any way it can in spite of us and in spite of our sometimes ugly, grey, concrete man-made structures.

Tell us something about you that would surprise people.

I once sang opening up for Ben E King in Glasgow. I was standing at the side of the stage during his performance afterwards – in awe of him because he and his band were brilliant – when he looked over at the end and beckoned to me to join him on stage during Stand By Me. I was about 23 years old and still extremely shy. Instead of joining him on stage, my knees turned to jelly and I stood frozen, smiling. I wanted to walk up with all of my will power, but felt like I was going to faint and just froze there instead like a statue side stage. It’s one of my life regrets to not have walked on to the stage when he did that, but still a magical moment to be asked, and a funny memory.

READ MORE: The Scotsman Festival Sessions: Siobhan Wilson performs FLOWERCORE track Garden

What’s the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night?

I am woken up every morning by an alarm clock app which plays birdsong to me and then makes me guess which bird it is. It’s an amazing way to start the day. I’m both a night owl and an early morning person, so sometimes I don’t sleep enough!

Thanks for the interview! We’d like to buy you a drink. Where are we going and what are we drinking?

All back to mine for some Tiree Tea “Machair” Plastic-Free Tea! It has

has nettle, mallow flowers, and red cornflowers and sunflower petals inside!

FLOWERCORE by Siobhan Wilson: Gilded Saloon, 17-22 August, 3pm, as part of the Made in Scotland showcase.

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