An Interview with Fay Brotherhood and Lee Burns of Cernawoda
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Published by Herne on December 18, 2012
Herne: You’ve released four albums and two singles, what was the inspiration behind them?
Fay: We have just released an EP, Mother Moon under our brand new distribution deal which is our first release as a duo and can be found on Amazon/iTunes etc. The inspiration behind them all has been varied. Whispers in the Boughs and Follow the Falcon were written between 15 and 20 when I was exploring Paganism and the dark avenues of the misfit teenage mind.
Clear Fell was mainly written about experiences of bullying and depression. At the time I was studying countryside management and seeing metaphors between natural history and human experience in everything. I had an idea that things like bullying can “clear fell” your whole self, and just like in clear felling a forest you will grow back, but never will things be quite the same.
Hare on the Heath was where I got interested in exploring the local history of Charnwood Forest and Coalville, and was also focused around a rather messy relationship…
We’re currently working on an album together.….. but I cannot reveal too much yet!
Herne: You’re almost constantly performing, is there a kind of gig you prefer to play?
Fay: My favourite kind of gigs are later on in the evening. On a proper stage with lights — which makes it easier to get into your “on-stage performance alter ego”, and with as big an audience as possible who are into the kind of music we play. Having a good PA and a sound-man who knows what he’s doing is also good as a lot of people don’t understand acoustic instruments well.
Lee: Its either festivals or an impromptu performance in some unsuspecting pub that we have gone into for a pint, leaving the clientèle bemused and not knowing whether they had just witnessed some random folkage or that there is something suspicious with their beer.
Herne: What got you into music in the beginning?
Fay: Well my parents are musicians so I was brought up around music from the off. From the womb in fact. So I received a very good musical education and was encouraged from the start to sing, which I did from as early as I can remember. I had obsessions with acts like the Eurythmics, the Beatles and Pat Benatar when I was little, all of whom really taught me both how to sing and how to harmonize. I picked up a guitar when I was about 14 after my sister abandoned her brief phase of guitar lessons, mainly so I could back myself. I very swiftly started writing songs — mainly as a coping mechanism against school, but then to express my love of the natural world, and my need to explore and find connections.
Lee: When I was in my early teens I hated almost everyone and everything and so music was my only solace and I found that punk music expressed what I felt inside.
Herne: Fay, you have performed in musical theatre, do you feel this has influenced your music and performance style?
Fay: Definitely. It was my music teacher back then who really helped my voice develop by teaching me correct techniques and how to get the best out of it. Musical theatre singing is very different to folk, and it is good for your voice to be able to tackle a range of genres. When I perform I feel there is a need to not just “play” some music, but to really “perform” it… e.g. express, feel, move. I also use a wide range and a lot of “belt” which is not very common place in folk.
Herne: Lee, you started out as a metal and punk guitarist, why the change of direction?
Lee: I have only changed instruments really, I still see myself as a metal/punk musician. Bands such as New Model Army cross the boundaries between punk and folk and there are quite a few new metal bands from Europe that are using folk elements to base their music upon. From the other side of the fence a lot of folk music is quite political and angst from a working class perspective which is essentially what punk is all about.
Herne: How did you both meet?
Lee: In a previous band we played on the same bill several times. I always wanted to play folk music, Fay sent me a message on Facebook, I accepted, simple.
Fay: Actually, one day I was walking through the woods and found him under a hedge playing a fiddle like some kind of dreadlocked Pan, and I adopted him.
Herne: And finally, our random question, if you could be an animal, what would you be?
Lee: I would be a wolf, but then I am a wolf at certain times of the month due to my lycanthropy.
Fay: I would be a Buzzard because they can fly and be free. I used to fantasize about being a Buzzard and flying away when I was little and every year wished on my birthday to grow wings.
2024 Update: Cernawoda has disbanded since this interview.
You can follow Fay’s musical career on her website: https://www.faybrotherhood.com/
Fay has since joined the Pagan prog-rock band Spriggan Mist and you can find them here: https://www.sprigganmist.com/
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