The English singer Liz Green taught herself to play the guitar and sing when her parents were out. Four years after first sharing her secret with an audience, she has released a debut album full of compositions of her own about death and destruction.
“I was just really embarrassed that anyone might see me while I was singing or playing the guitar,” says Liz Green, now that is all behind her. “It was my little secret. It was only when everyone was out that I got out my guitar, put my fingers on the strings, and started to experiment. Sometimes it sounded good, sometimes awful.” So anyone who listens to O, Devotion!, her debut album, just released, now knows where that distinctive guitar sound comes from. She grew up near Liverpool, but her musical roots go a bit deeper than the Merseybeat. Sometimes you hear her pluck the strings like they used to do on the cotton plantations of Mississippi.
She sees something in the comparison. “It happens with the same naivety. And that’s why it’s anti-folk. Hand people an instrument and they can always get something beautiful out of it. Technique doesn’t get my attention, but empathy does. The greatest disadvantage of being involved in music professionally is that I can no longer listen to a song without picking out an instrument. Before, I couldn’t even hear the difference between a guitar, a keyboard, and a piano. [laughs] I just heard a melody and lyrics. It’s a pity I’ve lost that naivety.”
Here's Liz Green, not yet eaten by the worms!
The night she decided to go public
Green only got into writing lyrics and composing songs after she started studying English at the University of Manchester. “But I wasn’t so good at writing essays, so I didn’t stay studying for long. I went to work in a bookshop. One day I got so bored with that that I started making music. The greatest advantage of that job was that I could take books home to read. After a while I started writing little stories myself; I didn’t have the patience for long stories. In the end they became song lyrics.” [laughs]
But Green still didn’t talk to anyone about them. That same embarrassment came into play. Until she met someone who organised an open mike evening and she decided to go public with them: “The bravest decision of my life!” For fun, she later brought out “Bad Medicine”, which, to her surprise, was picked up by the national media. Everyone wanted to get an album out quick, but Green didn’t feel like doing so yet. Four years later, the time has come.
On the highly narrative O, Devotion!, subjects like death and destruction predominate. “Death is so much more interesting than…love. There have been enough love songs written already. Isn’t there a lot more happening in this world than two people falling in love with each other? I’m interested in politics, in gender issues, in women’s rights… Look at PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake. People were shocked that there wasn’t a single track about her passion or feelings for a man. Isn’t that ridiculous?” But why do so many people die in her songs? “Maybe because I’m not scared of death. It brings people together. One way I can make that point is with this record. I know that one day I’ll be eaten by the worms and it doesn’t bother me, so I might as well write songs about it.”
Lees het Nederlandstalige stuk op brusselnieuws.be.
Liz Green
26/1 • 20.00, €7/10/13
Botanique Koningsstraat 236 rue Royale, Sint-Joost-ten-Node/Saint-Josse-ten-Noode,
02-218.37.32, www.botanique.be
Green only got into writing lyrics and composing songs after she started studying English at the University of Manchester. “But I wasn’t so good at writing essays, so I didn’t stay studying for long. I went to work in a bookshop. One day I got so bored with that that I started making music. The greatest advantage of that job was that I could take books home to read. After a while I started writing little stories myself; I didn’t have the patience for long stories. In the end they became song lyrics.” [laughs]
But Green still didn’t talk to anyone about them. That same embarrassment came into play. Until she met someone who organised an open mike evening and she decided to go public with them: “The bravest decision of my life!” For fun, she later brought out “Bad Medicine”, which, to her surprise, was picked up by the national media. Everyone wanted to get an album out quick, but Green didn’t feel like doing so yet. Four years later, the time has come.
On the highly narrative O, Devotion!, subjects like death and destruction predominate. “Death is so much more interesting than…love. There have been enough love songs written already. Isn’t there a lot more happening in this world than two people falling in love with each other? I’m interested in politics, in gender issues, in women’s rights… Look at PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake. People were shocked that there wasn’t a single track about her passion or feelings for a man. Isn’t that ridiculous?” But why do so many people die in her songs? “Maybe because I’m not scared of death. It brings people together. One way I can make that point is with this record. I know that one day I’ll be eaten by the worms and it doesn’t bother me, so I might as well write songs about it.”
Lees het Nederlandstalige stuk op brusselnieuws.be.
Liz Green
26/1 • 20.00, €7/10/13
Botanique Koningsstraat 236 rue Royale, Sint-Joost-ten-Node/Saint-Josse-ten-Noode,
02-218.37.32, www.botanique.be
Read more about: Muziek
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