ASK AN ECO EXPERT
This month David Gray, the singer-songwriter campaigning to save other warblers
ARE YOU ON TOUR OR AT HOME?
I’m actually in the middle of the 20th anniversary tour for White Ladder [the chart-topping album that catapulted David to worldwide fame]. We musicians spend a lot of time in studios, hotels and concert venues, cut off from nature (and the ‘wildlife’ backstage never interested me!), so when I’m away, I long for home.
WHERE IS HOME?
After the success of White Ladder, I bought a cottage on a nature reserve in Norfolk. I’ve always loved nature and living there allowed me to surround myself with it. Norfolk’s a bird city and in summer it’s full of reed warblers and meadow pipits with little terns and ringed plovers nesting among the sand dunes.
WE HEAR YOU GET WORKED UP ABOUT WARBLERS…
Every year, I see birds abandon their eggs when they’re disturbed by visitors stomping through their nesting sites. Dogs are also a big problem. People let them run through flocks that have just flown a thousand miles to be here – I get so furious about it that my wife refuses to walk with me! That’s why I’ve been working with the
Norfolk Wildlife Trust, to organise wardens to patrol during breeding season and to designate protected areas for wildlife.
YOU’VE FEATURED ON AN RSPB ALBUM…
Yes, The Arc, a track I wrote about curlews, which are desperately endangered, appeared on The Curlew Sounds Project, which came out earlier this year. It’s a collection of curlew soundscapes and songs by a whole range of performers, with proceeds going to the RSPB’S Curlew Recovery Programme.
SO YOUR WORK IS INSPIRED BY NATURE?
My recent album Skellig is about a chain of islands off the Irish coast. I’ve used the sound of geese flying overhead in one song. Running on the Waves is about Skomer, an island off Pembrokeshire, and The White Owl was inspired by seeing barn owls in Norfolk.
ALWAYS BEEN MAD ABOUT BIRDS?
As a boy living in Manchester, I’d devour books on birds. Moving to Pembrokeshire aged eight blew my mind. We lived in a cottage surrounded by buzzards, grass snakes and lizards. Once, our neighbour took me on his boat to Skomer Island. We saw seals, guillemots, razorbills, gannets, puffins, storm petrels and shearwaters. Those experiences made me who I am.
IS IT HARD TO BE A ‘GREEN’ MUSICIAN?
Touring is a disaster in terms of carbon footprint. I’ll plough profits from mine into seagrass restoration and carbon capture projects. I’ve also banished single-use plastic and taking internal flights. We singers can counter our impact, but we can’t take away the damage we’ve done altogether.
CAN MUSIC MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
It’s a very subtle power, but songs present important messages in an eloquent way that can help people feel connected to the natural world. If we celebrate nature in culture, people might care more. We need to write songs, build monuments. If Antony Gormley made a 50-foot curlew sculpture, it would be impactful. I’m campaigning for a bird mural in Hunstanton.
A HAPPY NOTE TO END ON?
Miracles can happen! Just look at my career. I was struggling for a decade and came close to quitting. Then White Ladder, recorded on a shoestring budget with no record company behind it, went on to sell more than seven million copies. That taught me never to give up. Change can happen – but we must be tuned in.