Lockdown lullaby

Pandemic takes Adriana’s music in a new direction

A talented musician has released a “serene” new single combining vocals recorded at home at 3am with birdsong heard in her Glenmavis garden.

Singer-songwriter Adriana Spina composed Still during lockdown, thanks to inspirations ranging from the colours of the dawn sky to the results of a Facebook group poetry challenge.

With the coronavirus pandemic pausing her plans to record a third album in her usual style – described as “a blend of acoustic, Americana, folk and country” – she instead ended up with her lullaby-like song, made up of her vocals, synth backing and the chorus of feathered friends.

Adriana told the Advertiser: “It’s completely different from anything I’ve done before. I was a little nervous about straying so far from my usual sound, which is very guitar-driven and about storytelling, with a lot of lyrics packed in.

“The space we’ve had as songwriter during lockdown gave me time to play and think differently, and the challenge which was behind this song was completely alien to me but so liberating – it’s given me permission to do something different and something rather nice has come out of it.”

Still started out as the result of a challenge in a “Sunday songwriting” group on social media, when members were asked to write a haiku – a Japanese form of three non-rhyming lines of strict length.

Adriana’s effort – “Daylight is creeping; Birdsong is my lullaby; Another night gone” – then grew into her new single, based on a further task to write a song based on the haiku, using no more than 20 words plus sounds from the writers’ surroundings.

She said: “Like lots of people during the first couple of months of lockdown, my sleeping patterns were all over the shop and I was finding myself regularly awake at 3am.

“I’d take the dog out into the garden and it was just a lovely time to be outside in the fresh air.

“I was really struck by the birdsong and how clear it was, when there was no traffic or planes and the streets were deserted. The task was to add some found sound to the track and I thought the birds would be fantastic and just recorded them with my phone.

“Since I was up and about and was excited to get started, I recorded the vocals in the early hours too, much to the surprise of my partner when he later woke up!

“It helped to bring that fragility and sense of stillness, and the song feels like a lullaby.

“We’d have six days to complete and upload the songwriting tasks, which is a really short time to turn it around – sometimes I’ll work on a song for a year before I’m happy with it, so this has been a real exercise in discipline and a great challenge for me.”

After a positive response from her fellow songwriters and from friend and producer Boo Hewerdine,

Adriana was put in touch with producer Mark Freegard, who “sprinkled fairy dust” on the track to create the finished version, released this week.

She said: “Mark has been involved with a lot of my favourite albums, and he’s just taken the original and added things like synthesizer and taken it to the next level and to an even more special place.

“I never expected all this to come from my little haiku but I think it’s going to make a difference to what I produce going forward and I hope my fans like it as much as I do.

“Now I’ll be braver and more inventive in how I think about approaching recording – I was supposed to start my third album in May and might rethink it to include more sounds like this.”

Adriana has previously produced two studio albums, Never Coming Home and Let Out The Dark, and has shared stages with top artists including opening for Sheryl Crow, Paolo Nutini, Eddi Reader and Dar Williams, plus supporting Joan Armatrading on the Scottish dates of her most recent world tour.

She has also performed fortnightly charity live streams during lockdown, helping to raise funds for good causes including the Red Cross, Masks for Scotland, Scottish Association for Mental Health, Warchild, Refuweegee and foodbank organisation the Trussell Trust.

Released on her own Ragged Road label, Still can be downloaded from her website at www.adrianaspina. com.