Wednesday's Child
Wednesday’s Child are a London-based band for whom convention means very little. Melting together punk and psychedelic rock with a jazz twist, the group are difficult to pigeonhole and impossible to ignore.
The songwriters, Emily Roberts and Georgia Williams, began collaborating during the UKs various lockdowns, and out of isolation grew connection. From different creative backgrounds (jazz and acting respectively), it comes as little surprise that the band should harbour such a distinctive sound
Wednesday's Child are...?
We are a London-based band melting together psychedelic rock, punk and jazz. Georgia here today answering questions on behalf of the band.
How did you get into music?
My family were constantly playing lots of different music when I was growing up; rock, skiffle, jazz, psychedelic pop… I was also a golden age musical addict.
"Punk meets psychedelic rock in a jazzy way", means a broad spectrum of inspiration, where do you take/find your inspiration, what are your influences?
Everyone in the band has brought their own influences to the table, and we like mixing them all together and playing with contrast. Musically, we love Patti Smith, The Slits, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Ronettes, The Beach Boys, St. Vincent, Talking Heads… there are so many! We are also making a mini album at the moment; 7 songs about 7 women who we feel inspired by in all different art forms, and just by the ways they live their lives.
A few of the women are Billie Holiday, Theda Bara and Paula Rego who just passed into the next realm.
What's the story behind "I want you to want me"?
It is a love song, but not a particularly pretty one. We wanted to tell the story of wanting someone without censoring out all the highs and lows and messiness. We’ve been gigging as Wednesday’s Child for about six months now, and it was really useful to play ‘I Want You to Want Me’ at the shows.
Based on how that felt – what worked, what was fun to play live – we rewrote some sections before recording at the start of this year.
How would you describe your creative process?
Exposure, obsession, digestion, then throwing it all back up in the form of a song. Yummy.
What's in your opinion the hardest part being an Indie Artist?
Finding the balance between supporting yourself as an independent artist and having the time and space to be creative. We live in a country that is constantly cutting arts funds and undermining creative people. You have to be resilient and give them hell for doing that.
What are your "All time Top 3 Songs", right now, in this second?
We just played a festival in Cornwall and the song of the weekend was Elvis ‘Viva Las Vegas’. Joy Crookes has been on repeat a lot too - ‘Kingdom’ and ‘When You Were Mine’ are just brilliant and beautiful.
What’s next for you?
We are about to begin a residency at The George Tavern in London, and if you can’t make it to a gig there is a full set on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4kkHqJ19fRI Our single ‘I Want You to Want Me’ is coming out this Friday 17 th June, and we are recording the mini album which will be released later in the year.
Photo credits: Tuuli Turunen and Caitriona O'Connor