Amy May Ellis
Hailing from a remote dale in the middle of the North York Moors and now based in Bristol, Amy May Ellis shares new single Wild Geese from forthcoming album Over Ling and Bell, due 12th May via Lost Map.
Photograph Credit: Gareth Jenkins
Rooted in wildlife and nature, Wild Geese enchants with a playful guitar line and flourishing vocals invoking the flight of the Wild Geese on their journey. Discussing the latest track to be shared Amy explains: “Inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem ‘Wild Geese’, and a man called William Lishman, and a flock of geese that flew over my house in Bristol. The day I saw the geese I had opened my window to try and hear them calling but they were too far away. Later, when my dad called from Yorkshire, he told me he had also seen a flock, though they had been so close he said he could have reached out and touched their wings. There is an ancient magic to the way geese retain and pass down their migratory routs. The arrow formation in which they fly adds to this magic a sense they are trying to guide us somehow.”
Written in a secluded farmhouse, mostly alone but sometimes with friends, Amy May Ellis was inspired by centuries of human habitation on the ancient North York Moors “It’s named after two types of heather that grow on the Moors,” writes Amy, of the story behind Over Ling and Bell. “When I started writing for this album I went for walks with my uncle around the dale and unearthed a whole load of history which rooted itself in the songs. I’d always thought of the Moors as wild, but during that time I started to see how they had been tamed by everyone who had lived on them. From the miners, farmers and peat diggers to the Mesolithic hunters who settled on the hilltops.
“The history of the Moors led me to think about the taming of the wild things and everything we have done as humans to gain a sense of control over our surroundings and our lives. I wondered what we have lost with this taming. A lot of the songs are about illness, an inevitable product of a world where rest is a privilege and crisis is a constant. During the making and recording of the album, I had periods of feeling very lost and paralysingly scared. I found solace in ideas around navigating rather than taming wildness, and became obsessed with maps. I read Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, Robert Macfarlane’s The Old Ways and dipped a toe into various philosophies. I still feel lost sometimes, but I’ve started finding things to orientate myself with.”
Pre-Order Over Ling and Bell Here.
AMY MAY ELLIS LIVE:
MAY 18, THE GREENBANK, BRISTOL (w/ MOLLY LINEN)
MAY 22, GREEN NOTE, LONDON (w/ WANDERLAND)
MAY 24, THE TIN, COVENTRY
MAY 26, MILL HILL CHAPEL, LEEDS (w/ WANDERLAND)
MAY 27, THE BANDROOM, FARNDALE (w/ WANDERLAND)
MAY 28, THE CRESCENT, YORK (w/ WANDERLAND)
MAY 30, CUMBERLAND ARMS, NEWCASTLE
MAY 31, VENUE TBA, GLASGOW
