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Rebsie was born at the beginning of 1969 in Cheltenham in the south west of England but grew up in Essex. Her dad is an accomplished jazz musician who plays piano and brass, amongst other things. He founded Bazz Wilby's USAWOM Jazz Band which played on the Forces Broadcasting network in Malta and "various obscure dives" during the early 1950s. USAWOM stands for Unrehearsed, Spontaneous and WithOut Music - "and I assure you it sounded like it". Her mum is also musically gifted and supplied the nice-singing-voice gene. Rebsie grew up with plenty of instruments to muck about with and took up piano and then guitar, culminating in playing a tatty old Fender bass in a school punk-metal band. Photo right: at The Night Owl, Cheltenham, August 2007 |
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She worked for 12 years as a graphic designer, first for a publisher and then freelance for other publishers, before giving in to the lure of being a hippy dropout and spending the rest of her life in the garden staring at vegetables. As a consequence she became an expert on the old varieties our ancestors grew and on creating new ones from their diverse genepool. So in between working on music she spends hours outdoors poking flowers with a scalpel and has attracted the attention of the international science community with a unique red-podded pea, made from a hybrid of heritage types. She runs an acclaimed photographic blog and website about her work with plant breeding and biodiversity. Her first big break was actually with writing rather than music. At the age of 27 she wrote a play set in the trenches of Flanders called This Wretched Splendour. Produced at the Grace Theatre in London and at the Cheltenham Playhouse, it attracted fantastic reviews ... The Guardian wrote that it knocked the definitive first world war play Journey's End "into a cocked hat". |
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Despite coming from a musical household Rebsie didn't have much exposure to folk music in childhood, and grew up on a diet of Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Jethro Tull and Kate Bush. It wasn't until her late teens and early 20s that she had an epiphany-like discovery of English traditional music and medieval music. She also developed a great love of Scottish folk music and taught herself the basics of Gaelic, taking lessons for a while with a real-life bard from the Isle of Harris.
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For most of the next decade she honed her skills in private, having not much enjoyed the experience of singing in folk clubs, until she began recording in 2004. This quickly resulted in an approach from songwriter and mandolin whizz William Shaw, and they formed a duo called Revolving Doris, blending ancient and modern instruments in a bittersweet folk-noir mix alongside William's narrative songwriting. Their songs have been played on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Gloucestershire and BBC Radio Shropshire as well as several internet radio stations. Unfortunately William decided that a musician's life was not for him and the duo split a year later, having released one EP. Supported by various musician friends she'd met along the way, Rebsie carried on as a solo artist and released her first solo album Mind The Gap in August 2007 as a hand-made edition of 100 copies. Her Leafblower song, a damning fight back at noisy garden powertools, became a minor hit on internet radio with extensive airplay on ARfm and Rock247Online. |
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Following the critical acclaim of Mind The Gap it was clear that a full release was in order, so in August 2008 it was relaunched as a fully pressed edition on Sonic Spongecake. Her second album, Seven Star Green, was released in August 2009 and features the work of two collaborators: Dick Langford, former guitarist with folk-punk band Tricks Upon Travellers, and cellist and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Staniforth. The album is a continuation of the uniquely haunting psych-folk of Mind The Gap with an additional richness, warmth and vibrance. You can hear a couple of the new tracks on the Listen page. One track from Seven Star Green, a version of R J Stewart's The Cursing Song, has already been played by both Stuart Maconie and Tom Robinson on BBC 6Music. |
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| Photo above: Rebsie with Dick Langford Left: Daniel Staniforth |
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Working with Daniel on the second album soon blossomed into a full-time partnership, and led to a sideline project with an innovative new direction. Alchymical Muse was formed primarily so that Rebsie and Daniel could make use of both their voices in combination, using a sonically adventurous setting reminiscent of Dead Can Dance but with lots of cello! They also have a number of other projects on the go which straddle many different styles and genres. Rebsie has also been an occasional contributor to the recordings of other artists, notably psych-folk band The Owl Service, appearing on their debut EP Wake The Vaulted Echo and their 2008 vinyl release The Bitter Night. She has also recorded with Moorlandt, and a contribution to the next Magicfolk album is also on the cards. |
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Above: jamming with Steve Lang, guest guitarist on Mind The Gap |
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Now you can delve into the past too with the Ancestors Gallery Photo left: Rebsie's grandma on a motorbike, |
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Page last updated August 2009 |
