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ester’s Royal Northern College of Music. Twelfth Day was born in the institution’s nurturing walls. And it’s that close artistic relation- ship that formed the basis of their application to fund this album.
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“We had a long period to develop,” says Catriona. “We’ve basically grown up together. When we applied to Creative Scot- land we’d just finished studying, so what we said to them was that we were in a position to use what we’ve learnt. While we were studying we made our debut album, the Fiere album with Joy Dunlop, and our covers EP. So the premise for this album was that after so much development time we were now ready to say: this is Twelfth Day. This is what we are. We have a lot to say.”
Like the aforementioned admin, funding is a major part of the group’s existence.
“We realised quite early on that if we wanted to get our music out there we would need to take matters into our own hands, however unnatural and sometimes uncomfortable that is for cre- ative people to do!”
As unromantic as it may sound, Catriona ingeniously applied her postgraduate grant-seeking skills to find trusts and organisa- tions willing to invest in their ideas. And when we say invest, we don’t mean there’s any financial gain for these patrons. There are still those who believe that art has a value in and of itself.
“We got funding from Creative Scotland and a group called the Hope Scott Trust, which is a fund for young musicians,” Catri- ona explains. “We are lucky in Scotland, there are quite a few nice trusts and things; little ones that just give you a small amount.”
But what is it these benefactors hope to get out of funding a self-penned album of not-folk?
“I suppose they just want to be able to say that they support young innovative talent,” ponders Esther. “I remember one trust said to us, ‘You make us look cool!’ Which is quite funny.”
Besides cred-by-proxy, what they got for their cash are choris-
ter-like voices that meld then split apart, the calm before cyclonic fiddle loops and showers of harp notes alter the bits of your brain reserved for weirdness.
“We’ve tried very hard to make our voices sound as one,”
says Esther, ignoring my suggestion that they make gorgeously odd music. “We talk a lot about the expression – having the same sentiment.”
“We do a lot of unison singing,” continues Catriona. “We pay a lot of attention to making it co-ordinated, even doing the same ornaments. With two voices doing the same thing, especially as we have similar ranges, they blend in a way that makes something new that’s neither Catriona nor Esther.”
This homogenising exists in their writing too.
“We feel like writing together is a new person. We know each other so well that we don’t have to think about how it will work. Twelfth Day is Catriona and Esther together. We think about that when we’re playing. We don’t think of it as two people or two voices. It’s one instrument.”
Does that mean they can’t write a love song unless they’re both in love with the same person?
“Well we’re not really into writing love songs!” Esther chuckles.
“If we write about love then it would be from a story we’ve been inspired by,” says Catriona. “I don’t think we’d ever write about our own relationships. I’d feel weird singing about Esther’s love life! Other people’s lives are always more interesting than our own. Although the instrumental Me And My Friend, that’s about us.”
Incredibly their two-handed approach to lyric writing never comes close to a fistfight.
“We’re astounded by how much time we can spend together and not get annoyed,” Catriona marvels. “You end up being able to be exactly how you would be on your own, when the other per- son is in the room.”
“How the song Magic Circles came about is quite interesting. I was up in Orkney at The Pier Arts Centre and there were no descriptions with the paintings – just a title. And I was thinking about how we interpret the pictures, how we decide what they mean. It sounds like a really simple idea but I sat in front of this
hat we could say is that the songs and tunes on The Devil Makes Three are the result of Catriona and Esther’s inseparability. They studied together for six years, having met at St Mary’s School of Music in Edinburgh before heading to Manch-
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