Carmel Smickersgill

Emerging modern classical / outsider pop artist CARMEL SMICKERSGILL recently announced details of her debut EP We Get What We Get And We Don't Get Upset, released 15th April on PRAH Recordings.

Today, the Manchester-based musician shares the EP's closing track "Leaving".

"It’s maybe a bit of a cliché but I didn’t want to end the EP it on a sad note, hence why it’s a pretty upbeat track," says Smickersgill. "When I played it to my friend and other musical collaborator Bunny Hoova, they said it made them think of being on a remote island somewhere, watching turtles swimming in the sea."

"In reality it’s more about saying goodbye to things, people, places and moving on and that strange mix of loss and excitement. I was particularly keen to use the tin whistle in this track, it was the first instrument I learnt when I was really tiny so I always find the sound oddly comforting, despite it being quite loud, harsh and - some might say - annoying."

About Carmel Smickersgill and We Get What We Get And We Don't Get Upset

“Silly music that comes from serious places” is how Smickersgill modestly describes the crackling flashpoints and thrillingly assembled palette of sounds that make up her PRAH Recordings debut We Get What We Get & We Don’t Get Upset’s contorted pop.

“There was a lot of grief, death, mental illness and dread around me at the time I was writing it. The tracks really are an ode to all the people I cared about who were suffering,” she says. “But there are parts where I’ve put stuff in because I want to catch people out and make them laugh.”

We Get What We Get And We Don't Get Upset may be Smickersgill’s debut standalone release, but her young career has already taken her down a rich array of different paths. Originally from Leeds, she grew up playing guitar in indie bands and jazz combos, before quickly finding herself drawn to the writing and arranging aspects of these various projects.

Opting to study composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester under the tutelage of Gary Carpenter – who can list associate music director for The Wicker Man among his many credits – she’s since written for theatre as well as numerous chamber and vocal works. Her pieces have been performed by the Liverpool Philharmonic and Glasgow-based collective the Galvanise Ensemble, among others. In 2017, meanwhile, she performed with New Order as part of ∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif) – the legendary group’s 2017 Manchester International Festival commission.

We Get What We Get & We Don’t Get Upset is something different to all of that though. Drawing from her love of outsider pop as much she does her classical background, Smickersgill is at once breathless and considered across the EP’s five tracks.

The composer lists the likes of Arthur Russell and Mica Levi among her influences, but those who listen and recall Anna Meredith’s work aren’t far from the mark either: the Scottish composer and performer has been acting as a mentor for Smickersgill during the creative process, listening to demos and offering feedback, with producer Marco Woolf also working closely on We Get What We Get And We Don't Get Upset.

“Anna’s been brilliant at being an outside ear for both this and my classical pieces, sometimes being a voice of encouragement, sometimes calling out writing habits which I think I’m subconsciously aware of but ignoring” she says. “For someone who’s still in the first few years of their professional life, it’s amazing to have someone like her that I can chat stuff through with.”